PBr25 Watercolor Pigment Spotlight! Brands, Mixtures, Compare Similar Roman Szmal PBr23, PBr7, PR101

[@KimberlyCrick]

I was just thinking about how it's a pity so many big brands like Sennelier, Schmincke, Roman Szmal, Winsor and Newton, Qor, Old Holland, White Nights, Rembrandt etc. still haven't decided to carry PBr25. It's such a lovely color it's a shame so many big brands ignore it. Is this pigment on your palette or do you have another favorite smooth transparent brown?

[@petiteflower5259]

I have the Mission Gold PBr25 (red brown) and it is really pretty on its own but I couldn't make it play nice in mixes. Of course that may just be my lack of experience!

[@KimberlyCrick]

@@petiteflower5259 I'd love to hear more about the problem, was it just not resulting in the color mixtures you were aiming for? Or was it bad like undesired texture/re-wetting problems/speckling/flow issues etc? I had a couple problems with M.Gold pertaining flow and sometimes white speckles (bubbles, lack of absorption into paper), so I switched to Holbein and Rosa Gallery. I know making neutral mixtures with browns can sometimes look like "mud" when you're not intending it to go that way. I agree though, PBr25 definitely is pretty on its own - so more times than not I would use it specifically if wanting that red-brown color.

[@petiteflower5259]

I think whenever I tried to mix with it, it had too much red. Don't recall any issues with the paint itself, MGold have always been really easy to rewet. But it's been a while and I've done a lot of painting since then, so I think I'll play around with it a bit and see how I feel.

[@ohbli_oh]

I was just painting with maimeriblu dragons blood earlier in a new palette and I really enjoyed it. The colour is a little like pr101 but really more vibrant/les dense and opaque and mixed with the smallest amount of orange-y yellow it looked like an actual bright red. It’s hard to get very dark mixes with it though for some reason. That was my only problem. It didn’t neutralise the blues I used or do much to green mixes. But it’s a good colour when you don’t want granulation. I’m so excited I have your swatch stamps on the way to the uk. I had to get an American middle man postage service but yay ☺️

[@KimberlyCrick]

@@ohbli_oh Wow, thank you for going through the extra effort, I hope you enjoy the stamps! I think Maimeri has a slightly more pale version, possibly a higher binder ratio than some brands, but really PBr25 has fairly low tinting strength. It takes a little more than you'd expect to make an impact in mixtures - then there's that little bit of shift after drying to consider too. I definitely had to use 60-70% brown to blue in my mixing of paynes gray colors maybe a bit more brown for near-blacks with very little water. With so few transparent brown single pigments, I find it unique compared to the sea of burnt siennas and red iron oxides though. Happy painting :)

[@Lauraisabelgonzalezart]

I have the Renesans Polska brand PB25 known as Polish Brown! How fun... off to blend my heart away!!!!

[@perfume-tengoku2455]

kimberly i love your videos, they're always a pleasure to watch and I reallllllly like that you talk in a calm and composed way instead of a overexcited high-pitched one like so many "artsy" channels do, it's very relaxing

[@koskey06]

Wow....I would have never thought of using pbr25 and pb15 to make a smooth black. I dont think I own a pr25... but, will be looking to get one to try. I think Roman Szmal is where in looking to for future purchases. I just wish they was more easy to find here in the USA. there price and range just looks awesome. My "main core colors" are not what most would think of....yes there are since common colors like cobalt blue,etc... it most are just colors that work for me/mixes that I have found and love.

[@joshuatrevino4743]

Love these pigment spotlights.. I learn so much in a short time. I had no idea that PBr25 could make such pretty mixtures! Also, great explanation about transparency / opacity. It's easy to get confused & think that if a color gets darker with layers, it's opaque. Thanks so much!

[@Christine_R]

I used Burnt Umber, Burnt Sienna and English Red to mix neutrals. But I have PBr25 from Mission Gold. Maybe they flow better when synthetic oxgall is added.

[@CATAZTR0PHE]

Thank you for your work! 😊 Useless knowledge: recently I watched a video where they said that you can make color of yellow highlighter to disappear using a lemon juice. That's because some highlighters contain a lab marker used to detect acidity (or something like that) and it is losing it's color in acidic environment. I played with lemon juice and watercolors: I've put juice onto multiple swatches and it turns out it make ultramarine blue to literally disappear after couple of seconds 😁 (it also stinks horribly during that process 😅)

[@KimberlyCrick]

Not useless! Fascinating and actually a really good helpful point regarding the importance of acid-free archival papers and not storing certain painted objects in humid areas or outside where acidic rain is a possibility. I do plenty of strange experiments and LOVE to hear about this kind of thing. Ultramarine Blue has one major weakness - low acid resistance. You've found its kryptonite. You likely released a bit of rotten egg smelling hydrogen sulfide as you burned that poor ultramarine with lemons :D It could be used for a fun demonstration or weird effect too. Lots of dyes are super sensitive to things like that. It's easy to forget that some normally stable lightfast pigments can be damaged by acids, high PH, humidity, heat etc.

[@CATAZTR0PHE]

@@KimberlyCrick heck, girl, I'm just amazed by your knowledge 😳 thanks for info! And indeed, it smells like rotten eggs! 😅 I've tested it some more: the more lemon juice you use, the faster results will be visible. When you "kill" ultramarine in mixes (such as undersea green, imperial purple or moonglow/przybysz) you can see how other of it's pigments looks 😁 Also: -it "disappear" smalt (PV15) by W&N -it changes Szmal's malachite, so it loses yellow tint, turning more blue (it looks just like brand new batch) -it affects Szmal's cobalt blue deep, PB74 - whitens it a little and turns slightly more red tinted (?) -it do not reacts with phthalo blue gs PB15:3, but it turns DS lunar blue (PB15) more gray and also "kills" PB15:1 (I have it as Poland blue by Renesans) So acid affected some blue pigmens. It haven't changed any yellow, red, black etc. pigments that I have.

[@KimberlyCrick]

@@CATAZTR0PHE Thank you so much for sharing what happened with these other pigments. I'm not surprised by Smalt, since PV15 is a form of ultramarine (violet shade) - I bet the same bleaching effect would happen in Ultramarine Pink/Red shade PR259 as well, since PB29, PV15 and PR259 are all related. It's kinda neat because sodium, aluminum and sulfur combined in slightly different amounts and heated at different stages provide us with a lot of variety from blue, blue-green, violet, red and pink! I've read that the sulfur content in cadmiums is much more stable, but I may just have to test it with lemons too just to make sure :) I'm thrilled to hear about the recovery of Malachite. That's something I'm going to have to ponder, since I had assumed the acidic tendency of honey reacting with any free-copper particles in malachite was the yellowing culprit. For it to be solved by more acid... perhaps lemon basically bleaches all the binder additives from the malachite, cleaning it a bit? I have a feeling re-setting the PH level this acidic though will probably lead to more yellowing over time. That's definitely a worthwhile experiment, GO YOU!

[@CATAZTR0PHE]

@Kamalita Rajagopalan as far as I know there is a difference in paint quality between pans and tubes. Pans are student quality and tubes are artist quality. Pans and tubes are completely other lines, there are other pigments used in some of the paints. I perceive pans as a super cheap option to buy cobalt or cadmium pigments for trying them. I've bought 4 Renesans' pans and I just LOVE the shade of their Cobalt blue 😍 (it's number 25) but it just fits my taste, other may like other brands better. I wouldn't go off the track to obtain pans. Renesans paints are dirt cheap in Poland. They are perceived here as a student quality paints (useless knowledge: Russians perceive their White Nights exactly the same: they see them as a student quality paints 😅 just because they are cheap and therefore used in arts schools) Pans are for students and I think that's why you have been disappointed. They have more fillers. I have two tubes of their paints and I like them. That's all that I know and I don't want to misinform you, so I can't add anything else because I'm rather a beginner in painting. I don't have huge experience in painting itself, I've just hoarded some paints and still mainly play with them 😅

[@lindyashford7744]

@Kamalita Rajagopalan I think the pans were all they produced for a while the tubes came later. I have a set of 20 half pans bought quite cheaply here in the U.K. and really like them especially for botanical work. Their cobalt colours are really nice. There were a couple of pigments that seemed unusual and I had planned to do a light test but then moved house. One of these was a purplish red. But all the rest behaved very nicely and were much better than the student Cotman colours I have had knocking about for ages. IMO each brand has its strengths and weaknesses, pigment wise, and different brands suit people better or worse. It is a kind of relationship you build with the brands and pigments you know, so I rarely write anything off as student grade unless it actually is. People say for instance that Lukas 1862 are student grade, but they aren’t. Lukas do have a student grade but it is more like some professional ranges! It is just formulated for different criteria and to paint in a certain way. Much more traditionally. Some of the newer formulations do not have the same type of requirements, and sometimes I think they do not understand how exacting watercolour can actually be. Or that it is not a cheap pursuit! Glad you liked the Renescens pans, there is a small part of England where people have been using them for many years and loving them well before they became known by vlogging watercolourists.

[@lisaspears8974]

It's been my favorite from the minute I bought my first pro palette which was mission gold. Am not ever a brown fan since flowers have always been my go to subject matter but I started off with just a true love of that pigment straight up but have since discovered its longer list of uses.

[@bpfking324]

Thank you for your collection of watercolors very helpful when trying to decide between brands

[@fuzzydragons]

watching your videos makes me realise i really should be paying more attention to pigment numbers 😀 i always forget too when looking at paints but it is so important to try to remember

[@KimberlyCrick]

Over time I've gotten so in the practice of identifying color by their code number, that now it's hard for me to remember their normal names. It's so helpful to know what you're looking for this way - especially when everyone makes a up a new color name for the same pigment like here in PBr25. Though I think what finally made me look for the number back when I first started painting was when I accidentally collected the same color from 3 brands /facepalm. Though I think that begun the whole slippery slope of intentionally buying them all to compare muahaha :D

[@JestemGlonojadem]

Doing God's work on your channel once again! I'm so happy to know you're a fellow PBr25 enthusiast; this colour is a must-have for me, I mix it with PO48 for skin tones & it works like a charm. Seeing that Payne's Gray helps me out a TON and comes right in time when I need it. I really enjoy Roman Szmal's P. Gray, but it's not lightfast, so I've been searching for a similar alternative. Thank you!!

[@awatercolourist]

Thanks, Kimberly! Funny how I was thinking about PBr23 and PBr25 in the past couple of weeks.

[@KimberlyCrick]

I read your mind! But really, those two and PBr41 are all in a rare unique niche of wonderfully lightfast, smooth, dark, transparent browns - definitely worth considering :)

[@irritatedlibrarian9057]

I have Daniel Smith's version, but I'm going to try to get a pan of Rosa Gallery, and find it is very similar to my Indian Red Pr101 from Da Vinci, except the Indian Red is opaque and granulates. Since I'm still new to watercolor I haven't developed an appreciation for granulation yet, so Pbr25 is perfect for me! I actually got it after I watched Denise Soden's favorite brown video. I loved the color, transparency, and the mixes showcased.

[@corbinkramer6228]

I have transparent brown in my Roman Szmals for my portrait work, its great for warm brown skin tones

[@howtosurviveelectronichara6474]

This made me realize that darkening browns is an art unto itself. Transparent red oxide is one of my staple colors and I agree, with pthalo blue it makes amazing shadows. I combine transparent red oxide and neutral tint as my go to neutral shadow maker. I absolutely love your art and your videos are SO much more helpful than any class I took in art school or at art learning retreats. I wish you could get KZbin tenure lol!

[@KimberlyCrick]

Thank you so much for your lovely comment and I'm so glad to hear that the info has been helpful! It's hard to know if I'm going overboard because I'm so obsessed with pigments lol. Happy painting :)

[@howtosurviveelectronichara6474]

@@KimberlyCrick never overboard when it comes to pigments and granulation!!

[@StorytellingHeadshots]

This video was a revelation! Thank you so much.

[@KimberlyCrick]

Aww thank you so much, I appreciate you taking a moment to leave a kind comment and I'm glad to hear this video was helpful! Happy painting :)

[@skbeaman]

Thank you so much for your wonderful videos and website. I am trying to transition away from using marker for my illustrations. I've learned so much from your content and it's demystified watercolor for me

[@danieljamesbinderystu2968]

Pbr 25 is one of my favorite browns as well!!! I make my own line of artist grade watercolors and I actually got my hands on a rare brown color pigment that is a rich golden brown... but the pigment number is Pbk12. People always ask me if I made a mistake or typo with the pigment number on the golden brown I make lol... nope, it's definitely pbk12 hahaha great video as always Kimberly 🙂

[@KimberlyCrick]

Oh yeah I remember when Winsor and Newton had their limited edition desert set a while back - a lot of us were confused by how light golden brown that PBk12 was. Also funny at the time was their very dark brown PY164, made everyone start questioning if they had accidentally swapped the pigment code numbers lol. That's so cool that you found some of the pigment, definitely rare :D

[@roxydawn1507]

I love your reviews! I have MaimeriBlu’s Dragon Blood, but have never used it. I will now!

[@jillwiswall5386]

I adore PBr25! It’s such a lovely color to work with! You definitely did a fabulous job showcasing it here, and I cannot wait to try it in more mixes now!

[@b.lab.__blab_colors]

What a good News!! Your channel is very similar what I want to work on in my language. Thank you for this sharing !!

[@chedoodles]

that is such a pretty portrait! you make the best lineart, so clean, so neat. great review as always, i love learning new mixes from you!

[@tinylite4964]

Oh my! Your artwork is stunning! The bird took my breath away! Thanks for this video.

[@vanessaellermann9206]

I use the Mission Gold PBr25. I really like it, but have not tried the other brands. I got the 24 set of MG watercolors when i first started painting and I'm finding that this is one of my favorite colors from that set.

[@alylyu3659]

I have a PBr25 in a pan of Pinax Artists watercolour (a Russian brand that makes its Artists line in Korea). I'm not a huge fan of some of the Pinax Artists qualities like weird drying in very thick layers but they have some colours/pigments in their line that you can't find in White Nights so I bought them. I agree that PBr25 gives a lovely reddish brown colour. As I love drawing people and landscapes it helps me a lot!

[@nataliedubious5241]

Yaaaay new pigment video!

[@huisio]

I was just playing with PBr25 (Rosa gallery) when trying to figure out what colors to use in my next painting, and I found that mixed with PR122 (also Rosa gallery) it makes a gorgeus blood-red color that I would have greatly loved in many of my previous work. Mixed with PV23 I got really pretty shades of Gray’s and blacks that i think I will use in my next piece. Defitely going to try mixing it with phthalos as well now! Also, when I got it I immediately thought that it would be a great color for a Passer Montanus’ headcap 😄 I think I’ll have to get back to that idea after seeing this.

[@melissaaldosari8024]

Fabulous! Thank you!

[@Lemu_with_a_shirt]

Oh you've definitely interested me in this pigment. Haven't been painting lately due to health reasons, so I can't justify buying it now, but it's going on the list.

[@hannahthufvesson]

I LOVE PBr25! It's mixes so incredibly beautiful with blues - the PB15:3 as you showed, but also with PB60 and PB29. I find it similar to mixing with an English Red, but more clear and vibrant. The end results are just gorgeous! I also love it for making deep, moody greens! 😍 I have the DS version but don't love the shine in masstone. Will definitely look into some of the others you showed us now!! Which one would you say is the least shiny one out of Holbein, Shinhan and Rosa Gallery, if you don't mind me asking? 🙂 Thank you for an awesome video!!

[@KimberlyCrick]

Holbein and Rosa Gallery were both pretty matte even when I used them really thickly. Mission Gold and Renesans both ended up being much more shiny in masstone. It might help to spend a moment mixing daniel smiths in the tube with a toothpick/needle tool first to make sure there's no excess gum arabic settled at the top. Or if you're using from a pan, take it to the palette with your brush first to get it dispersed in a little water before paper. I've been able to reduce some of the shine in my DS tubes that way, if I was trying to go direct from pan to wet paper it was shinier. Ooooh I'll definitely try mixing PBr25 with Indanthrene, that sounds lovely!!!

[@hannahthufvesson]

@@KimberlyCrick Thank you! Will definitely try to find one of them (both are tricky to find in Sweden, Holbein is simply not carried by any retailer and Rosa Gallery is sold in one place, and they don't have the PBr25 yet 🙈)! Thank you for the tip! I will definitely try that! And yes, the Indanthrene mixes are stunning! 😍

[@flyinghaggertys9362]

I am completely in love with pbr25 🙌✨ it’s absolutely gorgeous!! Beautiful painting !

[@KimberlyCrick]

Thanks so much and I'm so glad you like it! Happy painting :D

[@flyinghaggertys9362]

And fantastic video, as always! … Forgot to say😊

[@brigitteitg]

I really like the Schmincke Transparent Brown PBr41, which from what I see in your video seems very similar. It’s such a good mixer too. I haven’t noticed a strong wet to dry shift as I mostly use it for mixing, but will play around with it now after your inspiring video!

[@KimberlyCrick]

Yes, I have a feeling it might shift a little less than PBr25 since it's not as warm. I think you could probably use PBr41 to make a replica dupe of PBr25 if you mixed in a touch of red, maybe something like perylene PR179. Schmincke's transparent brown is definitely a lovely smooth brown, and there's not many of those, so it has a really unique role in mixing. Have fun playing around with it :D

[@brigitteitg]

@@KimberlyCrick Yes I will try a few mixes now that I got inspired! If I had to pick just one brown I would chhose this one. Thanks! 😊

[@DustyMusician]

this seems like a great color for portraits, and also right up Sennelier’s alley what with their whole glazing thing, so I wonder why they don’t have it… I’ll have to pick up a tube, then.

[@KimberlyCrick]

Indeed - that's the same thought I had about Sennelier, and extra weird that they have mixtures with PBr23 and ignored that option in single pigment too. I would love to have a PBr25 with the sennelier paint formula, they typically perform so smoothly for gradients and layering.

[@DustyMusician]

@@KimberlyCrick Same here---they're my go-to pick bc I love using layers and scumbling and such. I hope Sennelier expands their range honestly, it's been a while since they've added anything new iirc

[@MirandaWatsonArt]

I have the Mission Gold version of PBr25 in my Micro Portable Painter. It has re-wet strangely for me a few times, but I have grown to really love the color.

[@KimberlyCrick]

Huh, interesting I haven't seen a re-wet issue but FL humidity keeps things so fresh. Edit: Well that wouldn't be the first time I got excited by a typo lol. Was that rare PBr29 Van Dyke Brown Deep in your set? I think they might actually have the only one, a brand exclusive. it's rediculously hard to get here in the USA since no one sells it individually outside of the set. I keep meaning to make a unique/rare pigments of MGold video, that and the Cobalt Black and a really rare Cobalt Violet variant I snagged on ebay from.

[@MirandaWatsonArt]

@@KimberlyCrick I'll have to look when I get home from my trip. Yeah, caught that typo quickly but not quickly enough, lol.

[@suel4269]

I love your videos! I think I’m an analytical artist. I have Ds Permanent Brown and haven’t used it yet. I’ll play with it tomorrow.

[@KimberlyCrick]

It's a beautiful color, I think if nothing else you'll enjoy seeing the way it flows, stains and layers. Happy painting :)

[@cragraven8949]

Beautiful pigment PBr25 - thanks for this, I bought it on the strength of your demonstration, and it looks even better in reality than on camera. Interesting discovery - it's almost identical in hue to Daniel Smith's Primatek 'Garnet', and I'm willing to bet that PBr25 is a major component of that paint too. DS Garnet is ever so slightly more orange in tone, but it's hardly noticeable.

[@palnagok1720]

I love the colour...I propose B15:3 + Br25 = ... Kim's Grey , since others have claimed mixes against their names...go for it Cheers

[@ari_9354]

I might get the holbein one next time, being so affordable over here and their paint behave so nicely for my type of work is just an added bonus, and i have to agree with you I’m not the biggest fan of purple but holbein mineral violet is just so gorgeous

[@MamaTomasu]

Mission Gold's pure pigment set#2 is my first watercolor set (which came with the RedBrown)...I had no idea it wasn't a common color amongst other brands. I like using it in animals. I also like mixing it with the Burnt Sienna no.2 that comes with the pure pigment set since that Burnt Sienna leans brown when I what I want is actually more of a redder brown

[@KimberlyCrick]

Yeah, brands like Sennelier, Schmincke, Roman Szmal, Winsor and Newton, Qor, Old Holland, White Nights, Rembrandt etc. still haven't decided to carry PBr25. It's such a lovely color it's a shame so many big brands ignore it, so the people who only use their paints may never run into it!

[@lindyashford7744]

I just got a Rosa palette and am switching a couple of colours out and this is one of the pigments I am interested in so very glad to see this video. I do have this colour in a half pan palette but I am enjoying painting larger right now. I liked the mixes you showed, even though my style is very different to yours. Hmm you ask about other colours, well I bought myself several transparent oxides to mull myself, but then got Covid, and can no longer take the risk even with a mask. I just loved the brown trans. oxide colour so much. I really do not remember what that pigment number is. I got half a dozen pigments to make a very specific palette of colours and am narked that I will not be able to make it. Never mind. I do like this brown very much. Late in life I have come to appreciate browns and think there is some kind of undervaluing of them because they are seen as dull. But really they can act as a wonderful contrast or foil for other colours and of course are fantastic in landscape and nature bas3d work. Maybe this pigment gets overlooked because not everyone loves their earth based colours and instead opt for the magpie pigments. Thanks for the insight into this one.

[@artbycatfitz]

What an interesting colour, I love the greys you mix with it. Since I mostly use Roman Szmal, the closest on my palette would be Transparent Brown Oxide PR101. If Roman Szmal do put this out as a single pigment, I would be very interested in trying it.

[@jenwilly7260]

I recently found out that you mix PBr25 with some PB60 look more like a slightly warm Burnt Umber that doesn't granulate (I am not a fan of granulating colors in most cases). Now if I could just find a non-granulating dupe for Raw Umber...

[@starr-starr]

I LOVE PBr25. I got it in my Mission Gold 24 pan set which was the first professional grade set I had. Since the weird mixed Burnt Sienna in that set doesn’t play so well with mixes, I found that the PBr25 is a fabulous mixer. And you are right, it’s too bad that Mission Gold is the only manufacturer that puts it in basic palettes. I eventually got all of the MG pure pigments, I would love you to cover PV102, PBr29, and PBk27. WN had a limited run of PBr29 they called Chromium Black. I got a free tube from One of the big three with an order. It behaves well, the Mission Gold has never dried in a pan and crawls everywhere. I can only use it fresh from a tube.

[@KimberlyCrick]

Yeah more and more I hear about little inconvenient problems with mission gold. Still, their paint is a bargain when its just a few dollars per tube in the sets, maybe too much when sold individually though. I absolutely will do a spotlight on their rare pigments, it's just a shame they are so hard to get. I have collected them all, pbr29 and pbk27 from the pure pigment set, but i had to order pv102 on ebay. For some reason neither blick nor jacksons carry those colors, despite offering most of their other tubes individually. I think I'll try to find similar colors and maybe attempt to replica dupe them for that video :D

[@NanaBeth1]

My 2022 buying freeze has definitely bit the dust. Have you every managed to mix DS's Cascade Green? Played around with mixing Van Gogh's graphite the other night. Mixed with Cerulean blue makes a beautiful hazy, kind of smoky blue.

[@KimberlyCrick]

Lol, the next few weeks are going to be REALLY bad for a buying freeze... with all the new Roman Szmal rare colors and some actually unique Schmincke granulating on the way... Yeah I keep meaning to do a video about cascade dupes and have gotten so sidetracked by the never ending art supplies. I had the best luck using the most granulating raw umber (the more pale ochre leaning umbers) *** edit = or raw sienna *** with phthalo blue. Though lunar brown and phthalo blue makes a stunning mixture too but its more reddish. Winsor and newton has a nice granulating raw umber, if you dont already have one to try mixing with your phthalo. The most convincing mixture ended up being a 3 pigment combination of ds manganese blue hue and phthalo blue (both variants of pb15) and a yellow leaning textural umbers/sienna.

[@NanaBeth1]

@@KimberlyCrick Thank you. I have DS's monte amiata natural sienna (I love it). I'll give it a try. I have a few others to try also.

[@hannahthufvesson]

@@NanaBeth1 I feel like my mixes with PB15:3 and the DS Monte Amiata Natural Sienna are pretty spot on! ☺️ I love that Sienna, it's stunning!

[@jennw6809]

Last year I bought Schmincke's Transparent Brown PBr 41, which is an Azo brown as well. I was so disappointed to find out isn't really transparent (I should have looked at the stats, because even Schmincke admits this). It also doesn't mix to neutral with ultramarine or cobalt blue. I was so mad at it I dug it out of the palette and considered it a dud. Should have bought PBr 25. But maybe I'll try mixing it with phthalo blue.

[@jenwilly7260]

What other non-granulating "earth tone" watercolors are there out there? I paint a lot of food paintings, and the granulation in most earth tones don't really work so well for my purposes...

[@wafa7348]

It's a interesting Pigment, but I never use it because I don't like the hue that much and rarely need transparent Browns. I prefer Perylene Maroon or PR206 over it and mix them with with a cyan when I need a more transparent Brown. But PBr25 has some interesting mixtures and I have a Tube from Mission Gold, so maybe I'll put it on my palette in the future

[@KimberlyCrick]

Mixed multi-pigment browns are definitely a way to go, I have mixed phthalo blue pb15:3 with w&newtons brown madder pr206 before for a similar color range. I find that periodically this hue is what I was looking for, but it is definitely an optional niche color. I get use out of PBr25 most often due to my tendency to paint red-brown birds and the convenience of how well it layers to build up darks. I think Perylene Maroon PR179 and PR206 both are probably far more useful to most botanical artists though. Thanks for chiming in :)

[@Renilou2]

I have Maimeriblu Dragons Blood, but mine is made with Natural Iron Oxide 'PBr7' and Quinacridone Red 'PR209. Did they change the formula?

[@KimberlyCrick]

Yes a couple years ago Maimeri Blu redid their entire paint line to offer more single pigment colors instead of mixtures, as well as improve the lightfastness of some colors (with the exception of indigo, which fades).

[@l0lb0yl33t]

I like Deep Scarlet from DS and Brown Madder from W&N for just the same purposes

[@KimberlyCrick]

Brown Madder PR206 is definitely high up there on my favorites list too! Good choices :D

[@angelarae8961]

Thank you, been looking for a non granulating brown. I don't see this pigment in the Rosa 12 or 24 set. Am I missing something?

[@KimberlyCrick]

Rosa Gallery only recently released PBr25 as a new color available as a pan or tube in 2021, I do not believe it is part of any set yet. You'd have to find a seller that has individual colors to obtain Royal Brown. If you're generally curious about their brand though, their 12 or 24 sets are quite affordable and more easily found on Amazon.

[@angelarae8961]

@@KimberlyCrick O, ok I think I misunderstood why the link was there. Thank you

[@blankmission5369]

Kim can you recommend a good color separating caput mortem? I see the Daniel Smith line does not carry it? What would be the equivalent in DS? What would be your recommendations for this color? Please feel free to name other brands other then Daniel Smith. I'm leery of winsor and newton. Thank you!

[@KimberlyCrick]

Sennelier makes one of my favorite caput mortum. Winsor and Newton's is nice, but it doesn't re-wet as easily as the Sennelier one.

[@koskey06]

Do you hand draw and ink your line work? Or do you create on computer and print out?

[@KimberlyCrick]

Typically I make a drawing on paper with technical pen first, then scan it onto the computer. I have wacom tablet for drawing in photoshop, but I find that I'm more clumsy with it than real pen so I don't use it often. Once my drawing is digitally cleaned up I make a large printable black and white line art file. That way I can cleanly print it out onto any paper without worrying about any graphite smudges or erasing from the initial sketch or image transfers.

[@StorytellingHeadshots]

​@UCaPO49_gA_FNdklAUEvbi_g WOW! My mind was blown by this video and (after immediately subscribing and liking this video, and making a mental note to look up all your other videos...) I started looking for all the pigment names on the back of my Shinhan water colors. I decided to sort my tube watercolor by pigment rather than by brand or by color name. But I ran into a dilemma: in the Shinhan line they use the single pigment PB15 for both their Prussian Blue and their Cerulean Blue Hue. These are very different colors. the first being a deep almost black blue and the Cerulean being a sky blue color. How can these both be single pigments but end up as very different colors? The same is true of their use of the single pigment Pr101 for both Red Ochre and Van Dyke Brown. These are not mixed with additional pigments, so how is it that the colors are so different? Is it just a difference in the amount of binders used? Thanks in advance for any elucidation you can provide!

[@KimberlyCrick]

That's a pretty big can of worms, but let me start by saying a pigment code number identifies the chemical its made with - not that all colors will be identical. For instance, cobalt teal, turquoise, bright grass green and deep dark green can all come from a single pigment code PG50. This is because PG50 is chemically defined as Cobalt Titanate Green. It can vary in hue substantially due to a calcination of a mixture of Cobalt (II) Oxide and Titanium (IV) Oxide in varied ratios. Thus one brand's PG50 can be dark green, while another brand has bright sky-like teal blue. There's also the problem of typos, and when it comes to a color labeled as Prussian Blue, normally PB27 there's a risk they made a mistake and wrote PB15 when it was actually PB27. Then there's the fact that Phthalo Blues come in a wide variety of shades (you may see brands like daniel smith clarify their phthalo blue as "red shade" or " blue shade). These normally add on colon numbers after the PB15 to clarify which variation it is (if the paint company knows, they don't make the pigment - a separate chemical supplier does). My favorite phthalo blue for instance is green shade PB15:3 which looks a lot different from PB15, PB15:1, PB15:2, PB15:4 etc. Hope that helps :)

[@KimberlyCrick]

As a funny side note about PR101, PBr7 and similar earth browns - you'll find a huge variety in those colors because iron oxide rocks and dirt vary in color around the globe, but many are made up of the same basic chemical structure. PR101 is the altered version of natural PR102, so basically filtered earth, where the pigment manufacturer has decided exactly which color hue they were looking for and filtered out any bits of trace minerals they didnt want, then heated it up in order to adjust the color from dull orange to violet red & brown. It's fascinating right? :D

[@StorytellingHeadshots]

@@KimberlyCrick Very helpful explanation! Thank you!!!

[@StorytellingHeadshots]

​@@KimberlyCrick I can't get enough of this pigment geekery...! All this info around pigments and how they are used to create color makes my artist's heart glow and my little geek-brain all fired up!

[@StorytellingHeadshots]

I have these Shinhan professional line watercolors that I bought early in my watercolor journey. I was fairly happy using these paints as they were a step up from the Student Cotman and the cheap $20 box of pan paints I had initially started with. I thought that by upgrading to Shinhan Professional, I was now painting with professional grade paints. And I definitely saw a difference from the $20 box of nondescript pan watercolor I started my journey with. Shortly after this time I learned that the Shinhan "professional" line is ( confusingly) actually their student grade paint. Following that, I started buying and using more "name" brand paints like Daniel Smith, M Graham, Sennielier, and QOR. Just so that I could experience what those paints were like. But since I am since a really new watercolorist, I didn't know what to do with my Shinhan. I recently had purchased some Maimeri Blu watercolors ( including "dragons blood" because so many people rave about that color in the MaiMeri line) but after watching your video, I dug out my Shinhan, and did a side by side swatch with Dragon's Blood and Shinhan Brown Red...and they were identical. So, while I still enjoy the MaiMeri, I know that I can extend it using the Shinhan. Also, I just made a gorgeous 'shadow violet' that I using my shinhan brown red and ultramarine!

[@KimberlyCrick]

Yeah, ShinHan Professional is their company name, the blue box cheaper set is student, but the more common pro grade line is known by the PWC or SWC logo on them. The pro shinhan are very affordable as well, about $6 a tube where most of the other PBr25 options were about twice that price for the same thing. The ShinHan swatch in this video is the pro version which I find in individual tubes as "PWC premium extra fine" on Jacksons ( www.jacksonsart.com/en-us/shin-han-watercolour ). I definitely wish their box sets were more clearly labeled for everyone new to their brand.

[@StorytellingHeadshots]

@@KimberlyCrick Thanks for your reply. :) Re: inaccurate naming conventions. Yes, I agree. It's a jungle out there for newbie watercolorists...that's why your channel is so useful!