David Webb is a UK illustrator and the author of Painting in Watercolor: The Indispensible Guide. It’s a gorgeous book chock-full of illustrations, including inspirational paintings from a variety of artists (not just the author!), showcasing various techniques in watercolor.
I enjoyed getting Painting in Watercolor: The Indispensible Guide out of the library, though I’m not sure it will make it to my permanent collection. It’s a beautiful book. Each section (typically a two-page spread) briefly covers a different technique, arranged in order of difficulty, starting with flat washes and ending with complex topics like architecture, portraits, and botanicals. The book is most useful as an overview of the kinds of things you can do in watercolor, which I think serves as a great source of inspiration and grounding if you’re getting introduced to the topic. The book makes it all feel both expansive and organized. However, it’s not in-depth, and not really the type of book you can sit down and learn from; typically Webb merely describes what can be done (via illustration and brief description) rather than how to do it.
As with many books, I was highly interested in the section describing the author’s recommended palette. Webb labels the palette page as “My Palette,” so we can assume it’s the one he actually uses; certainly he notes in the text that artists all have their different preferences. With that said, here are his choices: it’s an overall 12-color palette with 5 of the colors indicated as a recommended limited palette.
| Slot | DW Uses |
|---|---|
| Cyan | Cerulean Blue (PB35) |
| Middle Blue | *Cobalt Blue (PB28) |
| Violet Blue | Ultramarine Blue (PB29) |
| Violet | Cobalt Violet (PV14) |
| Brown | Raw Umber (PBr7) |
| Earth Orange | *Burnt Sienna (PBr7) |
| Crimson | *Alizarin Crimson (PR83 or permanent alternative) |
| Scarlet | Vermilion (????) |
| Earth Red | Light Red (PR102) |
| Middle Yellow | *Aureolin Yellow (PY40) |
| Gold | Indian Yellow (currently PY139/PO63, perhaps refers to discontinued PY153) |
| Earth Yellow | *Raw Sienna (PY42) |
Notes:
- Starred items are part of the limited palette.
- Brand is not mentioned, but photos of paint tubes and pans in the book are all Winsor Newton.
- Pigment numbers are not mentioned, but inferred from WN color names.
- Click on the slot name to see my list of other colors in that slot.
- Click on the color name to see my Color Spotlight for that color.
My completely subjective thoughts
The five-color limited palette is very well-chosen! If I could only paint with five colors for a wide variety of subjects, I would also choose a yellow, rose, blue, earth yellow, and earth orange. (In fact, I more or less did choose those colors: it is actually quite similar to my Core Palette! Only I added a sixth slot to have two blues, cyan (Phthalo Blue) and dark blue (Indanthrone Blue), instead of Webb’s choice of Cobalt Blue as an all-around middle blue.)
I’m not as much of a fan of the specific colors chosen for these slots. Two of these five colors are fugitive. PY40 and PR83 are well-known for fading quickly. I would expect to see them listed in a book from the 1990s, but this book was published in 2016.
You could argue that it’s appropriate and safe for a book that purports to be the go-to overview of watercolor to use a traditional, time-tested palette, but I feel like it would be doing newbies a service to introduce them to the best possible pigments and steer them away from those that are largely deprecated by modern chemistry.
But enough general thoughts, here’s a specific one
What the hell is Vermilion??
WN does not offer a watercolor called Vermilion, nor did they in 2016 at the time of this publication (at least not according to Jane Blundell’s paintout from 2017. On that post, a commenter asks about an old tube from the 1990s they have called Scarlet Vermilion, and Jane hasn’t heard of it and speculates it may be an old, toxic color.)
About Vermilion Webb writes,
A very warm, fiery red containing yellow, Vermilion is similar to Cadmium Red but less opaque. It can be used for areas of local color; when mixed with blues, it results in some neutral grays that can be used for shadows.
David Webb, Watercolor: The Indispensible Guide, p. 35
This implies to me that it’s not a Cadmium, and that it’s a mix of a red with a little bit of a yellow. This lets out Holbein’s Vermilion (a mix of Cadmium Red and Cadmium Orange), as well as Schmincke’s Vermilion (PR255) and Daniel Smith’s Organic Vermilion (PR188), which are not mixes. It’s possible by “red containing yellow” Webb merely means it’s a warm-leaning red, not literally a mix, but who knows.
This is why you have to say your pigments numbers, people. Or at least your brand. Color names mean nothing. I understand not wanting to appear to promote a brand (though he does so anyway by photographing Winsor tubes). And I understand not wanting to overwhelm newbies with mathy-sounding pigment numbers. But this is literally supposed to be the indispensible guide. If not here, then where? If you only provide the name of a color, you’re only giving a part of the story, and it’s hard for people who don’t already know what you mean to follow along.
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Comments
One response to “Artist Palette Profile: David Webb”
David Webb’s limited 5 color palette is very similar to Liz Steel’s limited 6 color palette. Liz’s colors have always worked well for me, and I’ve adopted many of her choices, such as MANS rather than yellow ochre, or TRO over burnt sienna. I’ve used DS organic vermillion, which is lovely, but not that useful in a limited palette. I find 8 colors is enough to keep track of and I can do pretty much all I need with 8. I am constantly creating variations of an 8 color palette though because I like to play with interesting colors and appreciate the challenge of mixing things up a bit. These artist palette profile posts are awesome. Thank you!