Watercolor Pigments Explained: Why Your Paint Behaves the Way It Does (And Why Some Artists Are Ditching Pigments Altogether)
By Dalton Scolman
At some point, every watercolor painter has a moment where their paint does something they didn't expect. The color they tried to lift left a permanent stain. A blue wash dried looking speckled and grainy when they wanted it smooth. Two colors that should have mixed beautifully went flat and chalky instead.
And if nobody has explained why these things happen, it can feel like the paint has a mind of its own.
It kind of does. But once you understand a few basic things about how watercolor paint is made, the behavior stops being mysterious and starts being something you can actually use, work around, or in some cases, choose not to deal with at all.
Because here's something most beginner guides don't mention: there are two fundamentally different types of watercolor, pigment-based and dye-based, and they behave very differently. Understanding both helps you make genuinely informed choices about what you paint with, not just choices based on what's most familiar.
First: What Is Watercolor Paint Actually Made Of?
Traditional watercolor paint is made from pigment particles suspended in a binder, usually gum arabic. The pigment is the color, and it's essentially a very finely ground solid material, sometimes mineral-based, sometimes synthetic, sometimes organic.
That word "solid" is important. The pigment particles are physical things floating in your paint, and as the water in your wash evaporates, those particles settle onto and into the paper surface. How they settle, how deeply they embed, how heavy they are, how finely they're ground: all of this is what creates the specific behavior of a given watercolor paint.
Dye-based watercolor works differently. Instead of solid particles suspended in liquid, the color is dissolved directly into the water. There are no particles to settle, no physical things floating around. The color is part of the liquid itself, the way food coloring is part of water once you've mixed it in. When it dries, the dye bonds to the paper fibers directly rather than sitting on top of or between them.
This difference in how the color physically exists in the paint explains almost everything about why pigment-based and dye-based watercolors behave so differently.
The Properties of Pigment-Based Watercolor (And What They Mean in Practice)
Transparency vs. Opacity
Because pigment is a physical particle, different pigments have different particle sizes and densities. Finer, lighter particles transmit more light through them, creating transparent colors. Heavier, denser particles block more light, creating opaque colors.
Transparent pigments let the white of the paper shine through, which is what gives traditional watercolor its famous glow. Opaque pigments sit more heavily on the paper and can look flat or chalky when layered.
For most watercolor work, transparent pigments are what you want. Quinacridone pigments (pinks, reds, oranges) and Phthalo pigments (blues, greens) are reliably transparent. Earth pigments and cadmiums tend toward opacity.
Staining vs. Lifting
Some pigment particles are ground so finely that they sink deep into the paper fibers and essentially become part of the paper permanently. These are staining colors. Once dry, no amount of rewetting and lifting will remove them fully. Phthalo Blue and Phthalo Green are the famous culprits here.
Other pigments sit more on the paper surface and can be reactivated and partially removed even after drying. These are liftable colors. Cobalt Blue and most earth pigments behave this way.
Knowing which colors in your kit stain and which lift is practically useful. If you accidentally get a phthalo pigment somewhere you didn't want it, that's where it lives now. If you're working with a liftable pigment, you have more ability to adjust, soften, and correct as you go.
Granulation
This is one of the most distinctive behaviors of pigment-based watercolor and it comes entirely from the physical nature of pigment particles. When heavier pigment particles settle into the texture of the paper as the water evaporates, they cluster in the little valleys of the paper surface rather than distributing evenly. The result is a beautiful mottled, speckled texture called granulation.
Ultramarine Blue is the most recognizable granulating color. Raw Umber, Burnt Sienna, Cerulean Blue, and many earth pigments also granulate noticeably.
Some painters love granulation and chase it deliberately for its atmospheric, organic quality. Others find it unpredictable and prefer smooth, even washes. Neither preference is wrong. But the point is that granulation is an inherent behavior of certain pigments that you can learn to predict and use, or avoid, depending on your goals.
Color Mixing Complexity
Because pigment-based paints are physical particles, mixing them has physics involved. Two pigments that are incompatible (one very heavy and sedimentary, one very fine and transparent) can separate on the paper as the wash dries. Mixing too many pigments together causes them to collectively neutralize each other into a dull gray-brown.
Single-pigment colors (one code on the label, like PB29 for Ultramarine Blue) mix more cleanly and predictably than multi-pigment colors. The fewer pigments in a mix, the more vibrant the result.
The Properties of Dye-Based Watercolor (And Why They're Surprisingly Good)
Dye-based watercolors like Nicholson's Peerless DryColor sheets solve several of the friction points that make pigment watercolors complicated, sometimes at the cost of other properties and sometimes without any tradeoff at all.
Consistent, vivid transparency every time
Because dye-based color is dissolved into the liquid rather than suspended as particles, there's nothing to block light. Every dye-based color is inherently transparent in a way that's genuinely hard to replicate with pigment-based paints, even the most transparent ones.
This means clean, luminous washes from the first brushstroke without having to think about which pigments are transparent and which aren't. For layering and glazing, dye-based colors produce beautifully clear results because each layer is genuinely transparent rather than just relatively transparent.
Zero granulation
No particles means no settling, which means no granulation. If you want smooth, even washes every time without thinking about which blues granulate and which don't, dye-based color removes that variable entirely.
For journaling, loose painting, watercolor florals, and any work where you want clean, luminous color without textured effects, this is a real advantage rather than a limitation.
Instant activation, no rehydration lag
One of the frustrations with pan-format pigment watercolors is that the solid pigment needs time and moisture to reactivate before it gives you its full, vivid color. Skip this step and you get chalky, undersaturated color that doesn't represent what the pan is actually capable of.
Peerless DryColor sheets, being dye-based, activate the moment a wet brush touches them. No waiting, no misting, no warming up. The first stroke is as vivid as the fiftieth.
Simpler color mixing
Because there are no physical particles with different densities interacting, dye-based colors mix together more cleanly and predictably. You don't need to worry about particle separation, sedimentation conflicts, or pigment-on-pigment weight imbalances. Touch your wet brush to two different DryColor sheets, bring them together on the paper, and the result is clean.
The honest tradeoff: lightfastness
Here's where pigment-based paints genuinely have an advantage worth acknowledging. Many traditional pigment-based watercolors carry ASTM lightfastness ratings of I or II, meaning they're tested and rated to resist fading for decades under normal display conditions.
Dye-based watercolors, including Peerless DryColor sheets, are not rated for archival permanence in the same way. If you're creating work that you plan to frame, display in light, and sell or pass on, this is worth factoring in.
For the vast majority of Peerless users, who are painting in sketchbooks, travel journals, and personal creative practice, this is genuinely not a concern. A sketchbook painting that lives in a book, not under light, is not going to fade in any meaningful timeframe. And the joy of painting it, the ease of the format, the vibrancy of the colors, and the freedom from pigment-management headaches? Those are real advantages that outweigh an archival rating that only matters in specific professional contexts.
Knowing your own use case is the key. Are you making sketchbook paintings, travel journals, and work for your own creative life? Dye-based is a genuinely excellent choice. Are you creating gallery work for sale and display in bright spaces for decades? Then archival pigment ratings matter and you should factor them in.
Why Peerless DryColor Specifically
Nicholson's Peerless Watercolors have been making DryColor since 1885. That's not a marketing claim, it's just an unusual fact about a product that predates the category of "portable watercolor" as we think of it today.
The format, a flat card coated in highly concentrated dye-based color that activates instantly on contact with water, was genuinely ahead of its time. And in the context of what we now understand about the friction points in pigment-based watercolor (rehydration time, particle behavior, granulation unpredictability, staining issues, mixing complexity), the DryColor format was solving problems that most watercolor users didn't even have language for yet.
The colors are formulated for vibrancy and transparency. The concentration is high enough that a small amount of color on a wet brush produces a rich, saturated wash, and adding more water gives you a full range from deep and vivid to barely-there tints. The 80-color range in the Prism Pack covers essentially everything a working painter needs, from botanical illustration to urban sketching to loose journaling.
And because there are no particles, no tubes to squeeze, no pans to rehydrate, and no setup at all, you get straight to the painting part. Which is the part that's actually fun.
FAQ: Watercolor Pigment Questions
What is the difference between pigment-based and dye-based watercolor?
Pigment-based watercolors contain solid color particles suspended in a binder like gum arabic. The particles settle onto the paper as the paint dries, creating properties like granulation and staining. Dye-based watercolors, like Peerless DryColor sheets, have color dissolved directly into the liquid. There are no particles, which means no granulation, more consistent transparency, and cleaner mixing, with the tradeoff that dye-based paints are generally not rated for archival lightfastness in the way professional pigment paints are.
What is granulation in watercolor and how do I avoid it?
Granulation happens when heavy pigment particles settle unevenly on the paper surface as a wash dries, creating a speckled or mottled texture. Colors like Ultramarine Blue and Raw Umber granulate noticeably. To reduce granulation: use smooth hot press paper, use less water, and choose non-granulating pigments like Phthalo Blue. Or switch to a dye-based format like Peerless DryColor, which doesn't granulate at all since there are no particles to settle.
What does "staining" mean in watercolor?
A staining watercolor paint absorbs deeply into the paper fibers and can't be fully removed once dry. Phthalo pigments are the most common staining colors. Non-staining colors sit more on the surface and can be partially lifted even after drying. Knowing which colors stain helps you plan your painting: staining colors are best used confidently and deliberately, while non-staining colors give you more room to adjust and correct.
Are dye-based watercolors good for beginners?
Really good, actually. The consistent transparency, instant activation, simpler mixing behavior, and zero granulation remove several variables that make pigment-based watercolor unpredictable for beginners. You can focus on learning how water and color interact without also managing particle behavior, rehydration timing, and staining properties. Peerless Paint Along Palettes are a particularly beginner-friendly entry point into the DryColor format.
What is lightfastness and does it matter for my painting?
Lightfastness refers to how well a paint color resists fading when exposed to light over time. For work displayed under light (framed and hung), high lightfastness ratings matter significantly. For sketchbooks, journals, and personal creative practice where paintings live in books rather than in light, it matters much less. Dye-based paints like Peerless are not rated for archival lightfastness, but for everyday painting and journaling use, this is rarely a practical concern.
Why do my watercolor colors go muddy when I mix them?
Usually because too many pigments are interacting at once, or because pigments with incompatible physical properties (very different particle sizes or densities) are being mixed. Sticking to two or three colors in a mix, using single-pigment colors, and choosing transparent pigments over opaque ones all help keep mixes clean. Switching to dye-based watercolor is another approach that simplifies mixing significantly, since the color-on-color interaction is cleaner without particles involved.
Go Make Some Swatches
The most useful thing you can do after reading this is spend twenty minutes running your own paint through some tests. Paint a swatch of each color you own, try lifting it wet and dry, see which ones granulate and which don't, hold them up to the light and see which ones glow.
And if you've never tried a dye-based format and want to see what genuinely smooth, instantly activated, vivid-from-the-first-stroke color feels like, the Peerless individual DryColor sheets let you try specific colors without committing to a full set. It's a different experience from pigment-based watercolor and worth knowing about.