Learning your Watercolor Color Palette

Cobalt Turquoise

Winsor & Newton's Cobalt Turquoise is the color of shallow seas. This is my go-to shade for shallow water on maps. It mixes vibrantly with just about any blue or green, and I use it as a base for both water and dark jungle. Link to Cobalt Turquoise

Pthalo Blue

There is really no replacement for this synthetic, chemical blue, which is sometimes called Helio Blue or Winsor Blue. It turns paper into vivid, daytime skies, immeasurably important in so many travel sketches.

Pthalo blue is often considered too intense and overpowering for many realistic paintings, but when you need to lay down color quickly while sketching on the side of a road or in a cafe, that surreal sky comes in handy. Link to Pthalo Blue

Indigo

If I had just one watercolor shade in my palette, this historical pigment, discovered in different cultures around the world, would be it. In fact, travel sketches with black liner pen and indigo watercolor look great. My Winsor & Newton Indigo is used for so many different travel sketching purposes, and I never tire of this versatile midnight blue, which can laid down dark and intense, or soft and pale. I use it to represent black, by adding burnt sienna, and I use it for shadows, and the edge of oceans. There is something about this specific pigment against white paper that is uniquely clean and crisp. Link to Indigo

Cadmium Orange

Another pigment that can be confused for others in the palette, but which has such unique characteristics of its own, is Cadmium Orange.

You can see in the example how many different tints and shades this single pigment can produce. This is why cadmium orange is so useful on the road. A few swipes of the brush produces rich and varied orange and yellow textures. Link to Cadmium Orange

Pthalo Turquoise

This is a singular color. There is nothing like it at all. When my brush goes for this pigment, it's going big. Imagine a dark turquoise, that can be glazed into an almost-black. Sometimes it feels blue, but mostly, it's a vibrant, dark turquoise, the color of jungle leaves in the early morning. Link to Pthalo Turquoise

Ultramarine

Ultramarine defines the deep blue of the distant sea on a sunny day. But it also takes on different characteristics on paper, from gentle and light to deep and pure. Link to Ultramarine Blue

Quinacridone Violet

This is another spectacular and vivid hue, that works so well in travel sketches. I love this pigment for the way it transforms from deep violets to airy magentas. Bougainvillea, rainy streets at night. Link to Quinacridone Violet

Winsor Violet

This brilliant bluish-purple, sometimes called dioxazine purple, actually shows up in nature all the time. This paint is loaded with pigment. You can see in the example how you can almost create a black out of this intense violet. Deep marine hues, evening skies, and a great color to represent many Latin American bird species. Link to Winsor Violet

French Ultramarine

French ultramarine looks exactly like ultramarine in the palette, and the two shades are often difficult to tell apart on the paper. But french ultramarine lays down on the paper in a different way; it has a more pure, soft quality to it, and so I like to use it for afternoon sky. Link to French Ultramarine