My favorite cerulean has always been Winsor Newton. I never use this colour as thickly for streakyness to be a problem. I have also been a lifelong fan of Cotman Cerulean blue hue and get through a couple of 21ml tubes a year. It's great when you need the colour without the problems of flocculation or granulation so is very well behaved in mixes. I have also liked the Jacksons Cerulean (PB35) which is slightly less green. I first tried this in a full pan which was great but the tube I later tried had a mass of excess binder. I did mix this in thoroughly with my "twizzel stick" (piece of wire with a small loop on the end) but the result was a very runny, goopy paint that remained tacky and left a shiny glaze. After propping up the tube for a few weeks, I was able to squeeze out over quarter of a tube of clear binder that had again separated. The remaining paint was good and remained stable but I would not buy this again. I don't know if this was a bad batch or excess thinning to cut cost.
From what I can tell, Jacksons is made by Sennelier as there is overwhelming correlation with pigment mixes, tube type caps etc... but I suspect formulations are adjusted to control cost as I have not seen this amount of binder separation in Senneliers own brand of which I have quite a bit.
I rediscovered my Cotman Cerulean hue just a few days ago! I had been shopping around for a Cerulean, because the Turner I have just wasn't what I had in mind for "cerulean", although I do like the color. I dug out my Cotmans and bingo! Is it the best cerulean/hue? Maybe not, but that's subjective, of course. The good thing is that it's dirt-cheap, like you said, you can use a lot of it if you paint a lot of skies. So Dr Kano's Cerulean Showdown is right on time (doesn't it seem she reads your mind, sometimes? lol) Now I'm off to poke through the rest of my Cotmans....looking for more forgotten gems! Take care!
Cobalts, ceruleans and other heavy metals paints need extra binder to get them into a liquid enough state to get into a tube, and extreme temperature and air pressure changes can make them separate. Maybe at the end or beginning of the tubing process excess binder could end up in some tubes? It's unlikely that every tube would be the same. I know that cobalts can be inconsistent--I've bought very stiff versions of a cobalt paint and then found another with binder separation in the same color.
@@OhJodi69 agree with you on that she reads our minds sometimes haha~ i've been looking into ceruleans myself and this video came just in time! vangogh paints are cheaper than cotmans for me so my go-to is vangogh's cerulean blue hue too :D for cotman, i'm just in love with their Intense Blue (phthalo blue). i have a few other PB15:3 but i always gravitate towards the cotman one for some reason. :)
Mijello Mission gold also has Cobalt cerulean blue (PB35) and Cobalt cerulean blue deep (PB36) besides this Cerulean blue. This cerulean may be misnamed..^^
Yes Mijello is well known for misnaming some colours, but they do have the genuine cobalts which are beautiful, easy to reset and very pigmented. Unfortunately Jacksons do not stock the full range.
The Holbein cerulean has long been my favorite. I like the M. Graham for their astounding pigment load, but much like you, I want my cerulean blue to granulate. Also, the coolness of the Holbein shade is spot on for Colorado skies. I also like Daniel Smith's Cerulean Blue Chromium for it's dark and moody shade and lovely granulation.
If Old Holland is generally too expensive for you, you could try getting Rembrandt which, even here in the States, is reasonably priced. I recently got a 12-tin and, at first, wasn't super impressed. They're definitely professional quality, but what sets them apart? Just in the last week, I did a small abstract work with very small "cells" in it. I was especially pleased by the way the Rembrandt could be applied. It seemed to disperse really easily and smoothly, more so than any of the others (I used all my brands), as though the binder was very thoroughly and finely mixed with the paint. Even the Schmincke and Da Vinci felt stickier to apply. These were half-pans, but now I want to try more, including tubes, to see if this characteristic goes throughout the brand.
I have the Schmincke PB35 and it's gorgeous.. I think it's really sad you went for the hue 😔 But thank you for the all the work you put in all these videos 😊
Hello, je préfère le cerulean blue de Winsor et Newton. Ce que j'aime le moins sont les plus foncés et dans les clairs, les moins pigmentés. Merci, je suis vraiment ravie de vous voir de retour. Take care !
Me too, I've not had much luck, it's a dodgy pigment in most brands but I'd love to find a good one. My WN just will not re wet and some tend to go gritty like the pigment clumps together. I gave up and stuck to Phthalo based viridian hues
@@Foghorn-tr1je Viridian is a notoriously difficult pigment to make into watercolor. If you want a tube paint that you can let dry on your palette? Give Schmincke Horadam 513 Viridian a try. It will dry and it will wet about as readily as any Viridian cake pan paint. Otherwise, M.Graham makes a good Viridian, but it will be gooey. It also doesn't keep well in large globs on an open palette. Small globs does it. Keep it in the tube.
Yes! Viridian! I LOVE M. Graham's. It's beautiful, and while it starts off gooey, it DOES set up and is wonderfully re-wetable. Plus, I find its granulation just lovely, and it has good tinting strength, not something I can say about most Viridians I have tried.
I love ceruleans, thanks for showing us so many different brands! My go-to cerulean is Daniel Smith Cerulean Blue Chromium--it's very reliable, transparent and an excellent mixer. I especially like to mix it with Potter's pink (a Sade trick!) or Quin Pink for sunset skies. I also adore Winsor & Newton's Cerulean--it's perfect for warm tropical skies and it has gorgeous granulation. I find the M Graham cerulean useful when you want a non-granulating crayon box blue, it's a shame it's hard to put into a travel palette but in my climate it does sometimes dry up enough in the winter months. I'd say it's semi-transparent on the page.
Super helpful video! What a lot of work you do for us. Much appreciated. I’m a Daniel Smith fan but Holbein here is very tempting. Thank you very much.
Thanks so much. I bought Daniel Smith originally and I just wasn’t happy with skies and shaded objects, which is mostly how I use Cerulean Blue. I recently changed to Winsor and Newton and love it. I think connected with my eye; I like that hint of yellow.
Genuine Cerulean Blue should be PB35, 'Cobalt Stannate'. This pigment compound is fairly old (used as an artist pigments since 1860) and important because of its great permanence, and because its cyan-leaning color cannot be matched by permanent mixes of other pigments (since genuine Manganese Blue, PB33, is no longer obtainable). Other "Cerulean" blues are rather irrelevant, except if you buy the 'shade of color' rather than the pigment. IMO, it's nice if top tier brands primarily offer a selection of useful pigment identities, rather than 'colors'. That doesn't mean that 'hues' are not serious. Many 'hues' are perfectly well suitable for professional artist use, as are some budget brands/ranges. Varieties of PB36 are now commonly marketed as "Cerulean Blue Chromium". That is okay, I suppose, and it has become the established name, even though the pigment had other names, like Cobalt Chromite or Bonnard Blue. The reason some manufacturers do this, is because PB36 is a cheaper and stronger pigment than Cerulean Blue, and that it's also more docile and compliant, making it easier to make a paint preparation that handles well. PB36 is also an excellent pigment in its own right, with great permanence, however I'd say the color is somewhat redundant (unlike PB35). Drawbacks of genuine Cerulean Blue, PB35, is that it's somewhat weak, rater expensive, health hazardous, and very difficult to make handle well in Watercolors. Cyan leaning variety of Phthalo Blue, PB15:3 is much the opposite. It's dirt cheap, extremely strong and as if born for Watercolors. Unfortunately, it's not perfectly lightfast, which is why I sense a problem for this particular hue of color for artists. For non-Artist applications these Phthalo Blues are good enough, and they're phenomenally strong and dirt-cheap, so dominate use and markets. This is how Manganese Blue, PB33, the "perfect blue", ceased to be manufactured. It didn't survive the competition (artist paints is not a large enough market), and I expect the same to happen to PB35, eventually. 🤔 Regarding PB15:3, beta copper phthalocyanide, it's maybe worthwhile to know that lightfastness will differ with manufacturer and medium. It seems the lightfastness is not a problem in Oil, where the pigment particles can be bigger. And some Watercolors maybe makes it into ASTM I, so it's not like this is a complete disaster area. It's mainly a problem for people who intend to hang something in direct daylight/sun.
Great comparisons! One of the very best series on here, ever. I have the Schmincke Cobalt azure, and it’s very nice ( I agree: frustrating name, though). I don’t like the look of cerulean in general, but based on your swatches I love how M.Graham’s Cerulean lays down and it’s color compared to the others. Thanks for another great video!
The Mission Gold Pure Pigment 34 set comes with 3 tubes called "Cerulean." There is a 15:3 phthalo blue green shade as you showed. But also has Cerulean Blue (PB35) and Cerulean Blue Deep (PB36). In addition to those two true cobalts, there are three other tubes of true cobalt (blue, turquoise and green deep). Love my set, what a value!
Nice to see Cerulean on this episode! Cerulean is wonderful for glazing purposes. I recently discovered that after using Helios Cerulean from Schmincke to go over some duller blues. It really brings some to certain pieces to life! I haven't used Cerulean Hue, but I would take that as a substitute for Ultramarine as I'm not a huge fan of those particular warmer blues. Overall, lovely video!
My favorite has always been DaVinci Cerulean. I avoided it because I didn't like most brands until I used DaVinci 's. It's genuine, it granulates but not overly and makes beautiful skies. And my Fabriano Artístico cp 140lb paper has a Kilimanjaro watermark. So in case some viewers wanna save a buck it is true that Fabriano Artístico makes Kilimanjaro. Take care 🤗
Thank you for doing these. I'm about 2 months new to watercolors, and I'm surprised I'm really enjoying it! But a frustration I think unique to watercolors (because of lifting and transparency &c) is the color "naming" conventions. I was confused why you did a few videos like this (that I've seen) by "color names" FOR that reason: the color names can completely throw people off, and I'd suggest be so frustrating (in trying to mix or even just glaze with a "known brand") it could chase off people new to watercolors. Anyway, in watching a few of these over the last week, I've learned SO MUCH about pigments and other "minutiae" that probably would help many wannabe watercolorists. Acrylics and oils have their own idiosyncrasies, but I may have thrown out my "covid-furloughed" and "get-a-hobby" gifts of paints and papers had I not happened upon your indigo comparisons -and ITA with your favorite! Now I know why, though (when I feared I was merely being "picky" and shouldn't mind mixing paints to get a decent indigo). Thank you!
I prefer PB 35 over PB36 for my skies in landscapes, I use White Nights and Winsor and Newtons versions interchangeably. Since it it slightly less green and less intense than the PB36, it perfectly captures my icelandic winter skies and midnight skies in summer. I have not been able to capture that with any other blues. It's also useful in mixes, especially interesting green mixes for moss and other vegetation.
This is just so good. I think my favourite from your page here is W&N, I really like the hue. Otherwise I am happy with my little pan of Rembrandt. I'm still not entirely sure which one to buy when I run out of that because I do prefer tube paints in wells and I find W&N's paints don't always like to be used like that.
Thank you so much for another great video! BTW I have Schmincke Horadam Pb35/36 in pans: one is the Cobalt azure you mentioned and the other is "Kobaltcoelin" Pb 36 which Schmincke translates to Cobalt cerulean. They are quite the same, I need to put them next to each other to tell a difference. One claims to be more opaque and one has more granulation....
You are so welcome Janina. Thank you for sharing your experience with the Cobalt Azure & Cobalt Coelin, maybe it's a pairing for a comparison video on their own ;)
@@OtoKano if you still find that interesting, please do a comparison 😊 You articulate the nuances of each color really well. I would love to know your thoughts on those. I also wish I had found your channel before I bought my paints! 😅
Generally never thought to have a cerulean. I have a manganese blue hue that sort of fills the same box but my goodness Holbein is looking mighty nice.
my fave is one from Rembrandt, I find it's got a good strength, good granulation and handles really well. I think some of these paint brands don't do well when painted out in full strength like sennelier and Old Holland this is probably why they are streaky and glary as there's a lot of honey in both. I have a tube of the OH one, mine doesn't smell bad, maybe you have a really old tube? It is very expensive, even as a fan of the brand I don't think it's anything special, it's nice but I wont be restocking it once it's gone.
I noticed the same smell on the lovely Old Holland samples you very generously sent to me as well. Maybe it's a me thing? I am really sensitive to smell though.
I have to. It's the premises of the series. It's to help beginners avoid buying into the hues thinking they are the same thing. So if there is one that is called 'Cerulean Blue Hue' that gets shown, because that's what an absolutely beginner will think is like cerulean blue, it's to show that it's nothing like it.
Didn't white nights have a nice version of cerulean? Think it was called ceruleum though so Im not sure if it's actually the right thing. The tinting strength is a bit on the weak side but it's a pretty color with nice granulation
yeah you're right. and it's PB35 so it's legit but yeah, definitely weak in tinting strength. so glad they came out with the PB36 cobalt azure blue version, i love that one :)
The main reason why I haven't done white nights in this season is because they don't cover a lot of the other colors that we are going to be trying out in the upcoming episodes. Hope that makes sense :)
@@OtoKano hehe~ i figured as much when i saw roman szmal, old holland, and maimeri in your line up. :) and i think white nights is quite affordable for anyone who wants to try a certain colour/pigment so i definitely think having the other brands in your showdown lineup is definitely much more useful for us. thank you! :D
From this video the old holland one looks like the truest version of cerulean blue which is a nice sky blue with some "greenish" undertones, difficult to describe but my daniel smith one looks also more greenish than visible in the video but maybe this is just some exception
Thank you so much for doing this! I was just looking at what cerulean blue I should get so this is so helpful. I’m getting it at the moment to make a soft ski. I did like Daniel’s Smith in their dot card, but I think looking at this swatch I’m going to get Davincis. Is more affordable here in the US and I think I like my skies non granulating. You gained a subscriber and I look forward to watching more of these as I grow my collection 😊
In my experience a lot of Asian brands call their pthalo blues a cerulean bluemand their ultramarine blue a cobalt blue. I think that's that the naming inconsistency is about.
LIKE: Daniel Smith, Holbein, Sennelier. DISLIKE/: The rest especially Mission Gold & Schmincke. HONORABLE MENTION: Rembrandt has a 2 or 3 Cerulean Blues. Love the Cerulean Blue.
@@PaintinHiding Haven't used them that much because I've accumulated so much paint that I never know which one I should use. Lesson: stick to one brand but I do love the Cerulean blue among other colours of their range.
Surprising to me I too like the W&N version it looks truer to the colour it should be. A few of the others have really travelled a long way off! I have this as a half pan and like it’s sort of sunny blue colour. It is meant to be a sky blue that will work with other pigments to give a sky some authenticity, what on earth are those pthalo’s doing! I have a couple of other versions not on your selection, shall have to look for them up to see which they were, and which pigment, but offhand I think the are probably White Nights and Renescens, or maybe not, hmm. And Daler Rowney pro range, which rarely get much attention, but their pans are lovely. it my imagination or were the pb35’s less opaque than the pb36?
I heard the bubbling thing is some kind of detergent-like filler some companies use. Wish I knew more in order to help clarify. We love you, Oto! I use DaVinci's cerulean which is Eve's fault. ;) I do have the DS cerulean blue chromium. 💙
Barbara, the detergent type substance is a sometimes necessary manufacturing additive rather than a filler. Some pigment types - clay type minerals and some heavy metal pigments like cobalts and cadmiums, tend to clump or cake when being milled/ mulled into paint and require dispersants or wetting agent to enable the binder to coat the pigments freely, rather clumps of pigment. These wetting agents are also added to improve flow. However the amount used in itself should not be enough to cause bubbling so maybe something else is contributing. Many traditional East Asian brands like Holbien do not use additional flow improvers like ox-gall but may still use some form of wetting agent in the production process.
i think i'm favoring the holbein (da vinci similar but not quite as good) and for the yellow tint, the WN. i actually have the daniel smith's one but.... idk it seems different from my dot card which had a color i could obsess over (the hue, the granulation pattern, etc). but i got a tube and it feels.... lackluster. missing something : ( also with using it for skies it's tough because between the granulation pattern there's a distinct lack of color.... so it feels better maybe as a mixing color? whereas the H and DV do seem to have an overall color.
Thanks Oto. Wonderful as always. I've wanted a cerulean blue for a couple years. An art supplier we have called Blick has their own brand very affordable. 46 cents per ml. PB 35. Im trying to dry it in a pan but after 2 weeks its still semi moist. Im thinking that might use honey based binder. No info on website. Just a guess. Its OK. Semi opaque, but looks more verditer blue to me. Though there is no mention of white in it. Take care.😍
@@OtoKano totally fair, I find the prices on art supplies are astronomical but dont always see a reason why when you look at different brands with wide price range.
schmicke has another cerulean blue. I could swear, there was one called reddisch. I don't see it on the charts any more. but I always wonder, how the helio cerulean and cobald cerulean look alike when swatched like here. beneath winsor newton esp. because somebody once asked for this colour in a painting. then I realized how different mine was compared with winsor newton. I guess one of the other cerulean by schmincke might be closer to the particular tone. therefore my interst. always because of such things, that only beginners like I worry about ;-)
Cerulean literally means sky blue so Maimeri seems a little confused! Winsor and Newton for me for colour being spot on but also like DS and the colour of the Old Holland (I really want to smell it now!)
it's as if you read my mind, i just started thinking about getting a legit cerulean blue PB35! (not a hue). after watching this, i am definitely going to get holbein's! :D i have White Nights' Cobalt Azure Blue PB36 that i think is a beautiful 'green shade' of the typical cerulean blue PB35, it also has a beautiful fine granulation. mijello mission gold's cobalt cerulean blue PB35 is very beautiful, easy to rewet, granulates beautifully. i have scans of the dot chart up on my blog if anyone is interested. speaking of bubbling, sennelier's indian yellow and white night's ultramarine violet also bubble. i wonder what makes them bubble? sennelier's Cinereous Blue is a cerulean blue hue that is bright and lively whereas rembrandt's Cerulean Blue (phthalo) is noticeably duller in comparison but definitely much closer to the cobalt ceruleans discussed in this video.
So glad this video came in at the perfect timing for you! Yes the bubbling. Oh the bubbling. It's definitely some colors from some brands but I've not gathered enough data yet to figure out the cause. It's certainly a fun challenge for me to work on. Rembrandt's hue cerulean sounds like they tried to get it closer to a real cerulean?
I'm super picky about my cerulean blue, it's a staple for me, I use winsor and Newton or holbein. I've bought this pigment in other brands and I'm always disappointed so I stick with my winsor newton. Daniel smith disappointed me greatly for this pigment as its streaky and not a bright enough. I love many daniel smith paints but this is not one of them
I think it comes down to personal preference as many in the comments like the one I don’t. I have the windsor Newton cerulean and can’t stand it. It’s like it has a dirty yellow in the mix (I know it is single pigment). I just don’t like the hue or how it spreads on paper. I do really like DS cerulean blue chromium though.
I was looking for a non cobalt cerulean replacement and considering going for the schminke but it really does look terribly different to the real thing. If anyone has good recommendations please let me know!
Its nonsense to compare by name, esp. cerulean. Ceruleanis Colin and also Azur, meaning all sky in Latin and Italian. Compare by Pigments. How can you take Schminckes Hue ( for poor people ), they have the Azur which is cerulean, Colin. Schminckes is for sure the worlds best AZUR ! Learn Latin, makes Life much better, you will understand many things better !!!!!! Also Mission gold has a genuine cerulean with Pb35 and also Pb36 !!!!!
Just coming back to comment because I know you all can relate…. This is that one color that I HATE. It gives me the heebie jeebies. Its the exact color of the vapid sunny sky in late autumn, when the grey and death of the landscape is coming, when school starts in the northern hemisphere, and football season begins *shiver*
My favorite cerulean has always been Winsor Newton. I never use this colour as thickly for streakyness to be a problem. I have also been a lifelong fan of Cotman Cerulean blue hue and get through a couple of 21ml tubes a year. It's great when you need the colour without the problems of flocculation or granulation so is very well behaved in mixes. I have also liked the Jacksons Cerulean (PB35) which is slightly less green. I first tried this in a full pan which was great but the tube I later tried had a mass of excess binder. I did mix this in thoroughly with my "twizzel stick" (piece of wire with a small loop on the end) but the result was a very runny, goopy paint that remained tacky and left a shiny glaze. After propping up the tube for a few weeks, I was able to squeeze out over quarter of a tube of clear binder that had again separated. The remaining paint was good and remained stable but I would not buy this again. I don't know if this was a bad batch or excess thinning to cut cost.
From what I can tell, Jacksons is made by Sennelier as there is overwhelming correlation with pigment mixes, tube type caps etc... but I suspect formulations are adjusted to control cost as I have not seen this amount of binder separation in Senneliers own brand of which I have quite a bit.
Peter, your post is sooooo useful, I am going to pin it to the top so everyone can see it. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with us :D
I rediscovered my Cotman Cerulean hue just a few days ago! I had been shopping around for a Cerulean, because the Turner I have just wasn't what I had in mind for "cerulean", although I do like the color. I dug out my Cotmans and bingo! Is it the best cerulean/hue? Maybe not, but that's subjective, of course. The good thing is that it's dirt-cheap, like you said, you can use a lot of it if you paint a lot of skies.
So Dr Kano's Cerulean Showdown is right on time (doesn't it seem she reads your mind, sometimes? lol) Now I'm off to poke through the rest of my Cotmans....looking for more forgotten gems! Take care!
Cobalts, ceruleans and other heavy metals paints need extra binder to get them into a liquid enough state to get into a tube, and extreme temperature and air pressure changes can make them separate. Maybe at the end or beginning of the tubing process excess binder could end up in some tubes? It's unlikely that every tube would be the same. I know that cobalts can be inconsistent--I've bought very stiff versions of a cobalt paint and then found another with binder separation in the same color.
@@OhJodi69 agree with you on that she reads our minds sometimes haha~ i've been looking into ceruleans myself and this video came just in time! vangogh paints are cheaper than cotmans for me so my go-to is vangogh's cerulean blue hue too :D for cotman, i'm just in love with their Intense Blue (phthalo blue). i have a few other PB15:3 but i always gravitate towards the cotman one for some reason. :)
Mijello Mission gold also has Cobalt cerulean blue (PB35) and Cobalt cerulean blue deep (PB36) besides this Cerulean blue. This cerulean may be misnamed..^^
Yes Mijello is well known for misnaming some colours, but they do have the genuine cobalts which are beautiful, easy to reset and very pigmented. Unfortunately Jacksons do not stock the full range.
The Holbein cerulean has long been my favorite. I like the M. Graham for their astounding pigment load, but much like you, I want my cerulean blue to granulate. Also, the coolness of the Holbein shade is spot on for Colorado skies. I also like Daniel Smith's Cerulean Blue Chromium for it's dark and moody shade and lovely granulation.
thank you for doing the whole series, so very very helpful
If Old Holland is generally too expensive for you, you could try getting Rembrandt which, even here in the States, is reasonably priced. I recently got a 12-tin and, at first, wasn't super impressed. They're definitely professional quality, but what sets them apart? Just in the last week, I did a small abstract work with very small "cells" in it. I was especially pleased by the way the Rembrandt could be applied. It seemed to disperse really easily and smoothly, more so than any of the others (I used all my brands), as though the binder was very thoroughly and finely mixed with the paint. Even the Schmincke and Da Vinci felt stickier to apply. These were half-pans, but now I want to try more, including tubes, to see if this characteristic goes throughout the brand.
i have a set of 24 half pans from rembrandt myself and strong agree that they're definitely solid in their performance :D
I have the Schmincke PB35 and it's gorgeous.. I think it's really sad you went for the hue 😔
But thank you for the all the work you put in all these videos 😊
I have to. It's the premises of the series. It's to help beginners avoid buying into the hues thinking they are the same thing.
Hello, je préfère le cerulean blue de Winsor et Newton. Ce que j'aime le moins sont les plus foncés et dans les clairs, les moins pigmentés. Merci, je suis vraiment ravie de vous voir de retour. Take care !
Would be extremely interested in a colossal color showdown on viridian !
Me too, I've not had much luck, it's a dodgy pigment in most brands but I'd love to find a good one. My WN just will not re wet and some tend to go gritty like the pigment clumps together. I gave up and stuck to Phthalo based viridian hues
Me too. Particularly would love to learn which ones don’t dry as hard as a rock but also not so gooey that I can put in my plein air palette.
@@Foghorn-tr1je Viridian is a notoriously difficult pigment to make into watercolor.
If you want a tube paint that you can let dry on your palette? Give Schmincke Horadam 513 Viridian a try. It will dry and it will wet about as readily as any Viridian cake pan paint.
Otherwise, M.Graham makes a good Viridian, but it will be gooey. It also doesn't keep well in large globs on an open palette. Small globs does it. Keep it in the tube.
Would be interested in Blockx Viridian for the emerald color.
Yes! Viridian! I LOVE M. Graham's. It's beautiful, and while it starts off gooey, it DOES set up and is wonderfully re-wetable. Plus, I find its granulation just lovely, and it has good tinting strength, not something I can say about most Viridians I have tried.
I love ceruleans, thanks for showing us so many different brands! My go-to cerulean is Daniel Smith Cerulean Blue Chromium--it's very reliable, transparent and an excellent mixer. I especially like to mix it with Potter's pink (a Sade trick!) or Quin Pink for sunset skies. I also adore Winsor & Newton's Cerulean--it's perfect for warm tropical skies and it has gorgeous granulation. I find the M Graham cerulean useful when you want a non-granulating crayon box blue, it's a shame it's hard to put into a travel palette but in my climate it does sometimes dry up enough in the winter months. I'd say it's semi-transparent on the page.
You are so welcome! Thank you for sharing your clear passion and knowledge of the ceruleans
Super helpful video! What a lot of work you do for us. Much appreciated. I’m a Daniel Smith fan but Holbein here is very tempting. Thank you very much.
Aw thank you so much Janet, that means a lot :)
Thanks so much. I bought Daniel Smith originally and I just wasn’t happy with skies and shaded objects, which is mostly how I use Cerulean Blue. I recently changed to Winsor and Newton and love it. I think connected with my eye; I like that hint of yellow.
Genuine Cerulean Blue should be PB35, 'Cobalt Stannate'. This pigment compound is fairly old (used as an artist pigments since 1860) and important because of its great permanence, and because its cyan-leaning color cannot be matched by permanent mixes of other pigments (since genuine Manganese Blue, PB33, is no longer obtainable). Other "Cerulean" blues are rather irrelevant, except if you buy the 'shade of color' rather than the pigment. IMO, it's nice if top tier brands primarily offer a selection of useful pigment identities, rather than 'colors'. That doesn't mean that 'hues' are not serious. Many 'hues' are perfectly well suitable for professional artist use, as are some budget brands/ranges.
Varieties of PB36 are now commonly marketed as "Cerulean Blue Chromium". That is okay, I suppose, and it has become the established name, even though the pigment had other names, like Cobalt Chromite or Bonnard Blue. The reason some manufacturers do this, is because PB36 is a cheaper and stronger pigment than Cerulean Blue, and that it's also more docile and compliant, making it easier to make a paint preparation that handles well. PB36 is also an excellent pigment in its own right, with great permanence, however I'd say the color is somewhat redundant (unlike PB35).
Drawbacks of genuine Cerulean Blue, PB35, is that it's somewhat weak, rater expensive, health hazardous, and very difficult to make handle well in Watercolors.
Cyan leaning variety of Phthalo Blue, PB15:3 is much the opposite. It's dirt cheap, extremely strong and as if born for Watercolors. Unfortunately, it's not perfectly lightfast, which is why I sense a problem for this particular hue of color for artists. For non-Artist applications these Phthalo Blues are good enough, and they're phenomenally strong and dirt-cheap, so dominate use and markets. This is how Manganese Blue, PB33, the "perfect blue", ceased to be manufactured. It didn't survive the competition (artist paints is not a large enough market), and I expect the same to happen to PB35, eventually. 🤔
Regarding PB15:3, beta copper phthalocyanide, it's maybe worthwhile to know that lightfastness will differ with manufacturer and medium. It seems the lightfastness is not a problem in Oil, where the pigment particles can be bigger. And some Watercolors maybe makes it into ASTM I, so it's not like this is a complete disaster area. It's mainly a problem for people who intend to hang something in direct daylight/sun.
Holbein's is so pretty!!! The Schmincke and Mijello ones are so obviously phthalo, IDK what they were thinking XD
Yeah I love the Holbein one too :D
I’ve never been sure about cerulean blue, but after seeing these colours laid out wow! I think I might add it to my palette
I'm really glad! I hope you enjoy painting with cerulean blue.
Great comparisons! One of the very best series on here, ever. I have the Schmincke Cobalt azure, and it’s very nice ( I agree: frustrating name, though). I don’t like the look of cerulean in general, but based on your swatches I love how M.Graham’s Cerulean lays down and it’s color compared to the others. Thanks for another great video!
Aw you are so kind :) Thank you.
The Mission Gold Pure Pigment 34 set comes with 3 tubes called "Cerulean." There is a 15:3 phthalo blue green shade as you showed. But also has Cerulean Blue (PB35) and Cerulean Blue Deep (PB36). In addition to those two true cobalts, there are three other tubes of true cobalt (blue, turquoise and green deep). Love my set, what a value!
Nice to see Cerulean on this episode! Cerulean is wonderful for glazing purposes. I recently discovered that after using Helios Cerulean from Schmincke to go over some duller blues. It really brings some to certain pieces to life!
I haven't used Cerulean Hue, but I would take that as a substitute for Ultramarine as I'm not a huge fan of those particular warmer blues.
Overall, lovely video!
this sort of information and comparison is so helpful. it's a pitty, that there are only about 5T views.
My favorite has always been DaVinci Cerulean. I avoided it because I didn't like most brands until I used DaVinci 's. It's genuine, it granulates but not overly and makes beautiful skies. And my Fabriano Artístico cp 140lb paper has a Kilimanjaro watermark. So in case some viewers wanna save a buck it is true that Fabriano Artístico makes Kilimanjaro. Take care 🤗
Wow, that's a great tip about the Kilimanjaro paper, thanks!
Thanks for sharing!! that's super useful tip :D
Thank you for doing these. I'm about 2 months new to watercolors, and I'm surprised I'm really enjoying it! But a frustration I think unique to watercolors (because of lifting and transparency &c) is the color "naming" conventions. I was confused why you did a few videos like this (that I've seen) by "color names" FOR that reason: the color names can completely throw people off, and I'd suggest be so frustrating (in trying to mix or even just glaze with a "known brand") it could chase off people new to watercolors.
Anyway, in watching a few of these over the last week, I've learned SO MUCH about pigments and other "minutiae" that probably would help many wannabe watercolorists. Acrylics and oils have their own idiosyncrasies, but I may have thrown out my "covid-furloughed" and "get-a-hobby" gifts of paints and papers had I not happened upon your indigo comparisons -and ITA with your favorite! Now I know why, though (when I feared I was merely being "picky" and shouldn't mind mixing paints to get a decent indigo). Thank you!
I like M. Graham and Schminke, either of which I have tried yet. thank you for doing this fabulous comparison.
I prefer PB 35 over PB36 for my skies in landscapes, I use White Nights and Winsor and Newtons versions interchangeably. Since it it slightly less green and less intense than the PB36, it perfectly captures my icelandic winter skies and midnight skies in summer. I have not been able to capture that with any other blues. It's also useful in mixes, especially interesting green mixes for moss and other vegetation.
Schmincke have now changed the name to cobalt cerulean from cobalt azure, and was one of their newer colours a few years back.
This is just so good. I think my favourite from your page here is W&N, I really like the hue.
Otherwise I am happy with my little pan of Rembrandt. I'm still not entirely sure which one to buy when I run out of that because I do prefer tube paints in wells and I find W&N's paints don't always like to be used like that.
Thank you so much for another great video! BTW I have Schmincke Horadam Pb35/36 in pans: one is the Cobalt azure you mentioned and the other is "Kobaltcoelin" Pb 36 which Schmincke translates to Cobalt cerulean. They are quite the same, I need to put them next to each other to tell a difference. One claims to be more opaque and one has more granulation....
You are so welcome Janina. Thank you for sharing your experience with the Cobalt Azure & Cobalt Coelin, maybe it's a pairing for a comparison video on their own ;)
@@OtoKano if you still find that interesting, please do a comparison 😊 You articulate the nuances of each color really well. I would love to know your thoughts on those. I also wish I had found your channel before I bought my paints! 😅
I had previously selected Holbein based on the Handprint chart and looks like I am happy with that!
hi there! may i ask where can i find this chart you have mentioned?
Paint in Hiding Search “handprint watercolor blue” and scroll to to the Cerulean section.
@@spoonierv1543 found it, thank you!
Generally never thought to have a cerulean. I have a manganese blue hue that sort of fills the same box but my goodness Holbein is looking mighty nice.
Wonderful lesson! Thank you so much for this information!
my fave is one from Rembrandt, I find it's got a good strength, good granulation and handles really well. I think some of these paint brands don't do well when painted out in full strength like sennelier and Old Holland this is probably why they are streaky and glary as there's a lot of honey in both. I have a tube of the OH one, mine doesn't smell bad, maybe you have a really old tube? It is very expensive, even as a fan of the brand I don't think it's anything special, it's nice but I wont be restocking it once it's gone.
I noticed the same smell on the lovely Old Holland samples you very generously sent to me as well. Maybe it's a me thing? I am really sensitive to smell though.
I'm surprised you didn't use schmincke's cobalt cerulean especially when the roman szmal's is also cobalt cerulean
I have to. It's the premises of the series. It's to help beginners avoid buying into the hues thinking they are the same thing. So if there is one that is called 'Cerulean Blue Hue' that gets shown, because that's what an absolutely beginner will think is like cerulean blue, it's to show that it's nothing like it.
Schmincke’s cobalt azure is my absolute favorite among PB35/36-based paints.
@@mikepolo2887 I love that one too.
Didn't white nights have a nice version of cerulean? Think it was called ceruleum though so Im not sure if it's actually the right thing. The tinting strength is a bit on the weak side but it's a pretty color with nice granulation
yeah you're right. and it's PB35 so it's legit but yeah, definitely weak in tinting strength. so glad they came out with the PB36 cobalt azure blue version, i love that one :)
The main reason why I haven't done white nights in this season is because they don't cover a lot of the other colors that we are going to be trying out in the upcoming episodes. Hope that makes sense :)
@@OtoKano hehe~ i figured as much when i saw roman szmal, old holland, and maimeri in your line up. :) and i think white nights is quite affordable for anyone who wants to try a certain colour/pigment so i definitely think having the other brands in your showdown lineup is definitely much more useful for us. thank you! :D
@@OtoKano did you ever see the Jacksons blog on how the company was founded and their link to St. Petersburg/ White Nights? I was blown away by it.
@@gorway7 Really? No I haven't seen it!
From this video the old holland one looks like the truest version of cerulean blue which is a nice sky blue with some "greenish" undertones, difficult to describe but my daniel smith one looks also more greenish than visible in the video but maybe this is just some exception
Thank you so much for doing this! I was just looking at what cerulean blue I should get so this is so helpful. I’m getting it at the moment to make a soft ski. I did like Daniel’s Smith in their dot card, but I think looking at this swatch I’m going to get Davincis. Is more affordable here in the US and I think I like my skies non granulating. You gained a subscriber and I look forward to watching more of these as I grow my collection 😊
Thank you so much for subscribing Daniela :D I really hope you enjoy working with the Da Vinci one!
In my experience a lot of Asian brands call their pthalo blues a cerulean bluemand their ultramarine blue a cobalt blue. I think that's that the naming inconsistency is about.
LIKE: Daniel Smith, Holbein, Sennelier.
DISLIKE/: The rest especially Mission Gold & Schmincke.
HONORABLE MENTION: Rembrandt has a 2 or 3 Cerulean Blues. Love the Cerulean Blue.
do you use rembrandt too?! yay! they really deserve more recognition :) thanks for giving them a shout out :)
@@PaintinHiding Haven't used them that much because I've accumulated so much paint that I never know which one I should use. Lesson: stick to one brand but I do love the Cerulean blue among other colours of their range.
Surprising to me I too like the W&N version it looks truer to the colour it should be. A few of the others have really travelled a long way off! I have this as a half pan and like it’s sort of sunny blue colour. It is meant to be a sky blue that will work with other pigments to give a sky some authenticity, what on earth are those pthalo’s doing! I have a couple of other versions not on your selection, shall have to look for them up to see which they were, and which pigment, but offhand I think the are probably White Nights and Renescens, or maybe not, hmm. And Daler Rowney pro range, which rarely get much attention, but their pans are lovely. it my imagination or were the pb35’s less opaque than the pb36?
I'm very confused as to how the daniel smith version in pb35 is non toxic. Is it still cobalt?
Interesting that the schmincke phthalo granulated. Was this is because a small amount w4 is added?
I heard the bubbling thing is some kind of detergent-like filler some companies use. Wish I knew more in order to help clarify. We love you, Oto! I use DaVinci's cerulean which is Eve's fault. ;) I do have the DS cerulean blue chromium. 💙
I wish I knew more too. I'm going to keep an eye out on brands/colors that bubble so we can at least start collecting data on this!!
I really like DS cerulean blue chromium too. You have to like heavy granulation though which I do.
Barbara, the detergent type substance is a sometimes necessary manufacturing additive rather than a filler. Some pigment types - clay type minerals and some heavy metal pigments like cobalts and cadmiums, tend to clump or cake when being milled/ mulled into paint and require dispersants or wetting agent to enable the binder to coat the pigments freely, rather clumps of pigment. These wetting agents are also added to improve flow. However the amount used in itself should not be enough to cause bubbling so maybe something else is contributing. Many traditional East Asian brands like Holbien do not use additional flow improvers like ox-gall but may still use some form of wetting agent in the production process.
i think i'm favoring the holbein (da vinci similar but not quite as good) and for the yellow tint, the WN.
i actually have the daniel smith's one but.... idk it seems different from my dot card which had a color i could obsess over (the hue, the granulation pattern, etc). but i got a tube and it feels.... lackluster. missing something : ( also with using it for skies it's tough because between the granulation pattern there's a distinct lack of color.... so it feels better maybe as a mixing color? whereas the H and DV do seem to have an overall color.
Thanks Oto. Wonderful as always. I've wanted a cerulean blue for a couple years. An art supplier we have called Blick has their own brand very affordable. 46 cents per ml. PB 35. Im trying to dry it in a pan but after 2 weeks its still semi moist. Im thinking that might use honey based binder. No info on website. Just a guess. Its OK. Semi opaque, but looks more verditer blue to me. Though there is no mention of white in it. Take care.😍
yes a lot of people have mentioned Blick this season, I'll look into seeing whether I can include it in season 3!
Is there a reason you do not include white nights in your reviews, they have a genuine cerulean in their line? Love your videos!! Super informative!
I am already covering 12 brands, at a cost of around $150 per episode. I cannot afford to cover absolutely every brand that does the color.
@@OtoKano totally fair, I find the prices on art supplies are astronomical but dont always see a reason why when you look at different brands with wide price range.
schmicke has another cerulean blue. I could swear, there was one called reddisch. I don't see it on the charts any more. but I always wonder, how the helio cerulean and cobald cerulean look alike when swatched like here. beneath winsor newton esp. because somebody once asked for this colour in a painting. then I realized how different mine was compared with winsor newton. I guess one of the other cerulean by schmincke might be closer to the particular tone. therefore my interst. always because of such things, that only beginners like I worry about ;-)
Cerulean literally means sky blue so Maimeri seems a little confused! Winsor and Newton for me for colour being spot on but also like DS and the colour of the Old Holland (I really want to smell it now!)
Cerulean Sky Blue is Maimeri's color for the sky, so, not confused.
Sky Blue Sky Blue 🤣🤣🤣
Hello! The price for Winsor Newton is wrong, correct pricing per ml for a tube that costs 13.50£ would be 0.96£ per ml
wooo thank you!
it's as if you read my mind, i just started thinking about getting a legit cerulean blue PB35! (not a hue). after watching this, i am definitely going to get holbein's! :D i have White Nights' Cobalt Azure Blue PB36 that i think is a beautiful 'green shade' of the typical cerulean blue PB35, it also has a beautiful fine granulation. mijello mission gold's cobalt cerulean blue PB35 is very beautiful, easy to rewet, granulates beautifully. i have scans of the dot chart up on my blog if anyone is interested. speaking of bubbling, sennelier's indian yellow and white night's ultramarine violet also bubble. i wonder what makes them bubble? sennelier's Cinereous Blue is a cerulean blue hue that is bright and lively whereas rembrandt's Cerulean Blue (phthalo) is noticeably duller in comparison but definitely much closer to the cobalt ceruleans discussed in this video.
So glad this video came in at the perfect timing for you! Yes the bubbling. Oh the bubbling. It's definitely some colors from some brands but I've not gathered enough data yet to figure out the cause. It's certainly a fun challenge for me to work on. Rembrandt's hue cerulean sounds like they tried to get it closer to a real cerulean?
@@OtoKano yes, very much so! if anyone wants a true cerulean hue without the granulation, rembrandt's cerulean phthalo is the way to go :)
I'm super picky about my cerulean blue, it's a staple for me, I use winsor and Newton or holbein. I've bought this pigment in other brands and I'm always disappointed so I stick with my winsor newton. Daniel smith disappointed me greatly for this pigment as its streaky and not a bright enough. I love many daniel smith paints but this is not one of them
I totally understand your feelings on DS one. I was really surprised at how badly it performed, and I'm a big DS fan.
@@OtoKano You should also give the DS Cerulean Blue Chromium a try. Far superior to their regular Cerulean. AND it is PB36.
I think it comes down to personal preference as many in the comments like the one I don’t. I have the windsor Newton cerulean and can’t stand it. It’s like it has a dirty yellow in the mix (I know it is single pigment). I just don’t like the hue or how it spreads on paper. I do really like DS cerulean blue chromium though.
I was looking for a non cobalt cerulean replacement and considering going for the schminke but it really does look terribly different to the real thing. If anyone has good recommendations please let me know!
Sora-iro! 💙
Its nonsense to compare by name, esp. cerulean. Ceruleanis Colin and also Azur, meaning all sky in Latin and Italian. Compare by Pigments. How can you take Schminckes Hue ( for poor people ), they have the Azur which is cerulean, Colin. Schminckes is for sure the worlds best AZUR ! Learn Latin, makes Life much better, you will understand many things better !!!!!!
Also Mission gold has a genuine cerulean with Pb35 and also Pb36 !!!!!
Just coming back to comment because I know you all can relate…. This is that one color that I HATE. It gives me the heebie jeebies. Its the exact color of the vapid sunny sky in late autumn, when the grey and death of the landscape is coming, when school starts in the northern hemisphere, and football season begins *shiver*