watercolor paints question
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I have only ever painted with Winsor Newton, I see so many others on the market, Holbein, Daniel Smith etc., now Dr Martins liquid colors which seem so easy. What are all of your experiences with brands and can I mix brands?
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Hi Imrush I have some Dr martins transparent watercolours I have not opened them yet I will test them tomorrow and let you know.DR Martins bombay inks are beautiful an give a real watercolour look. kunetake gansi very vibrant but not good for drippy,runny techniques.Personally I just mix everything together.I always find myself going back to the very cheap Kor i noor I like them better than winsor and newtons.
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@dottyp Thank you so much!
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Hi @lmrush
I have recently been doing some experiments with various brands of watercolors to determine what i like and want to use on a regular basis. I have mixed most brands together including Holbein Gouache with Water colors. I have not tried Dr Martins but i love their inks!! I mix pan colors with tube and make pan colors out of my favorite tube colors. I tend to push the limits a bit. Price does not mean quality....Here are my 2 cents. Windsor & Newton and Daniel Smith were more permanent when dry. M Graham, Lucas, QoR, and Utrecht could be re-wet and moved around. All are nicely pigmented and all worked well together and with pan watercolors, inks and high flow acrylics. The only brand I had an issue with was Sennelier, the color felt thick and sticky. Also, the pigment separated from the carrier and I could not get it mixed back up without emptying a lot of the tube. I had a few tubes turn out this way and the amount I squeezed out on to the pallet never really dried. That is concerning to me. Maybe the tubes were old when i bought them but my 10 year old W&N tubes never did this.
I suggest that you pick a common color and buy that color in each of the brands you want to explore, that way you are not investing too much money and you can see how each brand performs. I know that each color has different qualities but you will feel more confident in deciding which brand you like.
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@shiouxz Wow, thank you so much for sharing your time intensive experiments, and that is great advice to try one color. Thank you for taking the time to help
this is why I love our SVS community! -
@dottyp Thank you so much, I have never heard of Kor i noor I will check them out. And definitely let me know what you think of the Dr. Martins. I'd love to hear-thanks for taking the time to help
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@lmrush I think I spelt it wrong Koh i noor on Amazon sorry I cant get the link to work.I will do a sample sheet of the Dr martins for you.
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@dottyp That would be awesome!
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@lmrush Sakura Koi watercolors are very vibrant. I don't know how good the quality is but I love the brightness of the colors. I have SOHO which my instructor said were good quality but I havn't used them that much yet. The main set I have is M.Graham and I have been happy with them. They were what I got when doing watercolor classes and were in a kit put together by the teacher so, I don't have experience with that many others. I have never used inks.
Marsha Ottum Owen
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@marsha-kay-ottum-owen Thank you so much!
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I have some info on this which you may want to take into consideration:
Dr. Martin inks: Vibrant and bold. (Sometimes too bold). They have suffered in the past from not being archival. Meaning they will FADE quickly (especially reds and violets). So make sure it says ARCHIVAL if you use these.
Windsor & Newton: Great professional quality paint. Good consistency. Downside is they do NOT rewet on the palette very well. Which means that you have to keep using new paint every time. This may or may not be a concern for you. It all depends on how you paint. For sketching I never use Windsor & Newton because I don't want to pour out new paint each time. For studio work I have used them and been happy with them. Their Quinacridone Gold is a fantastic yellow which I use a lot.
M. Graham: Really nice paint at a great price. They are professional strength and re-wet easily. I use these frequently when sketching and in the studio. If used too thickly they will remain tacky so make sure you don't go too thick.
Schiminke: Pro level paint and in my opinion, the best you can buy. Overall these have all the pros without much of the downside. They re-wet easily and blend into the water without much effort. They are more expensive than M. Graham.
Overall, If cost is an issue, go with M. Graham. If price isn't an issue, go with Schmincke. If you don't need to re-wet the paint, Windsor Newton is a solid choice. I haven't used Danial Smith too much, but hear they are quality paints as well.
SVS Faculty Instructor
www.leewhiteillustration.com -
@lee-white Thank you Sensei, I always value your opinion
I use Winsor Newton and was told to apply new paint each time, I wish they sold them in easy to open one use packets. -
Here is that colour sample for you-I would say they are really nice,but very expensive £50 for 15 colours,(I got an offer)I noticed a few of the colours are very similar, I am not sure I would pay for a set again maybe buy individual bottles.The Bombay inks are just as nice and cheaper ,but apparently they are not lightfast,I looked at a painting of parrots I did last year and they are faded now.
They take quite a long time to dry and you only need a tiny drop of colour -
@dottyp Thank you so so much for doing this-they are very vibrant!
