Tuesday 17 January 2017

Jane Davenport Petite Palette Watercolours - a pigment analysis - PART TWO

This is the second part of my analysis - Part One covers the "BRIGHTS" set, this covers the "NEUTRALS" set. It also explains the lightfastness ratings and so on that I am using here.

NEUTRALS
This set...


"MANGO"
PY83 Diarylide Yellow HR - this pigment has several subforms which can be of varying degrees of opacity but a lightfastness of II to III (poor). It's a very warm yellow but can darken in bright light, especially when applied thickly. It's most commonly found in mid-range watercolours, in "Cadmium Yellow" hues, and in Old Holland paints as Scheveningen Yellow Deep.

"APPLE"
PR112 Naphthol Red AS-D - this is found in various hues of Cadmium Red used in student paints, and in various Naphthol Red paints. It is fairly opaque and a very intense, very warm red with a strong yellow tinge. Whilst it has a lightfastness of "I" (Excellent), it can dull with age, which is why, presumably, it doesn't appear in that many professional watercolours.
PR170 Naphthol  Red AS - this is very similarly named to the above and not as lightfast - a rating of II or III (moderate to poor), with it darkening on exposure to light, longer term. There are a few subforms, ranging from yellow-ish reds to blue-ish reds and looking at the warm tone of "APPLE", I would suspect this is one of the former. It is moderately opaque and found in Cadmium Red hues in student watercolours and in Naphthol Red acrylic paints. It's not that commonly found in watercolours of the professional manner.

"BLUEBERRY"
PB29 Ultramarine - ah, old faithful. You know where you are with this lightfast ("I", excellent), granulating, opaque blue pigment, found in everything from student to professional paints. This paint is quite simply the same as Ultramarine Blue in any other line really - but from the limited use I've seen of "BLUEBERRY", it may have extenders as it looks a bit impure - they are added to bulk it out and make it go further - very common practice in student watercolours.

"DOVE"
This is a convenience mix of a white (the same white as in "UNICORN", below), a black (the same black as in "RAVEN", below) and a blue (the same blue as in "BLUEBERRY", above) - so a redundant convenience mix. If you're new to watercolour you should really avoid such mixes and learn to mix for yourself until you really feel confident, but this paint is probably really intended for art journallers and so on who don't want to mix paints, they want to slap them on the page directly, and for that, this is probably going to give a beautiful soft grey with an interesting granulation.
PW6 Titanium White - this is a strongly opaque, lightfast (Rated "I", Excellent) and pure white, which will cover most surfaces well. You will find a Titanium White in pretty much every professional paint line on the market, it's such a standard colour, especially in oils and acrylics - obviously in watercolour we don't tend to use white paint.
PBk9 Bone Black - this is one of several blacks found in all professional paint lines (along with Lamp Black and Mars Black), each of which is a little bit different. Bone Black is opaque and has a lightfastness of "I" (Excellent) and has a useful brown undertone. The pigment particles are quite heavy and it will granulate which can make it useful in mixtures. 
PB29 Ultramarine - ah, old faithful. You know where you are with this lightfast ("I", excellent), granulating, opaque blue pigment, found in everything from student to professional paints. This paint is quite simply the same as Ultramarine Blue in any other line really - but from the limited use I've seen of "BLUEBERRY", it may have extenders as it looks a bit impure - they are added to bulk it out and make it go further - very common practice in student watercolours.

"UNICORN"
PW6 Titanium White - this is a strongly opaque, lightfast (Rated "I", Excellent) and pure white, which will cover most surfaces well. You will find a Titanium White in pretty much every professional paint line on the market, it's such a standard colour, especially in oils and acrylics - obviously in watercolour we don't tend to use white paint.

"RAVEN"
PBk9 Bone Black - this is one of several blacks found in all professional paint lines (along with Lamp Black and Mars Black), each of which is a little bit different. Bone Black is opaque and has a lightfastness of "I" (Excellent) and has a useful brown undertone. The pigment particles are quite heavy and it will granulate which can make it useful in mixtures.

"VITAMIN C"
PO13 Benzidine Orange - ok this one is a slightly more unusual pigment used mostly in gouaches, not watercolours etc. The lightfastness is "II" (ok to moderate), but more like "III" if used very thinly, which is common in watercolour painting, hence why it is not found in professional watercolour paints. The opacity is pretty low. It is a bright and vivid reddish orange. Mostly used to tint plastics and rubbers rather than in art media. Sometimes used as a fabric dye or for printing on fabrics, more exactly.

"SAND"
This is duel pigment colour that is kind of a "poor man's Naples Yellow" in terms of how it looks.
PY6 Hansa Yellow 3G - this is a really, really cheap yellow dye that is a bright and clean yellow. It has a lightfastness of "III" (poor) and is not very opaque. Found in some gouaches as Permanent Yellow Deep but rarely used as the opacity is so low and the lightfastness not good, which means it's not suitable for gouache (for the former reason) and watercolour for the latter reason.
PY42 Yellow Iron Oxide - this is an old friend to all painters and colourists of any kind - this is Yellow Ochre and you will have seen it many times. It is an opaque and lightfast (rating "I", Excellent) pigment that gives good coverage and is cheap to produce so is not usually "cut" with too much of an extender.

"BUFF"
PY42 Yellow Iron Oxide - this is an old friend to all painters and colourists of any kind - this is Yellow Ochre and you will have seen it many times. It is an opaque and lightfast (rating "I", Excellent) pigment that gives good coverage and is cheap to produce so is not usually "cut" with too much of an extender.
PO13 Benzidine Orange - ok this one is a slightly more unusual pigment used mostly in gouaches, not watercolours etc. The lightfastness is "II" (ok to moderate), but more like "III" if used very thinly, which is common in watercolour painting, hence why it is not found in professional watercolour paints. The opacity is pretty low. It is a bright and vivid reddish orange. Mostly used to tint plastics and rubbers rather than in art media. Sometimes used as a fabric dye or for printing on fabrics, more exactly.
PW6 Titanium White - this is a strongly opaque, lightfast (Rated "I", Excellent) and pure white, which will cover most surfaces well. You will find a Titanium White in pretty much every professional paint line on the market, it's such a standard colour, especially in oils and acrylics - obviously in watercolour we don't tend to use white paint.

"SPICE"
PY42 Yellow Iron Oxide - this is an old friend to all painters and colourists of any kind - this is Yellow Ochre and you will have seen it many times. It is an opaque and lightfast (rating "I", Excellent) pigment that gives good coverage and is cheap to produce so is not usually "cut" with too much of an extender.
PB27 Prussian Blue - this is often thought to be fugitive but technically isn't - it will go brown in bright light but restores in the dark. It is a cool blue with a green undertone and granulates beautifully if a course grind. Very opaque. Lightfastness is usually rated I-III but note it does restore in the dark! Very commonly used in paints with names like Prussian Blue or mixed with alumina in Antwerp Blue.
PR101 Synthetic Red Iron Oxide - this is a very common pigment found in all manner of watercolour paints from cheap to professional and you will know it from paints like English Red, Indian Red, Venetian Red, Caput Mortuum, Burnt Sienna and so on (which differ in purity and grain size). It is fairly opaque and not fugitive at all - lightfastness rating is "I". Very common and low cost iron oxide pigment, nothing wrong with this being here.

"KISS KISS"
PR101 Synthetic Red Iron Oxide - this is a very common pigment found in all manner of watercolour paints from cheap to professional and you will know it from paints like English Red, Indian Red, Venetian Red, Caput Mortuum, Burnt Sienna and so on (which differ in purity and grain size). It is fairly opaque and not fugitive at all - lightfastness rating is "I". Very common and low cost iron oxide pigment, nothing wrong with this being here. This particular paint is probably most like Indian Red or Venetian Red from the small amounts of use I have seen thus far.

"COCOA"
PBk9 Bone Black - this is one of several blacks found in all professional paint lines (along with Lamp Black and Mars Black), each of which is a little bit different. Bone Black is opaque and has a lightfastness of "I" (Excellent) and has a useful brown undertone. The pigment particles are quite heavy and it will granulate which can make it useful in mixtures.
PR101 Synthetic Red Iron Oxide - this is a very common pigment found in all manner of watercolour paints from cheap to professional and you will know it from paints like English Red, Indian Red, Venetian Red, Caput Mortuum, Burnt Sienna and so on (which differ in purity and grain size). It is fairly opaque and not fugitive at all - lightfastness rating is "I". Very common and low cost iron oxide pigment, nothing wrong with this being here.
PY14 Diarylide Yellow AAOT - this is a quite greenish yellow with a moderate to low lightfastness (II - III) and low opacity, most commonly used in inks rather than in paints. Holbein is  the only major paint line I can see that uses it, in their Transparent Yellow oil paint - not in watercolour. I would expect dyes similar to this are the ones used in Copic and other alcohol markers.

3 comments:

  1. There are a lot more mixes in the Neutral set, though, that is to be expected. Just looking at the colors. Very helpful!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I went to Michaels and bought a Jane Davenport Neutrals (they were out or the Brights) set of watercolor paints for you. Just let me know where to sent them!
    Paula in Florida, USA

    ReplyDelete
  3. Can you please try to find the pigment information on the Jane Davenport Glitz Sea palette? I like to label all of my pigment and lightfast information and this was extremely helpful for my Brights and my Neutrals palettes. Would love to have the information for the 3rd palette in the collection!!!!!

    ReplyDelete

Tell me what you think!