Emerald Green, Pantone’s 2013 Color of the Year, and the Artist’s Palette, final

Part 3: Rendering Emerald Green with artist’s watercolors and inks

When painting nature subjects, most watercolor artists learn to mix shades of blue and yellow, or yellow and black to obtain greens that are softer, even muddier, than the harsh hues created by manufactured green shades.

Often, but not always, drawing inks are less lightfast than artist’s watercolors. This is because inks are often used for commercial illustration, where archival quality is not a consideration.

Here are the swatches of the various watercolor mixes I used to create green tones:

Each blue was mixed, T to B, with cadmium lemon pale, Napoli yellow, cadmium yellow, and New Gamboge. DS Kingman Turquois, top left. DS Lapis Lazuli, bottom left. Ultramarine, top right. Indigo, bottom right.

As a control, Caran d’Ache Neocolor II in 7500-210/Emerald Green was placed as a wet/dry swatch at the top. Mixtures were roughly 50/50 blue and yellow. Indigo and cad lemon make a good neutral green. The turquoise is closer to an emerald hue unmixed than when combined with yellow!

Upper left is Manganese/Compose Blue with the four yellows. Upper right is Viridian, a manufactured green. Below it is DS Perylene Green, alone and mixed with cad lemon. Third from bottom is Dr Ph Martin’s Tech Drawing Ink in 10W Spruce, and below it is the same brand ink in 9W April Green. At the bottom is a more intense mix of Indigo with cad lemon pale, showing its emerald quality.

The closest watercolor matches for Pantone’s color of the year, 3278C, are pure viridian, indigo mixed with cadmium lemon pale, and Dr. Ph Martin’s Tech Drawing Ink in 10W Spruce.

Indigo was used with cadmium lemon and sepia in this sketchbook image of a camellia leaf. This proves you can mix a clean emerald green with watercolors and achieve a natural appearance.

A skethcbook image of a camellia leaf shows off a mixed emerald green. From a series of leaves painted in October 2011. © 2011 Wren M. Allen