Mixing Turquoise

Phthalos tend to be potent, staining colors. Almost violent. The addition of the Indian Yellow toned them down and brought out softer, green tones. Very aquatic.

Many Moons ago I painted a sea turtle from a photo ref on Wetcanvas. It was the first successful watercolor I ever painted and no one was more surprised than me that it turned out well. At the time I had only 10 paint colors, a small set of Robert Simmons synthetic sable brushes and no idea what I was doing. I managed to mix my own sea color, a lovely shade of turquoise, from D/R Phthalo blue,  Phthalo green and Indian yellow. I've got a request to recreate that same painting for a friend. The first sold a few years ago. Fortunately I have the same paints in the same brand (very important because colors can vary from mfg. to mfg.). Today I played with various mixtures to find the right shade and I think I've managed to do just that. I wish I could show a side-by-side comparison with the sample swatch but the image of the original painting appears too blue on screen for some reason. I'm just glad I remembered the 'recipe'.