I’ve been taking some time out this week, just to look and think, and it’s been immensely restorative.
I like playing with watercolours, though with no real expertise. I normally use a student-grade Cotman set, which I’ve had for about twenty years, and they are generally fine just for rough sketchbook work. I also have a small portable set of Sennelier professional half pans, which are better quality than the Cotman. I think tubes are better than pans for larger or more experimental work, so I thought it was perhaps time to invest in some professional quality tubes. I bought a set of Daniel Smith dot cards, which are basically a small but useable dot of paint in every shade that they make. You just add water so you can see and feel how each colour behaves. You can see the dots of paint in the photo, and a little goes a really long way, so there is plenty left. I have spent two entire days looking at them, and they are beyond beautiful.
Colour is really magical. It lifts the spirits, it calms and soothes, and it energises. The science of it is baffling. We are capable of seeing only a tiny fraction of the whole spectrum, in which objects absorb some wavelengths of visible light and reflect others. What we see is the reflected light that hasn’t been absorbed by an object. You could say we see the colour it isn’t.
I had assumed that Daniel Smith paints were going to be much the same as any other watercolours but my (admittedly limited) experience is that they are far superior to any other professional colours I’ve tried. I think watercolour is quite a forgiving medium anyway, in that it’s difficult to make watercolours look ugly. These paints are a dream to use, even for a novice like me. They dilute immediately, they are beautifully smooth, and they are really easy to handle. The range and quality of colour is amazing. I made some swatch cards, and then I made lots of samples on 300gsm watercolour paper cut into 2” x 3” pieces.
I even like the newsprint drop paper that I used to protect the drawing board.
I completely love these paints. Whether they will make me a better artist is absolutely debatable, but the pleasure of using something of this quality will far outweigh any disappointment in the results. The joy is always in the doing rather than the having.
Several of the samples are iridescent. They are interesting but I’m not sure I would use them – though of course, never say never! I’ve cut them out and threaded them onto a bit of cotton yarn just in case. There is also plenty of useable paint on these, so I will hang on to them and wait for an opportunity to present itself. You can get watercolour iridescent medium, so really you could make anything sparkly if you wanted to.
I will probably cut the others up into little tags when I’ve exhausted all the paint. Now I just have to narrow it down and choose some colours…
well, I’m just going to go ahead and say the incredibly obvious: I can’t imagine how one could choose!
It’s almost impossible. There is only one colour that I really don’t like; the rest I would very happily have. They are expensive though so narrow it down I must!
I dabbled briefly in watercolor from a tube. I wanted to fall in love and be amazing at it but often ended up thinking it looked like a kindergarten child had done it. Your sample straps are even beautiful! Can’t wait to see what you create with these besides test patches. Bernie
It depends on what you want your colours for, so I hesitate to offer advice. But if you send me an email or other message, I can tell you what I use as a basic palette for painting/sketching out and about.
Thank you, that’s very kind. I do have a basic palette already (two yellows, two reds, two blues, a grey, a white and some browns). I probably don’t *need* anything else but they are all just so delicious to look at.
They look gorgeous. I have a very ancient wooden painting box with lovely old pans which I top up from tubes. It’s hard but there’s only so many colours to actually use regulary 😄
Yes, that’s very true 🙂