Latest Posts
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Color Spotlight: Viridian (PG18)
The traditional Viridian pigment, PG18, is one of those classic older chemical pigments invented in the 19th century, around the same time as the cadmiums and chromiums. The name is based on the Latin name veridis, meaning green. This is a granulating cool (blue-toned) green. It tends to be low tinting strength and very liftable.
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The Brightest Neon Watercolors I Could Find
I have a fondness for extreme bright neons, Lisa Frank style – the brighter the better! (This post is an antidote to my last post about grays.) One of my watercolor goals was to find a primary triad that was as bright and neon as possible.
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Mixing Gray & Black in Watercolor
Mixing neutral gray or black is a common task in watercolor painting. Grays and other neutral dark colors are useful for shadows, landscape elements like mountains and rocks, silhouettes, and muting other shades. It’s possible to mix all your own grays and neutrals from a bright palette. Even if you choose to have a convenience
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Loved & Learned: Kolbie Blume’s Wilderness Watercolor Landscapes Chapter 3: Trees
I’m working my way through Kolbie Blume’s tutorial book, Wilderness Watercolor Landscapes. Previously, I did the chapters on skies and mountains. Here’s all my work on the chapter on trees. Autumn Misty Pines Paper: Hahnemuhle “Burgund” 250gsm cold press Colors: Loved: Learned: A Study in Trees Paper: Hahnemuhle “Burgund” 250gsm cold press Colors: Loved: Learned:
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Color Spotlight: Daniel Smith Green Apatite (Primatek)
This granulating green has a similar hue to Sap Green, with interesting green and brown granulation. Like Jadeite, it has a tendency to separate with some strokes being a pale yellowy mint green and some strokes being a gray-brown olive.
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I Refuse to Buy Schmincke’s Supergranulating Paints
Although I like granulation now, I’m not tempted by the sets everyone in my watercolor friends-list seems to be going gaga for: the Schmincke Supergranulating colors. If you take a look at them, they are generally* not new colors, they’re mixes of other granulating colors that Schmincke (and other brands) offer. You can mix your
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American Journey Dot Cards!
American Journey paints are an inexpensive artist-grade line exclusive to Cheap Joe’s Art Supplies. My research indicates this line is made by Da Vinci, and there do so seem to be a lot of similarities, though the lines do have some different colors. As I’ve mentioned, I love Da Vinci paints, so this was good
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What’s the deal with earth tones?
Shortly after gathering my first six paints, I began to wonder about earth tones. What’s the deal with them? Do I need them? What are they good for? What are my options? How come other people seem to intuitively know the difference between “raw umber” and “burnt sienna”? What are the common, typical earth tones
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Nine Watercolor Sketchbooks, Compared
I’m taking Liz Steel’s Watercolour course, and the introductory section has us experiment with paints, brushes, and paper. Having already gone down some paint rabbitholes, I found myself going overboard with paper this time! I tested nine (9) different sketchbooks.
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Color Spotlight: Daniel Smith Jadeite (Primatek)
Jadeite is the darkest green of Daniel Smith’s granulating Primatek colors. I tried this one out to see if I might like to use it as a granulating green for foliage and other situations where green texture might be appreciated.
