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Joseph Zbukvic, Alvaro Castagnet and Herman Pekel paints together


Watercolor demonstration by Marek Yanai - Portrait of Tzahi

Book Review: Local Color: Seeing Place Through Watercolor

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Local Color: Seeing Place Through Watercolor - 01


Local Color is a relaxing book to read. The writeup is light and breezy. The pictures are lovely, watercolour swatches are pastel-like in colour scheme. It's the kind of book that you may like if you're also into books from Nigel Peake and Sara Midda.

This book from artist and designer Mimi Robinson invites you to slow down to observe familiar surroundings and record the colours that you see each day for inspiration. The pages are filled with mostly colour swatches created by Robinson with accompanying photographs to show what she saw. The swatches look wonderful. There are just a handful of paintings only.

There are some travel stories, actually they are more like descriptions, flowing descriptions of the colours of places and scenes Robinson has been to, seen and captured. Occasionally, there are some exercises and tips that gives you ideas on what you can do to create your own swatches, where to find inspiration or how to think about colours as a whole in your composition. Overall, the instructions are rather brief but they can be lengthy in actual practice.

Downside of the book is probably the brief instructions on colouring mixing. This book shows mainly swatches and there are only six pages on colour mixing. Not only that, swatches featured throughout the book aren't labeled with the pigments used. Perhaps, it's not that guided to push you to experiment colour mixing yourself. The book would have been more useful with more instructions and colour mixing recipes, even if it's just the name of the pigments.

All in all, it's an enjoyable book, recommended to those who like colours.

Local Color: Seeing Place Through Watercolor is available at Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | JP | CN) and Book Depository

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Visit Amazon to check out more reviews.

If you buy the links, I get a little commission that helps me get more books to feature.

Here are direct links to the book:
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.it | Amazon.es | Amazon.co.jp | Amazon.cn | Bookdepository.com

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Frank Francese watercolour beach scene tutorial

Review: Pebeo 12 Half Pan Watercolour Set

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Recently, I bought a box set of Pebeo pan watercolours to try out.

Pebeo is a French manufacturer of art materials.

Pebeo watercolours are available in tubes and pans. They seem to only have one range currently called the Fine series. In this range, there are only 28 colours. The paints are made in China.

Pebeo watercolours are actually student grade watercolour. I bought this set because the pricing is very attractive. Their pans and box cost just a few dollars more than an empty watercolour metal box.


The palette box is painted all white including the exterior. What I like about it is the second mixing area when flipped open is totally parallel to the ground surface.


For cleaning, you can remove the pan holder plate inside. This is just like box sets from other brands.


The colours included are

  • Primary Lemon Yellow - *** - 1
  • Cadmium Yellow Pale - *** - 1
  • Primary Red Cadmium - *** - 1
  • Alizarine Crimson - * - 3
  • Primary Phthalo Blue - *** - 1
  • Cobalt Blue - *** - 1
  • Permanent Green - *** - 1
  • Earth Green - *** - 1
  • Yellow Ochre - *** -1
  • Burnt Sienna - *** - 1
  • Burnt Umber - *** - 1
  • Ivory Black - *** - 1

The lightfast rating of *** represents excellent lightfast and * means it will fade. Alizarin Crimson for example is the one that's going to fade faster when exposed to light.

Below's the colour chart that I've created. Click for a bigger view.

You get what you pay for with the Pebeo. The colours are not strong, pastel-like and a bit chalky at times.

It's very difficult to get the pigment from the pans. Hence, mixing colours is very frustrating. As such, I don't even feel like I want to use them for painting any examples. It's that bad.

After spending so much effort to dissolve the paint, it's quite disappointing to see the low intensity of the paints.

If you want to get student grade watercolours, Winsor & Newton's Cotman series is much stronger and a better choice without breaking your budget.

In this photo below, from top to right, we have Pebeo, WN Cotman, Kremer Pigments, Schmincke and Sennelier. You can click for a larger view.


You can see that the WN Cotman series has colours that are more intense than Pebeo. The difference is quite clear. Schminke and Sennelier are the most intense, but they are artist grade quality paints.

Conclusion

Pebeo Fine series of watercolour isn't really that good in quality. If you're on a budget, I suggest you get WN Cotman instead.

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Watercolour Lesson with Alvaro Castagnet

Review: Pocket Palette: A Compact Watercolour Palette Thinner Than a Wallet

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Here's the smallest watercolour palette that I have. It's even thinner than my wallet. And it's certainly more compact than the Bijou box and Winsor & Newton Pocket Box.


This is a metal palette that comes with a nice little cloth pouch. The finishing on the surface is high gloss and you can use it as a mirror if you want to.


There's a piece of magnet on the bottom of the palette. That magnet is what holds the detachable metal palettes. The magnet is very strong and no pans will fall off even if the palette is upside down.


The metal pans are smaller than the typical usually white-coloured plastic half pans. They hold less paint of course so they are not the best choice for painting large paintings. But for sketching on A5 and A4 sizes, the amount of paint they hold is more than adequate.

The pans are sold in rectangle and square sizes. The squarish ones are twice bigger. Each palette can hold up to 14 of those rectangular pans. You can mix and match.

The downside of the palette is the rather small mixing area on the flap. But you can add more mixing area by mixing the colours inside the pans as well. That's quite nifty.


Another downside is, it's not as easy to refill the bottom roll of pans with paints. A portion of the pans are covered with the flap at the bottom. Anyway, if you fill those bottom roll to the brim, you won't be able to access the blocked off paints as well.


On the right is the Bijou box.


That's the Da Vinci Maestro Travel Brush that I normally use. It makes a good combo with portable palettes.

Conclusion

Recommended for watercolour sketchers who likes to pack light.

Availability

You can find the Pocket Palette at expeditionaryart.com and if you're in Singapore, they are sold at Arters.

Video

Check out this video of the Pocket Palette in action.

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Book Review: Watercolor in Motion: How to Create Powerful Paintings Step by Step

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Watercolor in Motion: How to Create Powerful Paintings Step by Step - 01


Watercolor in Motion is an insightful watercolour book authored by Birgit O'Connor. If you check out her website, you'll notice the numerous stunning paintings of flowers that use beautiful transitions of colours. In this book, she shares some of the techniques used to create some of her paintings.

The main highlight of this book is on blending watercolours to create beautiful transition and gradations of colours. Her techniques will be able to give your paintings the extra visual interest by creating colour interactions.

There are several exercises and demonstrations that you can follow along. The instructions are clear, concise and there are accompanying step by step pictures. Each demonstration has the list of pigments used so you can easily follow along.

Another huge plus about this book is the DVD that comes with it. The disc has a 50+ minute instructional video that covers the techniques mentioned in the book. Watching the video really provides a better idea on how the techniques actually work. You'll learn how to blend, create hard and soft edges, glazing, the common problems and how to fix them, creating shadows, use techniques like splattering, etc. That's a lot to cover in the video.

It's a fantastic book for watercolour learners. It's a good deal for the money because you get the book as well as a video instructional disc.

Highly recommended.

Watercolor in Motion: How to Create Powerful Paintings Step by Step is available at Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | JP | CN) and Book Depository

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Visit Amazon to check out more reviews.

If you buy the links, I get a little commission that helps me get more books to feature.

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Testing Blockx pan watercolours

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A few months ago, Blockx asked if I wanted to help them choose a new set of pan watercolours for their box set. They told me they are going to introduce a new selection of colours for their 12-pan watercolour box set. They actually used to a 12-pan watercolour box set that I've featured before on the blog. Then I realised that they were no longer offering it on Amazon. Now I finally know the reason why.

So yesterday, the Blockx pan watercolours arrived. I didn't know they were sending me 28 pans. So many! Luckily I have a spare huge Winsor & Newton palette lying around unused (too heavy) that is now proving to be useful again.

Blockx was established in 1865 by Jacques Blockx I (1844-1913), a chemist. Since the company is focused on the chemistry, they have invited artists to test out their paints.

Here's the list of colours that I have received.

Yellow
314 - Lemon Yellow - PY184 - Semi-opaque, Granulating
212 - Blockx Yellow - PY3 - Transparent, Granulating
313 - Primary Yellow - PY154 - Transparent, Semi-granulating
216 - Gamboge - PY6 - Transparent, Semi-granulating
111 - Yellow Ochre - PY42 - Semi-Opaque, Semi-staining
113 - Gold Ochre - Pbr7 - Transparent, Non-staining
317 - Indian Yellow - PY154 + PO73 - Semi-transparent, Semi-Granulating
220 - Pyrrolo Vermilion - PO73 - Semi-opaque, Semi-staining

Red
327 - Blockx Red - PR254 - Semi-transparent, Semi-granulating
425 - Pyrrolo Red - PR255 - Semi-transparent, Staining
328 - Crimson Lake - PR264 - Semi-transparent, Staining
329 - Quinacridone Magenta - PR122 - Transparent - Semi-granulating
332 - Magenta - PV19 - Transparent, Semi-granulating
234 - Ultramarine Violet - PV15 - Transparent, Semi-granulating
121 - Venetian Red - PR102 - Transparent, Non-staining

Blue
152 - Primary Blue - PB15:3 - Transparent, Granulating
252 - Prussian Blue - PB27 - Semi-transparent, Granulating
253 - Ultramarine Blue Deep - PB29 - Transparent, Semi-staining
452 - Cobalt Blue - PB452 - Transparent, Non-staining
453 - Cerulean Grey - PB35 - Semi-opaque, Non-staining

Green
163 - Blockx Green - PG7 - Transparent, Semi-granulating
261 - Emerald Green (Viridian) - PG18 - Transparent, Semi-staining
165 - Phthalo Green - PG36 - Transparent, Semi-granulating

Earth, greys and black
141 - Burnt Sienna Light - PBr7 - Transparent, Non-staining
148 - Burnt Umber - PBr7 - Transparent, Semi-staining
175 - Payne's Grey - PBk11+PB29+PB15:1 - Semi-transparent, Non-staining
177 - Neutral Tint - PBk11+PB29+PB15:1 - Semi-transparent, Semi-granulating
171 - Ivory Black - PBk9 - Semi-opaque, Non-staining

That's 28 out of their range of 72. Single pigment paints consists 59.

The characteristics, such as transparency and granulation, are taken from the watercolour chart from the Blockx website. But I've provided a sample watercolour chart to test the transparency further below.

Here are my colour swatches:

Most are transparent or mostly except Lemon Yellow, Yellow Ochre and Pyrrolo Vermilion. Venetian Red and Cobalt Blue also look to me like semi-opaque or semi-transparent.

While opaque colours have their useful traits, I personally prefer my pigment selection to be all transparent for easier mixing. Opaque colours will mix to mud very quickly. So straightaway, I know I will not be picking those five colours mentioned in the previous paragraph.

And it's likely I won't be picking Payne's Grey, Neutral Tint, and Ivory Black. I know some people like those convenient colours. But currently my preference is towards using only primary and less of convenient colours. I still find Payne's Grey quite useful though.

My colour selection has been greatly influenced by this book called Confident Color. There's a chapter inside that recommends the different primary colour sets. That has always influenced me. So my preference is towards choosing more primary than convenient. Even the QoR watercolours that I'm still using is devoid of green -- I've removed the weak Viridian.

So currently what I'm leaning towards are

  • Blockx Yellow
  • Gamboge
  • Gold Ochre
  • Pyrrolo Red
  • Quinacridone Magenta
  • Crimson Lake
  • Primary Blue (looks like Phthalo Blue)
  • Ultramarine Deep
  • Cerulean Grey
  • Blockx Green (seems more intense than Phthalo Green)
  • Burnt Sienna Light (there's a Deep version)
  • Burnt Umber or Payne's Grey or something else

That's three sets of primary, one green and two earth.

Burnt Umber's shade can be created from Burnt Sienna by adding Ultramarine. So I'm not sure if I would include Burnt Umber.

There will be more testing and colour mixes coming soon. I'll do a lightfast test too since Handprint mentioned that it may be a problem with some Blockx pigments.

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Watercolor VS Gouache Comparison Painting

Review: Sketching Landscapes in Pen, Ink and Watercolor (Craftsy course)

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Sketcher and watercolour artist Shari Blaukopf has just launched her first online watercolour course on Craftsy. It's called Sketching Landscapes in Pen, Ink and Watercolor.


I've been following her blog for a long time and has even featured her drawing tools before here on Parka Blogs.

I've always wanted to learn from her, to see how she mixes and uses watercolour. So I'm delighted to see the course and bought it instantly. At the time of this writing, her Craftsy course page says that more than 500 have enrolled in her course.

By the way, Craftsy is an online platform for video tutorials with a focus on creative arts.


That's the course page. The actual retail price is USD $34.99 but there are occasional discounts. Regardless of the discount, the course is well worth the money for 171 minutes of instructions.

The course is split into 7 lessons, namely:

  • Shari's Sketchbook's
  • Composition
  • Skies
  • Big Shapes
  • Texture
  • Adding Depth with Value
  • Expressing Unique Moments


For the course, Shari demonstrates the complete process of painting two landscapes from start to the end. This is a watercolour sketching course so she'll be using pen, ink and watercolour. You'll learn basic sketching techniques for use with watercolours.

In summary, it's about choosing the correct composition, putting down the lines, then the watercolours. In between, there are many tips given, such as how you can create textures, make your lines more lively, how to think about colours and more.


The instructions are clear and concise. She talks about her thought process and shows off all the techniques she uses.

The course is suitable for beginners and intermediate artists. Even if you know nothing about drawing, you can still follow along because the lessons are guided all the way.


What I like about the course is each time she mixes a colour, she'll mention the pigment name. You'll always know the colours she's using and can use the same colours.


There's homework at the end of each lesson as suggested by Shari. You can complete the lessons and share your art on the Craftsy platform or ask questions and get some feedback from Shari herself. Those question boxes are just beside the video.


Another highlight of the course is being able to check out some of Shari's sketchbooks. It's one thing to see the scanned sketches that she post regularly on her blog, but it's so much more inspiring to see her many beautifully filled sketchbooks. She also talks about the different brands of sketchbooks she uses.

Overall, the content presented is really educational. And I'm also impressed by the production quality of the video which is really professionally made.

It's really worth the money.

Highly recommended.

Register for the class at discount rate before 21 June 2015 @ 11:59pm MT.

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Book Review: Painting People in Watercolor: A Design Approach

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Painting People in Watercolor - 01


Painting People in Watercolor: A Design Approach by Alex Powers is an old book that was reprinted again 2015.

The book is about painting people but techniques are actually more on the art fundamentals.

The first part of the book covers the drawing of head and figure. It's a basic guide that talks about the main things to note when drawing the head and figure. It's not comprehensive for sure because Powers only choose to talk about certain aspect he deems important.

The next part is the highlight of the book that covers the design aspect. This lengthy section is split into many smaller parts each talking about a specific design technique or art principle, such as using shapes, value, edges, movement, color, line, unity, etc. There are a lot of topics covered, and each concept is explained with Powers' paintings as examples to emphasis the point he wants to bring across. It's quite insightful. All these fundamentals are not just useful for painting figures but also for other subjects.

The book also covers the pragmatic considerations such as the materials and techniques used. The book is more theory based than hands-on. There's only one step-by-step demonstration included. And most of what's written in the book are really more on the art principles rather than techniques.

In the last few pages of the book, Powers looks at several of his paintings and analyses them. There's also a few pages on topics besides aesthetic considerations, such as inspiration, style, creativity, criticism, etc.

One last thing I want to point out is Alex Powers' style of art. It's quite patchy with some abstraction at times. It's definitely not the usual watercolour style defined strongly by shapes and vibrant colours and washes. All the principles taught are sound, and the text are supported by the art, just that I find the art... Let's just say that it's not a style I'm used to seeing.

4 out of 5 stars.

Painting People in Watercolor is available at Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | JP | CN) and Book Depository

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Visit Amazon to check out more reviews.

If you buy the links, I get a little commission that helps me get more books to feature.

Here are direct links to the book:
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Painting Watercolour Charts

Book Review: Light Up Your Watercolors Layer By Layer: Transparent Glazing Techniques for Luminous Paintings

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Light Up Your Watercolors Layer By Layer: Transparent Glazing Techniques for Luminous Paintings - 01


Linda Stevens Moyer is an accomplished artist but unfortunately this book is slightly misleading.

Title of the book suggests that it's going to be dedicated to watercolour layering or glazing techniques but the coverage provided for those techniques just makes up a small portion of the book. The bulk of the book covers basic watercolour techniques for beginners. There are a lot of watercolour books that deal with beginner techniques so this book offers nothing new in that area.

Right at the back of the book are two long demonstrations and some mini demonstrations. The long demonstrations are terrific with step by step instructions and pictures. However, there are only two of these in the whole book. The mini demonstrations are less useful because they are just limited to 3-4 steps of instructions and one painting split into different stages of progress.

This book is for beginners. Having said that, it only teaches you the basic techniques. It doesn't teach you how to compose or draw. So you will need basic drawing stills to get the most out of the book.

For intermediate artists or advanced artist looking to learn glazing, you are likely to be disappointed by the limited amount of content devoted to that technique. I will recommend you check out Watercolor in Motion: How to Create Powerful Paintings Step by Step instead.

Light Up Your Watercolors Layer By Layer: Transparent Glazing Techniques for Luminous Paintings is available at Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | JP | CN) and Book Depository

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Visit Amazon to check out more reviews.

If you buy the links, I get a little commission that helps me get more books to feature.

Here are direct links to the book:
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.it | Amazon.es | Amazon.co.jp | Amazon.cn | Bookdepository.com

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How to choose a new portable watercolor set for beginners

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This 38-min video is for beginners looking to get a new portable watercolour set. Click here for the links to all the products mentioned in the video.

Here are all the materials mentioned...

Various portable watercolor boxes
http://www.parkablogs.com/node/8587

12 colours picked by different artists
http://www.parkablogs.com/node/11435

Winsor & Newton Heavyweight Enamelled Box
http://www.parkablogs.com/node/6005

Daniel Smith - my custom selection
http://www.parkablogs.com/node/9664

QoR watercolors - introductory set
http://www.parkablogs.com/node/11619

Schmincke 12-pan watercolor set
http://www.parkablogs.com/node/10620

Sennelier 12 pan watercolor set
http://www.parkablogs.com/node/10937

M Graham basic 5 color set
http://www.parkablogs.com/node/8748

Support me on Patreon to help me make more videos
https://www.patreon.com/parkablogs

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Book Review: Practical Watercolours: Materials, Techniques & Projects

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Practical Watercolours: Materials, Techniques & Projects - 01


Practical Watercolours is a palm-sized handbook on tips and techniques for watercolours written by Curtis Tappenden.

This book is for beginners, the casual watercolour artist or sketcher. It's filled with ideas and tips on watercolour usage. The writeup is interesting and there are fun projects to explore. The accompanying watercolour sketches and examples are lively and nice.

The downside is while watercolour techniques are discussed, there are no demonstrations showing how they are achieved. Beginners may feel a bit lost when trying to replicate certain techniques. So it's best if you already know some basic wash techniques to enjoy this book. This book is really more for ideas and inspiration.

For more inspiration, I also suggest checking out Just Add Watercolor: Inspiration and Painting Techniques from Contemporary Artists and Daily Painting: Paint Small and Often To Become a More Creative, Productive, and Successful Artist

Practical Watercolours: Materials, Techniques & Projects is available at Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | JP | CN) and Book Depository

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Visit Amazon to check out more reviews.

If you buy the links, I get a little commission that helps me get more books to feature.

Here are direct links to the book:
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Book Review: Watercolor Basics - Perspective Secrets

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Watercolor Basics - Perspective Secrets - 01


Watercolor Basics - Perspective Secrets is not so much a book on watercolour, but more on perspective tips and tricks that you can use to make your paintings better. Better in the sense that they would offer more clarity, helping the viewer understand the space and scene you're trying to portray.

The book's split into several chapters each relating to perspective or distance. For example, things far away are smaller, and how would you use that in your painting? Things further away are less saturated and more difficult to see, and what techniques you can use to show that sort of effect. The techniques are simple to apply but they make a huge improvement to the art.

The instructions may be brief but surprisingly useful. The illustrated examples are wonderful at bringing the point across.

This is a great book to get that will help you create more depth into your paintings.

Watercolor Basics - Perspective Secrets is available at Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | JP | CN) and Book Depository

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Visit Amazon to check out more reviews.

If you buy the links, I get a little commission that helps me get more books to feature.

Here are direct links to the book:
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Review: Mission Gold Watercolors (9-tube set)

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Mission Gold Watercolors is made by a US company Mijello that was established in 1853. Mijello produces a variety of art products and their line of Mission Gold Watercolors is actually quite a recent addition that was introduced to the US and Korean market in 2012.

These watercolours are available at Dick Blick Art Materials (USA) and Amazon USA.

Mission Gold Watercolors comes in different box sets. There are sets for 9, 12, 24, 34 and 36 colours. I bought my 9-colour set on Amazon which ships directly here to Singapore.


The tubes are available in 7ml and 15ml tubes. The ones sold in the sets are only 7ml. The 15ml tubes are quite price competitive with other brands such as Daniel Smith, Winsor Newton, etc.


The colours included in the 9-colour set are as follows:

  • Permanent Yellow Light (PY154) - LF5, transparent, semi-staining
  • Yellow Orange (PO73 + PY65) - LF4, transparent, semi-staining
  • Permanent Red (PR112) - LF5, transparent, non-staining
  • Permanent Rose (PV19) - LF5, semi-opaque, semi-staining
  • Rose Madder (PR176) - LF4, semi-transparent, semi-staining
  • Viridian - (PG7) - LF5, transparent, semi-staining
  • Peacock Blue (PB15:3 + PG7) - LF5, semi-transparent, semi-staining
  • Burnt Sienna (PBr25 + PR112 + PY150), LF5, semi-transparent, staining
  • Vandyke Brown (PBr7) - LF5, semi-transparent, non-staining

LF refers to the lightfast rating with 5 being the best and 1 the worst. Mission Gold currently has a total of 105 colours and most of them have a lightfast rating of 4 and 5, with less than a handful under 3.

In the 9-colour set, we have one yellow, three reds, one green, one blue and two earth.

All the colours are quite intense and vibrant, and comparable to the Daniel Smith paints that I usually use.

I felt that Yellow Orange could be dropped though because you can easily mix orange with the three reds available. A warm blue such as French Ultramarine wasn't included so I felt that the palette is a bit limited in that sense when it comes to mixing greens or purples.

The three reds gives nice subtleties when it comes to mixing flesh or earth colours.

Viridian is a nice colour and in many other brands it would dry to rock solid. Mission Gold's Viridian is different and appears to be malleable and can be easily rewet and activated again.

Peacock Blue is quite similar to Phthalo Blue (Green Shade). It's as intense and needs to be neutralised to be used. It's a 2-pigment paint with PG7 added.

Burnt Sienna is quite peculiar because it's has orange from the inclusion of PR112 and PY150. As a result, it will mix to green with the blue. I tried mixing it with French Ultramarine and it will give a warm green. With other brands of Burnt Sienna, the mix with French Ultramarine will produce a nice grey, but not here with Mission Gold's.

Vandyke Brown is a nice dark earth tone that's good for neutralising other colours. It behaves more like Burnt Umber to me.

The sketches below are all painted with Mission Gold Watercolours. I added a French Ultramarine from Winsor and Newton to expand the palette. You should be able to spot those pieces that I used French Ultramarine because of the granulation. The 9-colour set does not have a lot of, or strong, granulating pigments.

Conclusion

I find Mission Gold Watercolors perform really well. They are intense and vibrant. They dry and rewet nicely, even for the Viridian.

The oddball for me would be Burnt Sienna. And it would have been nice to include French Ultramarine to make the set more versatile.

The 9-colour set is quite worth the money as an introductory sets. If you want to get set with more colours, make sure to calculate the cost-per-tube as it does not mean that the more colours you get, the lower the cost for each tube. For example, the 12-colour set has a better selection of colours, but the cost-per-tube is higher than the 9-colour set.

Overall, this is a good introductory set.

Availability

You can find Mission Gold Watercolors on Amazon or Dick Blick Art Materials (USA).

The individual pens are available at these links below:
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.it | Amazon.es | Amazon.co.jp

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Review: Holbein Artists' Watercolor

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This review is written by Erwin Lian (website | Instagram), an artist from Singapore

I am fan of Holbein Artists watercolors and was first introduced to the HWC 12 color set few years back.

Since then, I have became a fan of their pigments, mainly for their intensity and mix.

According to the manufacturer, no Ox-Gall was used, so dried pigment won’t get all crusty when re-liquefied. Because of this, you can “lift” easier. Personally, I like how ‘smooth’ Holbein pigments dries.


Holbein pride itself for its high pigment load and no usage of Ox-Gall. That means that you can re-liquefy your dried pigment and they won't be crusty. The pigment do remain brilliant.


The HWC 12 color set comes in small tiny weeny tubes of 5ml.

Compared to other professional pigments that I have used (I haven’t used every brand), their pigments held on to intensity well but dry “smoother”. Having said that, there is a major drawback to this brand. Holbein don’t offer many granulating choices. If granulation is what you are after, you will need to introduce other brands into your mix.


Here’s a review of the HWC 12 color sets (tiny baby tubes)

There are 12 colors in this set. Actually, I would consider it more like 10 colors since black and white aren’t really colors. Out of the 10 colors, you have the warm and cool variant to each hue. For the reds, you get Crimson Lake& Vermilion. For the blues, you get Cobalt Blue and Prussian Blue. For the greens, you get Permanent Green and Viridian. For the yellow, you get Permanent Yellow Light and Yellow Ochre. Lastly, you get Burnt Umber and Burnt Sienna for the earth tones. Though not my personal choices of colors, it’s a wonderful starter set for anyone venturing into watercolors. For experts? You may want to pick your own colors.


Graded wash of the 12 colors. (I skipped white here) The colors are vibrant and they painted themselves smoothly.


Wet-on-Dry. Flat wash dries smoothly. (Color used: Cobalt Blue and Crimson Lake)

I recommend including the trusty Ultramarine and Cerulean blue in your collection. As with all pigments, light fastness, staining quality and transparency all varies. Do remember to check the vendor’s paint chart for more information. Personally, I love the way Holbein pigments respond to water. It disperses color smoothly and paints itself beautifully when it dries. Wet-on-dry layers dry smoothly and the same can be concluded about wet-on-wet layers.


Wet-on-Wet paints itself smoothly with varies concentration of pigment.

Here’s my personal colors years after my first set.

A while ago, through a friend’s recommendation, I stumbled over a store that held Holbein stocks from the 80s (with price stuck in the 80s as well). It was a no brainer for me = I ended up hoarding a bunch of Holbein pigments.....

Holbein offers a total of 108 colors to their transparent watercolor family. Here are some few unique colors that some Artists swore by for this brand:

Opera (note that this color is only Moderately Durable), Royal Blue (Absolutely Permanent), Peacock Blue (Permanent)

I do have other brands in my colors set and time and time again, I love trying out different pigments. Holbein just happen to be a dominant brand I use. All artist grade pigments are great and its just a matter of personal preferences and experiences when it comes to these.

Here is a painting done predominantly with Holbein pigment with a little granulating blue mixed in from Daniel Smith.

Availability

You can find Holbein Artists' Watercolor on Amazon, Dick Blick Art Materials (USA) and Jackson's Art Supplies (UK).

Holbein Watercolors are available at these links below:
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.it | Amazon.es | Amazon.co.jp

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Book Review: A Pocketful of Watercolors

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A Pocketful of Watercolors - 01


A Pocketful of Watercolors is what it says it is. It's a handbook sized hardcover of watercolour artworks.

This book features lots of wonderful examples of simplified paintings. Each piece in the book is almost postcard size. At that size, you can't squeeze in much details. As such, it's up to the shapes and composition to portray the scenes. Artist Philip Enquist has successfully distilled down each scene to the essence and yet able to convey the mood.

I'm someone who likes to put a lot of details in my sketches. Looking through a book like this helps me think a bit different. Sometimes without detail, you can still make a rather good piece of art.

Most of the artworks included are of landscapes with a few in urban settings, such as with buildings.

It's a nice book. For someone who wants to simplify their drawings, I'm sure you'll be able to find a lot of good examples within.

A Pocketful of Watercolors is available at Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | JP | CN) and Book Depository

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Visit Amazon to check out more reviews.

If you buy the links, I get a little commission that helps me get more books to feature.

Here are direct links to the book:
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.it | Amazon.es | Amazon.co.jp | Amazon.cn | Bookdepository.com

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