Few words about my paint sets
I’m very picky about my color selection, therefore for the exception of a couple of vintage paint boxes that still have original colors in them, all of my paint sets are custom and I like combining different brands in one box. I prefer transparent, granulating and non staining colors and light-fastness is a must. I also prefer tubes and for the exception of handmade paints I never buy pans.
*I will ad photos of my palettes and information on my color choices in the near future ?
I’m a huge stickler for permanence/light-fastness of my paint. I both can’t bare the thought of my work fading, as well as I could never bring myself to sell a fugitive paintings to my clients and collectors. That being said, ALL of the paint mention below is Artist grade and therefore is quite pricey.
Brands I use the most are Daniel Smith, Holbein, Schmincke. Russian ZK/White Nights and Sennelier as well as selective colors from Windsor & Newton, M. Graham & Co., Daler Rowney and Da Vinci. At the moment I am not familiar with Old Holland, Mijello or QOR, however I do plan on giving them a try for curiosity’s sake. I’m also very curious about many small handmade brands and Tokyo’s Pigment Shop’s home brand.
Daniel Smith (DS) is the brand I presently use the most. Their colors are vibrant, light-fast and highly granulating. They offer a huge range of colors, including PrimaTek® mineral pigments made of semi-precious gemstones, as well as a line of pearlescent, metallic and iridescent colors. DS doesn’t use any real cadmium and all of their Cad colors are beautiful HUE versions of otherwise toxic and carcinogenic pigments. A bonus for me personally, is that DS is widely sold in Canada and I cant pick up DS paints for a really good price form a local art shop within five minute drive from our home.
Holbein (HW) has a large range of beautiful, transparent, light-fast colors as well as “white mix” colors (which may appear like gouache at first glance, however still behave like watercolor and are much more transparent than gouache). Another great bonus of HW watercolors is that they manage to produce some notoriously staining colors in a way that makes them very easy to lift! The only downside is that they are often more difficult to acquire and are slightly higher in price since they are imported from Japan.
Schmincke Hordam (SH) The quality of these paints is incredible! They are very vibrant, transparent and buttery smooth as Schmincke grinds their pigments extremely fine! plus in 2017 they expended their color selection adding 35 new colors! In addition to paint, SH paint boxes are my absolute favourite! Aside of course from the tiny tins I make myself ?and a large Holbine’s heavy weight 1130-500 palette. The only drawback with SH is the same as HW – they are a lot more difficult to get a hold off and cost quite a bit more (mostly due to the importers unreasonably bumping up the price). That being said, if you love SH as much as I do, wish to give it a try or consider buying a large set, you may want to consider ordering from Jackson’s Art Supplies in UK. Even after paying for shipping it will still cost significantly less than buying from North American importers including American seller on Amazon). Another place worth checking out is WetPaint.com – every year they get a unique SH set for sale, it usually gets sold out very fast but when it is available it comes at a steal price!
Sennelier (SN) is a lovely honey based paint from France. Bright, beautiful and extremely transparent. This paint is formulated for glazing and therefore may appear disappointing and unpigmented (for a lack of a better word) to an unfamiliar and unexpecting user. I often use it in my studio glaze style paintings, and since it serves a special purpose, I like to keep it as a separate set. I love how translucent it is and I enjoy playing with the way honey binder behaves in wet in wet washes. Sometimes I intentionally place honey based paints next to gum arabic ones for a cool effect *(don’t quote me on this, since it’s a very experimental thing and as with any wet medium it’s quite unpredictable – but in my opinion well worth the “risk”) ? One think I’d really like to mention about SN is that it is very vibrant and bright. It’s not a weakly paint with low pigmentation and by no means do i consider it secondary to my other favorite brands. However, since I do a lot of “heavy handed” painting, alla prima style work, paint on weird surfaces and mix watercolor with sumi inks, gouaches, metallic powders etc. – I find using SN for those protects a waste. That’s why it lives in its own box and rarely makes it into my main palette. In addition, same problem as above (SH & HW) applies, as due to import it often costs more and is harder to get than DS.
M Graham & Co. (MG), Daler Rowney (DR) and Da Vinci (DV)
M Graham’s is wonderful, honey based paint that never gets chalky and dry. It is vibrant and highly pigmented – an absolute pleasure to work with, especially considering that I love honey based paints! However, it may not be your best friend for a travel palette since they stay very moist for months and even years after being squeezed from their tubes! That being said, they quite like to go for a walk all over your palette,.. and bag,.. and all that may get in their way… – bottom line, – they are awesome in the studio but can be very leaky in a paint box. I love my MGs and use them regularly but they stay at home in my large desktop palette. Da Vinvi is another brand I quite enjoy, but unlike MGs I find it to be quite dry and crackly in the palette, especially in the winter months when the heaters are on and humidity in the house is very low, but fear not! they re-wet VERY WELL and are no trouble at all. Once moist, DV paints are very smooth and pigmented, and drum-roll they are available in giant 37ml tubes! You can tell I do love them, because that is the size I buy! I think I should also mention that I’ve come across many artists who do not have this crackly dryness in the palette experience with DVs so it may just be unique to my extremely dry conditions. If you are interested – get a couple of small tubes and try. They are great paints and well worth the money. Daler Rowney artist quality watercolors (not to be confused with their student grade) almost feel like paint world’s best kept secret. I’ve honestly met very few artist that are even aware of their existence! The cobalt’s and the granulating colors they have are amazing. Smooth buttery paints from the tube that remain quite moist (but not runny) on the palette – I quite enjoy this brand!
*I use several selective colors from these brands and I’m planning to make a video and blog post comparing some of these colors with same colors produced by different brands and explaining their differences and the reasons for my preference.
**I’ve mentioned quite a few times in this article my observation on paint’s behavior (being moist, runny, never drying or drying too fast and getting crackly and chalky in the palette). I would like to emphasize that these are my experiences, effected by the climate, heat, AC and other conditions present in my environment. Your experience with these paints may be very different and I by no means wish to discourage you from trying these brands. As you can see I love and use them all. I’m simply very well aware of their behavior in my environment and I adjust their use accordingly. And most importantly NONE of these things effect their quality, permanence, transparency, performance or appearance.
Windsor & Newton (WN) is a great quality paint with good granulation and pigment load, and it is readily available at any art supplies store. However, – it is very expensive. Actually, forget expensive – where I am, it is Hideously Overpriced! In Canada I find WN to be way more pricey than DS & HW and I see no reason to purchase these unless they are on a really big sale (like a ‘damaged tube’ sale in my local art supplies shop). Don’t get me wrong, I do quite like their tubes and I love their extra large ceramic pans, but I won’t buy WN unless the price is right. That being said, if the price was more on par with DS, I would probably use them more.
Russian ZK/White Nights (ZK) these are honey based paints, very smooth and highly pigmented, with many of the colors using singe pigment. Great quality and easy to re-wet, for many years these paints have only been available in large semi-moist pans. drum roll In 2018 ZK is finally introducing tube version to the international market and I can’t wait to give them a try! In general ZK paints behave slightly different from other watercolors brands – there is just some magic to their binder’s pigment dispersion. That being said however, they do play well paints of other brands and are very inexpensive compared to other artist quality brands. Some of their colors are fugitive, but every brand has them. One thing to keep in mind though, many of the yellows and cadmiums are very opaque and will easily create mud, so if you prefer glazing technique, and you get one of the basic sets, you may have to buy a couple of selective colors to add.
