Since 1832, when Henry Newton and William Winsor introduced the first moist watercolours to the world, much of Winsor & Newton's reputation has stemmed from the Professional Watercolour range. Since then, Winsor & Newton Professional Watercolour continues to be formulated and manufactured according to its founding principles: to create a top quality watercolour range that offers artists a wide and balanced choice of pigments with excellent permanence.
Each colour in their extensive range has been selected and formulated to offer the greatest choice so that artists can use a unique palette that best suits their work.
Sizes available
The Professional Watercolour range offers a wide and balanced spectrum of 109 colours in Half Pans, Whole Pans, and in 5ml and 14ml tubes. A limited range of 30 colours is available in 37ml tubes.
Professional Watercolour Tubes or Pans
Both Winsor & Newton Professional Watercolour tube and pan colours are made individually to the highest standards. Pan colour is often used by beginners because it can be less inhibiting and easier to control the strength of colour. Tube colour is more popular overall, used by artists who use high volumes of colour or stronger washes. Many painters have both, as pan colours are useful when travelling and sketching. Artists can also use both tube and pan together if they wish.
Formulation
In simple terms, a watercolour is produced by combining a pigment with a binder such as Gum Kordofan, a type of Gum Arabic. The formulations for Winsor & Newton Professional Watercolours are each unique and vary according to the nature and behaviour of each individual pigment. With a range that has thousands of applications by millions of artists worldwide, they rely on expert chemists with deep knowledge of Professional Watercolour formulation.
These chemists have learned from generations before them. Since William Winsor died in 1865, the company has only had four chief chemists. Thanks to their experience and expert knowledge, they continue to formulate a high quality range using the best pigments.
Pigment Choice
Watercolour, more than any other medium, relies upon the variable characteristics of the pigments used. As it is essentially a staining technique, everything rests on the handling properties of the pigments — whether they produce a smooth or textured wash, their opacity or transparency, and the brilliance and strength of their colour. Winsor & Newton’s aim has always been to provide artists with the widest possible range of pigments for maximum choice and flexibility.
Single Pigments in the Range
Wherever possible, single pigments are used in Professional Watercolour to offer the widest choice of colours and pigment characteristics, such as hue, particle size, transparency, and tinting strength. Single pigment formulations are purer in hue and cleaner in colour than mixtures, allowing more colour mixes before resulting in muddy effects. With 80 single pigment colours, the range offers both modern and traditional pigments for clean colour mixing.
Mixed Pigments
Although mixed pigments lose some chroma or brightness, there are valid reasons for their inclusion. In some cases, mixtures achieve higher permanence than single pigment alternatives (for example, Permanent Alizarin Crimson and Hooker’s Green). In others, they are required to achieve specific hues, such as Quinacridone Gold, where the original pigment is no longer available.
Colour Series
The Winsor & Newton Professional Watercolour range is divided into four Series. The series number indicates the relative price of the colour, which depends mainly on the cost of the pigment. Series 1 is the least expensive, and Series 4 is the most expensive.
Colour Strength
The strength of each colour has been maximised by combining advanced manufacturing techniques with the latest pigment technology. Optimum colour strength provides artists with greater tinting possibilities.
Colour Range
Winsor & Newton choose their colours based on mass tone (colour from the tube), undertone (bias of colour when in a thin film), colour strength, relative opacity, and the behaviour of the pigment in watercolour - such as granulation, staining, or wash. The result is a spectrum that allows the largest number of mixes from the range.
Today, the Professional Watercolour range benefits from continued advancements in pigment technology and production methods, enabling Winsor & Newton to build on their already high standards to produce even brighter, more transparent, and more stable colours. Many of their formulations remain unchanged - proof that they cannot be bettered.
Transparency & Opacity
Winsor & Newton watercolours exhibit exceptional transparency due to the unique pigment dispersion used in their manufacture. Transparency is a defining characteristic of watercolour: the thin paint film allows the white of the paper to shine through. Transparent pigments refract light like stained glass, creating jewel-like brilliance and clean mixing, while opaque pigments such as cadmiums offer greater covering power.
The varying transparency and opacity of pigments affect both the optical character of a colour and its mixing behaviour. Transparent colours allow pure glazing effects when layered, while opaque colours create flatter washes and help tone down mixtures. Adding Gum Arabic to a wash can also increase transparency and luminosity.
Granulation
Some pigments granulate, creating a mottled effect as particles settle into the paper’s texture. Many artists value granulation for the visual texture it adds. Traditional pigments such as cobalts, earths, and ultramarine tend to granulate, while modern organic pigments such as Winsor colours do not. Granulating colours are marked with a “G” on Winsor & Newton’s hand-painted colour charts. Granulation Medium can create a granular look with smooth pigments like Winsor Blue (Red Shade) and can intensify effects with naturally granulating colours like French Ultramarine.
Staining
As watercolour depends on the absorbency of paper, stronger colours such as Prussian Blue, Alizarin Crimson, and modern organic pigments like Winsor colours tend to stain more and are difficult to lift completely. Traditional inorganic colours and earths lift more easily. Colours prone to staining are marked “St” on the Professional Watercolour Chart.
Lifting
Lifting colour involves removing watercolour from a surface, from lightening an area to washing down a background. Winsor & Newton Lifting Preparation helps ensure that colours, including those that stain, can be lifted more easily with a wet sponge or brush. It must be applied to the paper and allowed to dry before painting.
Permanence
Since 1832, Winsor & Newton have aimed to offer the most permanent range possible. 106 of the 109 Professional Watercolour colours are rated AA or A for archival permanence, ensuring that today’s works will remain unchanged for generations.
Opera Rose
Some historical or highly vivid colours require less lightfast materials to achieve their unique hue. Opera Rose is one such colour. While Quinacridone Red and Magenta are lightfast alternatives often preferred by botanical artists, Opera Rose offers unmatched brightness, capturing the most vivid floral tones. Despite its B rating, it is far more lightfast than older pigments of its type. For many artists, its brilliance outweighs its moderate permanence.
The pursuit of permanence has made modern watercolour equal to oil colour in durability. Even so, Opera Rose remains an extraordinary pigment — more enduring than many 19th-century colours, yet dazzlingly brilliant.
