The 9 new White Nights colors are Venice Purple, Cobalt Turquoise, Geranium Red, Orange, Naples Yellow Light, Naples Orange, Aureolin, May Green and Cobalt Azure Blue.
This is an overall warm color selection, but absolutely could be used as a limited color palette if they happen to be the only White Nights colors you try. I used this set to paint a Bohemian Waxwing bird in the video review.
The Venice Purple color (a Perylene Maroon pigment) makes a beautiful granulating wash when mixed with Cobalt Turquoise (Teal). These are pigments normally only found in higher price sets, so I was particularly happy to find them so affordably in this large 2.5ml full pans.
I also highly recommend their 36 pan set, which has a beautiful balance of colors that would meet the needs of most beginners or professionals alike. This is one of the most affordable high quality sets on the market, with the price often competing with lesser student quality brands. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. If you would like to buy any of the supplies I used in this review, the Amazon links are below.
The 9 new colors above is not an official set, but was made available from the SAA (a UK art store) and may not always be for sale as a bundle. I also found individual colors if you are just looking to try one of the new pigments below. It may be cheaper to find a local art supply store that carries White Nights, going to the SAA's website or other importer of Russian watercolors directly.
When I found out that Daniel Smith released 8 new colors for 2019, 7 of which were shades of gray... I admit I wasn't sure if I wanted any. Gray is easy to mix, but THIS gray is special. I'm not sure if I would have randomly mixed Cobalt Turquoise with Quinacridone Violet and Lamp Black to come up with this "Joseph Z's Cool Grey". Most of the time I just use my "palette dirt" - a random mix of whatever is left in my tray often results in gray. If it's brown I just add a tad of blue to cool it down.
While great for stormy moody scenes and shadows, this color ended up being a real joy to use for animals and birds such as a Gray-Blue Tanager.
As the year goes on, more vendors will receive this new product and the price will come down a bit. (Just in case it helps with anyone's searches, Gray is the American spelling of Grey, and Daniel Smith paints use both spellings for different colors.) As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. If you would like to buy any of the supplies I used in this review, the Amazon links are below.
The new Daniel Smith watercolor "Red Jasper Genuine" is a light red-brown natural mineral pigment slightly warmer than Indian Red. It has gentle granulation. This subtle texture is unlike the majorly granulating Lunar Brown, Tiger's Eye and Hematite minerals. It's texture may disappoint those looking for a ton of granulation, however it's very easy on the eyes for those who don't normally like texture.
This color is semi opaque and is not a strong mixer. It is less intense than colors like Permanent brown or Perylene Maroon. Though I will say that even though Perylene Maroon initially goes down very strong, it has more of a wet-to-dry shift and when you add just a touch of it to Burnt Umber the mixture can look very similar to the new Red Jasper Genuine.
Because I often paint warm color pieces including birds or other animals, and I'm pretty much obsessed with granulating paints, this color seemed like a good fit for my palette.
In the middle of my debating what to try to paint with this new color yesterday, several watercolor artists on YouTube created inspiring bird theme paintings. Their group, the Animal Artists Collective, was created to help raise awareness and support for conservation efforts. I've been impressed with the many artists participating, and wanted to unofficially tag along. In honor of their kind contributions to organizations that help animals and the environment, half of the profit from this painting will go to Audubon Florida chapter.
The Reddish Egret is a very unusual bird. Unlike most birds who have a certain color pattern based upon age and if they are male or female, the Reddish Egret can actually be all white or red-brown-gray (called light or dark phase, with about 20% of their population being light). They were nearly hunted into extinction for their feathers, used for clothing and hat adornments for women's fashion in the late 1800s. Luckily in 1918 the migratory bird treaty put a federal ban on hunting them for feathers. Their population is slowly recovering and many of them call Texas home.
The new Red Jasper Genuine watercolor is perfect for more than a few bird species, animals or even canyon scenes. So far, I was able to find the new colors for sale online at Dick Blick, Amazon, The SAA (UK) and The Merri Artist (Oregon USA). As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. If you would like to buy any of the supplies I used in this review, the Amazon links are below.
An in depth look at the different titanium colors from Daniel Smith including Gray Titanium, Buff Titanium and Titanium White. Each is a different shade, has different opacity and mixing properties but all are the "same" PW6 pigment.
This color seems limited in usage, being a poor mixing color. It has a tendency to dry much less opaque than it initially appears, making it unappealing for gouache type uses. The color looks just like a dirty building, so it may be of some use to urban sketchers for cement buildings, cathedrals, architecture and statue studies. As an example of it's use, I paired it with Buff Titanium for a vintage Medusa Greek Mythology Goddess) carving on a limestone wall:
Update: You can now purchase the new Daniel Smith colors online at big stores like Dick Blick or Amazon. However, I was able to find these paints early, before any other major supplier has stocked them, from a little store in Oregon USA called the Merri Artist here: https://merriartist.com/collections/daniel-smith-watercolor-new-2019-colors This was the first time I shopped with them, and I was really happy with the quick service and well packaged delivery. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. If you would like to buy any of the supplies I mentioned in this review, the Amazon links are below.
Being a long time fan of Van Gogh paints manufactured by Royal Talens, I was very excited to hear in late 2018 that they were planning to release new colors. Van Gogh is the affordable, student grade version of their professional quality paint line "Rembrandt". I say "student" pretty loosely because Van Gogh has been known to pop into professional artists palettes for the last decade side by side with the likes of Schmincke and Winsor & Newton Pro. This is for a darn good reason - their tubes are cheap, yet they only use lightfast pigments and some of the highest pigment loads available at the student price point.
I was finally able to get a hold of some of the new colors they released last fall within the USA. This happened to be a pan set, but I'm on the lookout for the tubes and will let you know if I see them pop up anywhere! Luckily, the metallic and interference pan set is here, and it is gorgeous.
The 12 colors include silver, light gold, bronze, graphite, deep gold, copper and interference blue, yellow, violet, white and red. Unlike the metallic colors which are pretty opaque, the interference colors are nearly invisible on white, but are beautiful over other colors especially black. They are great for adding a gentle shimmer over paintings of insects or birds. If you have ever tried Coliro (previously known as Finetec) then you may be familiar with the reflective mica watercolors often used in Calligraphy and decorative accents in watercolor paintings. Recently Paul Rubens brand also put out a mica shimmer "glitter" set too. While that one is less expensive than Coliro or Van Gogh it has some drawbacks.
Paul Rubens uses a variety of pigments mixed with their mica, so when you paint you are not just getting a shimmer you are getting an underlying color. For instance a copper paint from Coliro or Van Gogh would be just that - copper shimmer. You can rely on it being lightfast and mixable with any color of your other watercolor paints. Paul Rubens however may have a copper-red, where the copper shimmer is the 2nd ingredient to an underlying red-pigment. That can be nice when you want a pre-mixed rainbow set, unfortunately that may also fade away over time (and about 7 colors in my Paul Rubens Glitter set have faded so far).
The metallic colors were so opaque, and the interference had a gentle shimmer, when used on dark colors. These would be amazing to paint with starting on a black surface, and Van Gogh also just released BLACK WATERCOLOR PAPER to do just that! I was extremely impressed with these paints and the quality of the box they came in. It was a custom molded plastic box with a high quality travel brush and removable palette tray. For roughly the same price point per-color as Coliro, the case and brush were definitely a better deal with Van Gogh.
My Coliro cases with the clear-acrylic plastic tops have often cracked easily over time and the circular pans are impossible to use with other common watercolor sets you might own. I also noticed that the Van Gogh seems to be more densely packed, vs Coliro's paints that when wet become a paste easy to use too much of at once. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. If you would like to buy any of the supplies I used in this review, the Amazon links are below.
Today I played with Tim Holtz alcohol inks and lift-ink stamp pad on a variety of slick non-porous plastic surfaces:
I used laser cut acrylic charms, domino game tiles and Yupo paper to create some rubber stamped jewelry examples including earrings, necklaces and magnets.
Tutorial video:
Materials used: Alcohol inks and stamp pads here. White beads and flat laser cut acrylic charms here. Leaf and flower beads here. Other materials like Yupo plastic paper and varnishes that won't make alcohol ink bleed before applying your glue, resin or other sealer for durability can be found on Amazon below. I use Krylon Kamar Varnish, but the Golden polymer UVLS brush on is a good option if you do not mind minor brush strokes.
Happy Crafting :)
Kimberly
Materials used in this video: Jerry Q 12 watercolor set, Princeton Herirage paint brushes, ceramic cat brush rest, bee paper cold press, waterproof Rohrer & Klingner SketchInk, Rotring Isograph technical pen, Uni-Ball signo gel pen. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
I can hardly believe it is already 2019! Technology has drastically changed with the times since my original website was created at www.TheEnchantedGallery.com. The internet was a new experience for most people, and having a home computer had just become common. Ebay was a new way to clean out your garage by selling antiques and random household goods. Writing checks, sending money orders and paper catalogs were still quite common. That all changed a lot after 2010!
Kim Crick
I confess, I'm an art supply junkie. I've been playing with paints and pencils since I was a kid and over the years I've gone through a great deal of art supplies. Many of them could not compete with the high quality of this set. If you are interested in watercolor painting - this is the single BEST DEAL on the market. I only wish it was released years ago to have saved me all the money I spent on lesser quality artist materials!
It's also the watercolor set I would recommend to anyone who has always wanted to TRY watercolors, if you're a crafter making art journals or greeting cards, or even wanting to help a child cheaply upgrade from Crayola/Prang kids grade sets to their first student grade set. Heck, it's so good that even I, spoiled by my artist grade Daniel Smith, Schmincke and Mission Gold paints, still managed to be downright IMPRESSED by this set. At a small fraction of the cost of other paints (you can get this set of 36 colors for the cost of 2 tubes of artist grade paints) it performs almost as well.
I say almost as well as the best artist grade paints for two reasons: One, is all the colors are fairly staining. This can be true for any watercolor brand for certain colors, but this was the majority of them. Now, this can be a good thing for people who like to glaze, as it creates stable bottom layers for going over once the previous layer is dry. It is not good for people who like to use the LIFT method (erasing with a damp brush). However they do otherwise perform well with wet washes, pigment load and the pans are incredibly easy to rewet with a damp brush.
The other minor issue is that the color chart was confusing (badly translated) and several colors appear to have optical brighteners (or dye filler). While all colors resulted in beautiful clean mixes, they are not all single pigments and a couple of the colors are not lightfast. If you're familiar with Mission Gold and Qor watercolors, these rival them in vibrancy and intense colors. Some people prefer things muted and natural, or want to use watercolors in a very light pastel tone sort of way. Winsor and Newton Cotman's watercolors are less pigmented than this set, and less vibrant, but they are overall more lightfast. More on lightfast testing coming soon, but so far it appears only 4 of 36 colors are showing any issues.
That being said, this is a remarkably inexpensive set rocking 36 colors in a beautiful tin WITH a travel water brush. It is ready to throw in a purse/backpack and take on an adventure. Personally, I just use it to have a convenient set to paint with when I'm limited on time. There is no need for a separate palette and tubes. Nothing to clean up or set up, just a beautiful set to sit down and CREATE with!
CORRECT COLOR CHART ABOVE - Is different from the one on the back of the box on the physical product. Two colors are different, highlighted on the chart are the ones you will receive instead. A minor issue, mostly because the ones they show you when you order online are actually correct. It's only the box in person and the written codes on the blank chart inside the box that are confusing.
This is the only set most kids, students or crafty adults would ever need to do impressive watercolor paintings. The color selection is robust, with plenty of slightly different colors for mixing new colors (ideal for getting that warm or cool hue just right). With permanent rose and a variety of blues (that thankfully is not limited to ultramarine commonly found in cheap sets) you'll be able to mix other purples long after your purple pan runs out.
Professional artists who sell their work may require greater control over knowing pigment ingredients, an entire line of lightfast paints or the ability to restock colors individually via tubes. Though, the artist grade version of "Pretty Excellent MeiLiang" is "Paul Rubens", which is a little more creamy (just the right amount of gum arabic and low amount of fillers) and shows all pigment ingredients. The Paul Rubens set is on-par with my Schmincke, Rembrandt, non granulating Daniel Smith and other high end paints for a fraction of the cost of those brands.
For everyone else, this set could last you through many many projects and give you the quality needed to not be discouraged. (No one likes wondering "Is it the paint, or is it me?") As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. You can find this set, an affordable paper option, and the Paul Rubens professional quality upgrade, on Amazon through the link below.