Getting to Know You: Blue Paint

Chronicling all of my paints compared to each other. This is how I become familiar with my paint personalities and know how they will work in my regular painting practice. You can find these cool boards to do your own here.

Testing squares are:

1. Fully Opaque – out of the tube

2. Slightly transparent – I try to just scrub the dry paint evenly. If the paint is too dry to do this I MAY add a tiny bit of oil to encourage transparency.

3. very transparent – I try to just scrub the dry paint evenly. If the paint is too dry to do this I MAY add a tiny bit of oil to encourage transparency.

4. Value 2 mixed with white – The White used is Natural Pigments Lead White #1.

5. Value 5 mixed with white – The White used is Natural Pigments Lead White #1.

Brand	Consistency Out of the Tube	Easy to Glaze/Spread	Temperature	Drying Time
Winsor Newton Cobalt Turquoise Light	Buttery smooth, opaque	Not really	Greenish	Medium
Vasari Cobalt Bright Turquoise	Buttery Smooth, semi transparent	Yes, no oil needed	Greenish	Medium
Winsor Newton Cerulean	yuck – super dry and pasty	def needed oil, still yuck	Warmer/purpleish	?
RGH Cerulean	Pasty-ish but workkable	Fabulous chroma and spreading with a tiny bit of oil	Greenish	?
Gamblin Pthalo Blue	Soft/stiff	Added a bit of oil and then it was nice to glaze with	neutral blue?	slow
Harding Prussian Blue (INCREDIBLY STRONG TINTING)	Smooth	tiny bit of oil needed but great coverage	Greenish	FAST
Gamblin Cobalt Blue	Stiff/Dry/Opaque	good coverage with a tiny bit of oil added	Purplish	Medium
Rublev/Natural Pigments Ultramarine Blue	Smooth, Sticky	Good coverage with a tiny bit of oil added	purplish	Slow

My standard palette includes the Rublev Ultramarine Blue and Vasari Cobalt Bright Turquoise. The Prussian blue is a super fast drying paint so sometimes I’ll use that for dark blues in a first pass.