Strongest Cobalt Blue

[Vorpal]

I have been using more and more Cobalt Blue lately instead of Ultramarine, especially for skies and tropical waters. Mixed with Diopside, it makes a gorgeous clone of Phthalo Turquoise.

But…the pigment is fairly weak. My Holbein Cobalt is stronger than Daniel Smith’s but I was wondering…would there be another that’s stronger still?

Any suggestions?

Susan

[indraneel]

Depends on what you mean by weak… the weakest cobalt blue will still last forever, unlike the strongest of anything else.

There is a cobalt blue deep, which is probably a silicate and not an aluminate (I forget which is which), and looks almost exactly like ultramarine. However, it maybe toxic, as it dissolves in water. The particle size may also be bigger.

Usually, for mineral pigments, larger particles are more chromatic, smaller particles become greenish and translucent. Their handling in watercolor also changes.

[CrystalKempen]

This site has a large swatch collection and might be helpful:
https://www.janeblundellart.com/blue-watercolour-swatches.html#200525897964422744-gallery

I don’t have DS cobalt so I can’t recommend brand

My humble Facebook studio page ->https://www.facebook.com/CrystalKempen/

[lorianikins]

I have four PB28 paints: Daniel Smith, Old Holland, MaimeriBlu, and Utrecht. Utrecht is by far the strongest (most saturated), but it’s not as granulating as the others.

[Vorpal]

Has anybody tried Qor’s version? It looks pretty saturated. The most saturated one I have is White Nights–it’s gorgeous and has replaced my Daniel Smith version in my main palette.

Susan

[Vorpal]

I’m going to answer my own question here. The most vibrant, granulating Cobalt Blue I have is White Nights, followed by Case for Making, Holbein, then Daniel Smith. The CFM Cobalt is much greener than the others, though. Still a gorgeous color.

Susan

[RedJake]

M.Graham is the most saturated paint that I’ve seen and they made the most intense cobalt blue IMO.
I compared it with some of my favorite paints like W&N, Holbein, Schmincke and Lukas, and my conclusion is that M.Graham possessed the highest intensity and tinting strength among them.

[Vorpal]

I don’t have a sample of that…and I don’t want to buy a whole tube of it. No dot cards, either, sigh. When I run out of my current supply, I’ll get a tube of it.

Susan

[Clifton K Prince]

I own and use the Cobalt Blue PB28 by QoR but … drat! … I haven’t ever tried that pigment in any of the other brands mentioned here. So, even though I have the missing link, I still can’t compare .

Certified Closet Management Engineer, Slung Watercolor Society of America

[Vorpal]

This forum needs a dot card exchange!

Susan

[parka]

Maybe Kremer Pigment’s Cobalt Blue Deep
https://www.parkablogs.com/picture/extra-granulating-cobalt-blue-deepdark-pb74

Check out my Youtube sketching and art channel

[Nerion]

If you make one yourself and add only the minimum amount of binder, then you have a very strong cobalt blue.
So much binder that it still sticks to the paper.

kind regards Nerion :bye:

[Vorpal]

If you make one yourself and add only the minimum amount of binder, then you have a very strong cobalt blue.
So much binder that it still sticks to the paper.

I will probably do just that! And Potter’s Pink, too, while I am at it.

Susan

[Nerion]

You can do it ;). It’s always cool to make paint.

kind regards Nerion :bye:

[yellow_oxide]

M Graham gouache and watercolor cobalt blues. I made about equal sized blobs of each paint, loaded a flat brush with about the same amount of water, dissolved one blob into that water and got it mostly all into the brush, and then made 3.5″ (almost 9cm) long strokes while reloading with the rest of the diluted paint and a little more water until the paint was gone.

When diluted they look about the same, but the gouache is denser and of even coverage while at full strength. It could have been diluted more at the beginning and would have lasted more strokes. The watercolor version has more granulation at full strength and it seems like it’d be hard to get the gouache to granulate like that without diluting it too much and making it lighter than the full strength watercolor.

It’s interesting that M Graham’s cobalt blue gouache is actually about $2 less than their watercolor.

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