Further Information

This section gives you some additional information and useful facts about Artists' Water Colour. 

Raw Materials
Binders
Manufacture
Whites in the Range
Mixing Colours
Alternative Spectrum Lists
Discontinued Colours

Raw Materials

Choosing the right materials for the 96 Artists’ Water Colours requires decades of experience and expertise from our chemists. Hundreds of raw materials are therefore chosen from worldwide sources to ensure we have the highest quality materials to make the best possible formulations.

Once the right materials have been delivered to us, we also carry out comprehensive quality checks to ensure that the raw materials meet our high standards and specifications and are free of impurities. We reject as much as 25% of incoming materials when they do not meet our satisfaction!

Binders

Gum Arabic

Water colour is produced by the combination of a pigment with a binder, usually Gum Arabic. Gum Arabic comes from acacia trees in Africa, principally from the region of Kordofan, which produces the best quality gum of all: Gum Kordofan. To make the best Artists’ Water Colours, we use the finest quality Gum Arabic for the following reasons: firstly, it is colourless and therefore does not affect or compromise the natural character or colour of the pigments. Secondly, it is less soluble and provides stable adhesion of the colour upon the painting surface to enable the artist to apply layer upon layer of jewel-like colours without muddying the colours underneath.

Binder Solution

We do not use just one solution of Gum Arabic to formulate our 96 Artists’ Water Colours, however. A variety of binders are manufactured to suit various pigments and each formulation contains a selection of these binders. As each pigment has slightly different requirements, each Artists’ Water Colour therefore has its own individual formulation with greater or lesser proportions of one or more of the key binders and ingredients.

Manufacture

Devising the right machinery and using it correctly is essential to the manufacture of Artists’ Water Colour - the best ingredients must be prepared using the best methods. Custom made machinery controlled by experienced operators has therefore been designed to ensure that each of the 192 formulations (tubes and pan) in the range is manufactured to the highest standards. The manufacturing process is a complex one. 

Manufacturing Artists' Water Colour

In fact, to make the 96 Artists’ Water Colour pans, it takes over 1400 different stages before the process is completed! In brief, there are two main processes involved - mixing the pigment and binder together and then milling to super micron fineness. Careful control of the milling process is essential as it ensures stable suspension of the pigment in the binder and helps release the full intensity of the colour.
 

Extruding pan colur

To make Artists' Water Colour pans, each formulation has to undergo a further process. Generally, this involves a lengthy procedure of drying the colour and then extruding it into long sections. These are then cut into whole pan or half pan sizes. Only perfectly extruded pans are finally cut and glazed for artists' use.

Whites in the Range

Within the traditional water colour technique, the white of the paper provides the white used as highlights in a painting as well as providing a light-reflecting background which contributes to the overall brilliance of water colours. 

However, many artists use Chinese White at the end of their painting for highlights or to dull some colour mixtures during painting.  Introduced by Winsor & Newton in 1834, Chinese White is the most popular white in water colour.  It is semi-opaque and has a blue undertone.  Titanium White (Opaque White), is the whitest, most opaque white.  It has a high tinting strength and a high covering power.

Mixing Colours

All colours in the Artists' Water Colour range make bright clean mixes. Artists are however, often interested in the colour theory of painting. The three primary colours in the Artists' Water Colour range are Winsor Lemon, Winsor Blue (Red Shade) and Permanent Rose. These colours are the best selection when only three colours are used.

When using a six colour mixing system, we recommend Winsor Lemon, Winsor Yellow, French Ultramarine, Winsor Blue (Green Shade), Permanent Rose and Scarlet Lake.

Alternative Spectrum Lists

Artists' Water Colour offers a wide and unique range of 96 colours. Within this, every artist forms their own personal palette to suit their needs. However, there are a number of common techniques of interest to many artists.

Thanks to the advancements in Artists' Water Colour we are now able to offer a full Spectrum of Colours to suit each of the following techniques: Transparency, Opacity, Colour Bias (Warm & Cool) and Granulation.  Click here to view all of the colours that make up these spectrum lists.

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Discontinued Colours

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