Watercolor Turtle

For my New Year's gift to myself am ordering a bunch of Daniel Smith watercolors. Last winter I ordered my first professional grade watercolors, 11 tubes of M Graham. And I absolutely love how juicy and rich the M Graham colors are, and how transparent they are! But their one downside, and it's a big one, is that their formula has honey (thus their juicy-ness) and so they make quite the mess in my little Altoid tin. 

Yeah, I could just order a small set of another brand for plein aire, but I'm traveling so much, in hot weather in the summer time and dropping my backpack on the heated Korean floors in the winter time, making those paints flow like honey, so I'd prefer to just order a large set of "firmer" paints so that not only my Altoid tin could be grabbed but any sized palette I have could be dropped in my backpack on a moments notice. After reading about pigments and checking on transparency, decided on Daniel Smith. I'll also get a few Winsor and Newton too because I prefer some of their pigments or coloration.

Anyway, pulled out my M. Grahams tonight and realized that 10 of the 11 colors would fill a small 10-dish ceramic palette, so set it up and had some fun!

First background attempt for the background, using water and colors on seran wrap, didn't work out for me. Great idea though and will attempt it again in the future.

M Graham: hansa yellow, azo orange, scarlet pyrrol, transparent red iron oxide, sepia, Payne's gray, phthalo blue, ultramarine blue, phthalo green, azo green

laying down background colors (phthalo blue and ultramarine blue) on a semi-wet paper 

Misted the damp background with 91% alcohol and got an instantly mottled look.
Laid down some colors on the turtle -- azo green transparent red iron oxide and then touches of sepia

simple watercolor turtle on New Soho series SKETCH paper - 5" x 7"

Plein Air Painting at Sochi House

Today is the fifth day in the OAS (Oriental Art Supply) November painting challenge. Since I was traveling this weekend (did templestay at Ssanggye-sa Temple, Jindo Island, Jeollanamdo, South Korea, and because the temple is right beside Sochi House, the traditional home of the famous aristocratic painter, Sochi, penname for Ryun Hur (1808-1893), I did a bit of plein air painting at the traditional house. Actually I started but had to finish at home because before I could finish our templestay group had to hike up the trail to the temple where we were staying.) 

Sochi House

Jindo Island, Jeollanamdo, S Korea. 

Sochi, pen name for Ryun Hur (1808-1893), was a traditional painter and calligrapher with many disciples. Despite his father's wishes, he became a painter (an unstable job that didn't bring in steady income), but though he wasn't loaded with money, he was satisfied with his choice to exercise his creativity. He was a passionate artist, and he became the founding father of 5 generations of artists, with the fifth alive today. He and his artists descendants strongly influenced Korean painting; they seemed to have contributed to a more realistic approach to painting nature. Their pictures show development in depth and tone. Shading and brush stroke were changed to add to the more realistic style. 

Kaleidoscopic Altoid plein air palette --- M Graham paints are too messy for plein air! So are Sennelier too I hear.

Sochi House, home of Korean traditional painter, Ryun Hur (1808-1893)

The pond just in front of Sochi House, Jindo, South Korea

Micron pens and Altoid box plein air painting with M Graham on Fabriano watercolor postcard. (FYI, M Graham and Sennelier are honey consistency paints that are perfectly lousy for plein air painting .... but absolutely smooth and creamy for studio on site painting! My Altoid box is now a kaleidoscopic mess!)

24-watercolor Mixing Chart: Shinhan SWC and M. Graham

So I've spent a few hours "learning" my first professional watercolor palette set. The set is a combination of M. Graham and SWC -- the SWC ShinHan Watercolor Professional, not to be confused with tubes that read just ShinHan Watercolor Professional. Yes, confusing! Pictures below to exemplify the difference. 

ShinHan, a popular Korean brand of watercolor (and other art materials). I realize that both SWC and PWC are now marketed by ShinHan with PWC short for Profession Water Color, but I've never seen PWC in any of the big art stores here in Korea but SWC is now widely sold. The ShinHan Watercolors Professional (ex. Bordeaux and Red Violet above) have been sold for years, and only in the past year or two (as I'm aware) the SWC has hit the market as the professional grade. Shami, another ShinHan watercolor, is the kiddie-student grade.

my first professional watercolor palette
Combination of 11 M. Graham, 11 SWC ShinHan Watercolor Professionals, and 2 ShinHan Watercolor Professionals

Hansa Yellow (MG), Azo Yellow (MG), Indian Yellow (SWC), Raw Sienna (SWC), Azo Orange (MG), Scarlet Pyrrol (MG), Pyrrole Red (SWC), Quinacridone Red (SWC), Crimson Lake (SWC), Bordeaux (ShinHan), Red Violet (ShinHan), Cobalt Light Violet (SWC), Ultramarine Blue (MG), Cerulean Blue Hue (SWC), Peacock Blue (SWC), Phthalo Blue (MG). Phthalo Green (MG), Terre Verte Yellow Shade (SWC), Azo Green (MG), Transparent Red Iron Oxide (SWC), Burnt Umber (SWC), Umber (SWC), Sepia (MG), Payne's Gray (MG)
M. Graham (x11), SWC ShinHan Watercolor Professional (x11), and ShinHan Watercolor Profession (x2) 

Analysis of the Chart and My Color Choices

Wow, did I learn a lot about color combinations from making this chart: which colors are likely to muddy when combined, which ones become opaque, which are heavily or lightly pigmented, or redundant colors, and which ones become beautiful rich blacks. I'm already figuring out what my ultimate preferred color palette will be...

The 2 ShinHan colors aren't heavily pigmented but wow do they lay color on the paper well and have rich smooth texture. It'll be hard replacing them because they're so enjoyable to use. The downside for them is I end up using a lot of paint and made significant holes in the palette cubes. In the long-run it'll be cheaper to use a more pigmented paint. I chose those colors, however, because they are transparent (my whole palette is except the semi-transparent Payne's Gray and Sepia) and because I liked how they completed my range of palette colors.

Just an aside, ShinHan watercolors, though student grade watercolor, are quite brilliant and very smooth and rich. Alpha, another old watercolor brand here Korea and also student grade, is quite inferior (my opinion) -- colors don't lay down smoothly, not as rich, perhaps chalky. I don't enjoy painting with them at all. Mission is a new Korean watercolor brand that has recently come onto the market. I haven't used them, but they are said online to be quite beautiful. I'd buy a set of them, but for two reasons: many fugitive colors, and Mission sets are heavy into reds but weak in the blues and greens. I'm interested in painting animals, not floral arrangements so they don't suit me.

I really like all of the SWC paints that I chose, except one -- Cobalt Light Violet. While it's a very beautiful color, it isn't heavily pigmented at all and doesn't lay down smoothly on the paper. Kind of streaky, in fact. Other colors easily over-power it, which is not a problem really, it's just streaky. There is only one other weakly pigmented color, also a SWC color: Terre Verte (Yellow Shade), and I won't be replacing it because I absolutely love it! Gorgeous soft color that when combined with some other colors becomes opaque. Interesting effect rather than annoying. I really dug my brush into this color and had to refill the paint cube while with other cubes I was barely skimming the top, but I'll definitely be keeping this color in my palette! Combines beautifully with almost every color in my palette too!

The M. Graham paints are glorious, and most richly pigmented, even more than the SWC paints. The only bone I have about M. Graham is that they are rather runny. I've noticed that in the past couple of days when the weather has gotten much cooler -- in the 60s and low 70s -- the paints have finally made a film on the surface. Finally, after many many days of leaving my palette open! I don't think I'll keep buying M. Graham because I use my paints also in an Altoid tin for on-the-go. My goodness is that tin a mess! Not much fun painting when colors are swimming into each other.

Changes to My Future (Perfect) Palette

Not sure about the "perfect" palette yet, but I think the future paints I buy, if I can't find the transparent colors I want with SWC watercolors, are Daniel Smith. D.S. has a huge range of colors (too many to choose from ... having trouble!) and they aren't messy for plein air painting. They aren't available here in Korea to my knowledge, which is fine as name brand art stuff has a stiff mark-up in Korea. I'll order them off either Dick Blick or Jerry's Artarama for discounted price, and have them sent to an American address for free shipping and handling. That way, nice paints then become affordable paints.

Necessary changes:

• Bordeaux (ShinHan) - redundant color with SWC Crimson Lake (remove)
• Red Violet (ShinHan) - lovely but not highly pigmented; replace with Quin Magenta (D.S.)
• Cerulean Blue Hue (SWC) & Peacock Blue (SWC) - both PB 15:3 as is Phthalo Blue (M.G.) and nearly identical when mixed; remove both and replace with Manganese Blue Hue (D.S.) 
• Burnt Umber (SWC) and Red Iron Oxide (M.G.) - too similar; replace Burnt Umber with Bronzite Genuine (D.S.)

Other changes:

• Hansa Yellow (M.G.) and Azo Yellow (SWC) are quite similar; replace Hansa Yellow with Lemon Yellow (D.S.)
• Quinacridone Gold (D.S.) is so amazingly beautiful; replace Indian Yellow (SWC) with Quin Gold
• Goethe (Brown Ocher) Genuine (D.S.) is granulating and Raw Sienna (SWC) is not; replace Raw Sienna with Goethe Genuine (semi-transparent) or Yavapai (natural iron oxide) Genuine (transparent and a bit lighter, more like a sand color)
• Mayan Blue Genuine (D.S.) add; it's incredibly rich and 4 blues in a 24-color palette seems appropriate
• Cobalt Light Violet (SWC) just doesn't lay down smoothly; replace with perhaps Wisteria (D.S., semi-transparent though and non-granulating) or Ultramarine Red (D.S., transparent but granulating) 

My First Professional Palette

I've played around for the last 6 months or so with student quality or dollar store paints, and after seeing the more professional people successfully lay down beautiful colors that flow and gently blend into each other, I've taken the time to put a palette together. The first picture I did a few days ago with the pro paints was satisfying -- those colors just happily mixed and there was less "bloom" with the pro colors!

So originally I bought a $14 set of cheapie AQUAnaut paints off Amazon. Thought I would pop the colors out and use them like chalk for something ... but then decided that it was too much effort. I really liked the paintbox -- it efficiently holds and organizes 24 colors on one side of a box, it's metal so won't stain, and best of all, it's compact with no detachable parts and can be clipped to a palette board for a simplistic plein air style of painting! Went to Hangaram, one of the biggest local art stores here in Seoul, and found the very same paintbox. Yep, bought it.

And since I was setting up my professional "large" paintbox, I also put together yet another Altoid box of paints, this one professional. Paints used were an eclectic mix of M. Graham and SWC (ShinHan Water Color Professional).

The $14 AQUAnaut set on the left (I decorated the back of the color swatches) and the M. Graham and SWC medley of transparent watercolors on the right. I have to say, Steve at The Mind of Watercolor has really influenced my choice of paints. He uses M. Graham, which isn't a controlling factor for me, but he also chooses to paint with principally transparent watercolors because they're excellent for glazing. Now this last point is something that resonates with me!

And since I live in S. Korea and SK has recently come out with a professional brand of watercolors, which are principally transparent, easily accessible to me, gorgeous in color, and very reasonably priced, I selected 13 colors from SWC, and then after considering transparency, colors and price, chose M. Graham as the other brand to complete my palette of only transparent colors. They compliment each other beautifully! I'm so ready to paint!

Left - $14 AQUAnaut set for experimenting with; Middle - my new Altoid box of professional paints; Right - my M. Graham and SWC professional paint box. 

Colors all labeled to name brand, color, pigment, transparency (only two are semi-transparent: M.G. sepia and M.G. Payne's grey), lightfastness (I only bought the two highest lightfast ratings for both brands), and whether they are staining or granulating.

After setting up my paintbox, I put a little watercolor art on the back of the paint box color swatch sheet.

Professional paints in a box for on-the-go painting.

My all-new professional paintbox: studio and plein air sizes.

Painting in Nature

Two artist friends and I got together for the weekend. It'd only been three or so years since we hung out, and in that time all three of us have discovered art. Rather amazing! So we decided to spend a whole day together in nature and do some doodling or whatever we wanted. 

We piled in their car and went to a hidden gem of a waterfall about 20 minutes away (Suok Waterfall in Goesan, S. Korea), but not connected to public transportation, which is very sad. During the whole time we were there, a few Koreans would come, take some pictures and almost immediately leave. Kind of like go to a culture spot, take a picture to prove you were there, and then go get something to eat. 

Meanwhile, the three of us were enjoying the beauty of nature. One friend used her plein air setup for the first time, the other took an artistic day off and just slept in his inflated chair-bed, and I took my inflatable chair-bed to the water's edge and painted in my tiny traveler's watercolor pad while soaking up the sun. Absolutely a perfect day!

My friend and I both like watercolor painting but our styles are so interestingly different. She prefers thick paints, preferably opaque and loves to paint in large designs. I like the transparency of watercolors and choose thin washes while using only transparent and semi-transparent pigments. I also tend to paint on much smaller paper, but that is partly because I like detail and partly because I frequently tuck my watercolor pad and altoid paint box in my purse or day pack.

The lesson I learned from this painting experience is NEVER PAINT FROM MEMORY! In my inflatable chair, it was awkward to access the Internet to keep looking at the picture I'd chosen to paint. Also with the sun so bright I couldn't see the screen clearly anyway, so I decided to just paint from memory, and what I remembered was a large frond over the toucan's head, so painted what I remembered .... however, the angle was totally different and the leaves were definitely in more muted tones. This frond turned out embarrassingly garish and overly broad and misshapen. Ugh. Other than that, I did kind of capture the essence of a jungle with light permeating through the foliage ...  so I did have some success.