Painted Watercolour Swatches - Introduction - Jane Blundell

Welcome to Jane Blundell's Colourpedia - the Wikipedia of swatching!

Some of my colour testing swatches.

Painted Watercolour Swatches 1 - Introduction.

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, as shown on the individual manufacturers website or colour chart.

Use the search boxes to find a particular pigment, colour or brand.

The size of my swatches

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NEW! Here is a video showing how I paint these swatches.

I plan to keep adding to these 2000+ swatches as I try new paints. Click on each tab below for the various colours. Hover over any swatch to see the colour and brand or click to see the full painted swatch with pigment and other information.

What I look for in watercolour are paints that are largely single pigment colours, where possible, made from light-fast pigments. I need them to re-wet easily in a palette, rather than need to be used straight from the tube, as this is how I paint. One of the joys of watercolour, after all, is its portability. I like the colour to be strong and bold, and they need to dry nicely - without the sheen of excess gum Arabic or other binder. I look for a range of characteristics, ranging from opaque to transparent, staining to liftable, and either heavily granulating or non-granulating or somewhere in between. It's no secret that I have been using Daniel Smith watercolours for more than 20 years, and also really like Da Vinci and Schmincke paints in particular, but there are many excellent watercolours available and each range has is special characteristics.

To quickly find the details of a particular pigment, I recommend artiscreation.com or for more information than you are likely to need. Use this link to search for any pigment. There is a great spreadsheet that has been compiled by Lee Angold, aiming to show every single pigment watercolour available, arranged by brand. It can be found here. Or you can get lost for days at handprint.com, but keep in mind that most of the lightfast tests were done in 2004 or earlier so many brands have been introduced or reformulated since then.

I have created swatches of the full range of many brands, and am gradually adding them here. You can also find links to my blog posts showing each range by brand below. Manufacturers are listed alphabetically.

I have not shown many from Derivan, Permanent Pigments, Grumbacher or Liquitex as I haven't tried many yet. I haven't tried any from Utrecht, and Lefranc & Bourgeois samples are so old I haven't added them here. I haven't tried any from Kremer or Caren d'Ache. I have concentrated on Artist Quality watercolours but there are also a few odd ones in the mix. More details here -

A.Gallo is am Italian brand, created with passion and love and now available through their bricks and mortar shop and online through Jacksonsart. (affiliate link). There are over 80 colours available in half pans with hand-painted labels. The range includes YnMIn blue and a lovely Lapis Lazuli along with some unique earth pigments. You can see many of their colours on my blog here, and all I have are included in my website, arranged by colour and pigment.
American Journey are made for Cheap Joe's in 15ml and some 37ml tubes, by Da Vinci I believe. There are 113 colours in this range, which I've adding to my blog here. They have all been added to this website by colour and pigment. The website link is here, and you can download the PDF of the colour chart using the resources tab.
Aquarius Watercolours by Roman Szmal were released in 2019 and come from Poland. This is a range of 180 colours, many using rare earth pigments. They were only available in full pans, though in 2022 half pans were added in some colours. The initial range, and some extra samples, is shown here. The full range is shown here and all these swatches have been colour matched and added to my website by colour and pigment. (Fully updated December 2022)
Art Spectrum, founded in Australia in 1966. The watercolour colour chart and information doesn't include pigment information on the 67 colours but does include characteristics. The information on the website is just a little different so some colours may have been updated but I don't know which is the more recent. I have not tried all of these, which is bizarre since I live in Australia. They include some specific Australian colours that are unique in hue, including Pilbara Red, Australian Leaf Green Deep and Australian Red Gold (though this was released by Daniel Smith in 2017 called Aussie Red Gold). They also have a lovely granulating Rose Madder hue. If using dry in a palette, it is helpful to stir in a drop or two of glycerine per half pan to keep them from drying out too much or just use them straight from the tube. Their Burnt Sienna natural is just lovely. My blog post about them is here. They also have a student series of 30 10ml tubes called Art Prism.
Blockx from Belgium dates back to 1865. The colour chart for the Blockx watercolour range includes pigment and characteristics information. There is no lightfast rating as they claim all pigments rate 7 or better on the blue wool scale. It shows 72 colours, all but the whites are included in this website. They are available as 15ml tubes, 37ml tubes, half pans or giant pans. Gum Arabic, glycerin and honey are used as binders. Some great colours, especially the bright colours and the very beautiful cadmiums. Many have wonderful granulation, but some seem to be difficult to rewet from dried tube colours. I have not tried the pan colours - they may re-wet more easily. See the full range on my blog post here.
Camlin Watercolours, also known as Kokuyo Camlin, Camel and a student range called Camellia in the US, are originally from India. They are available in tubes or in smaller pan sets. You can find more about them here but I haven't tried them at all. No pigment information is available.
Charvin watercolours from France are available in pan sets of 12 (in three palette types), as well as 24, 36 or 48 colours here and a few tube colours here. They also make oils and a range of other products but I haven't tried any of them.
Colors of Nature is a range of art products from Canada that claim to be 'earth-friendly, petroleum-free and cruelty-free watercolor paints, oil paints, and encaustic all plant wax pucks that perform as well as or better than their conventional counterparts'. I haven't tried them at all, but the watercolour information is here.

Daniel Smith Watercolours. The PDF of the Daniel Smith watercolour colour chart shows 196 watercolours, including the Primateks, with pigment information and symbols to indicate characteristics and lightfast ratings. There are also 48 luminescent watercolours on the second page which I haven't included in this website. I have created over 200 Daniel Smith swatches, including a few discontinued colours and some old and new formulations. Daniel Smith watercolours have been manufactured in Seattle, USA, since 1993, using gum arabic as a binder. They are available in 15ml tubes and 88 of the colours are also available in 5ml tubes. I've been using these watercolours exclusively for over 27 years and love the range of pigments available. They have the most beautifully granulating colours and many pigments that no one else makes. They do vary in thickness from the tubes, which should generally be shaken before use. They generally rewet easily in the palette. Some colours are also available at watercolour sticks, which can be cut up to make travel palettes or used rather like an oil-stick or pastel, only they are, of course, water-soluble. Available world-wide, but in Australia they are distributed through Seniors art stores in Victoria, though I get them from Art Scene, my favourite Sydney art store. In Asia I recommend Arters online store. In October 2018 a limited number of colours was released in half pan sets, including a new colour, my Jane's Grey, which was also released as a tube colour in 2019.
In 2017 8 new colours were added to the range, as can be seen here. I have also written about them here. I am pleased to see a PR122 magenta (called Quinacridone Lilac), and the lovely Aussie red gold :-) See the full range here.
In 2019 another 8 new colours were introduced - 7 of them greys and a new primatek colour.
Daler Rowney watercolour chart. I have tried just over half of this range or 80 colours. They have the nicest version of Perylene Red made with the excellent lightfast PR179 - it is closer to crimson than most. This colour can often look rather like dried blood. I hope to try more. My blog post about them is here.
Da Vinci, from California, is a third generation company. Based on the ones I've tried, they are possibly the most consistent watercolours available on the planet. The are consistently thick from the tube and easy to rewet in the palette, though they can take longer to dry in the palette. Their web page shows their whole range with pigment and characteristics shown. Available in 15ml with some 37ml tubes (which I have been buying for years to keep my student palettes economical) and a small selection in whole pans kits. These are now available in Australia through Pigment Lab in Newtown, along with the full range of gouache, acrylics and oils. The complete range of 106 colours can be seen on my blog here, though Lapis Lazuli is currently unavailable.
DR PH Martin Hydrus Watercolours - blog post here
Etchr Watercolours - 24-colour half pan set. I haven't tended to include student watercolours in my explorations but this one is worth a look. It is almost entirely single pigment colours, including cobalt blue and cadmium pigments, so is not the usual 'hues' used in student ranges. In fact the pigment quality rivals some professional ranges. While some of the colours are less than ideal, it is a convenient and well-priced set to make a start in this medium. You can read more about it here, and see a paintout on my YouTube channel or read my blog post. I wonder if this set is made by the same company as the Paul Rubens watercolours - there are many similarities.
Grumbacher began in New York City in 1905 making brushes. Created by Max Grumbacher, the continue to make watercolours, oils, acrylics, brushes tools and many other items for artists. They have a Finest Watercolour range of 63 colours and an Academy range of 60 colours. I have not tried them recently, though many years ago I tested a number of the Academy range and they painted out very nicely.
Holbein, from Japan since the late 1890's. The colour chart is beautifully laid out but doesn't show pigment numbers - very important when there are number of mixed pigment hues. You can find the pigment information here. I recently completed my paint-outs or the full range of 108 colours. When I studied the pigments there were many with white added and a number of fugitive pigments so choose with caution. They paint out beautifully. My blog post about them is here.
Isaro Watercolours from Belgium, created by Isobelle Roelofs. There are just under 60 colours including Metallic touch watercolours. Most are single pigment and are available in 7ml or 20ml tubes. I heard they are very nice and having received some samples to try I have written about them here. Available from Jacksonsart (affiliate link)
Jackson's Watercolours, available from Jackson's in the UK. 48 colours in 10ml and 21ml tubes as well as full and half pans. I haven't tried any yet, but hope to add them in 2019.
Karmański Watercolours are also from Poland. I can't find their website and haven't tried any, but you can see the 39 pan colours here. Here is some blurb from an art store 'Karmanski paint factory is the oldest such factory in Poland. It was founded in 1894 by a student of Jan Matejko - Józef Karmański, who added artistic knowledge to chemical studies, which allowed him to produce a wide range of paints - initially oil - which enjoyed great popularity and were accepted by the artistic world. The tradition of Karmanski is successfully continued by his heirs, and in the current offer are not only high quality oil paints, but also watercolors and tempera paint, produced from selected, natural and synthetic pigments by traditional methods" (from the website here).
Lukas, a German company founded in 1862, make 70 colours in half and full pans and 24ml tubes. Paint information is hard to find as there is no website (perhaps because they were bought in 2013 by Daler Rowney) but they are available from Jacksonsart. (affiliate link). Here is the colour chart as of 2022. I have only tried half this range l but there are some excellent pigments and the Cerulean and Verona Green Earth PG26 are particularly lovely. (This green pigment is also available in Schmincke and Old Holland as Cobalt Green Deep and as a limited colour from Winsor and Newton.) My swatches can be seen here.
Lutea watercolours from Belgium come in 12 colours and are made entirely from organic pigments - cultivated plants, gleaned plants, recycled plants and one insect. See them here. I haven't tried them and I doubt they would be lightfast but they include some fascinating historical colours such as madder red, cochineal and logwood purple.

MaimeriBlu, from Italy, has as extra fine range which has recently increased form 72 colours to 90. They haven't just added 18 colours though, they have completely overhauled the range removing all (but 1) mixtures so it is an audacious single pigment range. The swatches are all shown on their website and you can click on selected colours to see a larger swatch and the pigment information. I have not yet tested the new range.
I have created screenshots of their 2011 colour chart to show their original 72 colours. You can see them all here. They also have a second (student?) range of Venezia watercolours, all at the one price, without the more expensive cobalt and cadmium pigments. I haven't tested or included any of these. I hope to get hold of the new colours to update this section.
M.Graham, from Oregon USA for over 22 years. The M.Graham colour chart shows 70 colours with pigment and watercolour characteristics key. I have only tried 45 of them - shown here. They are beautifully rich and heavily pigmented but I like to use watercolour in a palette in dry form and the high honey content of these paints makes them very difficult to transport. Perhaps that is the humidity of Sydney. For use fresh from the tube they are lovely.
Mission Gold watercolours, from Mijello Art, Korea. First released only a few years ago and with many colour reformulations, I initially only tried a few of the 105 shown in the current Watercolour chart. Here is the blog post with my initial impressions. The colours are frequently named incorrectly - ie Cerulean is made from PB15:3 so should be called Phthalo blue, and there are a lot of strange pigment mixes, especially Burnt Sienna which contains three pigments and looks like a deep quinacridone gold hue - a lovely colour, but not a Burnt Sienna colour. However they paint out beautifully. They claim to have very little drying shift, which I noticed - the samples remained very strong and bright once dry. I have since painted out the whole range, as can be seen here, and will add them to this section of my website during 2018.
Old Holland watercolour chart. The names of the 168 colours are most unusual, with 'Lake' added to indicate transparent glazing colours and 'Extra' added to indicate a traditional colour made with lightfast pigments - think of it as a 'hue'. I have now tested all of this range and am gradually adding them to this website. They are the only source of genuine Manganese blue PB33 that I have found, though Da Vinci has a mix that includes PB33. (Note - as of March 2016, it seems that Manganese Blue pigment has been discontinued, but the OH watercolour can still be found in some stores.) They are generally richly pigmented and they have some lovely earth hues, and some really great granulating colours but tend to be expensive. Of note are the very granulating and deep Ultramarine Blue Deep and Cerulean Blue Deep. Golden Barok Red is also very popular. They do include a lot of multi-pigment mixes so choose carefully. I find they tend to dry with a sheen if used at all thick. I've added the full range to my blog here.
Paul Rubens watercolours, made by Shanghai Aowen Art Materials. I haven't tried these, though I wonder if this is the company that also makes the Etchr watercolours? Available in 112 colours as 8ml tube sets or in a range of whole or half pan sets.
QoR is a relative newcomer to the watercolour market from Golden, a company with its roots in the 1930s. The interactive colour chart is very informative, as are the pigment information charts. The 83 colours range tremendously though from lovely to, sadly, unusable, though in some cases I was working with a very small sample. They are made with 'Exclusive Aquazol® binder' so they have a less dramatic drying shift, but they feel different to work with from traditional watercolours that use gum Arabic as a binder. They would probably suit acrylic painters moving to watercolour rather than watercolour painters I think. They come in 11ml tubes. I must say I was expecting a lot from a company that makes some of the most loved acrylics in the world, and was disappointed with them. My initial post about them is here. However, I was able to try a lot more fresh from the tubes and while they do not handle or behave the same as traditional watercolours, they are very bright and I have shown the full range here.
Rosa Watercolours are made in the Ukraine. They come in 60 colours, in 2.5ml half pans or 10ml tubes, and there is a range of different sets available. I have just added them to my blog here and added all the colours to my website by pigment. More information can be found on their website here. In Australia they are available through Adamstown Art.
Rockwell watercolours from Canada. Since about 1990, Rockwell has been a pigment supplier, but have more recently 'succeeded in developing a new generation of natural gem-quality products with excellent quality and easy expression'. These are the Self-evolving mineral watercolours. I've added then to my blog here and will add them to this website soon.
Rembrandt by Royal Talens, dating back to 1899 from Holland, make a student range (van Gogh) as well as their Rembrandt artist quality watercolour range. The colour chart shows 80 colours with pigment and characteristics listed. I have tried about 50 of them, and posted them here. They are available in half pans, 5ml tubes and 20ml tubes, as well as in sets of various sizes.
In 2019 Rembrandt did an overhaul of their colours, reformulating many and adding more to create a range of 120 colours to celebrate 120 years of making watercolours. The full range is shown here, though some colours are missing.
Resesans Watercolours from Poland can be found here. They started with a half pan range of 54 watercolours, which I have swatched out in my blog post here, and all these have been added to this website by colour and pigment. Later, they added a completely different tube range of 70 colours that are called Intense Watercolours that can be seen on my blog here. These are a lovely traditional style watercolour with beautiful earth colours and consistency across the range.
Schmincke Horadam artist quality watercolours are from Germany and have been produced since 1882. This colour chart shows the 110 colours of series 14, which are available in half or full pans and 5ml or 15ml tubes. The information is very comprehensive, with pigment names, characteristics, a good large colour swatch and a description of the colour. Gum Arabic and oxgall are used as binders and flow agents. I have now tested all of the colours, and they are lovely paints to use. Do watch the pigment mixes though as there are not as many single pigment colours as I would like to see - their old 'burnt sienna' is a mix of PR101 and PBk9 so not one I'd recommend sadly. However the Neutral Grey, though a three-pigment mix, is made with neutralising colours without an added black which is great to see.
2017 - as part of the 125 year anniversary, Schmincke have completed a huge review of their watercolour line which is now 139 colours. They have reformulated or removed 5, and added 35 new colours, which you can see in my blog post here. I'll add them all to my website as soon as I can. The best news is that they now have two beautiful burnt sienna options, without black in them. Transparent Sienna is PR101 but not too bright, and Maroon Brown is a beautiful granulating earthy orange-brown - a natural burnt sienna. See the full range here.
Schmincke also make excellent Gouache colours, which can be rewet in a pan - great for plein air, though I still tend to add a drop of two of glycerine to each full pan and spray with a little distilled water before use.
Sennelier, from France, for over 100 years. The 98 colours shown on the colour chart also have pigment information and symbols to denote characteristics. They have been lovely rich colours. The range was reformulated a few years ago and the gum arabic and honey binder has made them very runny so like the M.Graham, they may be best used fresh from the tube. Available in half pans, full pans and 10ml tubes. See the blog post of the full range here.
ShinHan PWC is another relative newcomer to the watercolour scene. Available in a ShinHan Professional range of 30 colours, or their PWC Extra Fine Watercolour range of originally 84 colours, now 104 colours, in 15ml tubes. I'll only include the PWC range in my tests. They paint out very nicely but do contain some less lightfast pigments. Click here for my blog post.
Stephen Quiller colour chart. I have only tried a few of these. Many are convenience mixes of the primary pigments. They seem to remain quite runny. They are made by Blockx, so can be checked against my Blockx blog post.
Turner watercolours. There are 148 colours in this relatively new watercolour range that first appeared in Japan in about 2013 with a smaller range. I have tried very few but have not been impressed so far. Perhaps they are best straight from the tube.
Wallace Seymour is a relative newcomer to the watercolour market, from the UK. Previously Pip Seymour but renamed Wallace Seymour after his partner Rachel Wallace. Available in Australia from the Pigment Lab in Newtown, Sydney, the Artists Watercolour pan range is focused on very traditional colours - cadmiums, cobalts, earths and so on, that are quite beautiful, with lovely granulation. Some of the range can be seen on my blog post here.
The other range, called Vintage Watercolours, are in tubes but unlike many brands, the paint names, pigments and handling are completely different. The these colours are best used strictly fresh from the tubes as they don't rewet. Read more about that on my blog post here.
White Nights come from Russia, and are also known as St Petersburg, made by Nevskaya Palitra. The colour chart was hard to find so I borrowed one again from my own Blog post about these paints. These are marketed as an artist quality range but some of the pigments are not lightfast so you need to pick and choose carefully. There are some great colours available as whole pans or tubes and they are very economically priced. I've added an other blog post showing 55 St Petersburg colours, though in 2017 an additional 9 were added to the range. I've added a new blog showing these, and the new tube version here.
Winsor & Newton, originally an English company started in 1832. The PDF of the watercolour colour chart shows 96 colours, but there have also been a number of often lovely limited edition watercolours that I have included in this website. The colour chart gives characteristics but not pigment numbers though there are excellent links on the website to find that important information. There are many mixed pigment hues. I have included all 96 of the Winsor and Newton watercolours available, including 7 extra colours not shown on the chart. They are available in half and whole pans, large pans and tubes in a range of sizes including 5ml, 14ml and 37ml. They also have a student range, Cotman, that are not included in this website. Unlike other brands, they use a slightly different formulation for their tube and pan colours so I tend to suggest adding a little glycerine to their tube colours if refilling pans or palettes so they re-wet better. The tubes are designed to be used fresh and the pans are designed to be r-wet in the field. See the full range here.
Wichitrong Watercolours are made in Thailand by Silpakorn Colours. There are 24 colours in the range, and they are available in 8ml tubes. I have only tried 8 of them, and they painted out richly. Oil and acrylics are also available in the Wichitrong brand.

The swatches are placed in colour groups based largely on the Pigment number. Some swatches are place in two sections, especially if it is a red made with an orange pigment or an orange that could be used as a red etc. Pigment numbers are PW (Pigment White), PY (Pigment Yellow), PO (Pigment Orange), PR (Pigment Red), PV (Pigment Violet), PB (Pigment Blue), PG (Pigment Green), PBR (Pigment Brown) and PBk (Pigment Black), followed by a number that represents the number given to that pigment when it was discovered or invented. There are also 'N' pigments such as NR for Natural Red, followed by a number. These are largely fugitive, so will fade. You can Google the pigments to check the lightfast ratings of the various pigments on other websites. Handprint is excellent. The information on watercolour paints has not been updated for many years but the information on pigments is exhaustive. I have generally separated single pigment colours from mixed pigments as single pigment watercolours generally mix better, though some convenience premixed colours can be very helpful.

The swatches have simply been scanned and cropped with no colour correction. Some colours, especially some orange/coral/red/rose colours will not be accurate on the screen and I have tried to note that. The purples through blues, greens, earths and darks are more accurate. In all cases I tried to show the full strength of the colour, though some were painted from very small samples. Only if I have tested a colour from a decent amount of tube colour and found it disappointing, or if it has faded in my light-fast tests, will a make a note 'not recommended'. Hover over any swatch to see the colour and brand information. Click on any colour to see the full swatch and pigment information.

I have given my opinions on the various colours in my Blog in the Watercolour Comparisons sections. The index is here. These swatches are posted without comment, though I have begun the process of noting whether I consider it a warm, neutralised cool, mid, primary option, granulating warm and so on as many people seem to struggle with this.

See the attached tabs or click on the colours below for the swatches of each colour group.

Yellow watercolour swatches.

Orange watercolour swatches

Red watercolour swatches

Purple watercolour swatches

Blue watercolour swatches

Turquoise watercolour swatches

Green watercolour swatches

Earth watercolour swatches

Light, Grey and Black watercolour swatches

Primatek watercolour swatches

Miscellaneous watercolour swatches

If you have watercolour paints that are not included in my swatches and would like to send samples so I can add them, please contact me :-) I only need a small dot of paint to be able to make a new swatch.or 60 col

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This page was last updated in August 2022