The classic brown! This is an earthy, granulating brown that looks to me like clay-rich soil.
Experiment Results
Hue: Platonic ideal brown. Slightly orange-toned but not as orange as a Burnt Sienna or a Transparent Red Oxide. Dilutes to a pale beige. Wide value range.
Gradient: A nice smooth gradient for such a granulating color.
Granulation: Highly granulating.
Opacity: Transprent.
Glazing: Deep brown.
Brush Feel: Texturally, it has a sort of glossy hardness that I didn’t love; as if when I begin to rewet it, the first few strokes that come up are straight gum arabic. This has been more or less true of every dark brown PBr7 I’ve tried, including DV Raw Umber, DS Raw Umber, and DS Van Dyck Brown.
Lightfastness
The exposed swatch dulled slightly and looks more brown and less orange than the protected swatch, especially in tints. It’s very subtle.
Comparison to Other Brands
Thanks to my worldwide friends for sending me dots of various Burnt Umbers for this comparison! Below, compare (left to right) Schmicke, Holbein, Da Vinci, and WN. All are PBr7, except WN, which is a mix of PBr7, PR101, and PY42.
- Schmincke: The coolest Burnt Umber that I tried, less orangey, more of a neutral brown. Nice granulation.
- Holbein: A slightly redder hue than Da Vinci. Fairly strong.
- Da Vinci: In comparison to the other brands, the dot I had of this seemed rather hard and difficult to rewet, though I’m not sure it’s indicative of a new tube.
- Winsor & Newton: More yellowy than others, especially in dilute.
Comparison to Other Colors
Transparent Brown Oxide (PR101)
Transparent Brown Oxide is a very similar hue, but slightly warmer/oranger (Burnt Umber is just a tiny bit cooler/bluer). I found it much more difficult to get a dark masstone with Transparent Brown Oxide.
Color Mixes
Earthy brown granulation over all mixes. A really great violet brown with Dioxazine Violet (PV23). Complement to Indanthrone Blue (PB60).
What Others Say
It is very useful for making a whole range of greys when mixed with ultramarine – so necessary for clouds.
Ron Ranson, On Skies (1996)
This is traditionally a yellow iron manganese oxide that is darkened by furnace roasting, which shifts the hue about 15 degrees from deep yellow to orange. Most paints are a very dark valued, semiopaque, dull orange (brown) at a hue angle around 50. The color resembles dark chocolate, and is yellower than burnt sienna. Again, burnt umber serves as a “pigment sibling” to the brighter, lighter and warmer burnt sienna.
Bruce MacEvoy, “Earth Pigments Tour”
A natural warm brown. Once again it should be a dark brown, leaning towards orange not green. The best examples are made with PBr 7 and include Da Vinci and Daniel Smith.
Jane Blundell, “Earth Colours”
Unlike Raw Umber, I fell in love with Burnt Umber immediately. It made its way onto my very first palette of professional watercolors with its warm, chocolatey, very brown earth color that generally leans more toward a reddish-orange than to a grayish-green of the raw umber. For me, it is an invaluable color that I reach for very very often, maybe even more so than my burnt sienna to mix those rich, dark, beautiful tones.
Denise Soden, Color Spotlight: Raw & Burnt Umber
Conclusion
This is a nice brown as far as browns go; transparent with lovely granulation.
Personally this tends not to make it to my palette since I like to mix a hue with earth orange (e.g. Transparent Red Oxide). Burnt Umber serves the same palette role without being as flexible, nor significantly more convenient, because I still need to add blue to make it grayish and neutral enough for use in my landscapes.
Some people find Burnt Umber is more intuitive and/or convenient for mixing various browns, depending on how they think about color mixing and depending on what their local landscapes look like.
Favorite version: I can see things to like about most of the ones I tried; Da Vinci has nice granulation, and has that orangeish tone that Jane Blundell recommends for mixing browns. I also like how Schmincke’s hue is cooler, which is convenient if you live in a grayish-brown landscape. Holbein has the nicest texture. The grain of salt here is that I’ve only sampled most of these from limited dots.
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Da Vinci – Burnt Umber, 8ml tube: Da Vinci Paints
Schmincke – Burnt Umber, 5ml tube: Jackson’s US
Holbein – Burnt Umber, 5ml tube: Jackson’s US