Why do we have seven Sienna Watercolours?

Because as an artist, it is important that you have the colours to give you the best expression, and to have the best colours for painting, you need choices! A sienna that works beautifully for one artist may not meet the needs of another artist. Earlier this year, we added two new Sienna’s, Raw Sienna Light and Burnt Sienna Light bringing our total to seven Sienna Watercolours. Adding these two new watercolours, which many artists have been requesting, to our five other Sienna Watercolours that we have offered for years, allows us to offer you more choices.

Four of our Sienna Watercolours are made with the traditional brown pigment PBr 7, and they look different from one another even though they are all made with PBr 7. Natural pigments such as Sienna will have different colours depending on their composition. Various locations will have different colours because the percentages of the metals and compounds are slightly different. When you burn Raw Sienna to get Burnt Sienna, you can vary shades with how long the material is burned.

Modern Sienna Watercolours; Raw Sienna Light, Quinacridone Sienna and Burnt Sienna Light

Quinacridone Sienna and both of our two newest Sienna Watercolours are manufactured with different pigments than PBr 7, which makes them more modern, and slightly brighter versions of the ancient sienna clays that Paleolithic man used. While they are different pigments, they are part of our collection of Sienna watercolours.

Paleolithic artists, using natural sienna’s and the other earth pigments like ochres and umbers, painted their expressive animals directly onto cave walls for thousands of years. The 17,000-year-old cave paintings at Lascaux in France feature several types of animals in hundreds of stunning paintings which animate the cave walls. One of those primitive cave horses inspired our horse which was painted with several of our Sienna Watercolours, both traditional and modern, and DANIEL SMITH Walnut Ink was used to outline the horse.

 

Today, we are very lucky to have access to such a wide range of watercolour choices, ancient colours as well as traditional and modern like our Sienna Watercolours. Not only that, we don’t have to barter for coloured earth carried over hundreds of miles, we can just pop over to our Studio Six or order them online for home delivery!

DANIEL SMITH’s Seven Sienna Watercolours:

Raw Sienna Light – New!
DANIEL SMITH Raw Sienna Light has more golden yellow tones than our Raw Sienna. This Sienna is a non-granulating colour, so it is smoother in washes and is non-staining rather than low staining like our Raw Sienna. Washes suggest sunny wheat fields, dried savannah grasses and other sunbaked landscapes.
Excellent lightfastness
Transparent
Granulating
Non-staining
Series 1
Pigment PY 42
SKU 284600233

Raw Sienna –
Used since prehistoric times, an extremely permanent inorganic earth pigment of low intensity but medium-high tinting strength. Balance the transparent intensity of Quinacridone Gold, Burnt Orange and Burnt Scarlet with the earthiness of semi-transparent Raw Sienna. Also, a moist Raw Sienna wash touched or spattered with Lunar Earth or Lunar Black creates unique texture effects.
Excellent lightfastness
Semi-transparent
Granulating
Low staining
Series 1
Pigment PBr 7
SKU 284600096

Monte Amiata Natural Sienna –
Bring a natural glow to your palette with this stunning sienna earth tone. Subtle granulation and a delicate transparency make this watercolour especially useful for portraits and landscapes. This low staining pigment is very workable and has excellent lightfastness.
Excellent lightfastness
Transparent
Granulating
Low staining
Series 1
Pigment PBr 7
SKU 284600056

Italian Burnt Sienna –
This sienna is a natural orange-brown earth pigment imported from Italy. Use this with the same method and purpose as plain Burnt Sienna. Many artists prefer Italian Burnt Sienna over others. Perhaps the subtle semi-transparent quality of Italian Burnt Sienna more closely matches the brown and earth tones of our Pacific Northwest. Balance a super-opaque such as Indian Red or Cadmium against super transparent Quinacridone Gold or Burnt Orange, then incorporate Italian Burnt Sienna to unify fall landscapes or close-up leaf studies, as well as to render weathered slate and old brick.
Excellent lightfastness
Semi-transparent
Granulating
Non-staining
Series 2
Pigment PBr 7
SKU 284600047

Quinacridone Sienna –
The ultimate low-staining glazing pigment, certainly finer than any Burnt Sienna. For the traditional and purist watercolour painter, Quinacridone Sienna divides yellows from reds, falling on the orange line. Its place on the colour chart makes Quinacridone Sienna a complement-free pigment, easy to modify without revealing a hidden gray.
Quinacridone Sienna works especially well in damp underpaintings overpainted with full-bodied pigments such as Indigo or Payne’s Gray. The fine clear Quinacridone particles collect and retreat, giving way to compressed pools surrounded by the premixed grays. Highly durable and extremely transparent, all the Quinacridone colours excel in vivid clarity and intensity.
Excellent lightfastness
Transparent
Granulating
Low staining
Series 2
Pigments PO 48, PR 209, PY 150
SKU 284600093

Burnt Sienna Light – New!
DANIEL SMITH Burnt Sienna Light is a beautiful earthy colour and is redder than our Burnt Sienna, more transparent and slightly less granulating. In very light washes, it makes a good, light flesh tone for portraits, and in darker washes, it is a rich red-brown.
Excellent lightfastness
Transparent
Granulating
Non-staining
Series 1
Pigments PR 101, PO 48
SKU 284600230

Burnt Sienna –
This transparent to semi-transparent earth pigment, a grayed orange, combines with other hues without a loss of intensity or transparency. Subsequent layers (or glazes) do not sully or stain the other pigments these glazes contact.
Excellent
Semi-Transparent
Granulating
Non-staining
Series 1
Pigment PBr 7
SKU 284600230