Indigo - No. 23

Indigo is that one color in your palette that acts like it’s “low maintenance” while secretly doing 80% of the work.

In a light wash it becomes this soft blue grey that looks like calm Scandinavian weather and emotional stability. Very “I drink tea and have my life together.” But add less water and Indigo immediately turns into full midnight mode. Near black. Serious. Powerful. The kind of dark that makes the rest of your painting look like it suddenly got a better job.

And that’s why Indigo is such a genius color. It gives you shadows that still have color. Because flat black is fine, but Indigo is black’s smarter cousin who reads books and owns good shoes.

On paper it behaves beautifully. It spreads evenly, doesn’t throw tantrums, and it layers extremely well. You can glaze it again and again without losing clarity, which means you can build depth like a responsible adult, even if the rest of your life is chaos.

Use it for night scenes, architectural shadows, ocean depth, denim tones, moody backgrounds, and all the places where you want the painting to say: “Yes, I know what I’m doing.”

Also: mixing. Indigo is a quiet troublemaker. It deepens reds into burgundy, turns yellows into rich greens, and makes neutrals look intentional instead of accidental. It’s basically the color version of a good eyebrow. Everything looks better and you don’t know why.

If you paint a lot, this is one of those colors you keep replacing because it gets used constantly. Because it’s efficient. Which is honestly the most attractive personality trait.

Lightfastness: 6/6 (Excellent)