Greens are a very important part of most landscapes and there is no one green color or mix which fits them all. Seasons, time of day, location and more all affect your colors. Having choices both with tube colors and mixing options is key to painting with gorgeous greens that inhabit a landscape beautifully. Here are two different options – mixing greens with our Quinacridone Gold and PrimaTek Amazonite Genuine. Quinacridone Gold is an amazingly rich color and adds so much versatility to an artist’s palette, which is why it is one of our most popular watercolors. Many artists have replaced their Raw Sienna with Quinacridone Gold, which allows them to mix cleaner, more vibrant colors.
In our mixing chart, we mixed Quinacridone Gold with some beautiful DANIEL SMITH transparent blues: Indigo Indanthrone Blue Ultramarine Blue French Ultramarine Phthalo Blue (GS) Phthalo Blue (RS) Prussian Blue Manganese Blue Hue Phthalo Turquoise Ultramarine Turquoise You can see the different colors of warm, earthy olive greens in the mixes, and with the Phthalo Blue (RS) and Phthalo Blue (GS) you will see that the greens are slightly cooler.
In heavier washes, these greens are good choices when painting robust summer landscapes. There are also some interesting granulating effects when the Manganese Blue Hue is mixed with Quinacridone Gold in a heavier wash, with a bit of the blue pigment faintly settling out, and a bit more subtly with the three Ultramarine colors. Mixing greens is only one facet of Quinacridone Gold’s versatility on your palette. You’ll enjoy discovering all the ways it expands your color vocabulary when mixed with other colors, used as a glaze, or as a wash to provide a warm glowing undertone.
Amazonite Genuine is a beautiful aqua-colored mineral which we obtain from Brazil. As a pigment, it’s a strong pure color that is completely transparent, non-staining and lifts easily for maximum versatility. It’s also lightfast and one of only three PrimaTek colors with no granulation. This clear turquoise mixes beautifully with these other colors in the photo and video of the paint out: Goethite, Quinacridone Gold, and fellow PrimaTeks Green Apatite Genuine and Black Tourmaline Genuine.
Quinacridone Gold, everyone’s favorite, is a golden yellow that often replaces Raw Sienna and adds versatility with its glazing and mixing capabilities. Highly durable and extremely transparent, like all the Quinacridone colors it excels in vivid clarity, and is low-staining with granulation. You can see the mix is golden olive green. This mix would make warm, sun-drenched late summer green hills or early autumn trees. Green Apatite Genuine is a semi-transparent green that is a dark, almost brown, olive green in mass tone. In washes, the brown settles out of a vivid natural green, creating memorable texture and contrast from the granulation. It has excellent lightfastness and is low-staining. In the mix,you can see the brown sediment that granulated becomes darker when mixed with the Amazonite. This mix would make nice textured leaves or distant textured green hills in a landscape. Black Tourmaline Genuine is very transparent and can be as dark as night or as pale as wispy fog. In washes, especially on rough paper, it displays exciting granulation with delicate settling. Intensely black in mass tone, it lets down to a beautiful pearl gray. It has excellent lightfastness and is non-staining. You can see in the mix, how the sediment has settled out and the wonderful granulation in the toned down Amazonite Genuine mix. This mix would be great when painting cool evergreens in autumn and winter.
When you mix your greens, you expand your landscape vocabulary and develop your own unique dialect of colors. Watercolor properties of transparency, granulation and staining tendencies will also add to your choices when mixing.