The use of greens, primarily in landscapes, is one of the challenges in watercolour painting. Some avoid them entirely but are they such a problem? I don't suggest mine is an expert view, just various thoughts and suggestions that may help. This is a recent exercise as I felt I needed to revisit the subject. The colours were mixed on the paper, the first put down and then the second added. If you mix them in the palette the result will be different and a more homogenous colour will emerge.
There are several basic approaches although mixing blues and yellows is probably the most popular. Another is to add other colours, starting with the earth colours, to a convenience green like Hookers Green, in my case the Maimeri version. Sap Green could be another choice. This is generally a lighter mix than Hookers although the pigments are often the same. Each manufacturer has a different view of what constitutes a Hookers or Sap Green and formulations aren't identical. I have also tried Viridian, which is a single pigment (PG18) paint, and there are others like Olive Green (PG17) and Cobalt Green (PG50), the latter coming in several shades.
Another method is to start with either the blue (PG7) or yellow form (PG36) of Phalo Green and mix touches of, for example Burnt Sienna or Raw Umber and see what happens. PG7 mixes darker shades. Obviously the proportion of each colour determines the final result. Why not use these straight green colours? The obvious answer is that they are nearly all to a greater or lesser degree unnatural looking, especially compared to Natures greens in the UK. I should add convenience greens abound, particularly from makers like Old Holland who list over 20. Most contain one or other Phalo greens. Unless you have a very limited palette you can probably mix many of these shades from existing paints.
There are several basic approaches although mixing blues and yellows is probably the most popular. Another is to add other colours, starting with the earth colours, to a convenience green like Hookers Green, in my case the Maimeri version. Sap Green could be another choice. This is generally a lighter mix than Hookers although the pigments are often the same. Each manufacturer has a different view of what constitutes a Hookers or Sap Green and formulations aren't identical. I have also tried Viridian, which is a single pigment (PG18) paint, and there are others like Olive Green (PG17) and Cobalt Green (PG50), the latter coming in several shades.
Another method is to start with either the blue (PG7) or yellow form (PG36) of Phalo Green and mix touches of, for example Burnt Sienna or Raw Umber and see what happens. PG7 mixes darker shades. Obviously the proportion of each colour determines the final result. Why not use these straight green colours? The obvious answer is that they are nearly all to a greater or lesser degree unnatural looking, especially compared to Natures greens in the UK. I should add convenience greens abound, particularly from makers like Old Holland who list over 20. Most contain one or other Phalo greens. Unless you have a very limited palette you can probably mix many of these shades from existing paints.
The paper used is Fabriano Artistico Extra White Not. I have numbered the swatches 1 to 46 but a few `experimental ones' aren't relevant.The first column on the left starts with Hookers Green from Maimeri. This is purportedly PO49 (PV49 in the literature) and PG7. As PO49 is now unavailable they must be using some other pigment. From top to bottom Gold Ochre (W & N PY42), Burnt Sienna, Raw Umber and finally Burnt Umber. The second row is Viridian with the same colours added. There are some interesting mixes here. The next five columns, excepting the single swatch of Ultramarine Violet/Transparent Yellow, are blues. The darkest are those mixed with PB60 Indanthrone Blue, here the Maimeri Faience Blue, which you would expect as this pigment is very dark valued, only exceeded by black. If you click on the photo to enlarge it you should be able to read what the mixes are. The final three columns are experimental (19, 29, 39) and include mixes where reds like Permanent Carmine, Permanent Rose (Both W & N) and Avignon Orange (Maimeri), have been added to Hookers. The yellows used were Indian Yellow (Rowney PY153), Transparent Yellow (W & N PY150), Cadmium Yellow Light, Hansa Yellow Medium (DS PY97) and Greengold (Rowney PY129), actually a yellow green.
These swatches will give some idea of what to expect and they can be varied considerably depending on what proportion of each pigment is added. They are also affected by the order they are put down, yellow on blue or blue on yellow. If you don't want the bother you can mix on the palette and add small amounts of either colour until you get what you want. Comments welcome.