Blues – Serene to Dramatic Hand Poured Watercolor Half Pan Set has 4 unique* DANIEL SMITH colors plus, 2 true blues for seas and skies. These colors help create a huge, expressive range of blues from calm water and boundless skies, to active and stormy ones!
“A color associated with tranquility and eternity, mood, and wellbeing. It’s all around us. While being one of the three primary colors, blue comes in a multitude of shades, each one with it’s own unique personality and characteristics.
It can be mixed to create nearly any color your mind can dream up. At one point in Europe’s history, only the very rich were able to enjoy the luxury of blue paint. In my estimation, you can never have too many different blues! The word is ripe with possibilities and conjures up a multitude of images.” – Julie Ann Karlsson
Hand Poured Watercolor Half Pan Set of 6 colors with BONUS travel case and 9 empty pans. Total quantity: 16 pcs.
The set includes these DANIEL SMITH Watercolors in Half Pans: ( * indicates color unique to DANIEL SMITH.)
Mixing grid painted from the Blues: Serene to Dramatic Hand Poured Watercolor Half Pan Set
Sleeping Beauty Turquoise Genuine*: A unique and vibrant blue, the gemstone comes from Sleeping Beauty Mountain in Arizona where we found a deposit that lives up to our high expectations. It is lightfast and permanent, with none of the transient color fade that plagues most turquoise. Turquoise has a unique porous nature that produces granular washes. Juicy washes flow from the brush and drybrush work has the intense texture found only in a mineral pigment. Traditional mineral pigments often have a muted feel and our unique Turquoise Genuine has a true brilliance. We use the highest grade mineral that is found closest to the earth’s surface, where environmental factors have enhanced the structure to gemstone quality and deepened the tonal richness to a remarkable blue. Historic references of Turquoise date back as far as Egypt’s first dynasty. Turquoise from the American Southwest has been unearthed in Aztec ruins and Persian turquoise was used as trading currency.
Cerulean Blue: A superb mixing color. Think of Cerulean Blue as a cleaner, brighter and slightly warmer alternative to the Cerulean Blue Chromium we’ve always sold. A bit less green, it’s a truer blue that will be a versatile component of any palette.
Lunar Blue*: The fabric of the night sky glides off the brush in this heavenly shade. Granulating lunar black floats above a phthalo undertone, perfect for capturing a moonlit sky. Inky as midnight, or diffused as the moon on water, semi-transparent Lunar Blue lifts beautifully, leaving behind a mere shadow of itself. This moody watercolor is sure to delight.
Indigo: Our DANIEL SMITH Indigo formula mixes Indanthrone Blue with Lamp Black for an extremely lightfast, intense dark that closely matches true Indigo. Transparent, yet high in tinting strength, this Indigo leaves a gentle faded blue denim stain when blotted from a damp state paint. Blueberries, blackberries and plums are a few subjects to play with using this technique.
Use Indigo wherever dusty purples are desired. Indigo evokes a feeling of atmospheric depth used for expressive, moody skies. Try flowing short strokes of Indigo into water, add touches of Sepia and Quinacridone Burnt Orange to create branches and birch trees. Historically Indigo, used since the early Egyption times, has been a very important blue dye in fabrics as well as art materials, though not lightfast like DANIEL SMITH’s Indigo Watercolor. Natural Indigo is a deep blue colorant named anil.
It is obtained from the sprigs of the indigofera plant. In the late 1600’s, the major source of indigo was the French West Indies, where large crops of indigofera was grown and harvested just before the plant bloomed. Once picked, the plant was processed in vats where it was water filtered, then dried into cakes for export.
Sodalite Genuine*: Sodalite, with a distinctive deep blue color is one of the components of Lapis Lazuli and very rare. DANIEL SMITH Sodalite is the finest quality and deepest blue that comes from Greenland and the flanks of Italy’s Mt. Vesuvius. In watercolor, the inky color of this semi precious stone granulates as it dries, layering a blue-black textural surface on a smooth blue-gray undertone. Low staining, lightfast and semi-transparent, Sodalite creates a three-dimensional quality as it dries.
Payne’s Blue Gray*: DANIEL SMITH Payne’s Blue Gray is similar to our bluer Indigo, but like our original Payne’s Gray, it is semi-transparent rather than transparent. Inky blue and non-granulating Payne’s Blue Gray is perfect for painting dark, stormy skies, nightscapes, and for quickly darkening most other colors.
