Reviews Galore, Part 6

Inexpensive watercolor paper:

I ordered two very inexpensive, 100% cotton, watercolor papers from Amazon. These are Fyess, 120 piece, and Newbested, 100 piece, white watercolor paper. Both are 12×8 size. Newbested was 13.95 and Fyess was 13.99 at the time of this writing. I think these are exactly the same paper just with different names. There are several reasons I say this, but primarily it’s the color of the paper. Both packages contained lavender gray paper, rather than white. This is an important issue, as traditional watercolorists leave the white of the paper as their highlights and wherever white is needed. You will be disappointed in both of these brands because they are very obviously not white.

Since these two brands are, in my opinion, the same I’ll be reviewing both as one paper brand.

My preference is to use whatever I’m reviewing several times to become very familiar with it. I did many paintings using a variety of paints, brushes and techniques to put this paper through everything I could think of. We’ll begin with the cons.

The paper pills easily and quickly. It doesn’t actually like water. I had somewhat less disappointing results when I painted on dry paper and with less water/paint on my brushes.

There is no mixing of colors on the paper. By that I mean I like to drop color onto a wet leaf, for example. I’m used to my paint flowing and mingling with each other using this technique. Doesn’t happen on this paper.

Feathering is a huge issue with wet on wet techniques. It’s less on dry paper, but there is still some feathering. I’ve never experienced that level of feathering and I’ve used printer paper with watercolors upon occasion.

The paper is thin. The paint did not go through to the backside, but this is very thin, fragile paper. If I immediately removed the tape from the paper once a painting was finished, the paper’s first layer came off with the tape too. If I let the painting sit overnight taped to my board, I could remove the tape easily and without damage to the paper. This was true for both the smooth side and the textured side of this paper.

The pros are few. I was able to lift a bit. There seemed to be less buckling on paintings which weren’t taped down to my board as compared to some other paper brands used in the same way. I used other media on the paper, in addition to the watercolor paint, several times. I didn’t like the way my other supplies behaved on this paper either.

Several paintings were really carefully done. I used every skill in my “tool box” to make these paintings look great. A couple could be framed, I suppose, but for the most part it was a waste of time. There was very little I could do to correct or improve these pieces. Some have been cut into pieces for use in mixed media projects.

The reason I bought the paper was for practice, using new brushes or paints, experimenting with my supplies. Given I’ve been doing mixed media art, acrylic and watercolor painting for years and years, I have ample experience. If a beginner purchased this paper, my concern is they would become so frustrated with their experience they’d quit painting.

Watercolor paper can be very expensive. However, there are papers which are reasonably priced and give you acceptable results. Put watercolor paper in my sites search bar and you’ll see posts I’ve made about watercolor paper. The truth is, for watercolor painting the most important supply, by far, is the paper. It’s more important than the brushes you use or the paint you buy.

Rule of thumb; the higher the cotton content, the better. I prefer cold press paper, but hot press is also used often by watercolorists. I’ve used mixed media paper for watercolor painting, but I don’t like it as much as 140 lb. Watercolor paper. My everyday paper is Fabriano studio paper. Unfortunately I’m not able to link it for some reason. But I have liked all the Fabriano papers I’ve used. Arches is the “gold standard” readily available brand of watercolor paper. It’s expensive, but a dream to work on.

Tubes vs Pans

Now, onto pans verses tubes of watercolor paint. Both have their own advantages. The pans come all ready to use. Just spray with water, let sit a bit and you’re ready to go. With tube paints you need to fill your pans, let them dry, refill again, let dry again, and, perhaps, even fill a third time, let dry. Then they’ll be ready to use. (Although some artists use paint straight from the tube, I find it wastes a lot of paint to do that.)

My preference has always been tube paints. I like having enough paint in my tubes to refill as necessary. For example, I painted over 200 paintings using a new-to-me paint brand. I was able to refill my pans twice, with plenty of paint left for two more refills.

There are some brands which offer filled pans for sale just like tubes. Unfortunately I have had some poor experiences with pan sets of watercolor paints. Some came with less than half filled pans. This is, in my opinion, shady business practices. And I can assure you, I will not be purchasing those paints ever again. But I did re-use the palette once I used up the paint.

Which is another advantage of pan paint sets. They will come in a palette of some sort and, if it has individual pans, can be reused and/or refilled with whatever brand of paint you like. This is no small thing, as palettes have gone up in cost considerably in recent years. I had to purchase some paint palettes recently and I limited my purchase to three travel palettes. They were the least expensive option for my needs.

Then there’s the dried and cracked paints that actually fall out of the pans. Another annoyance of pan paints. And I’m not saying I haven’t had the same issues with some of my tube paint filled palettes. I have. However, if you mix some Gum Arabic, glycerine or honey into your wet in pan paints, this will not be an issue. These three things are a humectant and will keep your paints a bit moist and they’ll stick in the pans. However-if you add more than a drop or two per pan, your paints may become soft and sticky. These you must store flat or the paints will wander.

My favorite professional watercolor paint is M. Graham. These paints use honey, which means they are always moist and very easy to activate. They will also slide around in a palette that is not laid flat. These paints were my first professional set and they remain my favorite paints to this day.

Until very recently, I’d never had any problem with tube paints.

Ever.

Recently I ordered a “mixing set” of very expensive professional artist grade watercolor paints. As I was filling my palette (5ml tubes, which is tiny and will fill a paint pan once) I saw a problem. The first part of the tube had paint, which I was filling my palette with. After that first bit of paint, huge air pockets were discovered in every tube. My estimate is at least half of each of these minuscule tubes were filled with air.

Now this is a highly regarded brand. Many professional artists use this brand exclusively. The rave reviews of this paint are “gushing” and often over-the-top, in my opinion. Reviewers make it sound like this brand can do everything, including cleaning your house and folding your laundry…Let me tell you folks, no paint is that good.

Anyway, I put these paints- a split primary-in a palette. I have many empty additional spaces in that palette and I’ll fill them with some other brand. Perhaps the Mission Gold single pigment paints. They are delightful paints and I could use more of them. Or I could purchase several single tubes of all sorts of different brands to try them out. I’ll let you know what I decide…

Reviews Galore, Part 5

First, let me apologize for this post. Many of the watercolor paints include information in the packaging. Perhaps a pamphlet with the pigment information or printed on the packaging. I’m unsure where this stuff is for most of the paints I’m testing. I can’t even find my bag of VanGogh paints, and I need to refill that palette…So I’m going to give you what I have, and will update as I locate more of the paints/packaging.

All state they are ASTM compliant.

Here we go:

The Fine Touch watercolor tubes are 12 ml in size and include both pigment and lightfast information. I’m pleasantly surprised by this. The tubes are also named, which can be very important to new artists.

My Art Scape also has commonly used names, and they are 21ml tubes. These are huge! I’ve refilled the palette twice, and still have half a tube left. I recommend these paints without hesitation.

The Royal Langnickel Essentials set has the name on the tube. These are 12 ml’s.

Art Whale has all the information; pigment, permanence, transparency, and the commonly used names for their paints. This is an excellent student grade paint and I highly recommend it.

Mei Liange also has pigment, lightfastness and opacity information. These paints come in half pans in a metal palette. Recently the company came out with these palette paints in tubes. Which means you can refill your palette as needed. Another highly recommended paint!

The update on the rest of the paints will come as soon as I have that information.

Reviews Galore, Part 4

Mixing is one of my favorite parts of painting. I enjoy the “whoosh” of watercolor paints, the wonderful variety of techniques and the unexpected surprises seen with this art medium. I am not an expert watercolorist. In fact, I’d consider myself a beginner, in spite of the eight years I’ve been using watercolors. Nevertheless, I LOVE watercolor painting. My results aren’t as important to me as the enjoyment and peace I get from the process.

Mixing; lowest ranked to highest ranked:

Fine Touch

Master’s Touch

Castle Arts

Yarka

Giorgione

My Art Scape

Ohuhu

Mei Liange

Art Whale

Van Gogh

And our TOP student grade watercolors for mixing is…

Marie’s!

The Marie’s I’m testing is the Marie’s Water Colour– 18-12ml tubes. There are several different types of Marie’s watercolor paints. These are the student grade set. There’s also a “Chinese Painting set”, which I’ve never used but have read poor reviews on that set.

It was difficult to choose the order of these paints in this test, as most mixed well both on the palette and on the paper, made lovely usable colors when mixed together, and were enjoyable to play around with. The lowest rated paints were also the cheapest, if I remember correctly. Which, again, could indicate more filler and less pigment.

Reviews Galore, Part 3

This test of my student grade watercolors is vibrancy. Now, it’s important to understand there are additives which can make the watercolors appear more vibrant. Often these additives will also make the paint behave differently than those with less additives.

For example, the dried paint may appear chalky or have a “scale” when dry. They might mix very poorly. They may have an unpleasant smell. Just be aware, student grade watercolors use less actual pigment and more fillers.

Here’s the result of my vibrancy tests, from poorest to best:

Fine Touch

Castle Arts

Royal Langnickle

Yarka

My Art Scape

VanGogh

Mei Liange

Giorgione

Ohuhu

Marie’s

And our number one student grade watercolor paint for vibrancy is…

Art Whale

While I’ve been pretty vocal about my favorite student grade watercolors, VanGogh, I was very surprised to see they were middle of the pack in vibrancy. In fact, I was extremely disappointed in their showing in this category.

Next up, MIXING.

Reviews Galore, Part 2 (again)

Here is Part 1.

The first Part 2 post didn’t include the specific paints used, just the brands. Where the one went with all that information is beyond me. So here we go one more time!

1. Art Whale. A reasonably priced set of watercolor paints. I was very pleased with these paints and need to buy another set. I’ve nearly used them up.

Colors: Permanent Red, Burnt Sienna, Hooker’s Green Deep, Sap Green, Olive Green, Phthalo Green, Cobalt Blue, Phthalo Blue, Ultramarine Deep, Cerulean Blue, Permanent Blue Violet, Burnt Umber, Payne’s Grey, Ivory Black.

2. Royal Langnickel. I was pleasantly surprised by the granulation in this set of student grade paints.

Colors: Yellow Ochre, Vermilion, Rose, Mauve, Violet, Raw Umber, Burnt Sienna, Prussian Blue, Ultramarine, Cobalt Blue, Cerulean Blue, Phthalo Green, Sap Green

3. The Yarka set of 12 all had slight granulation. These are new-to-me paints and I’m really enjoying them. If beautiful granulation is your goal, this set by Yarka won’t get you there.

4. Castle Arts.

Colors: Ultramarine, Prussian Blue, Hooker’s Green, Sap Green, Raw Umber, Burnt Sienna, Payne’s Grey, Ivory Black

5. Ohuhu.

Colors: Viridian, Rose, Ultramarine, Prussian Blue, Cobalt Blue, Payne’s Grey

6. MyArtScape.

Yellow Ochre, Cerulean Blue

7. Van Gogh

8. Marie’s

9. Mei Liange

The last three had slight granulation. The granulation showed up more strongly when I mixed the paints.

Overall, I was quite pleased with the granulation found in my student grade paints. There are few choices in the red and yellow color families, but those colors often include pigments which aren’t particularly granulating. So it’s not unexpected.

Next up: Mixing!

Reviews Galore, Part 1

The quest for granulating student grade paints has begun. This morning the boys (dogs) awakened early. So I thought I’d begin my search. I had received several new watercolor supplies for Christmas but hadn’t used them yet. Today was the day.

This will be a series, as I was testing several things at the same time. Here are the student grade watercolor paints I used:

Mei Liange, VanGogh, Yarka, Royal Langnickel, Marie’s, MyArtScape, Castle Arts, Ohuhu, and Art Whale. I used my new brushes and did my usual practice sheets for testing brushes. Once I’d made a practice sheet using each brand of paint, with one of the new brushes, I let them dry naturally. I gathered them up-names of the paint used hidden-and laid them all out on a neutral surface.

Then I began the judging process:

1. Vibrancy of the paints

2. Granulation

3. Mixing

4. Pigment information

5. Accessibility

6. User Enjoyment

These aren’t all my watercolors. In fact, I doubt these are all my student grade watercolors. But after emptying my workroom and packing all my art materials away, I haven’t found everything yet. I stumbled across a storage container with several watercolor palettes in it. Half of these were in that container.

So let’s begin our reviews. We’ll begin with an easy one; availability.

All are easily available, whether through online or brick and mortar stores. My preference for online art material shopping is Dick Blick, Jerry’s Artarama, and Amazon. Other on line options include Cheap Joe’s, Walmart, Dollar Tree and Joann’s.

Dick Blick is my go to for my art supplies. The customer service is second to none! I’ve had two instances when items arrived damaged during shipment. These were replaced the day after I contacted Blick. No questions asked. I’m a customer for life!

Having said that, I have ordered from all those listed. Dollar Tree’s orders are usually in larger quantities, which works well when teaching classes. Jerry’s has some really fantastic sales and free gifts with purchase. Amazon has Prime days, and I’ve had fantastic luck picking up more expensive items for a fraction of the regular price. I bought very sturdy tabletop easels from Cheap Joe’s and I’ve run into Walmart and Joann’s for “emergency” items needed to finish a project.

Next up, granulation!

Dick Blick

As you know, I am rarely able to drive. This means I order my stuff online and it comes right to my door. For Christmas this year Scott gave me colored pencils. I ordered them from Dick Blick. They were offering the 150 set of Prismacolor pencils for 99.00. I’ve never seen this set, every color in the line, sold for that price.

Those along with the 12 set of Polychromos pencils from Faber-Castell and 6 Prismacolor white pencils arrived in the mail just before Christmas. Fed-X was the delivery company.

The first thing I noticed was the entire bottom section on the left side was smashed in. The second thing I noticed was the top of the box was open on that end as well. I removed the colored pencils.

Let me begin by saying there was no obvious damage to the products within the box. All three items looked to be in good shape. The problem is, when colored pencils are roughly handled often times the leads inside the casings will break. Let me assure you there is little as frustrating as sharpening your pencil only to have the lead fall out.

Over and over again.

(This happened to me before. I received the Castle Art colored pencils and they were shattered. I contacted the company, although I actually should have contacted Amazon. I didn’t know that. Anyway, Castle Arts sent me a new box of colored pencils. This company, too, has outstanding customer service.)

If the box had held anything other than colored pencils I wouldn’t have had any problem using the products. But colored pencils are an entirely different thing. So I contacted Dick Blick and explained the situation. I received an e-mail very quickly in response. In it I was told I’d receive a Fed-X label to return the items. I haven’t received it yet.

Yesterday when Laurie brought me home, I saw a large box on the porch. In it were the items I’d ordered, very well packaged and in bubble wrap as well. I was astonished!

My thought was they would be replaced once the damaged pencils were returned. But Dick Blick not only replaced my order quickly, they made sure what I ordered was very protected from possible damage.

Dick Blick is my art supplier of choice. Their prices are fair, their sales are fantastic and the customer service is second to none. If you are in need of quality art supplies at reasonable prices, please support Dick Blick (for some reason I can’t provide a link). We should acknowledge and support those businesses which provide high quality products and excellent customer service. This company certainly does both.

It’s Been a VERY Long Journey

We continue to press onward with our home reno. Our latest project is our vinyl plank flooring, which I unrealistically had hoped to have finished by Thanksgiving. It’s coming along very well. I’d say we’re close to 2/3rds finished. Scott and Evan have half the hallway left and the living room.

When you begin a huge project, like a redo of your entire home top to bottom and your landscaping, you hope to have some idea as to how it will look when finished. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your point of view, I didn’t actually have a plan of any kind. My cousin, and realtor, told me what color sold best for the walls throughout. And she suggested we paint all the wood in the house, although she didn’t suggest the colors to use.

To be blunt, I chose things based upon cost rather than any consideration of design. As things came together, greige walls, white upper cabinets, trim and doors, and darker gray lower cupboards led to my other choices. Counter tops, hardware and light fixtures. Our new appliances were also chosen based upon cost, rather than personal preference.

As was the original, inexpensive flooring I picked. On clearance and perfect for our house. The laminate was impossible to lay, however, making it clear this is why it was discontinued and cheap. We, eventually, returned it for in-store credit.

While in the process of painting, etc. I found furniture at an on-line auction site. I bid on three living room chairs, a very large ottoman and a couch. All in shades of gray and/or creamy white. Scott built a lovely table for the living room, which holds the T.V. Everything went together well. We also packed up most of our belongings and put them into storage, greatly reducing the visual clutter in our home.

Again and again we were able to find what we needed for a price we could afford. Our landscaping was accomplished by splitting my own plants, my parents plants and free plants from our local nursery. Those were in need of some tender loving care, but they rebounded nicely.

Light fixtures were found at second hand stores and painted to suit. Our main tiles purchased from Habitat for Humanity. Expensive items were purchased either on sale or with significant rebates. The day bed frame bought from the online auction site, the antique brass bed was my husband’s as a child. We were extremely thankful we found what we needed at prices we could afford or used things we already had which were easily altered.

And because we did all the work ourselves, our entire remodel cost around as much as a kitchen remodel hired out. Our project(s) have taken considerably longer because we did it ourselves, but the cost savings has been astonishing. Having done this all with cash, we also haven’t incurred any debt in this process.

Now the last step in our public rooms; the flooring!

We needed to special order this, which means I chose it sight unseen. I’m pleased to say it’s brought everything together beautifully! All the piecemeal parts look cohesive and intentionally done. The overall look is neutral and calming. After touching up some of the puppy damage, everything looks newly painted and pristine. I truly am astonished at how well things turned out.

Slowly, I’m hanging some things on the walls. The mud room has the painting I made of our home’s exterior. I was given the brief by my cousin (and realtor) to make our home neutral with personality. This is quite a challenge. The goal is to make the home neutral enough prospective buyers feel they could live there, yet have some uniqueness to have the home stand out in a positive way. So I thought if these potential buyers were coming to see the house they wouldn’t be offended by a painting of it.

We have a very large metal clock on the wall of the dining room. Another frugal purchase from the online auction site. Scott hung one of my paintings on the wall in the kitchen, but I ordered something else to replace it. I also did a few paint pours. One is for Erin’s old bedroom, done in pinks and peaches to coordinate with Grandma’s quilt she made for my 16th birthday. Another, much larger pour, will hang above our new couch. Both are currently stored in the bedroom until the flooring is finished.

We were well into the remodel when we decided we wouldn’t be moving to Arizona after all. This left me with a neutral color scheme and an uneasy feeling the house no longer had any of me in it. After living with the neutral for four years now, I have come to actually love it.

And I do mean love it.

There is an elegance in a neutral environment. Clean and uncluttered. Nothing harsh or intrusive, just a calm and tranquil place to relax comfortably.

In the past my decorating choices have been eclectic and colorful. And while that is certainly part of who I am, it also feels a bit over for me. I’ve been struggling to incorporate things I chose years ago into the current look of our home. I cannot bring myself to include these things. They cheapen the look we’ve achieved, albeit unintentionally, which is very Joanna Gaines “modern farmhouse”. This is an unexpected plus as our home’s exterior looks very much like an old fashioned farm house.

The neutral walls are the perfect background for any artwork I might like to hang. Simple black frames won’t detract from either the art or the home. Any color will work as an accent, and I’ve chosen red this time around. Nothing permanent. Just touches here and there, easily changed out when I’m bored with it.

While I often offer my recommendations for art supplies, here’s mine for redecorating. Choose neutrals. Embrace minimal decorative elements. Purge your home of anything and everything that isn’t your personal style, useful or meaningful. A top to bottom deep clean, a purge of ugly, broken and useless stuff, a fresh coat of paint and before you know it your house will feel like the haven from the world it was meant to be.

Watercolor Pencil Review and Comparison

Due to some really fantastic sales, I was able to pick up two 72 sets of watercolor pencils. The first is the Kalour set and the second is the Artisto 72 set.

The Kalour set of 72 is 17.99 on Amazon at the time of this writing. The Artisto set is 32.99 on Amazon, but I received 50% off at checkout. Both sets come in a hinged metal box, three layers of pencils. The plastic trays in both sets are flimsy, as is usual with most budget brands. Both sets have names and numbers in gold on the wood casing of each pencil. The barrels are also the color of the lead within them in both sets.

Each set has a printed swatch card included, so you can swatch and keep it in the case. The Artisto set comes with a heavier plastic shield to place between your pages. It also includes a techniques pamphlet and one with other items offered by the Artisto brand.

As usual, I made my own swatches of each set. I colored the top third of each box, using heavy pressure. In both sets, a few of the leads broke under such pressure. None were broken to badly to use without additional sharpening, however. Both sets have nice large leads of comparable size.

Once I colored in the top part of each large rectangle, I wrote the name and number of each color at the bottom. While both sets have information written in gold on the barrels, I found the Artisto set to be much easier to read than the Kalour set.

Now the real test; how do they do when wet?

The Kalour set liquified well and I was able to pull the color down to the bottom of the swatch area as a wash. The heavily colored section at the top remained clearly visible (after liquified) on all but the lightest of colors. The color payload was weaker than I expected. I would describe them all, even the darkest colors, as pastels.

The Artisto set was also swatched out. I colored each top third of my swatch area heavily, as I had with the Kalour set. The colors in the Artisto set were surprisingly vibrant. They have softer leads than the Kalours. Much like my Prismacolor and Artisto colored pencils.

When wet with my brush, the Artisto colors liquified beautifully. They produced a lovely wash too. They remained as vibrant wet as they were dry.

Once wet, they dissolved into a rich watercolor type “paint”. There was no line where the heavily colored top third of the swatch was liquified. Then I dragged the color to the bottom of the swatch in a wash. Which worked beautifully. May I be completely honest here? These pencils provide a much stronger color payload than some of my student grade watercolor paints.

The Artisto watercolor pencils are, by far, my best preforming watercolor pencils. And I have a lot of watercolor pencils.

The two cons about this set: First, two pencils didn’t preform well. These are the metallic silver and gold. This isn’t surprising, as metallic watercolor pencils are a huge disappointment in my experience. Better to purchase metallic watercolor paints. Skip the metallic pencils. And, second, these don’t come open stock. Which means if you use one up you can’t replace just that pencil.

Now, obviously, there are those who desire watercolor pencils for specific purposes. If you plan to use these in portraitures, for example, I would choose the Artisto set. In my opinion, the 72 set has more colors to create skin tones than the Kalour 72 set. If you want to make romantic florals, you may prefer the Kalour set. Those pencils produce a much “softer” looking color palette which is perfect for less vibrant purposes.

Of course you can color your image with much less pressure than I used for my swatches. Using the Artisto pencils with very light pressure would soften the color payload considerably. To the point of pastels, if that’s your preference. So, again, my choice would be the Artisto set. You’ll have more options, which is always a good thing.

Being very frugal, I haven’t purchased the expensive, artist grade watercolor pencils. I’m referring to the Faber Castell Albrecht Durer or the Carin D’Ache watercolor pencils. (I do have the DerWent Inktense pencils, but those are different as they are permanent when dry and use an ink in their leads). I had intended to buy a few of the higher priced pencils open stock. Commonly used colors which I’d be able to use once my comparison between the two (expensive) brands was completed. I may still do the comparison, but not with a thought to purchasing the set which ranked best in my comparison tests.

Right now, both the Kalour 72 set and the Artisto 72 set will take care of my watercolor pencil needs. While I prefer the Artisto set, that’s likely due to the vibrancy of the colors. My art is usually very colorful. But the Kalour set will also be useful when sketching out an acrylic or watercolor painting. The more muted colors work perfectly for that type of project.

This is, again, my opinion. Use your own judgement based upon your needs and budget.