March Madness Week 1 Update!

This month over on Discord, we’re doing a pigment bracket to decide our favorite watercolor pigments. I included 50 entrants, chosen from Bruce MacEvoy’s Handprint Top 40 but with a few extras added. We’re just over halfway through round one, so we know at least one of the contenders that will go into each round two pairing. Here’s a recap of how it’s gone so far.

Week 1 Results

I arranged the initial list of pigments more or less in color order and set the bracket to pair up neighbors, intentionally creating situations where we would have to choose between similar colors. I think this mimics the way we really choose colors for our palettes in order to maximize palette diversity and reduce redundancy.

Copper Azo Green and Nickel Azo Yellow tied for gold

Voters were tied between these two heavy metal complex yellows, Copper Azo Green (PY129) and Nickel Azo Yellow (PY150). In discussion it was generally agreed that PY129 is a favorite green mixing specialist, but PY150 is more versatile.

I only decided which one to advance via coin flip. PY129 will advance!

Isoindolinone Yellow Deep handed defeat to Hansa Yellow Deep

These very similar colors are ones I always struggle to decide between, but voters were unambiguous. Most agreed with Bruce MacEvoy that the more transparent Isoindolinone Yellow Deep (PY110) produces “more lyrical color shifts” while Hansa Yellow Deep (PY65) is more creamy, opaque, and flat. Some voiced a preference for the Daniel Smith mix, New Gamboge, which combines PY110 and PY97 yellow.

This vote inspired me to look more carefully at this trio. I was in the minority for liking Hansa Yellow Deep more, because it’s higher-chroma and yellower, but I sort of have different opinions when looking at real life paper vs the scan; in my scan I think PY110 looks better because of its larger value range. Though, the scan makes them all look yellower, which is my preference. In real life PY110 is quite peachy orange in dilute. Either way, New Gamboge is almost identical to PY110 in masstone, but much yellower in dilute.

Ultimately, though, to be honest, I think they all look like Kraft Dinner.

Naples Yellow Deep nabbed the win over Cadmium Yellow

Naples Yellow Deep (PBr24) was the clear winner in this battle of the opaque yellows. There weren’t too many Cadmium Yellow (PY35) fans on the Discord, which I guess makes sense considering I’m not a fan of it on the blog. Cadmium Yellow was seen as “just another yellow” while Naples Yellow Deep has some unique use cases in mixing realistic landscape, portrait, animal, and sky colors.

Pyrrol Scarlet smashed Pyrrol Orange

Though MacEvoy is over the moon about PO73 being “everything modern pigment chemistry should be,” our voters far preferred PR255, an equally lightfast pyrrol pigment which is inexplicably not even in the Handprint Top 40.

Perylene Red p0wned Perylene Maroon

This is another case where a Handprint fave, Perylene Maroon (PR179), was unceremoniously rejected in favor of an item not even on the Top 40. It doesn’t seem so much that people loved Perylene Red (PR178), which was acknowledged as a serviceable red, as they felt hostility toward Perylene Maroon, feeling repeatedly betrayed by its extreme drying shift. Still, some voters liked its hue and usefulness, especially for shadows in botanicals.

Quinacridone Rose rose above Quinacridone Magenta

I classically have trouble deciding between PV19 rose and PR122, but voters were pretty clear on preferring the rosier PV19.

Folks found the rose more versatile as a lone pink or magenta equivalent on a limited palette. Some found PR122 dull, while others found it bright, depending on brand (Rosa and Qor being the brightest brands). For paintings specializing in pink florals, both were desired.

Manganese Violet outmaneuvered Quinacridone Violet

Despite loving the rose PV19, voters generally seemed uninspired by the duller violet shade of PV19, while Manganese Violet (PV16) had some true diehards. Manganese Violet was the preferred choice by those who liked a granulating violet.

Ultramarine Violet was the ultimate choice over Cobalt Violet

And, here we have some of the non preferred choices of granulating violet fans. (PR233 was not included in this bracket, but this is the only old swatch I have containing swatches of Cobalt and Ultramarine violet. I no longer have both colors available to swatch.)

Folks were generally apathetic about both of these weak colors. Ultramarine Violet (PV15) was acknowledged as a sometimes-useful shadow and sky mixer, though many preferred it in a premixed pastel Lavender. That said, while Cobalt Violet‘s fans were few, they were strong (and generally objected to my describing it as PV14 preferring the PV47 version by Holbein).

Cobalt Turquoise conquered Cerulean Blue

Cobalt redeemed itself! The bright Cobalt Turquoise (PG50 or PB28) had many vociferous supporters as folks loved its brightness and granulation for adding magic to all sorts of blue and green mixes and its striking color separation in mixed with unlike colors. Some described initially liking Cerulean Blue (PB35 or PB36) but being eventually won over by Cobalt Turquoise, Cobalt Blue, or both.

Phthalo Blue Green Shade embarrassed Phthalo Blue Red Shade

The Phthalo Blues are another confusing pair I’ve struggled with. Green Shade was celebrated for its primary cyan hue and usefulness in mixing greens. While Red Shade was acknowledged to have its uses, especially in skies, voters disliked its drying shift.

Phthalo Green Blue Shade blew away Phthalo Green Yellow Shade

Another tough choice I’ve written about! Both Phthalo Greens are strong and very green, and make good mixers with any number of yellows, earth colors, browns, and/or reds for taming. For most of the Discord, more common Blue Shade of Phthalo Green (PG7) won out for its pretty teal-blue color, wider availability, and lower price. Yellow Shade (PG36) supporters pointed to uniquely bold yellow-green spring bud mixes and greater distinctiveness on palettes already including Phthalo Blue or Turquoise.

Chromium Oxide Green KO’d Viridian

I thought for sure that Viridian (PG18) would be the favorite here, with its classical history, bright hue, pretty granulation and use in popular mixes like Moonglow. I thought I would be one of the only ones voting for dull and opaque Chromium Oxide Green (PG17), which I like for my desert palette. I was wrong! While acknowledging that a little goes a long way when it comes to Chromium Oxide Green, voters preferred its strength and usefulness in low-chroma vegetation. Even folks who liked the hue of Viridian found its weakness disappointing and annoying, and tended to go for PG7 when desiring that blue-green hue.

Transparent Red Oxide tread lightly over Burnt Sienna

While some liked both, more voters preferred the strong Transparent Red Oxide (PR101) variant for their earth orange slot over the gentler, weaker Burnt Sienna (PBr7). Some found that granulation was the biggest factor, so it was brand-dependent.

Burnt Umber and Raw Umber tied

Members couldn’t rouse much enthusiasm for these browns, with many saying they used neither or both interchangeably. After a coin flip, I resolved the tie vote and Raw Umber will advance.

Titanium White triumphed over Ivory/Lamp Black

I call this the battle of the “forbidden colors,” since many experts caution against using either white or black. I expanded MacEvoy’s top 40 entry, Ivory Black (PBk9), to also include Lamp Black (PBk6), which I tend to find more common. Lumping together the two main black pigments didn’t seem to make a difference as folks were generally not enthused about them, preferring to avoid black pigments altogether, or soften them by using dark mixes that contain black, such as Payne’s Gray or Indigo. White was also considered a liability at times, but it has some distinct use cases. Besides, as one commenter pointed out, black can be mixed, but white cannot.

Conclusion

When it comes to my readers and friends in Discord, I’m learning that as a group, we strongly prefer strong pigments. The stronger pigment won out over the weaker in almost every matchup, including those where the hue of the weaker pigment was generally preferred. Aside from weakness, our other bugaboo is drying shift; even pigments without strong individual support tended to dominate when paired against pigments with a strong drying shift, as in the Perylene Red/Maroon matchup.

As the bracket goes on, the winners of these matchups will be paired against less and less similar pigments until a single winner is chosen. So next week, things may begin to get wacky!

You can follow the bracket on Scoreleader or join in the voting on Discord.