3 - Orange 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. 

For more on orange pigments see the Artiscreation orange database page here. See the Handprint orange pigment information here (but note that is it based on tests completed in 2004).
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The size of my swatches
Oranges - whether yellow oranges, mid oranges or red-oranges - are difficult to capture accurately so these swatches are very much only a guide to how the paints behave and what pigments are in them. I'll work on more accurate colour as soon as possible.
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There are not very many orange pigments used in watercolours. 

I've changed the settings on these galleries so the brand information comes up faster. Click on any swatch for the full information.

PO20 Orange Watercolours

PO20 is use in Cadmium Orange by Da Vinci (shown); Cadmium Yellow Orange by Blockx (shown); Cadmium Orange by MaimeriBlu (pre 2018 range) (shown);  Cadmium Red Orange by QoR (shown); Cadmium Red Orange and Cadmium Orange Light and Cadmium Orange Deep by Schmincke (shown); Cadmium Orange in Renesans half Pan range (shown); Cadmium Orange in American Journey (shown) - hover over to see details or click for full swatch information.

It is also available in Cadmium Red Light by Lukas; Cadmium Orange in Renesans Intense range, Turner, M.Graham and in the Aquarius range; Cadmium Orange Deep in Wallage Seymour; and in both Cadmium Yellow and Cadmium Red Light in the PWC range.
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It varies in hue from a warm yellow to a warm red.

PO36 Orange Watercolours

Known as Benzimidazolone Orange or Azo Orange Deep, this gorgeous orange pigment is also found as Benzimida Orange Deep in Da Vinci (shown); Titan Red in White Nights (shown); Vermilion Permanent in Art Spectrum (shown) and Permanent Orange in Stephen Quiller (shown).
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It is also available as Benzimidazole Orange in Aquarius.

PO 48 and PO49 Quinacridone Gold and Burnt Orange watercolours

PO62 Oranges

PO62 is used in Chrome Orange by Schmincke (shown); Permanent Orange by Blockx (shown); Permanent Orange by Daniel Smith (shown); Azo Orange by M.Graham (shown); Winsor Orange by Winsor & Newton (shown); Halloween Orange by American Journey (shown)..

It is also available as Permanent Yellow Deep by Lukas, Benzimida Orange by Da Vinci, Permanent Yellow Orange by MaimeriBlu (new range) and Permanent Orange in MaimeriBlu pre 2018 range and Art Spectrum.

PO64 Oranges

PO71 Oranges

PO71 is found in Transparent Pyrrol Orange - Daniel Smith; Transparent Orange (was Translucent Orange) - Schmincke; Transparent Pyrrol Orange - QoR; Pyrrol Orange - Rembrandt; Transparent Pyrrol Orange - Daniel Smith (2019 version)

It is also found in Permanent Orange - Lukas and Orange Pyrrolo - MaimeriBlu (new range) 

PO72 Oranges

PO73 Oranges

Found in Da Vinci Orange (shown), Sennelier Orange (shown), Vermilion by Stephen Quiller (shown), Pyrrol Orange by Daniel Smith (shown), Pyrrolo Vermilion by Blockx (shown), Scarlet Pyrrol by M.Graham (shown) and Winsor Orange Red Shade by Winsor & Newton (shown).

It is also used in Pyrrol Orange by Aquarius; Warm Orange by Daler Rowney; Red Orange by Mission Gold; Pyrrol Orange Red Shade by Turner and Pyrrole Orange by Isaro.

Single Pigment Orange Watercolours

Single pigment orange watercolours will generally be made from a 'Pigment Orange' denoted as PO followed by a number.  I have included Quinacridone Gold PO49 here, even though I love it as a warm yellow. Some oranges are also suitable as a warm red option, such as Transparent Pyrrol Orange (D.S.) Samples arrange by pigment number. Note some of the colours are not true to life - orange is a difficult colour to scan accurately :-(

As well as the pigment shown above, orange pigments in use are: variations of PO N/A such as Mayan Orange by Daniel Smith (shown); PO6 in Vermilion by Derivan (shown); PO16 Brilliant Orange by Shin Han PWC; PO17; PO34; PO43 Orange Lake by Maimeri Blu (pre 2018) (shown) and Perinone Orange by Daniel Smith (shown); PO48; PO49; PO59; PO64 Saturn Red by Schmincke; PO65 Golden Barok Red by Old Holland (shown); PO107 Transparent Orange by Winsor & Newton (shown); PO108 Cadmium Red Orange by Holbein (shown); PR206 Avignon Orange by MaimeriBlu (pre 2018) (shown).

PY216

Mixed Pigment Orange Watercolours

I am not so interested in mixed pigment oranges as they can be mixed in the palette. There are many variations. Shown are
  1. ​Arancione - A.Gallo; Halloween Orange - American Journey; Australian Red Gold - Art Spectrum; Cadmium Orange Hue - Daler Rowney; Cadmium Orange Hue by Daniel Smith;
  2. Aussie Red Gold by Daniel Smith;  ​Quinacridone Sienna by Daniel Smith; Alizarin Gold by Da Vinci; Permanent Yellow Orange by Holbein; Red Orange - Jackson's; 
  3. ​Chinese Orange by Sennelier; Permanent Red Orange by Schmincke;  Golden by White Nights; Cadmium Orange by Winsor & Newton. 
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 all over the globe, 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 :-)
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This pages was last updated November 2022. I am gradually separating the various pigments into new galleries with all the pigment information in the blurb - hope this makes it easier to find the swatches you are looking for.