Exploring Jackman’s Watercolours With a Limited Triad

Greetings! Thanks to the lovely community over on Lana’s art discord I have been diving into exploring pigments recently. I have been re-exploring the paints I already own, and also adding a few new ones to my expansion/playground palette to learn from. Today I will be sharing one of these explorations in the form of a watercolour trio, taking you through the range of mixes both in a studio setting and in a plein air study. Let’s dive in!

Secondaries mixed from the watercolour triad. The trio produces earthy muted greens and “oranges” (becoming browns), and slightly brighter purples.

The goals of the watercolour triad

In my research for new-to-me pigments I recently came across Jackman’s Art Materials watercolour paints, and I was intrigued by some of their single pigment offerings. Before we go any further, I haven’t been sponsored by Jackman’s nor do I have any affiliation with them. I bought a trio of their paints myself since I was already searching for pigments to push myself with, and this offered the perfect opportunity to try out Jackman’s at the same time.

I have found that limited palettes are a great way for me to explore something new on a smaller budget, while still allowing for a nice range of uses. When I first tried out alcohol markers for example I started with a limited set of greys, which enabled me to draw anything (just in monochrome) and learn about layering and blending.

When deciding on this trio though I wanted to prioritise pigments I haven’t used before, and ones that would work together to create an interesting colour gamut. In other words, be able to mix a limited but interesting range of colours on the colour wheel.

The watercolour trio and their resulting mixes. The granulation of the PB72 Cobalt Blue is very intense, even in the small swatches of colour.

An odd but fun selection

My first pick was Cobalt Blue PB72, which was what drew me into making a Jackman’s trio to begin with. Cobalt Blue is typically the blue pigment PB28 in most brands, so when I saw PB72 listed I was more than a little curious. The pigment nerd/goblin in me wanted to know what PB72 was like in comparison to the more common PB28. (Note: you can find PB72 listed as a “deep” cobalt blue in a few different brands now - but I haven’t had the opportunity to try it before.)

The second pick was Perylene Violet PV29. This is the colour listed for the month of June in Lana’s pigment exploration group. While people in the group are encouraged to use what they have that is closest to the pigment of the month, this was an opportunity for me to pick up June’s pigment. Perylenes are a group of pigments that I have little experience with, and seem to have become a focus of my self studying this year now. I recently finished a fantasy illustration using a triad which included Perylene Dark Red PR178, to learn more about its mixing capabilities.

To round the palette out I picked Isoindolinone Yellow Deep PY110. I felt like a warm yellow would round out the trio, and this was the one that jumped out at me within that hue range. I theorised that a warm yellow would offer earthy and muted greens with the Cobalt Blue, and interesting neutrals with its near compliment Perylene Violet. Yellows are an area I have not explored too heavily. A year or two ago I started learning about Azo Green PY129 and Azo Orange PO62, which are now integral colours in my painting practice alongside my long-time companion Nickel Azo Yellow PY150.

Back to the Jackman’s triad though! As you can see this is not a typical red/yellow/blue or magenta/yellow/cyan kind of trio! Which is exactly what I was looking for, something new and interesting to push my colour theory and mixing knowledge.

Close up details of a plein air watercolour study painted on location from life using the Jackman’s watercolour triad.

Testing the triad plein air

For the first foray into using the trio I decided to go even further out of my comfort zone and do a plein air sketch with them. No gradually going through my comfort zone first with these paints (I did all the swatching and mixing above after this plein air study haha). I took my expansion palette and painting supplies to a spot I have wanted to sketch for a while. What captivated me about the scene was a blanket of ivy growing up a tree, carpeting the floor, and then growing up a gravestone. The two vertical elements were joined together by a U-shape of dark ivy leaves, set against a variety of hues from pale stone, deep brown bark, and the yellow-ish foliage of spring.

One of the first things I noticed was how heavily granulating the Cobalt Blue was. The granulation itself was expected since it is a typically granulating paint, but the amount of texture was a surprise. It reminded me of the intense granulation I can achieve when using French Ultramarine by Schmincke, in comparison to the more gently textured Ultramarine Deep by Sennelier. Whenever this Cobalt Blue was added to a mix, it would invariably separate out to create “vibrating” washes.

The Cobalt Blue created quite soft, muted, and earthy mixes with both the violet and the yellow. I was able to create both the yellow greens of the grass and tree foliage as well as a deep green for the ivy, but both had a slightly neutralised hue and featured that heavy blue granulation.

When it came to the yellow and violet, I had envisioned that they would create some interesting near-neutrals. This did turn out to be the case, but I was pleasantly surprised by how lovely the resulting browns were.

The watercolour sketch painted plein air from life using only the Jackman’s triad. Notice the heavy granulation of the cobalt blue peeking through most mixes.

Through this watercolour exploration I have found a paint that competes with my French Ultramarine by Schmincke for the top spot in the “most granulating blue” competition! Most surprisingly to me though was how much I enjoyed the earth tones produced by the PY110 and PV29. When mixing neutrals yellow/purple is not a combination I typically reach for, preferring the range produced by blue/orange and red/green instead. I have tried with Dioxazine Purple and a range of yellows, but they just don’t make colours that wow me. However, the richness of the earth tones from Isoindolinone Yellow Deep and Perylene Violet has renewed my interest in exploring yellow/purple mixes.

With that, happy drawing and painting everyone!