Jane Blundell - Artist
  • Home
    • Biography
  • Workshops & Demos
  • Gallery
    • Flowers
    • Buildings and Landscapes
    • Abstract watercolours
    • Artists' Prints
    • Abstracts
    • People and Animals
    • Calligraphic works
    • Book Illustrations
    • Exhibitions
  • Plein Air Sketches
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Tutorials and resources
    • The Ultimate Mixing Palette: a World of Colours
    • Getting started in watercolour
    • Characteristics of Watercolour
    • Painted Watercolour Swatches - Introduction >
      • Yellow Watercolour Swatches
      • Orange Watercolour Swatches
      • Red Watercolour Swatches
      • Purple Watercolour Swatches
      • Blue Watercolour Swatches
      • Turquoise Watercolour Swatches
      • Green Watercolour Swatches
      • Earth Watercolour Swatches
      • Lights, Greys and Black Watercolour Swatches
      • Primatek Watercolour Swatches
      • Miscellaneous Watercolour Swatches
    • Building your palette of colours >
      • Warm Blues
      • Cool Blues
      • Warm Yellows
      • Cool Yellows
      • Warm Reds
      • Cool Reds
      • Earth Colours
      • Quinacridone Colours
      • Greens
    • Palettes >
      • 12-colour palette suggestions
      • Plein air sketching palettes and tools
      • My Palettes
    • Brushes
    • Split Primaries in action
    • Watercolour Mixing Charts
    • Sketchbook Pages
    • Watercolour Triads
    • On-line tutoring

6 - Blue Watercolour Swatches

There are literally hundreds of artist quality watercolours available from many brands. I have tested many of them and created swatches as seen on the right. The square box is painted into a damp wash at the top to show the colour mixed in water, with more pigment added towards the bottom. The rectangle is painted in a juicy wash to show the mass-tone. The small squares at the bottom of the swatch have the pigment number and characteristics - staining, lightfast rating, granulation and transparency. 
Picture
The size of my swatches

Single Pigment Blue Watercolours

Blue pigments are denoted as 'PB' for Pigment Blue, followed by a number. PB29 is Ultramarine Blue. This will be a transparent, liftable and granulating blue, as a general rule. Note that the common palette colour Phthalo Blue comes in RS (Red Shade) and GS (Green Shade) versions and is called 
Winsor Blue by W&N and Helio Blue by Schminke. The green shade is the more common choice as a transparent, staining cool blue option. Cerulean also comes in two different pigments - PB35 and PB36. I prefer the greener PB 36 which may be called Cerulean Chromium by Daniel Smith, Cobalt Cerulean in Schmincke and Cerulean Genuine in Da Vinci. Names can be confusing :-)

Ultramarine Blues, and others made with PB29. Warm, liftable and granulating.

Indanthrone/Indanthrene Blues PB60. Deep, warm and non-granulating.

Cobalt Blues, Cobalt Deep Blues - PB28 and PB74. Mostly mid to warm blues, granulating and liftable. Some Turquoise colours!

Phthalo Blues, and others made with PB15 including Manganese blue hues. Cool, transparent and generally staining.

Prussian Blue - PB27. Deep, cool and less staining than phthalo blues.

Cerulean Blues, and others made with PB35 and PB36. Cool, granulating and liftable.

Other single pigment blues, including DS Primateks, PB16, PB33 and PV15.

Smalt Blue, Winsor & Newton watercolour. PV15. Warm purple blue
YInMn Blue, Daniel Smith R&D watercolour sample just for interest - not commercially available.
Smalt Genuine, Daniel Smith watercolour. Not Recommended.
Lapis Lazuli Genuine, Daniel Smith watercolour. Not Recommended. Warm granulating blue
Sodalite Genuine, Daniel Smith watercolour. Neutralised granulating blue
Vivianite Genuine (Blue Ochre), Daniel Smith watertcolour
Kyanite Genuine, Daniel Smith watercolour
Mayan Dark Blue, Daniel Smith watercolour. PB82
Amazonite Genuine, Daniel Smith watercolour. Cool granulating blue
Blue Apatite Genuine, Daniel Smith watercolour. Cool granulating blue
Mayan Blue Genuine, Daniel Smith watercolour. Cool granulating blue
Blue Lake, Old Holland Watercolours. PB16
Caribbean Blue, Old Holland Watercolour. PB16.
Manganese Blue, Lukas Watercolour. PB33. Possibly discontinued.
Manganese Blue Genuine, Old Holland watercolour. PB33. Cool granulating blue
Marine Blue, Holbein Watercolour. PB16
Maya Blu, Turner Watercolour. PB82
Caribbean Blue, Old Holland Watercolour. PB16

Mixed Pigment 'Indigo' Blue watercolours.

Mixed Pigment Blue watercolours

If a pigment is no longer available or expensive, some manufactures make a mix or hue of the colour. Common examples are Manganese blue PB33, which is only available now from Old Holland, and Cobalt Blue PB28, which is an expensive pigment, though worth it for the real thing. Indigo is another common mix since genuine indigo is not suitable for watercolour. 
Lavender, Holbein watercolours. PB15 + PB29 + PW6
Ultramarine Deep, Mission watercolours. PB29 + PV15
French Ultramarine, Sennelier Watercolour. PB29+PV15
Cobalt Blue Hue, Schmincke Watercolour. PW4+PB29
Cobalt Blue Deep, Schmincke Horadam watercolour. PB74+PB28
Lunar Blue, Daniel Smith watercolour. PB15 + PBk11. Granulating cool blue
Verditer Blue, Holbien watercolours. PB28 + PW6
Cobalt Blue #1, Mission watercolours. PB29 + PB15:3
Cyanine Blue, Blockx watercolour. PB28 + PB15:1
Cobalt Blue Hue, Derivan watercolour. PB29 + PB15
Tasman Blue, Art Spectrum watercolour.
Verditer Blue, Old Holland watercolour.
Verditer Blue, Daniel Smith watercolour. PB 28 + PB 36 + PW4
Peacock Blue, Holbein watercolour. PB15 + PG7
Manganese Blue Hue, Daler Rowney watercolour. PB15:3 + PW5
Manganese Blue Nova, Holbein watercolour
Horizon Blue, Holbein watercolour
Manganese Blue (Permanent), Da Vinci watercolours. PB33 + PB15
Peacock Blue, Mijello Mission Gold watercolours. PB15:3+PG7
Marine Blue, Mijello Mission Gold Watercolour. PB 15:3+PG7
Manganese Blue, Mijello Mission Gold watercolours. PB15:3+PW6
Cinereous Blue, Sennelier Watercolour. PB15:3+PW4
Scheveningen Blue Light, Old Holland Watercolour. PB15:3+PW4.
King's Blue Deep, Old Holland Watercolour. PB29+PW4
King's blue Light, Old Holland Watercolour. PB29+PW4
Horizon blue, ShinHan PWC. PW6+PB15:4
Manganese Blue Deep, Old Holland Watercolour. PB33+PV16
Mountain Blue, Schmincke Watercolour. PW5+PB29+PG7
Old Holland blue Grey, Old Holland Watercolour. PB29+PV23+PBk7+PW4
Old Holland Cyan blue, Old Holland Watercolour. PB15:2+PW4
Paris Blue, schmincke Watercolour. PB15+PB15:1+PB27
These swatches are painted and added as a guide. The intention is show the characteristics of each colour when painted. The colour reproduction is not perfect but hopefully will still be helpful used in conjunction with the manufacturer's website.  Thank you to those of you, from Canada, Sweden, Hong Kong, the UK, Australia and the USA, who have helped me with this section by sharing your favourite colours. If you notice errors please let me know so I can correct them. If you have artist quality watercolour that are not shown here and want to help me build up this resource, also please let me know :-)
Contact me
© Jane Blundell. All rights reserved.
✕