A J Ludlow Prussian Blue Professional Watercolour

Prussian Blue is just one of the bright and exquisite Professional Watercolours from A J Ludlow. Being based on a single pigment with excellent permanence and light fastness, ensures that this watercolour’s properties are exceptional. As with all our fine-art materials, Prussian Blue watercolour is lovingly handmade in the UK by a skilled artisan from the best ingredients and finest pigments.

Prussian Blue professional quality watercolour is supplied in a 15ml glass jar, because:

• The watercolour’s wet mass tone can be seen through the walls of the jar;
• The colour can be easily transferred from the jar to the palette with a palette knife.

But more importantly, there is no need for unnecessary additives or formulation changes to make processing in our colour manufacturing workshop easier, allowing the Prussian Blue watercolour made by A J Ludlow, to be at the highest pigment concentration and the pigment’s unique properties to be uncompromised. Anything less would be at odds with the brilliance and performance demanded of a professional quality watercolour range.

This Professional Watercolour is prepared using the metal complex pigment, iron hexacyanoferrate. The pigment has been selected for its purity, high tinctorial strength, exceptional transparency, light fastness and very attractive blue colour. It affords a transparent watercolour (as can be seen in the figure 1a below).

Figure 1: Assessment of (a) the opacity/transparency and (b) staining power of A J Ludlow Prussian Blue Professional Watercolour*.

The Prussian Blue watercolour does not lift out completely (as can be seen in figure 1b above) and so has a propensity to stain the watercolour paper slightly.

This watercolour has a structured consistency, but is easily transferred from the jar to the watercolour palette using a clean spatula or palette knife. As with all the Professional Watercolours from A J Ludlow, once water is added, this watercolour has excellent flow and is a joy to paint with.

The A J Ludlow Prussian Blue Professional Watercolour contains only the pigment and no inert fillers and so this watercolour’s colour intensity and tinctorial strength is very high. If required, the Prussian Blue watercolour’s intensity can be reduced, which is best done by using dilute washes in order use the whiteness of the watercolour paper or the watercolour can be mixed with the A J Ludlow Binder and Painting Medium. Using the Binder and Painting medium will not only reduce the colour’s intensity, but will also maintain the qualities of a professional quality watercolour.

Pigment Details: Iron (II, III) Hexacyanoferrate (II, III) / Colour Index Pigment Blue 27 ( C.I. PB27)

Footnote:

*Details of how each watercolour is tested are given in the May 2021 ARTicle “Testing and Assessing the Properties of Watercolours – Part 1 ” (see also Part 2 of the ARTicle, which was published in June 2021).