Watercolor Dirtbag
Most watercolor brands offer a PB60 paint, often called Indanthrone or Indathrene Blue. As far as I know, there is no official distinction between the words Indanthrone (with an “o”) and Indanthrene (with an “e”) – I think they are synonyms. But I own two PB60 paints, one called Indanthrone and one called Indanthrene, and … Read more
Indian Red and Venetian Red are both very opaque, granulating earth reds made from synthetic iron oxide (PR101). Indian Red is more violet-toned (earth maroon), diluting to dusty pink; Venetian Red is more orange-toned (earth scarlet), diluting to peach. In the versions I used, Da Vinci Indian Red was significantly more granulating than Winsor & Newton Venetian Red, especially noticeable in masstone.
I’ve just spent a week in Vancouver in early November, what my aunt described as “the worst time to visit Vancouver” due to the rain and fog, but I had fun! I like rain and fog. Plus, it was much cheaper than visiting in the summer. I didn’t know what colors I’d need, so I … Read more
As I’ve used my Fall Foliage Palette outside, I’ve run into some challenges that made me want to swap a color. I thought I’d go through my problem-solving thought process and then show you the revised palette.
You know I love a dot card, and I recently tried out the dot card for Van Gogh. Van Gogh is a student-grade brand by the Dutch company Royal Talens, which also makes the professional grade brand Rembrandt. Along with from Winsor & Newton’s Cotman line, Van Gogh is the other student grade brand that is often recommended, and I thought I’d check it out to see if (1) I should be recommending it to others and (2) I might want to consider supplementing my pro-grade collection with some student-grade paints if they are nice and/or unusual enough!
Here are my hot takes! I put a star (⭐) next to the ones I especially liked.
I haven’t engaged much with my username on this blog, so you’ve gotten a lot more straightforward art talk than any Billy Idol theming; but the phrase “Rebel Yellow” popped into my head and I just had to make a palette. Billy Idol’s signature color is black – as in black leather. He’s also known … Read more
It’s really hard to compare watercolor paper on price vs quality. For one thing, the quality is highly subjective. While some factors make watercolor paper more likely to work well with water and to be pleasurable to use (weight, cotton content, sizing), you can’t guarantee that you’ll like a paper or that it will work with your style until you try it out.
It’s even difficult to compare on the basics of how much is costs, since every paper comes in a variety of different sizes and price points. How does $30 for 20 sheets of 9×12 really compare to $20 for 12 sheets of 8×10? It’s a math problem and also a pragmatic problem (which size do I prefer to paint on, or can I more easily cut to a size I prefer to paint on?)
Well: I’ve at least attempted to solve the math part by making a spreadsheet.
A common piece of advice for watercolor beginners is to start with a limited palette: only buy, say, 3-6 colors. But is this really practical advice?
Welcome to fall! Here in Massachusetts, the leaves are just turning, and I just came back from a long weekend a few hours north in New Hampshire, where the foliage is popping off. So I decided this autumn I would build a foliage-specific palette. Inspiration I combined lessons learned from my Autumn Palette mark I, … Read more
Lee Angold is a Canadian botanical and scientific illustrator focusing on plants and other natural subjects. One great resource on their website is a spreadsheet of pigments compared across brands. They’ve also done cool experiments like painting a blue subject from green and purple. I love a person with strong opinions about color.
Let’s take a look at their palette as of June 2021 from the post “What’s in my studio palette.” Be sure to visit this post for more about the reasoning for each paint.