“Unique to brand” pigment recommendations please

[Paint in Hiding]

Hi all,

I have several artist grade paints and am aiming to grow my collection as my budget allows. I’m satisfied with my current split primary palette however, I’d love recommendations or suggestions on which colours/pigments to get that are unique to each watercolour brand or something unique about the colour in particular. Preferably single pigments or if it’s really unique, feel free to suggest away.  Examples: Shinhan PWC marine blue PB15:3 that looks like a phthalo turquoise, PG8 single pigment sap/hookers green. I have started a list below and hope to continue growing it as I discover more paints. Please feel free to add to it.

Yellows
PY128 – Rembrandt only
PY93 – Sennelier only

Cool reds/Magentas
PV42 – Horadam and DS only
PR176 – Mijello and DS only

Warm Reds
PR242 – Sennelier – first PR242 available for watercolour for a long time

Blues
PB15:3 – Shinhan PWC marine blue – the only PB15:3 that looks like phthalo turquoise

Greens
PG8 – Shinhan PWC – the only single pigment hooker’s green

Specials – Daniel Smith primateks.

Paint in Hiding, overcoming limits to enjoy passion.
youtube: Paint in Hiding
IG: @paintinhiding
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[Clifton K Prince]

Thanks, good info to have! I remember finding some pigments which were available in only one brand, sometimes, but I can only find this single note to myself …

PO65 (methin nickel complex orange) is only available from Old Holland as “Golden Barok Red”

… and I can’t even confirm that. The following is now out of production, as far as I know

PB17 (phthalo cyan) was only available from Holbein as “Antique Turquoise” in their Irodori line.

I recently did a light-fastness test on Hooker’s Green PG8 from Shin Han in PWC, results posted in a previous thread here https://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/topic/new-brand-of-watercolor-shin-han-pwc/page/3/#post-1280691

 

Certified Closet Management Engineer, Slung Watercolor Society of America

[Paint in Hiding]

ohh yes! i’ve heard of holbein’s PB17, shame they discontinued it. thanks for sharing the lightfastness of PWC’s PG8. very useful to know as it is rated moderately lightfast.

well, if you ever find your list of pigments available in only one brand, please come back and add it here

Paint in Hiding, overcoming limits to enjoy passion.
youtube: Paint in Hiding
IG: @paintinhiding
blog: https://paintinhiding.wixsite.com/website

[CharM Moderator Watercolour Forum]

Thanks for sharing this list.  I’m not sure I’ll ever need any of these colours, but it makes me wonder why the Manufacturers are milling them.

Char --

CharMing Art -- "Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art." Leonardo DaVinci

[Lavendulan]

Unique to Brand Paints

One thing to keep in mind with “unique to brand” paints, is that they often are either expensive, or they have poor lightfastness.  They tend to not be popular for a reason.

No guarantee that this is a correct or comprehensive list.  There certainly could be other manufacturers that I am missing, simply because I don’t know all or even most of them.  And some make it really hard to find pigment info.

Reds

PR3 – Sennelier Bright Red.  Sennelier does not identify this as the pigment, but Dick Blick does.  My own lightfast test agrees with the descriptions on handprint, so Im pretty sure the pigment number is correct.  My 6 month lightfast test showed significant fading in the lighter tints, but stayed relatively true with a slight blue shift in mass tone.

PR149 – Daniel Smith perylene scarlet

PR187 Daniel Smith Bordeaux

PR214 – Old Holland Scheveningen Red Deep

PR216 Holbein Brown Madder Hue  (?? still good?)

PR251 Old Holland Vermillion extra

PR255 Daniel Smith Pyrrol Scarlet and Schmincke Vermillion

PR260 Old Holland Vermillion Hue Extra (discontinued?)

Oranges

PO34 – Old Holland Scheveningen Red Scarlet

PO36 Mijello Mission Gold Autumn Orange and Da Vinci Benzimida Orange Deep

PO64 Da Vinci Benzimida Orange or Schmincke Saturn Red

PO65- Old Holland Golden Barok Red

PO67 Old Holland Coral Orange

PO71 – Schmincke Transparent Orange or WN Transparent Orange (WN only identifies this as DPP, which stands for diketopyrrolopyrrol, which is a name for PO71).  My swatches of these two paints are almost identical.

Blue-Green

PB28 – Mijello Mission Gold Cobalt turquoise.  Smashing bright turquoise color.  Have not seen this pigment in other brands, but other pigments are similar, like the PG50 turquoises.

Yellows

PY83 – Old Holland Scheveningen Yellow Deep

PY138 – Mijello Mission Gold Quinophthalone Yellow and Daniel Smith Quinophthalone Yellow.  My favorite yellow right now.  A gorgeous basic yellow.

PY159 – Winsor Newton Lemon Yellow Deep.

Violet

PV102 – Mijello Mission Gold Cobalt Violet Brilliant.  Beautiful bright pink violet.  Have only swatched this, but it is gorgeous.

PR88/PV19 – Da Vinci Thioindigo Violet.  I think this is the last manufacturer to have any WC with PR88 thioindigo.  With good reason, it’s not very lightfast.  I have a tube of this, and it looks like it is mostly PV19.  It is pretty, tho.

Old Holland seems to have a lot of these unique pigments- maybe to stand out from other manufacturers.  However, some of the lightfast ratings on these are iffy.  Check handprint.com (sadly no longer updated), or do your own lightfast tests.

Lora
C&C welcome

[Lavendulan]

I also meant to mention that Daniel Smith has a number of “Mayan” colors, that are using MayaChrom(TM) technology, I think. This encages organic pigments inside a zeolite type clay to stabilize the pigment. This is the secret of Mayan Blue which is as bright today as it was centuries ago. It is indigo mixed with clay. Havent tried any myself.

Lora
C&C welcome

[calvin_0]

I got only one question… why? dont this make replacement kinda pain in the butt?

[Paint in Hiding]

lavendulan, thank you so much for your extensive list! I’m glad I’m not the only one with such a list, hehe.  I think PR255 is becoming more common. I’ve been seeing it pop up on various big brands for a while now. As for  PB28 as the bright turquoise, if anyone else is reading this… apart from Mijello, M.Graham and Holbein also offer it.
Van Gogh has a PY83, I might try that one out to see if I like it first and then get the artist grade version.

PY138, I noticed that on the Mijello colour chart recently. For a basic yellow… do you mean like a middle/primary yellow? So far I’ve been using various PY154s and Sennelier’s PY153 and while I’m okay with it, I’m not that fond of the consistency. I’m not picky about my yellows but you’ve made me interested in PY138 now.

I didn’t know that about the Mayan colours. Thanks for sharing!

Paint in Hiding, overcoming limits to enjoy passion.
youtube: Paint in Hiding
IG: @paintinhiding
blog: https://paintinhiding.wixsite.com/website

[Paint in Hiding]

calvin_0, If I get buy, use, and run out of these “unique to brand” paints, I wouldn’t mind not being able to replace them. They’re just something to spice up the palette. I already have my staple palette colours that I’m able to replace easily so that’s not a problem.

Paint in Hiding, overcoming limits to enjoy passion.
youtube: Paint in Hiding
IG: @paintinhiding
blog: https://paintinhiding.wixsite.com/website

[Lavendulan]

PY138 is neither warm nor cool, so I think of it as a “basic yellow” and can use it as a single yellow in a palette, rather than a split primary with a cooler lemon yellow and a warmer yellow.   It’s actually pretty close to PY97 (Hansa yellow medium).  It does not lean either green nor orangey, but mixes with either warm or cool colors beautifully.  I haven’t noticed any gummy consistency like I get with PY154. Love that color, but like you, dont care for the consistency.

i have a ridiculous number of yellow paints, but that’s ok, I like yellow underwashes

Lora
C&C welcome

[Lavendulan]

I was working on finishing up my inventory swatches of paints that I own (as opposed to dot cards) and found a pure pigment Mijello Mission Gold, PBr29.  They call this Van Dyke Brown Deep (they have odd names sometimes).  My original swatch card was unimpressive, but on cotton paper this just really caught my eye.  It is Iron Chromium Oxide, in a hematite structure, and it certainly can look like hematite at certain dilutions.  It is a rather amazing black- very matte and even, semi-transparent.  Even the artiscreation website doesn’t have any listings for art materials for it, so I think this is probably unique.  I’ve put a swatch in my west facing window for a lightfast test, but since it is inorganic I think it might do well.

Out of the tube it looks completely black, but after it has been diluted and dried on the palette I can see the brown in it.  Think of the darkest dark chocolate you can imagine.

I had to do some color adjusting to lighten this swatch, but it makes some beautiful moody mixtures with other strong pigments like the phthalos, PV19 or PR122, even PB29.

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Lora
C&C welcome

[LuckyLaura]

Roman Szmal has a couple, such as Aquarius Yellow PY168, or Aquarius Red PR214 (previously only Old Holland)

[Clifton K Prince]

I also wonder, with calvin_0, “why?” sometimes.

Certified Closet Management Engineer, Slung Watercolor Society of America

[Paint in Hiding]

thanks lavendulan i also recently finished painting out swatch cards for my paint collection as well. extremely time-consuming but fun. beautifully painted PBr29 mixes!!! that colour mixing page for PBr29 reminds me of the colour spotlight series! i really should do my colour mixing studies like that too.  would you happen to have colour mixing pages for the phthalo greens too? (i noticed you in that discussion thread, i’ll comment on there so you won’t have to find the thread.)

Paint in Hiding, overcoming limits to enjoy passion.
youtube: Paint in Hiding
IG: @paintinhiding
blog: https://paintinhiding.wixsite.com/website

[calvin_0]

Lavendulan wrote:

Blue-Green PB28 – Mijello Mission Gold Cobalt turquoise.

Holbein Cobalt Turquoise Light is using PB28.

I’m going to suggest caution with Mission Gold Cobalt Turquoise, from according to Dick Blick’s pigment info, it’s a blend of PW6, PB28 and PY3…

If you want a cobalt turquoise, I would suggest Holbein’s instead of Mission Gold

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