Improve Your Paintings: Luminous Watercolor Mixing with Kateri Ewing
SUPPLIES & RESOURCES
PAINTS
See Kateri's notes on page 3 for
more information on lightfastness,
pigments and supply selection.
• Artist-quality watercolor paints
in warm and cool versions of
yellow, red and blue
• Kateri used the following
paints (Daniel Smith brand):
• Hansa Yellow Light (PY3)
• New Gamboge (PY153)*
• Quinacridone Rose (PV19)
• Transparent Pyrrole
Orange (PO71)
• Phthalo Blue GS (PB15)
• French Ultramarine (PB29)
Note: Kateri chose these paints
because they are single-pig-
ment, transparent and have the
highest lightfastness ratings.
EXAMPLES OF WARM & COOL
PRIMARIES
Yellows
• Cool
• Daniel Smith Azo Yellow
• Schmincke Lemon
Yellow
• Winsor & Newton Winsor
Lemon
• Warm
• Daniel Smith Indian
Yellow
• Schmincke Translucent
Yellow
• Winsor & Newton
Transparent Yellow
• Holbein Indian Yellow
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Reds
• Warm
• Daniel Smith Scarlet Pyrrol
• Winsor & Newton Scarlet
Lake
• Schmincke Vermillion
• Cool
• Daniel Smith Permanent
Alizarin Crimson
• Winsor & Newton
Permanent Rose
• Schmincke Permanent
Carmine
Blues
• Warm
• Daniel Smith Ultramarine
Blue
• Winsor & Newton French
Ultramarine
• Schmincke Ultramarine
Finest
• Cool
• Daniel Smith Prussian Blue
• Winsor & Newton Winsor
Blue Green Shade
• Sennelier Phthalo Blue GS
Note: In regards to brush and
paper selection, Kateri believes
in quality over quantity. Buy the
bare minimum but best materials
you can afford. If you only use
two brushes, you can afford fine
brushes that will respond beauti-
fully to your touch.
*Since the creation of this class, Daniel Smith
has changed the formula of New Gamboge.
It is no longer a single pigment paint. You
can still use it, as it is still transparent, but a
better choice might be Hansa Yellow Deep
PY65, or Transparent ISO Yellow PY139.
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 Improve Your Paintings: Luminous Watercolor Mixing with Kateri Ewing

SUPPLIES & RESOURCES

WATERCOLOR BRUSHES pressed paper to the board before beginning
your painting.
• Pointed round, sizes 2 and 8
• Two water jars
• Kateri recommends good quality Kolinsky
• Soft cloth, such as a cotton diaper, tea towel or
sable brushes if you can afford them. Winsor
paper towels for wiping brushes
& Newton Series 7, Escoda Kolinsky Sable or
• Facial tissues
Isabey Kolinsky Sable are three of the best.
• A ceramic white dinner plate or other ceramic or
• If these are not in your budget, Kateri
enameled flat surface to use as a palette.
recommends the Neptune Series by Princeton.
• Kateri finds ceramic white dinner plates to be
These brushes use synthetic squirrel hair, but
the best surface for mixing colors and stocks
have excellent spring, absorbency and other
up on them at her local dollar store.
important qualities of a natural sable brush.
• See Lesson 2 for a reminder on how Kateri
• Another excellent and affordable brush
recommends setting up your palette (clockwise
(Kateri uses these often) are Kolibri Squi-Line
from top: cool yellow, warm yellow, warm red,
pointed rounds in size 2 and size 8. These are
cool red, warm blue, cool blue)
handmade brushes from Germany and are
• No. 2 scrubber brush, sometimes called a "fitch"
only available through naturalpigments.com,
or "fritch." (optional)
but they are excellent and very affordable.
• This brush is used to fix mistakes, as
• Inexpensive, ½" flat synthetic brush for mixing colors
demonstrated in class.
• Brush care: Be sure to rinse and dry your brushes
• Magic Watercolor Sponge Eraser (optional)
instead of letting them soak in water, which will
ruin the bristles
RESOURCES
PAPER • Kateri's website: kateriewing.com
• Kateri's Facebook page:
• For color-chart work, consider a good-quality
facebook.com/KateriEwingWatercolors
mixed-media bound sketchbook such as:
• Gallery representation: meibohmfinearts.com
• Strathmore Visual Journal, Mixed Media,
• Kateri's Tumblr page: kateriewing.tumblr.com
size 9" x 12"
• Kateri's Pinterest board: pinterest.com/kateriewing
• Moleskine Folio Watercolor Notebook,
• Resource for watercolor painting:
8¼" x 11¾"
handprint.com/HP/WCL/water.html
• Dedicate a bound book to your color wheels
• Kateri’s favorite books about learning to draw:
and charts for easy reference (for this class,
Kateri uses the Moleskine notebook).
• For the finished painting project, consider a hot- • Lessons in Classical Drawing: Essential
pressed 100% cotton watercolor paper, 140 lbs., Techniques From Inside the Atelier by Juliette
either a single sheet or a block, 9" x 12". Aristides (Watson-Guptill, 2011)
• Kateri uses Fabriano Artistico hot-pressed 140 lb. • Sketchbook for the Artist by Sarah Simblett
paper, traditional white, in block form, 9" x 12". (DK Publishing, 2009)

OTHER SUPPLIES CREDITS

• 2H drawing pencil
• Kneaded "putty" eraser
• Blue painter's tape and a stretching board larger
than your paper if you are using a single sheet of
watercolor paper instead of a block.
• You will need to tape the 9" x 12" piece of hot
• Photographs of artwork by Mark Strong are
courtesy of Meibohm Fine Arts, Inc., East Aurora,
NY, www.meibohmfinearts.com
• All artwork by Kateri Ewing is copyrighted by the
artist

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 Improve Your Paintings: Luminous Watercolor Mixing with Kateri Ewing
LIGHTFASTNESS
When you put your heart and soul into your work,
you want every painting you make to stand the test
of time. If you choose paints that are not lightfast,
the colors might not last. When a paint is not lightfast
it means that it will change color or even disappear
over time. Non-lightfast paints are called fugitive
paints. All paints are rated for lightfastness from I to
IV. Kateri only chooses paints with the highest light-
fast rating of I, and every so often, II.
There are reasons to use some fugitive paints. The
colors are often quite brilliant and are hard to repli-
cate. An example would be Opera Rose. It is okay to
use fugitive paints if you are creating your work for
camera-ready reproduction, or let’s say you are a
sketchbook artist and all of your paintings are within
the pages of a closed book. However, for art that is
meant to be framed, always choose lightfast paints.
Pigment Numbers
Every paint you purchase is created with a pigment.
A pigment is a powdered substance that gives color
to the paint. It is mixed with a binder and in water-
color this binder is usually gum arabic, glycerin and
sometimes honey. The pigments are all given a num-
ber to identify them.
For instance, French ultramarine is PB29. P stands
for “Pigment”, B stands for “Blue” and 29 is the
specific number for this pigment. French ultrama-
rine will always be PB29 in any brand of watercolor.
Sometimes paint manufactures give certain colors
unique names. One might be called Sky Blue, but if
the pigment number is PB29, it is French ultrama-
rine. Names can change, pigment numbers do not
change. This is why you should always buy paints by
referencing the pigment numbers.
Pigment numbers can be found on the tube, and
also on the manufacturer’s color chart. This also tells
us whether or not the paint is made from a single
pigment, or from several pigments. When paints are
made from several pigments they are called com-
pound pigments, or convenience colors, because
they are seen as convenient to use right out the tube
instead of having to mix them ourselves.
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WATERCOLOR PAINT INFORMATION
For instance, consider a tube of olive green made by
the manufacturer M. Graham. The tube says the pig-
ments are PY 129, PG 7,and PY 110. This means three
pigments are used to create this specific green paint.
For convenience, you might use it to quickly paint
some trees, but you wouldn’t want to use it to mix
with other colors as part of your mixing palette. To
compare, a Winsor & Newton olive green paint says
it is made from PY65, PB15:6 and PR101, which
makes the two tubes totally different! The colors of
the M. Graham and Winsor & Newton paints couldn’t
be more different.
Often, when we mix compound paints with other
paints, we will automatically create mud. For learn-
ing how to mix colors I suggest you stick with single
pigment paints. Once you have a good foundation
in mixing, it can be fun to select some convenience
colors to add to your basic split primary palette.
Transparency
All paints are assigned a level of transparency. In
watercolor this is very important, especially when
choosing colors for a primary mixing palette. The
levels are:
• Transparent
• Semi-transparent
• Semi-opaque
• Opaque
Transparency means that when the paint is mixed
with water it becomes see-through, and in watercol-
or this means that that luminous white of the pa-
per can pass through because the pigment doesn’t
completely cover it up. Semi-transparent paints also
allow this to happen. More opaque paints will cov-
er that white, and will cover any other color that is
already applied on that paper. Opaque paints also do
not mix as well as transparent paints. For paints that
are meant to be part of a split-primary mixing palette
it is best to avoid semi-opaque or opaque pigments.
Opaque paints do have a place on the palette, and
in time you should experiment with them. They can
give wonderful details to a painting. Think of a scene
where you want to paint some bright yellow lines on
a road. If you chose cadmium yellow, a very opaque
paint, the result would be brilliant yellow that sits on
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 Improve Your Paintings: Luminous Watercolor Mixing with Kateri Ewing
top of whatever paint was already present, whereas
a more transparent yellow would not be as effective.
But for our purposes in this class, learning mix lumi-
nous colors from a split-primary limited palette, it is
important to avoid opaque paints.
Staining vs. Granulating Pigments
Certain pigments behave differently when mixed
with water and applied to different papers.
Non-granulating pigments are those that dissolve
completely in the water and react smoothly and
evenly with water. They tend to cover the paper
equally, with little or no variation in color and texture.
When a pigment is granulating it means that some of
the pigment particles do not completely dissolve in
the water so they separate from the binder and settle
into the texture of the paper. As these pigments dry
they can create a mottled texture.
Granulating paints can create magical effects in our
paintings. They tend to separate when mixed with
other colors and do such beautiful things. In our split
primary palette, French ultramarine blue is a granu-
lating pigment. You will notice that when you make
mixes with this pigment it will give a beautiful texture.
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WATERCOLOR PAINT INFORMATION
Some other wonderful granulating pigments are ceru-
lean blue, cobalt blue, viridian, and the earth pigments
such as burnt sienna and raw umber. You can always
look at the manufacturer’s color chart to find out
whether or not your paint is a granulating pigment.
If you do not wish to have this textured or mottled
effect in your painting, you can choose to stay away
from them. A good substitute for French Ultramarine
in a split primary palette might be Indanthrone blue
or PB60. I happen to love granulating pigments and
have quite a few in my extended palette. I would be
happy to share those with you when you are ready
to expand your split-primary palette. The textures
and effects can be so unexpected and beautiful. It is
one of the joys of using watercolor paints.
A staining pigment means exactly what it says—the
pigment stains the paper. It can be difficult to lift or
remove. Many staining pigments are quite brilliant
and glowing and give a very smooth finish once
applied to the paper. You can test your paints to see
if they are staining by applying them, letting them dry,
and then trying to remove them with a wet, synthetic
brush used with a gentle scrubbing motion.
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 Improve Your Paintings: Luminous Watercolor Mixing with Kateri Ewing

COLOR WHEEL
Use these as references to create your own color wheel on watercolor paper.

Yellows
CY WY

Green Orange
CB

WR
Blues Reds
WB

CR

Violet

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 Improve Your Paintings: Luminous Watercolor Mixing with Kateri Ewing

COLOR CHART
Use this reference to set up your own color chart on a 9" x 12" sketchbook page.

(PY3) (PY153) (PO71) (PV19) (PB29) (PB15)

Cool Yellow

Hansa Yellow Light (PY3)

Warm Yellow

New Gamboge (PY153)

(Hansa Yellow Deep PY65, or Transparent ISO Yellow PY139
can also be used as noted on page 1.)

Warm Red

Transparent Pyrrole Orange (PO71)

Cool Red

Quinacridone Rose (PV19)

Warm Blue

French Ultramarine (PB29)

Cool Blue

Phthalo Blue GS (PB15)

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 Improve Your Paintings: Luminous Watercolor Mixing with Kateri Ewing

STAINING & GRANULATING

Below are references that show the difference between staining and granulating, as seen in Lesson 1.

STAINING

GRANULATING

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