When we talk about limited paletts, there’s one piece of advice that comes up all the time: choose some version of the three primaries, a yellow, a red, and a blue. And the reasoning seems to make sense: if you choose these colors carefully you can mix a surprisingly large range of colors from just…
Watercolor is sometimes less of an art medium, and more like a highly regulated competitive sport. You must protect your highlights – but you cannot use white. You must create dark values – but you cannot use black. You must convey depth and detail – but you cannot use opaque paint. But during my investigations,…
Hello, scientists! This is a small collection of things that made my creative life better this week. Let me know if you enjoyed this, and what things YOU loved this week! ✨ Want more watercolor science? YouTube and Patreon Member perks include: Twitch Lab Notes articles after livestreams Monthly live workshops High-resolution reference sheets and…
Hello, scientists! This is something new: a small collection of things that made my creative life better this week. They won’t always be products, and they won’t necessarily all be about watercolor. They might be paintings, palettes, music, videos, books, tools, or simply something I learned that I don’t want to forget. Let me know…
This month: Schmincke goes absolutely wild with really good summer releases Roman Szmal brings us two new limited edition colors along with a gorgeous new set Holbein introduces some weird little granulating fruits and veggies Federal Tonic debuts the perfect sky blue And Tintoretto raises the bar – literally – for new watercolor gear. Welcome…
Schmincke has released five new watercolors – and this is one of the strangest groups of new paints I’ve tested. Some surprised me, some left me wondering who they were made for, and one is destined to become very popular. Let’s examine their pigments, handling, mixing behavior, and whether any of them deserve a place…
I love painting portraits. I try to paint at least a little one every day. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about skin tones, values, chroma, and how different pigments behave in mixes. Yet this little six-color portrait set had me wondering whether I actually knew what I was doing. In the end, I…
I’ve been watercolor painting for about one and a half years now, and for most of that time, I haven’t kept any earth colors on my palette. That’s not because I don’t like them – I find them to be very beautiful. But, I love color mixing, and I know that if I have a…
Cochineal red is a beautiful – and pricey – red pigment that is as prized today as it was 300 years ago, though now primarily as a historical pigment with unique properties. But the history behind the pigment is what truly makes it fascinating. Cochineal went from being a commonly-used dye in textiles, to becoming…
I found this vintage Winsor & Newton watercolor set online, and I have no idea exactly how old it is. But based on the packaging, I realized it might be older than me! So, I decided to become a watercolor archaeologist and find out what watercolor painting looked like decades ago, before the internet, and…