Last year, I created a spreadsheet of all the single pigment watercolour paints offered by major professional brands. This is a useful tool to help you compare paints from different brands while you shop.
Since then, several brands have adjusted their offerings. New pigments and paints have become available. This week, I updated my spreadsheet to stay up to date with current offerings. You can view the spreadsheet with continuous live updates here.
Summary of changes
In this update, I have added two new paint lines.
Roman Szmal Aquarius is a new paint brand from Poland with a very extensive selection of single pigment paints. Although they are currently hard to get outside of Poland, Roman Szmal tells me his brand is working with my favourite art shop Jackson’s Art to offer their paint worldwide.
Maimeri Blu completely reformulated their line in 2018 – the new 2018 MaimeriBlu watercolour line consists of 90 paints, all single pigment. I have added a new column for the new Maimeri Blu paints.
In addition, Winsor & Newton and Daniel Smith both extended their permanent lines in 2019. I added the single-pigment additions from these two brands to their current entries.Each of the 4 brands added in this update have introduced unique new offerings to the watercolour market.
Extensive new watercolour line from Roman Szmal Aquarius
Roman Szmal Aquarius is a tiny Polish start-up which launched offering 140 paints, 117 of them single pigment. For comparison, that is more single pigment offerings than or Winsor & Newton or Schmincke. The only watercolour brand with a larger line is Daniel Smith. Additionally, the Aquarius line focuses exclusively on lightfast pigments which rank 7-8 on the Blue Wool scale. There are no Alizarin Crimsons or Rose Madders here, all Aquarius watercolours should stand the test of time.
The Aquarius line contains several rare and unique pigments. Watch out for several unique yellow pigments, a Permanent Orange made with PO59 (a nickel azomethine orange complex) and a few rare red pigments. The line also includes a large selection of directly sourced natural earth pigments.
Single-pigments only in Maimeri Blu’s new line
MaimeriBlu have completely overhauled their watercolour line. The new line consists of 90 paints, all made with single pigments. In addition to common pigments offered by other manufacturers, the new line includes a few unique offerings, including three unique/rare yellow paints (PY139 Gamboge, PY183 Golden Yellow, PY227 Permanent Yellow Deep). They have also included a very interesting single-pigment sepia made with PY164.
Unlike Roman Szmal, MaimeriBlu’s new line isn’t very reliable regarding lightfastness. They rank all their paints three stars on their own lightfastness “scale”. However, the line includes a number of colours known to be fugitive. The new line includes rare pigments PB1 and NB1(Genuine Indigo), both known to be fugitive.
Unique new offerings from Winsor Newton and Daniel Smith
Winsor Newton has added two new collections to their watercolour line in 2019. They have introduced a line of cadmium-free alternatives to their cadmium colours as well as a collection of five “jewel” paints. All of the jewel colours are made with single-pigments, and previously appeared in limited-edition collections. Two of the jewel paints use pigments so new that they have not been assigned a colour index yet. These are Transparent Orange (unofficially PO107 – Diketo Pyrollo Pyrollo) and Aqua Green (Palomar Turquoise – Chlorinated Cupric Pthalocyanine).
Daniel Smith has extended their line with 8 new paints in 2019. The majority of the new colours are convenience grey mixes, and there is a new Red Jasper Primatek paint (no pigment info for Primatek paints). However, they have added one completely new pigment, PW6 Titanium Grey. This pigment is a cooler-toned variation of their Titanium Buff paint.
I’ve been fortunate to get my hands on a few of these new paints, and look forward to sharing reviews with you soon!
THIS POST CONTAINS AFFILIATE LINKS.  LEE ANGOLD  IS A PARTICIPANT IN THE AMAZON LLC ASSOCIATES PROGRAM, THE DA VINCI PAINT CO. ASSOCIATES PROGRAM AND THE JACKSON’S ART AFFILIATE NETWORK.  THESE ARE AFFILIATE ADVERTISING PROGRAMS DESIGNED TO PROVIDE A MEANS FOR SITES TO EARN ADVERTISING FEES BY LINKING TO PRODUCT LISTINGS.
