Beyond the Foundation: The Specialist Twelve

Expanding the Classical Watercolor Palette — With Alternatives and Substitutions

The second twelve pigments that solve specific problems, serve specific subjects, and connect you to the full depth of the tradition

The Case for Expansion — and Against It

There is a scene in the 2009 film Julie & Julia in which Julia Child walks into E. Dehillerin — the ancient, slightly terrifying Parisian cookware shop on the Rue Coquillière — and begins filling a basket with equipment. The implication, which the scene plays entirely straight, is that having the right tools transforms what is possible. This is true of kitchens. It is also true of palettes.

But it requires a qualification. Julia Child, working from her Mastering the Art of French Cooking, was also emphatic about technique preceding equipment. You cannot buy your way to a beurre blanc. The equipment matters only after the fundamentals are understood.

The same principle governs palette expansion. The twelve foundation pigments outlined in the previous article are not a starter kit to be graduated from as quickly as possible. They are a complete system, and painters who have worked with them seriously for months — who know their granulating pairs, their neutral range, their foliage mixing grid, their skin tone palette — are different from painters who have simply owned them for months. The distinction matters, because the specialist pigments described below are genuinely useful only to painters who understand what they are being asked to do, and why the foundation twelve cannot do it equally well.

If you are still reaching for Payne's Gray, this article can wait.

If you are genuinely bumping against the foundation palette's edges — if you have tried and failed to achieve a specific color temperature, a specific granulation effect, a specific depth of dark without muddiness — then welcome. The next twelve are organized not as a second shopping list but as a set of solved problems, each one answering a question the foundation palette raises but cannot fully answer.

Each entry includes alternatives and substitutions — because the best pigment for a given slot is not always the same for every painter, every brand, or every working method. The bonus here is genuine: some of the alternatives are not lesser options but simply different ones, appropriate to different subjects or sensibilities.

GROUP ONE: THE EARTH SPECIALISTS

The foundation palette's earth range — Burnt Sienna and Burnt Umber — covers the warm-to-dark arc of the iron oxide family with impressive economy. What it lacks is the lighter, golden end of the earth spectrum, the cool olive earth, and the cool opaque red earth. These three additions complete the picture.

13. RAW SIENNA

Pigment: PBr7 | ASTM I | Semi-transparent | Granulating

The golden earth — lighter and more luminous than Burnt Sienna, present in cave paintings at Lascaux

Raw Sienna is one of the oldest pigments, found in prehistoric cave art, and is named after the city of Siena, Italy, where the pigment was sourced during the Renaissance. The connection is etymologically and historically accurate — the ochres and siennas of the Tuscan hills were ground, washed, and traded across Europe for centuries. Giorgio Vasari, whose Lives of the Artists remains the foundational text of Western art history, referred to it in his own fresco work as terra rossa. That continuity — from cave wall to Vasari's Florentine ceilings to the modern tube — is remarkable.

Chemically, Raw Sienna is the same PBr7 family as Burnt Sienna, but unroasted: hydrated iron oxide rather than the anhydrous version produced by calcination. The result is a lighter, more golden, more transparent color — warm amber rather than red-orange — that occupies the upper register of the earth family that Burnt Sienna's deeper tone cannot reach.

What it does that the foundation twelve cannot: Raw Sienna provides the transparent golden underpinning for sunlit sandy ground, warm aged paper, distant sunlit hills in a golden haze, and the warm glaze that transforms mixed greens from vivid to naturalistic with a single light wash. As a preliminary wash over white paper, it creates a warm luminous ground that reads as afternoon light in any subsequent passage.

Raw Sienna is an earth colour recommended as a really useful addition even to a limited palette — its transparency and warmth making it ideal as a companion to Burnt Sienna. Many painters effectively use it as a lighter-valued complement to Burnt Sienna, the two earth tones together covering the full golden-to-red-brown range of the warm earth spectrum.

By brand: W&N Raw Sienna (PBr7) — the classical reference; slightly granulating. DS Raw Sienna (PBr7) — more transparent than W&N; exceptional luminosity. MG Raw Sienna (PBr7) — honey medium enhances the golden warmth; probably the most beautiful version for glazing. Holbein's formulation has changed in recent years — Holbein Raw Sienna now lists both PBr7 and PY42, a departure from the single-pigment version. Verify the label before purchase.

Alternatives:

• Quinacridone Gold (PO49 or hue) — DS originally introduced this as a single-pigment PO49; production of PO49 stopped in the early 2000s, which meant paint makers had to find ways to recreate the color using different pigments. Current versions are multi-pigment mixes. Still useful — warmer, more intense, and more transparent than Raw Sienna — but no longer the single-pigment gem it once was. If you can find old stock of genuine PO49, treat it as the collector's item it is.
• Yellow Ochre (PY43) — already in the foundation palette, but worth noting as a semi-opaque alternative for painters who want more covering power in their light earth passages.

14. RAW UMBER

Pigment: PBr7 | ASTM I | Semi-transparent | Granulating

The cool olive earth — used by Caravaggio for shadow, by Rembrandt for the darkness from which light emerges

Raw Umber was traditionally used in painting shadows, creating warmer shadows than those produced by gray or black. It is an essential aspect of chiaroscuro painting, and was used by artists such as Caravaggio and Rembrandt to make highlighted figures appear to emerge from a dark background. Hieronymus Bosch used raw umber in the shadows of his triptych The Garden of Earthly Delights.

Its distinctive quality — a cool, slightly olive, greenish-brown — is unlike any other earth pigment and cannot be convincingly mixed from the foundation palette. Burnt Umber is darker and cooler, but lacks the olive quality. Viridian mixed with earth tones approaches it but is never quite the same. Raw Umber has that particular note of damp, overcast, northern-light shadow that is its alone.

What it does: naturalistic shadow glazes in landscapes with cool or overcast light; the underpainting color for form-building in figures (applied as dilute wash, it establishes value structure without adding strong color bias); mixed with Prussian Blue for the deep greenish darks of wet foliage after rain; invaluable for the specific color of aged wood, damp stone, and autumn woodland floor.

Homer's palette contained Raw Umber in its darkest form — the Bowdoin College analysis identified it as "Raw Umber Very Dark," a deeply saturated version that served as one of his key dark anchors in outdoor subjects.

By brand: W&N Raw Umber (PBr7) — standard; reliable. DS Raw Umber (PBr7) — good olive bias; excellent granulation on rough paper. MG Raw Umber (PBr7) — smooth; well-suited to controlled cool shadow glazes. Holbein: Holbein Raw Umber formula has been modified to include both PBr7 and PY42 — always check the current label.

Alternatives:

• Vandyke Brown (NBr8) — deeper, richer, with a characteristic warm-dark-brown quality that Raw Umber lacks. Sargent and Homer both used it. Lightfastness varies significantly by brand and formulation — always verify before committing to it for finished work. W&N's version is considered acceptable; some other brands are less reliable.
• Transparent Brown Oxide (PR101) — DS's version offers a clean, dark, transparent brown with excellent lightfastness; warmer than Raw Umber but more controllable than Vandyke Brown.

15. INDIAN RED

Pigment: PR101 | ASTM I | Opaque

The cool opaque red earth — the color of ancient hematite, of British colonial maps, of Homer's ruddy skies

Indian Red is synthetic hematite: iron oxide of a specific cool, blue-leaning red that sits at the opposite end of the earth spectrum from Raw Sienna's warm gold. It is opaque, muted, and distinctive — the color of dried blood, aged brick, certain types of Mediterranean roofing tile, and the specific red-violet quality of certain granite formations. It cannot be mixed convincingly from other palette pigments because its combination of opacity, coolness, and muted chroma is inherent to the mineral itself.

Homer's favourite black was mixed with what was identified as Indian Red (venetian red) and iron blue; it makes fabulous sky grays when added to cobalt blue. This is one of the great discovered combinations in American watercolor — Homer's specific sky-gray, the color of overcast Maine coastal mornings, built from Indian Red and Prussian Blue in proportions that produced a chromatic dark far more alive than any pre-mixed gray.

Its opacity is what makes it specialist rather than foundation: in a fully transparent palette it is an outlier, requiring specific management to avoid the chalky flatness that opaque pigments produce in glazed passages. Used correctly — in dry-brush passages, in final detail work, in deliberate opaque highlights — it is irreplaceable.

By brand: W&N Indian Red (PR101) — the standard; excellent opacity. DS Indian Red (PR101) — consistent; slightly more blue bias. MG Indian Red (PR101) — smooth handling; good for controlled opaque passages. Holbein Light Red (PR101) — slightly warmer than Indian Red proper; offers the same family with a different temperature bias.

Alternatives:

• Light Red (PR101) — the same synthetic iron oxide family, but calcinated differently to produce a warmer, more orange-red earth. W&N Light Red is the classic; Holbein's version is also excellent. Where Indian Red cools passages, Light Red warms them — both are worth knowing.
• Venetian Red (PR101) — a mid-point between Indian Red and Light Red; the traditional name for the warm opaque red earth used in Venetian Renaissance painting. Sennelier's version is particularly fine.

GROUP TWO: THE BLUE SPECIALISTS

The foundation palette covers blues from warm (Ultramarine) through mid (Cobalt) to cool (Phthalo). What it lacks are the granulating atmospheric specialist at the pale end, the teal-bridge between blue and green, and the deep, dark, nearly-black blue of the shadow range.

16. CERULEAN BLUE

Pigment: PB35 | ASTM I | Semi-opaque | Strongly granulating

The atmospheric blue — Monet's Mediterranean sky, the pigment that physically mimics light scatter

PB35 was introduced as an artist pigment in the 1860s and is considered to be the 'original' Cerulean Blue — chemically known as cobalt stannate. Both PB35 and PB36 are semi-transparent to opaque and highly granulating in watercolour.

Cerulean's defining property — what sets it apart from every other blue in the watercolor range — is its semi-opacity combined with strong granulation. Where Cobalt Blue granulates gently, Cerulean granulates dramatically: in wet washes on rough paper, the pigment particles separate and settle into the paper's texture, producing a physically broken surface that reads as the visual scatter of light through atmosphere. This is not a simulated effect. It is a physical phenomenon that matches what the atmosphere actually does to light — scattering short wavelengths (blue) through moisture and particulate matter.

Monet and Sargent both used Cerulean for sky passages where this specific quality was required. In Sargent's Venetian watercolors, the pale morning skies have a slightly chalky, hazy quality that Cobalt Blue alone cannot produce — Cerulean's semi-opacity creates a veil of atmosphere above the water passages.

A market warning: Cerulean blue is one of the colors that is sometimes falsified because the genuine pigment is very expensive. Never buy falsified colors labeled Cerulean Blue that are made with Phthalo Blue — these lack the granulation and behave completely differently. Always verify PB35 or PB36 on the label.

By brand: W&N Cerulean Blue (PB35) — the classic; strong granulation, reliable. DS Cerulean Blue (PB35) — excellent granulation; slightly greener. MG Cerulean Blue (PB36) — note MG uses PB36, which is slightly greener and higher in tinting strength than PB35; equally useful but different in character. Holbein Cerulean Blue (PB35) — reduced granulation compared to Western brands; worth noting for painters who want the color without the strongest granulation effects.

Alternatives:

• Cobalt Blue (PB28) — already in the foundation palette. For painters who find Cerulean's opacity problematic, Cobalt Blue's gentler granulation handles much the same atmospheric sky territory with better transparency.
• Manganese Blue Hue — the genuine Manganese Blue (PB33) was discontinued decades ago due to toxicity concerns. Modern "Manganese Blue Hue" versions (typically PB15 with fillers) approximate the color but rarely match the original's extraordinary granulation. DS's version is among the better substitutes.

17. COBALT TEAL

Pigment: PG50 | ASTM I | Semi-opaque | Strongly granulating

The teal bridge — the color of shallow tropical water, coral-filtered Caribbean light, and Holocene sky at the horizon

Cobalt Teal (cobalt titanate green) occupies a gap between blue and green that no other single pigment fills with the same character. It is not quite a sky blue, not quite a sea green, but the specific turquoise-teal of shallow warm water over sand, or the precise color of sky at the horizon on a clear coastal day — the register that Turner painted in his Caribbean-influenced late works and that Homer captured in his Bahamas and Nassau series.

Cobalt titanate green PG50 is a very lightfast, semiopaque, moderately staining, mid-valued, moderately intense green-blue to moderately dark blue-green pigment. Like other cobalt pigments, all manufacturer tests show these pigments have excellent lightfastness. The Daniel Smith version has more granulation and is a bit weaker in mixes, while the Winsor and Newton version seems to have smaller pigment particles and rewets better in the palette.

Its granulation, like Cerulean's, is a feature rather than a flaw: in wet passages on rough paper, PG50 creates mottled, crystalline textures that read immediately as sun-dappled shallow water. For marine painters, coastal landscape artists, and anyone working in tropical or Mediterranean light, this is among the most directly useful pigments in the expanded palette.

By brand: DS Cobalt Teal Blue (PG50) — highly granulating; excellent for textural water effects. W&N Cobalt Turquoise Light (PG50) — finer particles; slightly more controllable; rewets better. MG does not currently offer a single-pigment PG50. Holbein Cobalt Turquoise (PB36) — note this is a different pigment family; the color is adjacent but the behavior different.

Alternatives:

• Cerulean Blue Chromium (PB36) — the greener cousin of PB35. Slightly more transparent, higher tinting strength, less dramatic granulation. PB36 is generally a little more green in hue and higher in tinting strength than PB35, and handles more like Cobalt Blue. A good bridge between Cerulean and Cobalt Teal territories.
• Phthalo Turquoise (PB16) — a DuPont pigment with exceptional transparency and clean turquoise character. Non-granulating but intensely luminous; useful for painters who want the color without the texture.

18. INDANTHRONE BLUE

Pigment: PB60 | ASTM I | Semi-transparent | Non-granulating

The deep dark blue — the one Turner demanded and couldn't have, the blue that makes Payne's Gray unnecessary

Turner said, "If I could find anything blacker than black, I'd use it." Indanthrone Blue PB60 is one of the least known or popular blues — it is the darkest valued pigment available next to black, PBk6. Turner was working two centuries before PB60 was synthesized. He would have used it without hesitation.

Indanthrone is a vat dye pigment developed in the early 20th century for textile use and eventually adapted to artists' colors. It is a deep, dark, slightly warm navy-blue — similar in hue to Indigo but with better lightfastness and single-pigment purity. At full concentration it is so deep it appears nearly black; diluted, it produces a range of smoky blue-grays with an atmospheric quality unlike any other blue in the palette.

Its value: it provides the deep blue-dark end of the range that Ultramarine can't reach (too warm, too granulating) and Phthalo can't cover (too cold, too staining, too green-biased). Mixed with Burnt Sienna it produces deep, velvety neutrals with a cooler, more sophisticated character than the Ultramarine-Sienna pair. Mixed with Quinacridone Rose it creates some of the deepest, most luminous purples achievable. Used thinly over established passages, it creates atmospheric distance effects of remarkable subtlety.

Black was once regarded as "The Prince of Colours" by the old masters. Then Monet and the Impressionists got rid of black and it became a forbidden colour. Indanthrone Blue is an excellent dark alternative — less opaque and more controllable than black, but capable of the same value depth.

By brand: DS Indanthrone Blue (PB60) — the most widely available and generally recommended version. W&N Indigo is multi-pigment (PB60 + PBk6); their single-pigment Indanthrone is available but less prominent. MG Indanthrone Blue (PB60) — exceptional depth and flow due to honey medium. Holbein Prussian Blue (PB27) offers adjacent territory with different character — see alternatives below.

Alternatives:

• Prussian Blue (PB27) — the historical predecessor. John Audubon used Prussian Blue in his Birds of America series to capture the brilliant feathers of magpies and blue jays, and Winslow Homer used it to depict the tropical ocean in his late-career watercolors. PB27 is darker and more green-biased than Indanthrone; rated ASTM II rather than I, but considered acceptable for professional work. Homer's entire blue range was essentially Prussian Blue — it earns a place on historical grounds alone.
• Phthalo Blue Red Shade (PB15:1) — warmer and slightly deeper than Green Shade; useful for those who want maximum depth from the phthalo family without adding a separate dark blue.

GROUP THREE: THE VIOLET AND SHADOW SPECIALISTS

The foundation palette mixes violets from Quinacridone Rose and Phthalo Blue. For most purposes this is sufficient. But two pigments offer violet territory that mixed colors cannot achieve — one for its pure depth, one for its granulating atmospheric character.

19. DIOXAZINE VIOLET

Pigment: PV23 | ASTM II | Transparent | Non-granulating

The deep shadow violet — synthetic since the 1950s, used as mixer more than solo voice, and more powerful than it looks

Carbazole Dioxazine Violet PV23 was created in the early 1950s but did not come as a watercolor until much later. It is one of the few blue-violet pigments, complementary to primary yellow, with completely different properties from Ultramarine Violet — which occupies adjacent territory but behaves entirely differently.

Dioxazine Violet PV23 is a semitransparent, heavily staining, very dark-valued, dull violet pigment. Its tinting strength is very high, on a par with Phthalo Green and Phthalo Blue. PV23 is a good choice for color point 6 on the color wheel, is useful for reducing the saturation of paints on both the warm and cool sides of the color wheel, and produces potent dark shades when mixed with Phthalo Green or Quinacridone Violet.

The disciplined use of PV23 is almost entirely as a mixer. Used straight from the tube it is too strident for most purposes — the purple equivalent of Phthalo Green, needing restraint. But added in small amounts to warm yellows it mutes them toward olive-gray; added to browns it deepens them toward purple-black; added to blues it creates the specific deep blue-violet of twilight and storm shadow. Its complementary relationship with primary yellow makes it the natural shadow darkener for any passage where blue-gray would be too cold and brown too warm.

ASTM rating note: PV23 is technically rated ASTM II, and some independent testing has found variability between brands. For a more durable strong, smooth, non-granulating purple, choose PV23 Dioxazine Violet from a reputable company such as Daniel Smith, Schmincke, W&N, or Roman Szmal — not bargain brands.

By brand: DS Carbazole Violet (PV23) — the DS name for this pigment; excellent depth. W&N Winsor Violet (Dioxazine) (PV23) — reliable; consistently good lightfastness reports. MG Dioxazine Purple (PV23) — honey medium gives it exceptional flow; excellent for dark shadow passages. Holbein Permanent Violet (PV23) — smooth and controlled.

Alternatives:

• Ultramarine Violet (PV15) — granulating, softer, warmer, and more atmospheric than PV23. Where Dioxazine is deep and staining, Ultramarine Violet is pale and powdery. Both are useful; they serve different purposes. PV15 is the atmospheric-distance violet; PV23 is the deep-shadow violet.
• Quinacridone Violet (PV19 beta) — the violet-leaning version of the same PV19 used in the foundation palette as Quinacridone Rose. Slightly lighter and less staining than PV23; useful for painters who find Dioxazine too aggressive.

20. ULTRAMARINE VIOLET

Pigment: PV15 | ASTM I | Transparent | Granulating

The atmospheric violet — the color of evening hills, distant mountains, and the particular blue-violet haze of recession

Where Dioxazine Violet is dark, intense, and staining, Ultramarine Violet is exactly the opposite: pale, powdery, atmospheric, and granulating. PV15 is a close chemical relative of PB29 (French Ultramarine), differing primarily in its higher sulfur content, which shifts the color from blue toward violet. It shares Ultramarine's granulating behavior — settling into paper texture in wet washes, creating softly mottled, crystalline passages — but at a lighter value and with a distinctly more violet hue.

This pigment is essentially the atmosphere-in-a-tube. Diluted to near-transparency and washed over established distant passages, it creates the specific blue-violet haze of mountains seen from distance, evening light on rooftops, and the recession of far-off treelines toward the horizon. Turner used the equivalent in his atmospheric distance passages; Palmer used it for the particular mystical violet light that pervades his Shoreham valley paintings.

By brand: DS Ultramarine Violet (PV15) — good granulation; slightly deep. W&N Ultramarine Violet (PV15) — paler and more delicate than DS; excellent for dilute atmospheric glazes. MG Ultramarine Violet (PV15) — beautiful wet handling; honey medium enhances granulation behavior. Holbein does not offer a single-pigment PV15; their violet options are PV23-based.

Alternatives:

• Cobalt Violet (PV14) — genuine cobalt phosphate; one of the most expensive pigments in the watercolor range and one of the most beautiful. Powdery, delicate, granulating with a character no other violet matches. Used by Monet and Signac in Post-Impressionist work for precisely this atmospheric quality. Worth seeking out if budget permits; DS and W&N both offer it.
• Mixed violet from Quinacridone Rose + Ultramarine — produces a reasonably convincing atmospheric violet without a dedicated pigment. Adequate for painters who work in subjects where violet distance is occasional rather than central.

GROUP FOUR: THE OPAQUE SPECIALISTS

The foundation palette is almost entirely transparent. This is its great strength — but it is also a limitation. Two opaque pigments earn specialist status because they do things transparency cannot: they sit on top of established layers, they mute without glazing, and they create specific light qualities that transparent pigments can only suggest.

21. NAPLES YELLOW

Pigment: PY41 (genuine) or mixed hue | ASTM I | Semi-opaque | Non-granulating

The oldest synthetic pigment — ancient Egypt used it, the Renaissance perfected it, and its particular warm opacity remains irreplaceable

Naples Yellow is ancient in a way that no other pigment in this expanded palette can claim. The first recorded use of lead antimonate (PY41) as a colorant dates to around 1450 BCE in Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt, where it was used in glass and ceramic glazes. It entered European painting in the 15th and 16th centuries, appearing in works by Raphael, Titian, and Veronese. Our Professional Watercolour range was formulated according to founding principles first established in 1835 when William Winsor and Henry Newton introduced the first moist watercolours. Naples Yellow was in those early W&N ranges and has never left.

Its defining quality — warm, semi-opaque, low-tinting-strength, matte — produces effects that transparent yellows cannot achieve. A dilute wash of Naples Yellow over established darks creates the impression of late afternoon warmth or dusty summer haze without the intrusive brightness of a transparent yellow. At greater concentration, it sits on the paper as a soft, warm light — the color of aged plaster in Siena, limestone in afternoon sun, pale sand at midday. Mixed with Cobalt Blue it produces the characteristic warm blue-gray of Mediterranean building shadows.

By brand: W&N Naples Yellow (PY41, lead-based) — the genuine article; the most historically accurate and in many opinions the most beautiful. W&N also makes a Naples Yellow Hue (PBr24 + PW6) which is lead-free and more broadly available; visually close but lacking the genuine version's subtle complexity. DS Naples Yellow — a hue version; serviceable. MG does not currently offer Naples Yellow. Holbein Naples Yellow — a hue version; smooth and consistent with the brand's Japanese-influenced formulation philosophy.

Alternatives:

• Buff Titanium (PW6:1) — Daniel Smith's Buff Titanium is not a yellow but a warm creamy off-white that covers adjacent territory at the warm-opaque-light end of the palette. Less yellow than Naples Yellow, more white — good for mist, fog, and tinted-paper effects. Discussed in detail in the specialist notes.
• Yellow Ochre (PY43) — already in the foundation palette. Semi-opaque and warm but more yellow-green than Naples Yellow. For painters who find Naples Yellow redundant, an additional Yellow Ochre loaded brush achieves some of the same covering quality.

22. BUFF TITANIUM

Pigment: PW6:1 | ASTM I | Semi-opaque | Non-granulating

A Daniel Smith exclusive — the color of unbleached linen, and the most unusual opaque in the watercolor range

Buff Titanium is not, strictly speaking, a classical pigment. It is a modern formulation — a warm, buff-tinted titanium dioxide that DS introduced as a watercolor specialty — and its historical equivalents were various lead-based whites mixed with earth tones. But it earns its specialist place because it solves a problem the classical palette confronts without fully addressing: how to add warm, matte, tinted light passages in a predominantly transparent painting without the coldness of Chinese White or the nakedness of bare paper.

Its color — warm ivory, the tone of old paper or unbleached cotton — is intrinsically evocative. Diluted over established darker passages, it creates the atmospheric effect of mist or fog. At greater concentration, it describes sun-bleached architectural surfaces, dry sandy grounds, and aged wood with a naturalness that transparent yellows always strain toward but never fully achieve. Mixed into any color, it produces tints that read as sun-faded rather than merely pale.

It also has a remarkable granulation-partnership behavior: mixed with Ultramarine Blue or Cobalt Blue and applied wet-into-wet, the two pigments separate and settle into softly mottled passages that read as cloud or sky texture unlike anything achievable from either pigment alone.

By brand: DS Buff Titanium (PW6:1) — essentially the only widely available artist-grade single-pigment watercolor version. W&N offers Titanium White (PW6) which is cooler and more opaque. MG's Titanium White (PW6) is also cooler. For the specific warm buff character, DS is the option.

Alternatives:

• Chinese White (PW4) — zinc oxide; cooler and more transparent than Buff Titanium. The traditional watercolor white, used for reserved highlights and mixed tints. Not a substitute for Buff Titanium's warmth but essential for cool light passages.
• Naples Yellow Hue — in its lighter applications, Naples Yellow in dilute wash covers some of the same territory as Buff Titanium, particularly for warm sunlit architectural passages.

GROUP FIVE: THE GREEN SPECIALISTS

The foundation palette's Viridian and Phthalo Green cover the transparent green range from cool mid-green to deep jewel-shadow. What is missing is the muted, opaque, desaturated green of natural weathered surfaces, and the warm, transparent single-pigment yellow-green of new growth.

23. OXIDE OF CHROMIUM

Pigment: PG17 | ASTM I | Opaque | Non-granulating

The muted green — lichen on stone, olive groves in August, the patina of aged copper roofs, every muted landscape green that mixing can't quite achieve

Oxide of Chromium is anhydrous chromium oxide — the chemical sibling of Viridian (which is the hydrated form, PG18). The relationship is instructive: Viridian is brilliant, transparent, and cool; Oxide of Chromium is muted, opaque, and warm-earthy. Both are chromium-based; the presence or absence of bound water molecules produces two entirely different optical characters.

No mixing combination fully replicates what PG17 does. Its particular muted, slightly dusty olive-green — the color of sage scrub, Mediterranean olive trees in drought, weathered military equipment, lichen on Portland stone — requires the opacity and desaturation that are inherent to the mineral itself. Attempts to reproduce it from transparent green and yellow inevitably produce either too much brightness or too much mud.

Used as a modifier — a small addition to any transparent green mix — Oxide of Chromium immediately naturalizes it, pulling it from the artificial toward the observed. For landscape painters working in Mediterranean, arid, or late-summer subjects, it is nearly irreplaceable.

By brand: W&N Oxide of Chromium (PG17) — the standard and in most opinions the finest version; excellent matte opacity. DS Chromium Oxide Green (PG17) — consistent. MG Chromium Oxide (PG17) — good handling; slightly warmer than W&N. Holbein Viridian is PG18, not PG17 — do not confuse them. Holbein lists a separate entry for chromium oxide but verify the code.

Alternatives:

• Hooker's Green (mixed) — historically important as Homer used it (made from Prussian Blue and Gamboge), but almost always a multi-pigment mix. Better to mix your own: Prussian Blue + Raw Sienna produces the same register with more control.
• Green Earth / Terre Verte (PG23) — an ancient natural mineral pigment of great delicacy; paleolithic cave painters used it. Its warm, slightly grayish-green is lighter and more transparent than Oxide of Chromium. DS, Holbein, and Sennelier all offer versions. A worthy alternative for painters who want muted green without full opacity.

24. PHTHALO GREEN BLUE SHADE

Pigment: PG7 | ASTM I | Transparent | Non-granulating

The deep jewel green — tropical foliage, oceanic depth, the shadow underside of every leaf in full summer

Phthalo Green (copper phthalocyanine) is the green equivalent of Phthalo Blue: extraordinary tinting strength, full transparency, no granulation, permanent, and requiring significant discipline. A brush insufficiently cleaned of Phthalo Green will contaminate every subsequent color toward an unwanted greenness. Used with intention, it is magnificent.

It was already mentioned as a foliage mixer in the foundation articles. It earns a dedicated specialist slot here because there are specific effects — the deep jewel greens of tropical vegetation, the dense shadow-undersides of mature deciduous trees, the near-black depth of deep water over kelp — where Viridian's more restrained character is genuinely insufficient and Phthalo Green at controlled concentration is the correct tool.

The poet Pablo Neruda, in his Odes to Common Things, writes of green as the color of a world renewing itself after rain. He was thinking of the specific vivid, saturated, after-rain green that is essentially Phthalo Green on wet paper — nothing else has quite that quality.

By brand: DS Phthalo Green Blue Shade (PG7) — the standard; intense and reliable. W&N Winsor Green Blue Shade (PG7) — marginally less tinting strength than DS; slightly more controllable. MG Phthalo Green (PG7) — honey medium gives it exceptional wet-field behavior; beautiful for wet-into-wet tropical passages. Holbein Phthalo Green (PG7) — smooth; reduced staining compared to Western brands; preferred for precision control work.

Alternatives:

• Viridian (PG18) — already in the foundation palette. For most foliage work, Viridian is the better choice: less aggressive, more classical, easier to moderate. Phthalo Green is the upgrade for painters who have genuinely exhausted what Viridian can do.
• Perylene Green (PBk31) — a dark, slightly warm, olive-green that reads as near-black in concentration. Holbein and DS both offer it. More unusual than Phthalo Green and less versatile, but unique in its specific dark, warm-green register.

A NOTE ON THE ALTERNATIVES PRINCIPLE

The bonus entries throughout this guide reflect a practical truth about palette building: there is rarely one correct answer, only better and worse fits for specific purposes, subjects, and working methods. The alternatives are not lesser choices — they are different solutions to the same problems, appropriate to different sensibilities.

The painter who works primarily in arid Mediterranean landscape may find Oxide of Chromium more central than Phthalo Green. The coastal marine painter may find Cobalt Teal more essential than Cerulean. The portrait painter may find Ultramarine Violet a daily tool while Dioxazine Violet stays in the drawer for months. The figure painter who works in the Sargent tradition will reach for Indian Red constantly; the plein-air landscape painter may rarely need it.

This is as it should be. The palette is not a formula. It is a vocabulary, and vocabularies grow in the directions their users need to speak.

THE FULL 24: SUMMARY TABLE

The Invitation

The 24 pigments assembled across these two articles represent something that has never in the history of the medium been available before: a palette that covers the full classical tradition — the entire sweep from Dürer's botanical precision through Turner's dissolved light through Homer's physical directness through Sargent's mercurial brilliance — with pigments that are simultaneously more permanent, safer to handle, and more transparent than almost anything the masters themselves had access to.

Turner's Rose Madder is fading. His Chrome Yellow has shifted. Homer's Vermilion was mercuric sulfide, a substance no professional studio should contain. Sargent's Alizarin Crimson — in thin washes across hundreds of paintings — has already changed. The watercolors we see in the museums are not quite what the painters made; they are the survivors, altered by time and the chemistry of impermanence.

The modern palette corrects this. PV19 does not fade. PO71 does not contain mercury. PR206, correctly sourced and applied, will still be the color it is today in two hundred years. The synthesis revolution of the 20th century gave painters something the entire preceding tradition lacked: the confidence that what goes on the paper today will remain, without alteration, for as long as the paper survives.

That is not a minor thing. It is, for anyone who takes the work seriously, the most important development in the medium's history.

Use the pigments well. Learn them one by one. Mix the pairs before you mix the triads. Understand the neutrals before you reach for the brights. And then paint, knowing that what you are making, if you choose carefully, will outlast you.

That is what the masters wanted. Now, for the first time, it is genuinely possible.

Next in this series: Paper, Brush, and Water — the other half of the equation, and why the same twelve pigments behave like entirely different materials depending on what you put them on.