Painting Lesson: Palette 101
Student grade paints are cheaper for a reason
- they contain less pigment and a lot of filler (kaolin, glycerine, etc).
So you actually end up paying more for student grade pigment than just
getting artist grade paints in the first place. You might as well buy
paints in the children's department as well as some student grades - it's
the same thing & you'll pay a lot less.
Also, to get rich bright colors, you need to go over the same area many
more times with student grade paints. So it's almost impossible to prevent
mud when you're using paints with a lot of filler. Please keep in mind
that some so called artist grade paints are called that by their manufacturers,
so stick with reputable brands. Standards are improving, but aren't quite
there yet.
For information about specific paints, try using the "Wilcox Guide to the Best Watercolor Paints." That will give factual information on each paint from transparency to lightfastness. Do take the subjective information with a grain of salt - that's different for each artist. For example, I use quinacridone gold because makes interesting, non uniform washes.
Paints
These are transparent watercolors, not gouache.
Brands I recommend:
(
M.
Graham & Co. beautiful pigments mixed with honey. My
favorite by far!
Also
good pigments:
Sennelier
Daniel Smith
- Azo Yellow (Aureolin is a substitute but this mix doesn't fade.) (M. Graham)
- Quinacridone Gold (M. Graham)
- Cadmium Red (M. Graham)
- Maroon Perylene (M. Graham)
- Quinacridone Red (M. Graham)
- Cobalt Blue (M. Graham)
- Ultramarine Blue (M. Graham)
- Cerulean Blue (M. Graham)
- Pthalo Blue (M. Graham)
- Pthalo Green (M. Graham)
- Burnt Sienna (M. Graham)
Palette Layout
