A J Ludlow Cobalt Violet Professional Watercolour

Cobalt Violet 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, Cobalt Violet watercolour is lovingly handmade in the UK by a skilled artisan from the best ingredients and finest pigments.

Cobalt Violet 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 Cobalt Violet 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 inorganic metallic phosphate pigment, triscobalt (II) bis(orthophosphate) tetrahydrate, which gives the watercolour its bright violet colour, excellent light fastness and opaqueness. It therefore affords an opaque watercolour, which is semi-opaque in thin washes (as can be seen in figure 1a below).

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

The staining power of Cobalt Violet is on the low side and so the watercolour is easily lifted out (see figure 1b above). When painted out, Cobalt Violet watercolour naturally granulates, creating interesting texture in the painting.

This watercolour has a fluid consistency and is easily transferred to the watercolour palette using a clean spatula or palette knife.

The pigment used in this watercolour is relatively heavy and so has a natural tendency to separate slightly on standing in the jar. If this occurs, just stir the watercolour gently in the jar with a clean palette knife until the watercolour is fully homogeneous again.

The pigment used in the Cobalt Violet watercolour has a low tinctorial strength and so the colour of the watercolour is less intense. In order to counteract the low tinting strength of the pigment, our Cobalt Violet Professional Watercolour has been formulated with a high level of pigment.

Pigment Details: Triscobalt Bis(orthophosphate) Tetrahydrate / Colour Index Pigment Violet 14 ( C.I. PV14)

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).