Which Blues do you use and why?

[SteveBerry]

I have Cobalt Blue on my palette but don’t really use it much. As such, I’ve been pondering removing it, but it’s considered such an “essential” by many well known painters that I’ve paused a bit. Do others here use it? And if so, how? And why use it, instead of another blue? If you don’t use it, what Blues do you use instead?

I go through Ult Blue like nobody’s business, as I use it as the primary darkening blue agent for shadows, etc. Sometimes, I use Cobalt Blue as a cooling off tool, if my shadows get too purpley-brown, but just a touch of it. I use Ceruean blue for my skies pretty often, as I like the cool pale, granulating nature of it. Occasionally, if I want something with more violet, I use a very pale wash of Ult Blue instead- Cobalt just doesn’t seem violet enough. I’ve even used Pthalo Blue for skies, but not really Cobalt Blue- it just seems so similar to UB I skip right over to it instead. I like to mix Cobalt Turquiose with various yellows to make a variety of natural greens. But Cobalt? Not sure why I have it there….

So, I’ve considered removing it from my palette, and getting perhaps a different blue on my palette instead- perhaps a Pthalo or Prussian. How do people use those colors instead?

Cobalt Blue just doesn’t seem different enough from other blues to be of value- it’s not dark like Ultramarine Blue, it’s not pale and hyper granulating like Cerulran Blue, it’s not a great green mixer like Cobalt Turquoise, it’s not a powerful non-granulating mixer like Prussian or Pthalo Blue. Occasionally, I want a daub of middle blue for a shirt or sign, but that’s about what I relegate it to. For that, I can his keep a tube in my backpack for the occasional use.

Opinions?

www.seamlessexpression.com

[Yorky Administrator Ormskirk]

I have several blues on my palette, but mainly use Ultramarine Blue, Prussian Blue and Winsor Blue.

Ultramarine as a general purpose blue which also with browns makes a wide range of greys and black. Winsor blue for skies as it produces very smooth washes, and Prussian blue mixed with burnt sienna to make conifer greens.

I have Cobalt, Manganese and Cerulean but rarely use them. Cobalt and Manganese are too weak.

Doug

We must leave our mark on this world

[yellow_oxide]

I’ve been using cerulean more lately because it’s great for skies. Cobalt teal, the PB28 version, can be good for horizons, but I haven’t found much use for it otherwise since I mostly paint landscapes.

Cerulean and indigo are becoming my two favorites for blue.

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[Triduana]

I have thhree blues. I use ultramarine in pretty much every painting, for skies, shadows and a big range of greys when mixed with bt sienna and raw umber. It seems to mix well with everything in some capacity or other. I also have Prussian blue but I only got that recently so haven’t used it for much other than skies. I also use pthalo blue very occasionally because I really like the colour, but I have no specific use for it.

Kay D - Edinburgh, Scotland

So long, and thanks ...

[Minerva C]

Same as Doug, but I also have indigo which is a must have for me. I have tubes of ultramarine from several brands because they behave differently. There are bright and not so bright, not granulating to extremely granulating. I find the most interesting version to be Rembrandt Ultramarine Deep for the extreme granulation and for being a little deeper in colour.

C

"It is only when we are no longer fearful that we begin to create."
J.M.W. Turner

[ColorEnthusiast]

I started to use cobalt blue lately. When you mix it with raw and/or burnt siena you also
get a nice kind of grey for clouds. I use it as a lighter (less red) alternative to ultramarine blue mixed with burnt siena. For example for a covered sky. I use the cobalt blue from Windsor and Newton.
Indigo I really love as a color, but as it is said to be non permanent I try to use other colors instead.

Esther

[yellow_oxide]

Indigo I really love as a color, but as it is said to be non permanent I try to use other colors instead.

It depends on which one you’re using. Almost all tubes of paint labeled with the name “indigo” are simply mixtures of blue and black and are completely unrelated to genuine indigo. All of these should have perfect lightfastness.

Natural indigo can be gotten as a dry pigment, but I don’t know of any makers of western watercolors that actually use it. A few brands use synthetic indigo (PB66, or Vat Blue 1), and it’s claimed to be lightfast. I haven’t tested it though so I can’t guarantee that.

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[SteveBerry]

It’s funny- I’ve used Prussian Blue before, particularly when mixed with a red (like Indian Red) for greys. I know others who use it for that too. But I’ve found that the grey shifts between the greener blue and the duller red, in terms of the range of possible mixes. This just doesn’t seem as useful as the shift from the more violet blues of Ultramarine and the warmer, orange tones of Burnt Sienna- particularly for landscapes. I’ve just never found a consistent use for Prussian Blue that wasn’t just as well satisfied (or better satisfied) with Ultramarine Blue.

I’ve been resistant to using Pthalos in general for a long time, but in limited use, it seems for helpful. How does it mix with granulating colors? Do others have issue with it, besides the fact that its such a powerful mixer?

As for pigments like Cobalt Teal and Cobalt Turquoise (I found that they worked similarly)- they’re primary use for me is to make a broad range of relatively vibrant, yet natural greens. I’ve used it for certain types of bodies of water as well, but that’s really very rare. I find the depths of large bodies of water are usually a browner, yellower green, and that the highlights are paler and bluer.

What’s the difference functionally between something like Indigo and a lot of the Neutral Tints (which often run violet)? What are you using them for? And why them instead of a dark blue like Ult Blue?

www.seamlessexpression.com

[janinco]

My favorites are phthalo blue, anthroquinone blue (PB60) and sodalite genuine which is a Daniel Smith Primatek pigment. It’s a dark, granulating blue that’s great for shadows. I sometimes use ultramarine and Prussian blue, but not nearly as often as the others.

Jan

TwoStone Studio

[yellow_oxide]

Ultramarine is much higher chroma than indigo, and full strength won’t be as dark as indigo. I’ve always had a preference for subdued and natural colors, as opposed to eye-popping “juice” colors. Indigo can be great for storm clouds or late evening skies after sunset, neither of which should be high chroma. It also pairs well with a reddish earth, like burnt umber.

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[artsy_lissa]

I have similar thoughts to Ester’s… I like to mix Cobalt Blue with DS Transparent Red Oxide PR101 to get a grey like color which ends up granulating and separating on the paper. I lastly like the greens I receive when crossing Cobalt Blue with yellows.

Colour is my day-long obsession, joy and torment. ~ Claude Monet[/SIZE]
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[CarolinaPal]

I have DS French Ultramarine as well as a Phthalo (red shade), but I’d love to add a cobalt to my palette because I think they are very pretty. I’m drooling over the thought of using them for skies and in general because of the liftability. Phthalos go down and stay, which is frustrating. Even the Cerulean, which would be perfect for skies, have warnings of toxicity – and I’m pretty sure I’ve seen some Ceruleans made using Cobalt mixed with other pigments such as white. In other words, as tempted as I am, I’m afraid to use these pigments/colors. Isn’t anyone else afraid to use the toxic colors? I know the tubes aren’t 100% pure pigment, but they are at least half pigment or more, aren’t they? That’s still pretty concentrated.

For those who don’t use Cobalt or Cerulean, what mix do you use to get a pretty blue sky using only ultramarine or nontoxic, nonstaining pigments – or can it even be done? Again, I’d like to not do paint them using phthalos since they don’t lift. It is highly possible that I want the impossible!

I copied over some toxicity info from Blick’s website:

Cobalts – Toxicity
Cobalt salts are toxic. Avoid respiratory and skin contact. Soluble cobalt may cause irritation and allergic reaction through contact with skin. It is considered a possible carcinogen.

Cerulean – Toxicity
Cerulean Blue is moderately toxic if inhaled or ingested and slightly toxic if it comes into contact with skin.

[jpa66]

Well, I like cobalt blue a lot. I use it often in my skies when I don’t want as much intensity as UMB. As said already, it does grey off nicely. It also doesn’t seem to granulate as much as UMB, which I actually prefer.

One blue I nearly always regret using in skies is Cerulian. For some reason, I just do not get along with that pigment when used over larger expanses.

[yellow_oxide]

I copied over some toxicity info from Blick’s website:

Cobalts – Toxicity
Cobalt salts are toxic. Avoid respiratory and skin contact. Soluble cobalt may cause irritation and allergic reaction through contact with skin. It is considered a possible carcinogen.

Cerulean – Toxicity
Cerulean Blue is moderately toxic if inhaled or ingested and slightly toxic if it comes into contact with skin.

While cobalt pigments are toxic, it’s a non-issue as far as person safety goes if you avoid direct contact.

The quotes above mention inhalation, but unless you’re either spraying the paint into the air with spray bottle or making your own paint with dry pigment there is zero risk of breathing in your paint. Oil painters sometimes sand dried paint smooth, so that’s another way to breath it in, but watercolorists don’t.

Besides eating it, which is obviously not something recommended, the only way you’ll really come in contact with it is by touching it while it’s wet. I do sometimes get small amounts of paint on my fingers, but with cobalts I’m more careful and it’s easy enough to just wipe it off. I don’t think that brief and minor contact is enough to do anything.

The only real issue is what to do with waste water, but that can be overcome as well.

Also, the percent of the pigment that’s actually soluble is relevant to just how much of a hazard it is. I’m not sure what it is for cobalts (probably higher than cadmiums) but at least from certain brands modern cadmiums are nearly completely insoluble.

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[CallMeCordelia]

I use DS French Ultramarine for almost everything. To my eye, it has less of a red bias to it, than other Ultramarines and it can mix both nice greens and nice violets. I also have a blob of Payne’s Grey, which is kind of blueish on my palette for “emergencies,” like when I need a very dark green really fast, painting wet-in-wet, but I don’t have a dark to go with my Raw Sienna handy and the FUM isn’t dark enough. Then I have a mix of Turquoise I stirred up to replicate DS Sleeping Beauty Turquoise, as closely as I could. I used to love SBT (even though I didn’t use it very much), but when I saw what happened to it in Jane’s lightfast tests – oh no! My mix is just Pthalo Turquoise, plus a little White Gouache and a touch of FUM. I just rarely use it when I need a really cool blue, for some reason.

Carolina Pal, I use the DS FUM for most of my skies, usually with a wash of Raw Sienna, behind it, but I like granulating skies, and often stormy ones. Last summer, I was faced with a lake on a sunny day, with a clear, bright sky so I added a little turquoise (which is a bit staining) to the FUM and it was great. I avoid toxic pigments, too. I don’t feel like I am missing much by not using them and I enjoy not having to think about it or worry that my dog might get into the paint or water.

Noelle

[Author]

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