I love my paintbox.
I can't paint or draw, but I can colour-in!

I bought the Winsor & Newton watercolour box in a half price sale about fifteen years ago. It came with a few basic colours which I've since added to, but I've yet to need to replace any - the merest touch of a damp brush and its loaded with intense pigment.


I'm interested to see which colours have been most used, which barely touched.


Top of the list comes Payne's Grey. I love this moody blue-grey, from its inky darkness to the translucent shadowy veil.












Next most used:
Indian Yellow, French Ultramarine, Permanent Rose and Olive Green











Least-used:

Winsor Yellow, Scarlet Lake, Cadmium Red, Winsor Blue, Winsor Green, Viridian, Raw Sienna, Indian Red and Raw Umber.

The Winsor yellow comes as no surprise - I've an aversion to acidic yellows, although it mixes interesting greens.
Scarlet lake and cadmium red, Winsor green and viridian, are just 'not my colours'.
I'm surprised to rediscover Winsor blue - an intense warm-blue.
Similarly, I've under-rated the earth colours Raw sienna, Indian red and Raw umber.


This has been an interesting exercise for me, and useful to see how true my camera reproduces the colours.