Cobalt turquoise
Cobalt turquoise (PG50) is one of those colours that I instantly fell in love with. There’s nothing else like it. Nothing comes close. The next closest cobalt colours, cobalt cerulean and cobalt green turquoise (both PG36), are miles away in terms of colour hue.
I can’t say the same about Schmincke reds, where a lot of them are bunched very close together, very similar (and I had a hard time distinguishing/discerning between them).
Cobalt turquoise is a vivid light blue, like a bright blue sky on a beautiful summer day, but nicer. I think it’s one of the easiest colours to recognise in my palette. Cobalt turquoise, like all the cobalts, is expensive. But it’s worth it.
I often paint the irises (as in the eyes not the flower) cobalt turquoise. With a lunar black pupil if you must know.
The alternative to using cobalts are of course the ubiquitous phthalocyanine blue (PG15) and phthalocyanine green (PG7). I still can’t figure out which colour I despise more. Probably PG7, as that is the colour they tattooed by greyhound’s ear with. I can understand using pthalocyanine pigments for lino printing, but not watercolour, never watercolour.
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