the complete palette

This page is a complete listing of the over one hundred distinct pigments currently used in watercolors and serves as an index to the pigments listed in the guide to watercolor pigments.

Excluding iridescent or pearlescent pigments, fluorescent pigments or dyes, and the unique mineral complexes used in the Daniel Smith PrimaTek™ paints, nearly every watercolor manufactured in 2010 was made with pigments in this list, and their importance in all areas of drawing and painting has not changed.

Pigments are organized into 27 color categories around artist's color wheel. Each category includes the currently used watercolor pigments for that color, and suggests a single pigment watercolor paint (by name and manufacturer) that represents the pigment's unique attributes.

When a pigment under a single color index name is available as one or more distinct colors, two paints are listed that illustrate the pigment's range. If the color range is extremely large (cadmium yellow, iron oxide), it is listed in all the color categories that describe it.

Different typefaces are used for the pigment or paint names, as follows:

All the highly recommended pigments are lightfast, versatile, and handle well in watercolors. They include (but are not limited to) the paints most often chosen by most watercolor painters, and most of them are available in most watercolor paint lines. Note that this group includes several exceptional pigments that have not yet become widely popular or are only offered by a single watercolor paint manufacturer.

Pigments fall into four basic categories: natural inorganic, synthetic inorganic, natural organic, and synthetic organic. Nearly all pigments in common use today are synthetic, and the majority of those are organic. Typically all pigments within a chemical category such as "quinacridone" or "naphthol" have similar lightfastness and color characteristics.

Manufacturer and paint catalog numbers indicate paints that were actually tested in the guide to watercolor pigments. Many paints have been discontinued or reformulated since this guide was compiled, and many new pigments, especially in mineral compounds and ceramic colorants, have been devised since 2008. Despite that, most of the pigments listed here define pigment categories of high quality. In the future, environmental costs of production are likely to make some pigments, including the cadmiums, less popular.

The location of the 27 color categories is summarized as a color wheel diagram called a palette scheme. The palette scheme below shows the hue and chroma positions of the 27 color categories on the artist's color wheel. High chroma colors are located on the rim of the circle, unsaturated or "earth" colors are located inside it. The denser spacing of color categories within the magenta to yellow or "warm" section of the circle indicates a larger number of pigments and finer color differences in that part of the hue range.

palette scheme for the complete palette

click on a palette scheme anywhere it appears to see a key identifying the color categories symbolized by each diamond

Palette schemes are used throughout this site to illustrate the selection of paints in artists' palettes, hue contrasts in different color harmonies, the location of hues in hue circles, and so on.

1. Click on the palette scheme anywhere it appears (including here) to see a key identifying the color category symbolized by each colored diamond.

2. Click on a color diamond in that key to go to that color category in the table below.

3. Click on the color index name of any pigment in the table, and you will jump to the analysis of that pigment in the guide to watercolor pigments.

4. Click on the hue description for a pigment in the guide to watercolor pigments, and you will return to this table, where you can find other pigments available in the same hue range.

PG36 phthalocyanine green YS Winsor & Newton 210

PG50 (削除) cobalt titanate YS (削除ここまで)
cobalt green light (削除) Winsor & Newton 234 (削除ここまで)
MaimeriBlu 316

yellow green

PG7+PY150 hooker's green Rembrandt 623

PG23 terre verte Blockx 161
Winsor & Newton 048

PG7+PY3
PG36+PY175 permanent green light Daniel Smith 047
MaimeriBlu 339

PG7+PO49 sap green Daniel Smith 043

PG7+PY3 phthalo yellow green Daniel Smith 124

PG8 hooker's green Utrecht 163

PG17 chromium oxide green Winsor & Newton 072

PG36+PO49 hooker's green Winsor & Newton 202

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Note on "earth" colors. Traditionally, a large number of unsaturated warm or green pigments were extracted from natural clays mined throughout Europe and the Middle East. In modern watercolors these natural pigments are often replaced by mixtures of many different synthetic iron oxide pigments, many of them manufactured as concrete colorants or wood and leather stains. However, these are still referred to as "earths" in the art materials literature, and the term "hue" is routinely omitted by paint manufacturers from paint marketing names. This section includes natural iron oxides pigments, synthetic iron oxides, and synthetic organic pigments that have the same dull or near neutral color appearance: compare the chroma of pigments in the orange and earth orange hue categories, for example.

earth yellow

PBr7 raw sienna Daniel Smith 197
M. Graham 160

PBr24 chrome titanate yellow Winsor & Newton 203

PO49 quinacridone gold Daniel Smith 096

PR108+PO20+PW6
PY37+PY42+PW4 naples yellow Holbein 232
Blockx 115

PY42 gold ochre
mars yellow
transparent yellow oxide Winsor & Newton 059
Daniel Smith 060
Daniel Smith 121

PY43 yellow ochre Winsor & Newton 216

earth orange

PBr7 burnt sienna Daniel Smith 198
M. Graham 020

PR101 burnt sienna
transparent red oxide Winsor & Newton
Daniel Smith 020

PBr11 magnesium ferrite Daniel Smith 019

PO48 quinacridone orange Daniel Smith 091

PO49+PR209 quinacridone sienna Daniel Smith 095

PR102 burnt yellow ochre Old Holland 059

PY119 zinc magnesium ferrite Holbein 328
Winsor & Newton 381

earth red

PO65 methin nickel complex Old Holland 136

PR101 venetian red [mars red] Winsor & Newton 051

PR101 indian red Utrecht 006

PR101 mars brown Old Holland 346

PR101+PY42 light red Winsor & Newton 029

PR175 benzimidazolone red Daniel Smith 046

PR206 quinacridone maroon Daniel Smith 007

PR233 chrome aluminum stannate Winsor & Newton 537

brown [dark earth hue]

PBr6 (削除) van dyke brown (削除ここまで) (削除) M. Graham 194 (削除ここまで)

PBr7 raw umber Daniel Smith 041
Winsor & Newton 554

PBr7 burnt umber M. Graham 030

PBr25 benzimidazolone brown Daniel Smith 032

PBr33 zinc iron chromite Schmincke 041

PBr41 disazo condensation brown Schmincke 648

PR101 transparent brown oxide Daniel Smith 129

PR101 (削除) caput mortuum (削除ここまで)
mars violet (削除) Winsor & Newton 215 (削除ここまで)
Daniel Smith 102

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white

PW4 zinc white Winsor & Newton 011

PW6 titanium white
buff titanium white Winsor & Newton 206
Daniel Smith 015

gray

PBk10 powdered graphite Daniel Smith 010

PBk19+PW4+PBk6 davy's gray Winsor & Newton 019

dark shade

PBk6+PB60 indigo Daniel Smith 025

PBk6+PB15+PV19 neutral tint Winsor & Newton 032

PBk6+PB29 payne's gray M. Graham 128

PBr7+PBk7 sepia M. Graham 178

PBk31 perylene black Winsor & Newton 386

black

PBk6 lamp black Winsor & Newton 034

PBk7 furnace black MaimeriBlu 537

PBk8 vine black Old Holland 367

PBk9 ivory [bone] black M. Graham 110

PBk11 black iron oxide Daniel Smith 021

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Last revised 08.I.2015 • © 2015 Bruce MacEvoy