For 2019, DANIEL SMITH has created a New Signature Series of 6 gorgeous Grays, as well as a new PrimaTek and Gray Titanium!
Why so many Grays?
Colors are not static, every color has an infinite range, including gray.
No single color is perfect for every Artist which is why DANIEL SMITH makes the widest range of watercolors in the world.
DANIEL SMITH manufactures many reds, blues, violets, greens plus many more colors having different mixes of properties, and now a wonderful selection of 6 grays created with 3 world renowned Artists: Master Artist Alvaro Castagnet, Master Colorist Jane Blundell, and Master Artist Joseph Zbukvic!
These 6, beautiful Grays are part of the New Signature Series of colors for Artists to choose from to make their palette of colors perfect for them!
Alvaro Castagnet – Signature Series
- Alvaro’s Caliente Grey (warm)
- Alvaro’s Fresco Grey (cool)
Jane Blundell – Signature Series
Joseph Zbukvic – Signature Series
Gray Titanium – New Watercolor
Red Jasper Genuine – New PrimaTek
Alvaro Castagnet
Alvaro’s Caliente Grey (warm)
“…is a terrific hue, very powerful, excellent to create strong and warm paintings. In monochrome this wonderful Grey is perfect to achieve a powerful atmosphere with amazing glow. This color is also perfect to add dramatic highlights and shadows.” -Alvaro Castagnet
Alvaro’s Fresco Grey (cool)
“A very powerful and true hue, with no artificial look to it. Passionate and mysterious, great to evoke distant elements of any kind, even the unknown…I love the hue.” -Alvaro Castagnet
Alvaro’s Caliente and Fresco Greys, as he describes them, are about;
“…magnetism, fury, energy…power. You know greys… create a feeling of danger, emotion, passion… mystery…evoke things that are unknown…darkness. I use these greys to create a painting that has a magnetism…energy, mystery, passion…something to discover, entering the unknown, darkness. Both of these colors have just this type of feel to me.” -Alvaro Castagnet
Jane Blundell
Artist Jane Blundell wanted a gray without the often-dulling effect of a black pigment, and without the staining effects of phthalo blue. She wanted a gray that was liftable and granulating to create the lovely look of stormy skies and softened shadows. It would also work as a neutral tint, darkening colors without changing them. Using a gray that is made with palette colors maintains color harmony in an artwork. Many artists mix ultramarine blue and burnt sienna as they work, but no one was making this gorgeous mix as a convenience color, so she did to make it easy to create rich darks with ease. Initially she mixed it in individual pans and palettes but the demand from her students meant she started to make it in tubes.
A few years ago, Jane asked DANIEL SMITH to make her Jane’s Grey easily available to artists everywhere. Now available as part of our Signature Series, Jane’s Grey is semi-transparent, granulating, low staining and has excellent lightfastness.
Joseph Zbukvic
“…perfect for strong summer light when shadows have that rich warm glow. It’s particularly useful for painting late afternoon light effects with its pinkish glow when it’s diluted into lighter washes. It can capture that evening glow perfectly.” -Joseph Zbukvic
“…perfect for those strong, New York type cityscapes. When undiluted it is basically black and can provide powerful monolithic shapes without looking chalky. It gives a look of charcoal drawing or old-fashioned photographs.” -Joseph Zbukvic
“…I designed this grey to use for those frosty morning and rainy winter day paintings. It has a lovely greenish sediment which is perfect for low light, early morning light effects. I think this is a must for anyone painting winter scenes.” -Joseph Zbukvic
Single pigment Gray Titanium is a mid-tone warm gray with slightly yellow undertones, and is semi-transparent, granulating, non-staining and has excellent lightfastness. The color and granulation make it wonderfully useful for dusty desert animals such as deer, elephants and tortoises, and for birds whose feathers offer good camouflage for blending into dry woodland, savanna and desert like the roadrunner and burrowing owl. In landscapes, granulating Gray Titanium is beautiful for trees and shrubs whose trunks, branches and twigs are light colored and textured. Urban landscapes benefit from Gray Titanium as well with light washes suggesting concrete structures. As a single pigment, Gray Titanium mixes wonderfully with other colors adding both warmth and softness due to its semi-transparent/semi-opaque characteristic.
A lovely pinkish, cool brown in light washes and a medium reddish maroon in mass tone, think red cedar bark, our Red Jasper Genuine is granulating, semi-transparent, non-staining and has excellent lightfastness. Red Jasper Genuine is a wonderful color for landscapes, birds like the male common chaffinch and reddish egret, as well as animals who have a medium to light reddish coat like the red panda.
The mineral for our Red Jasper Genuine comes from India’s Gwalior region and is colored a rich red from iron. Historically it was often carved as amulets, vases and other decorative items. India’s red jasper was one of stones used to beautifully embellish the Taj Mahal with other semi-precious stones that were carved and inlaid into the white marble in curvilinear flower forms. The flowers formed from red jasper are a vivid red and contrast beautifully with the green jade stems and leaves against the white marble. Spiritually, red jasper is associated with the base or root chakra and helps to ground and energize/heal the body and provide balance and protection.
Please enjoy these Watercolor Features with more information and images about our 8 New DANIEL SMITH Watercolors!
- Alvaro Castagnet | Alvaro’s Caliente and Fresco Grey Watercolors from DANIEL SMITH
- Jane Blundell | Jane’s Grey DANIEL SMITH Watercolor
- Joseph Zbukvic | Joseph Z’s Cool, Neutral and Warm Greys from DANIEL SMITH
- PrimaTek Watercolor | Red Jasper Genuine
- Watercolor | Gray Titanium
These 8 New DANIEL SMITH, 15 ml Watercolors are now available, please ask for them at your favorite art supply store!