7 - Turquoise 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
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Turquoise Watercolours 

There are no PT (pigment turquoise) numbers, so apart from the Primatek mineral colours, turquoise watercolours are made from a single pigment green or blue such as PB16, PB36 or PG50, or a mixture of green and blue pigments, often including the transparent, staining phthalo colours PG7 and PG15. It can be easy to mix the hue but the granulation of Cobalt Turquoise makes it a useful colour to own.

PB16

This beautiful pigment varies a little from more blue to mid turquoise.
Phthalo Turquoise* - Aquarius; Phthalo Blue Turquoise* - Daniel Smith; Marine Blue - Holbein; Caribbean Blue* - Old Holland; Phthalo Turquoise - Winsor & Newton. 

Cobalt teal and turquoise Watercolours made from PB28

Cobalt Blue PB28 is usually associated with a mid blue colour. However it also creates an amazing granulating aqua/turquoise colour. PG50 creates an almost identical hue - see below.
  1. Cobalt Sea Blue - Aquarius; ​Cobalt Turquoise Light* - Holbein; Cobalt Blue Turquoise Light - Kremer​; Cobalt Teal - M.Graham; Cobalt Turquoise Blue - Rembrandt; 

PG26

Cobalt Turquoise Green - Rembrandt

Turquoise Watercolours made with PG36

See also Cerulean Blues made with PB36. These are the PB36 turquoise colours in alphabetic order by manufacturer. Shown here are:
  1. ​Cobalt Teal - American Journey; ​Cobalt Turquoise - Aquarius; Turquoise Blue - Blockx; Turquoise Green - Blockx; ​Cobalt Green Deep - Daler Rowney; 
  2. Cobalt Turquoise* - Daniel Smith; Cobalt Turquoise - Da Vinci; Cobalt Turquoise Deep - Da Vinci; ​Cobalt Blue Turquoise Dark, Kremer; ​Cobalt Blue Turquoise - Old Holland ​; 
  3. Cobalt Green Turquoise - Schmincke; ​​Cobalt Green - Sennelier; Cobalt Turquoise - Winsor & Newton (old version)

Cobalt Turquoise Watercolours made from PG50 

  1. Cobalt Teal* - Aquarius; Cobalt Teal Blue* - Daniel Smith; ​Turquoise Cobalt* - Dirty Blue; Cobalt Blue Turquoise Light - Old Holland; ​Cobalt Teal - QoR; Cobalt Turquoise - Schmincke; ​
  2. Turquoise Green - Sennelier;​ Cobalt Turquoise Light - Winsor & Newton

Other single pigment Turquoise Watercolours made with Primatek pigments

Sleeping Beauty Turquoise Genuine* - Daniel Smith; ​Natural Kingman Turquoise Genuine* - Daniel Smith; Amazonite Genuine* - Daniel Smith; Fuchsite Genuine* - Daniel Smith; Azurite Genuine - Daniel Smith (Discontinued)

Turquoise mixed pigment hues using granulating cobalt and viridian pigments such as PG18, PG19, PB28, PB36, PG50

The granulating pigments will tend to make these colours more granulating and less staining.
  1. Andrew's Turquoise - American Journey PB36, PG7, PW6; Blue Stone - American Journey PB36 + PY42; Cobalt Turquoise - Mission Gold PB28 + PY3 + PW6; Cobalt Green Turquoise - Old Holland PG19 + PG26 + PG50; Cobalt Turquoise - Renesans pan PB36 + PG50;
  2. Cobalt Turquoise* - Rosa PB28 + PB36; Deep Sea Green - Schmincke PG18 + PB29; Glacier Turquoise - Schmincke PG50 + PV16; Cobalt Turquoise - Winsor & Newton PB36 +  PB28  

Mixed Pigment turquoise watercolours using phthalo pigments PG7, PG36 and PB15 

The phthalo pigments PG7, PG36 and PB15 can be mixed to create gorgeous turquoise hues with ease. They will be staining and non-granulating. Using Ultramarine (PB29) instead of phthalo blue will add a little granulation but if PG7 is included it will still tend to be a staining colour.
  1. Copper Blue* - A Gallo PW4 + PG7 + PB15.3 + PY3; Aquamarine*- A Gallo PB15:4 + PG7 + PB29; Harbor Blue* - A Gallo PB15:3 + PBr8; Ocean Blue - Aquarius PB24 + PB15.3; Transparent Turquoise - Aquarius PB15:3 + PG7; 
  2. June Bug (Greenish Blue) - American Journey PB27 + PG7; Transparent Turquoise - Daler Rowney PG7 + PB15; Ultramarine Turquoise* - Daniel Smith PB29 + PG7; Phthalo Turquoise* - Daniel Smith PG36 + PB15; Peacock Blue - Holbein PB15 + PG7; 
  3. Turquoise Blue* - Holbein  PG7 + PB15 + PW6; Horizon Blue - Holbein PB15 + PG7 + PW1; Green Blue - Maimeri Blu PG7 + PB15:3 (discontinued); Turquoise - M.Graham PB15:3 + PG7; Turquoise Blue - Mission Gold PG7 + PB15:3 + PW6; 
  4. Peacock Blue - Mission Gold PB15:3 + PG7; Turquoise Blue Deep - Old Holland PB15:3 + PG7 + PW4; Turquoise Blue - Rembrandt PB15 + PG7; Ultramarine Green - Renesans pan PG7 + PB15:3; Turquoise* - Rosa PB15:3 + PG7; 
  5. Phthalo Turquoise - Sennelier PB15:3 + PG7; ​Peacock Green - Shin Han PG7 + PB15; ​Richeson Turquoise - Stephen Quiller PB15:3 + PG7
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, 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 :-)
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This pages was last edited in September 2024.
​Note that the * means that I have colour-checked the swatch again in a process I am doing - checking every colour swatch and updating pigment information on my blog and website. It doesn't mean that the swatches without an asterisk are wrong, just that those with are as accurate as I can make them.