Normally when I do mix-your-own lookalike posts, I try to find dupes for paints I don’t want in my palette. Either the paint has some textural problem I don’t like, or it’s too limited in use case to earn a spot on my palette, and I want to figure out an alternative means of mixing the hue so I can feel free to cut it. But I love Indanthrone Blue (PB60), and it’s an important part of almost any palette I create. So why try to dupe it?
The main reason is that I only love one, specific Indanthrone Blue, and this feels precarious.
While many brands have PB60, most brands’ versions (typically called Indanthrene Blue) are middle-blue and middle-value with a large drying shift. If I want that, I’ll use Phthalo Blue Red Shade! But Daniel Smith’s Indanthrone Blue, the one I use, is lusciously dark and violet-toned.
I love and rely on it, and I have no reason to believe it’s going away, but recent experiences with discontinued or unexpectedly changed paints have taught me not to rely too heavily on any one, specific formulation. Additionally, I’m often sharing notes and tips with people all over the world, and the availability of a specific brand’s paint is not assured. I’d like to have a preferred palette that is flexible or universal enough that I can work in any brand.
So! I attempted to mix a hue and value match with some other paints. Let’s see how I did.
Color Mixes
Some notes:
- I tried to mix a lookalike using only two paints, for convenience and ability to remember the recipe.
- I did not use any granulating paints because Indanthrone Blue is nongranulating.
Top Row
DS Indanthrone Blue
This is the color we’re trying to match.
DS Quin Magenta (PR202) + WN Phthalo Turquoise (PB16)
Phthalo Turquoise gets pretty dark, especially in WN’s formulation, so I thought I would try warming it with some more warm violet shades. I didn’t include mixes with brighter magentas, like Quin Rose and PR122, because I already know they tend to make very high-chroma purples that don’t get dark enough. PR202 is just a bit darker and moodier, though perhaps not moody enough.
Here’s a deeper dive on PR202 + PB16 mixes.
All of these are a bit too high-chroma, but they do get quite dark.
HO Quin Violet (PV19) + WN Phthalo Turquoise (PB16)
I moved one step more violet and more moody with Quin Violet. This one gets nice and lusciously dark.
Here’s a deeper dive on the darker shades of Quin Violet and Phthalo Turquoise.
The bottom left is passable, though perhaps still too violet. I found it difficult to strike the right balance without getting too violet; yet when I didn’t put in enough violet, the color retains very cyan undertones. Still, it does get quite dark, which is the main goal.
HO Permanent Alizarin Crimson (PV19, PBr25) + WN Phthalo Turquoise
I stuck with Phthalo Turquoise but went in the other direction for the mixer, less violet and more red, to see if I could make a violet undertone that is a little more muted and greyed out. Technically, this is a 3-pigment mix since the Alizarin Crimson alternative I’m using is already a mix. I think the hue is very successful here, that “dark wash denim” color, although it seems to have dried to a uniform moderate value instead of looking as dark as it did wet. Still, not bad.
Middle Row
DS Carbazole Violet (PV23) + HO Phthalo Blue GS (PB15:3)
I switched to a brighter cyan but paired it with a very dark, cool violet. This mix was too high-chroma and couldn’t get dark enough without being too violet.
DS Perylene Red (PR178) + HO Phthalo Blue GS (PB15:3)
Sticking with PBGS, I switched to a middle red with which I’ve had success making some moody mixes. I couldn’t manage to get this to a violet-toned hue, since adding more red to the cyan just made it grayer, so the best I could do was a dark cyan. This would be a good dupe for Prussian Blue, but not Indanthrone Blue.
HO Quin Violet (PV19) + HO Phthalo Blue YS (PB15:3)
Back to the Quin Violet that was so successful with PB16. PBGS does not get as dark and so it was harder to work up a dark value, but not impossible.
HO Pyrrol Rubin (PR264) + HO Phthalo Blue GS (PB15:3)
I wondered if the slightly cooler PR264 would be less complementary to the PBGS than the Perylene Red. It is, and I like this middle dark blue mix, though it is still a bit less violet than we are going for. It’s a great Indigo, though.
Bottom Row
DS Carbazole Violet (PV23) + WN Phthalo Turquoise (PB16)
Most of this row will be Phthalo Blue RS, but first I wanted to try Phthalo Turquoise with the Carbazole Violet. It does get darker than the PBGS mix with Carbazole Violet, and a little less overly violety, though it still lacks the moody quality of Indanthrone Blue.
DS Perylene Red (PR178) + HO Phthalo Blue RS (PB15:1)
I wondered if something as subtle as switching to Phthalo Blue Red Shade might help me to get a more violet-toned with mix Perylene Red than I had gotten with Phthalo Blue Green Shade. It does, but not enough.
HO Quin Violet (PV19) + HO Phthalo Blue RS (PB15:1)
Quin Violet worked very well with the cyans, as the competing violet and greenish tones settled into a nice middle blue, but with Phthalo Blue RS the result is too violet.
HO Pyrrol Rubin (PR264) + HO Phthalo Blue RS (PB15:1)
An improvement over the mix of Pyrrol Rubin and PBGS, definitely more in the violet space and much darker. This is one of my favorites.
More Color Mixes
I had a few more I wanted to try, so I did a second page!
Top Row
Indanthrone Blue (PB60)
The color we are trying to mix.
Phthalo Turquoise (PB16) + Quin Red (PV19)
I liked the PB16 and Permanent Alizarin Crimson mix, so I decided to see if Quin Red would be any different.
It’s also good! Quin Red and PAC are pretty similar. PAC is slightly easier to get dark but this mix also made excellent hues.
Phthalo Green Blue Shade (PG7) + Dioxazine Violet (PV23)
I was shocked by how good this mix was, with no blue in it! It is a little muted compared to the original.
Middle Row
Prussian Blue (PB27) + Quin Fuchsia (PR202)
This is the mix used by the Korean watercolor company Mijello (of the Mission Gold line) for their signature Mijello Blue. I really like the midwash denim hue, but it doesn’t quite get dark and moody enough for my purposes.
Phthalo Blue Green Shade (PB15:3) + Quin Fuchsia (PR202)
Similar to Mijello Blue, but with the more lightfast Phthalo Blue. In the test page, I didn’t find it got dark enough, but I did achieve dark values in a deeper dive.
Phthalo Blue Red Shade (PB15:1) + Quin Fuchsia (PR202)
Similar mixes, edging more violet.
Bottom Row
Ultramarine Blue (PB29) + Perylene Red (PR178)
I was hesitant to use Ultramarine Blue because it is granulating and I did not want my mix to be granulating, but I found that in mixes with nongranulating colors, in the concentrations that I needed to use to work up a very dark shade, the granulation wasn’t really noticeable (your mileage may vary depending on how granulating your UMB is; I’m using Da Vinci’s middle Ultramarine Blue, not the French/Deep/Red shade.) I found this to be one of the most convincing hues.
Ultramarine Blue (PB29+ Perylene Maroon (PR179)
A slightly more muted/greyed mix than the Perylene Red mix. I think perhaps slightly too greyed, but very good for shadows.
Bonus: Mix an Indanthrone Blue Hue with Cotman
There is no equivalent to Indanthrone Blue in Winsor & Newton’s Cotman line of student grade paint. So, I attempted to mix a hue using Cotman paints.
In the image above, the DS Indanthrone Blue we are attempting to match is in the upper right, after the line. The Cotman mixes are:
Top Row:
- Dioxazine Violet (PV23) + Viridian Hue (PG7): This was a mix I liked in pro grade (specifically with Daniel Smith’s blue-leaning PG7), but Cotman’s PG7 has more yellow undertones which kept this more in the indigo realm.
- Dioxazine Violet (PV23) + Prussian Blue (PB27): My most successful attempt, this is quite a close match! It helps that both Diox Violet and Prussian Blue are among the stronger Cotman colors.
- Dioxazine Violet (PV23) + Turquoise (PB15, PG7): Turquoise is very similar to Phthalo Blue GS. As with my pro grade mixes of Diox Violet and PBGS, this was a bit too high-chroma, especially in dilute; but not too bad in masstone.
Bottom row:
- Ultramarine (PB29) + Alizarin Crimson Hue (PR179): This is my attempt to match the Ultramarine + Perylene Red that I liked in pro grade, but both Cotman colors are too weak for it to really work, with Ultramarine being especially disappointing.
- Ultramarine (PB29) + Cadmium Red Deep Hue (PR188, PR254): Same, really. Ultramarine is too weak to support this.
Conclusion
My favorite mixes were those that easily achieved dark value as well as approximating the violety hue. These were:
- Phthalo Turquoise (PB16) + Quinacridone Violet (PV19b)
- Phthalo Blue Red Shade (PB15:1) + Pyrrol Rubin (PR264)
- Phthalo Green (PG7) + Dioxazine Violet (PV23)
- Ultramarine Blue (PB29) + Perylene Red (PR178)
In Cotman (student grade), the clear winner was Dioxazine Violet (PV23) + Prussian Blue (PB27).
If you have a favorite dark violet-blue mix, or a suggestion for a mix I should try, leave it in the comments!
When I was trying to do something similar (mixing a dark and violet leaning blue) I found using the neutralizing combo of a quinacridone + a phthalo helpful. My goto mix had three elements to it:
1. Phthalo Blue + Phthalo Green
2. Quinacridone Magenta (PR122)
3. Ultramarine Blue
The ultramarine blue is in there to keep the hue on-target and because I didn’t mind introducing granulation. But I think this could have easily been cut down to just two elements. I suspect the PG7 and the PR122 are the most important parts, since that’s what make it dark while still leaning violet/blue.