Mixing neutrals with Ultramarines of different brands
I have been using Winsor & Newton's pigments since I started with watercolours a couple of years ago. I have since learned to mix my neutrals with ultramarine and burnt sienna. The non-french W&N version has a green shade and when the tube was running out I thought I should try a French and ordered a tube of Daniel Smith's, since I was reading a lot of famous painters favored that brand. That was a big mistake, which took me some time to understand. My neutrals looked awful on the paper. The pigments seemed to separate in the mix and the granulation was horrendous. How did that happen?
In some posts on this forum I read that Daniel Smith was known to use poorly ground pigment, also with less pigment concentration. This raised my curiosity and after purchasing a tube of W&N's french stuff, I made a small comparison of mixtures with W&N Burnt Sienna and four different ultramarines (I also had an old tube of Maimeriblu Ultramarine Deep in a drawer). I mixed four puddles on a white china plate and let them sit still until dry. Then I documented the result with the enclosed photo. I also made swatches on paper, with similar results, but I think the puddle test is more telling of what is going on. The DS French Utramarine separates almost totally from its companion Burnt Sienna, while the other three more of less stay together. The initial four puddles were all of equal tone and density (at least to my untrained eye), and I mixed them thoroughly before leaving them to settle.
Maybe someone has similar experiences? Is this only a result of DS french ultramarine having bigger pigment particles, or are there other factors at play here?
Hi everyone. This is my first post here .
The separation has to do with the size of the particles of the pigment that the Ultramarine is made off. Keep in mind that the W&N Burnt Sienna is made of PR101 pigment and not with PBr7. PR101 is transparent which means that the particles of this pigment are smaller. So if the D.S Ultramarine pigment has larger particles processed in purpose this way, in order to be more granulating then there is no way to mix decently with the super fine transparent PR101.
If you want to avoid completely granulation perhaps it would be better to start using Phthalo Blue Red Shade that is made of PB15:1. It is the equivalent of Ultramarine, same hue and mixing properties, in a more transparent and no granulating version that makes it very fine, very transparent and more staining of course. It gives great neutrals when it is mixed with PR 101 and there is not way to see any separation with this combination.