I've just purchased some art materials, mostly paints and paper, for my Avon Valley Art group. Two relatively small parcels cost just under £300 and brought home again how expensive watercolour painting can be.
My previous posts on this subject have been very popular and the 2011 one still is to some extent. Not a lot has changed except everything has got more expensive. The main change has been the introduction of a number of cheaper paints as the artist quality prices have continued to climb with the introduction of QoR and Lutea raising them to ridiculous levels.
The principal items are paints, paper and brushes. These are the main ones. I know you can spend a lot more when you get into easels and other accessories like palettes, but in this latter case there are many cheap options which are perfectly adequate. I propose therefore to cover paints, paper and brushes only.
Paints
There has actually been more movement on paints than either paper or brushes. This has taken three forms. The introduction of Korean paints plus Turner from Japan, more house brands plus QoR and very recently Lutea. Both these latter are excruciatingly expensive.
Shin Han, Mijello and Turner have upwards of 70 paints, compared to the more normal 40 of budget makes like Venezia from Maimeri, Van Gogh from Talens, and Cotman from Winsor and Newton. I have covered all three makes in separate posts so I suggest you read those if you are interested. I have analysed the ranges and concluded they are not equivalent to the top makes. However it is perfectly possible to find 20/30 paints in each group that have decent pigments. They are being promoted as artist quality and I would say they are somewhere between student quality and artists quality. Some of my artists friends use Shin Han and are very happy with them. They seem to me to be on the opaque side, rather like Chinese makes like Maries, described by a well-known Chinese artist as 'somewhere between watercolour and gouache'. Make no mistake though Cotman, Van Gogh and Venezia contain some excellent paints. Prices are much cheaper than the top makes and the recently introduced Turner the cheapest. The Winsor & Newton Cotman range in the USA comprises 50 paints, including genuine Cobalts and Cadmiums but they refuse to make them available in the UK. The St Petersburg range remain very popular and have recently added tubes as well as the normal pans.
The other change has been the introduction of more house brands both in the UK and USA. We have recently caught up in the UK with Ken Bromley, Jacksons and Great Art all having house brands. Initially Jacksons was made by Sennelier and still may be. I haven't tried any of them but they are well priced and have had good reviews - have you ever seen a bad one in a trade magazine? - but the only worthwhile one is to try a small sample - say three paints - yourself.
I mentioned QoR and Lutea. My only comment is to say I won't even consider them because of the ridiculous prices when there are many excellent makes available at far better value. In the UK the much lauded Daniel Smith has made an impact with a huge range - far too many - including some lovely colours but prices are high and I suggest equivalents to many of the colours are available in cheaper makes like Lukas and Daler Rowney, while Winsor & Newton are frequently on offer. Don't rule out Maimeri, Sennelier or Rembrandt. You don't have to buy only one make. Others may tell you different so this is my opinion based on my own experience.
Paper.
No real change here. Without a doubt Bockingford remains the best budget option and I have just purchased a pack of 50 sheets(11" x 15") for a member of my group at £21,50p. This from Jacksons. Other options include several papers in the Hahnemuhle range like Brittania. Great Art do several budget papers under the Gerstaecker name. I tried a couple but was not impressed. They do offer a good 100% cotton paper called Centenaire, in both sheets and blocks, which is good value for a cotton paper. Sheets work out much cheaper than blocks.
Brushes.
Again no real change here although prices have risen steadily. With Kolinsky sables prices jump into the stratosphere beyond size 8 but Rosemary & Co are well priced compared to some the others. Escoda are also competitive although size by size they are usually smaller. They do however offer an increasing range of synthetic fibre brushes that are used and promoted by some well-known workshop artists. In the UK Pro Arte have a virtual monopoly in art shops and are good, but also have a look at what Rosemary offers. A very good alternative are the mixed sable/synthetic brushes most list and the Da Vinci Cosmotop range of mixed hair/synthetic , used by some top artists, are worth considering. See the article on synthetic brushes by John Softly.
That's basically it. The index for the blog is July 2014 and will tell you where to find the articles mentioned in the text.
Showing posts with label paints. Show all posts
Showing posts with label paints. Show all posts
Sunday, 24 July 2016
Tuesday, 1 February 2011
Top Forty Pigments - Yellows
This is something I planned to do this year starting with yellow. This is heavily based on the researches and recommendations of Bruce McEvoy of Handprint http://www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/water.html but I have attempted to simplify for those who don't wish to get deeply immersed. If you do follow the link. Other sources of information are the books by Hilary Page http://hilarypage.com/ and Michael Wilcox http://www.schoolofcolor.com/ , although they are starting to get rather long in the tooth and many new pigments are coming onto the market not covered in these earlier works. Hilary Page does offer upgrades on her website but when I last looked it did not appear to have been altered for a while. Manufacturers websites give good information, Schminke are excellent and you can download a pdf file that gives much more extensive information than most others. http://Schminke.de/fileadmin/downloads/pdf/horadam_aquarelle_d_gb_01_08.pdf
Amongst commercial sources Dick Blick http://www.dickblick.com/categories/watercolors give detailed information on the huge range of watercolours they sell, although you have to follow several links. Another fantastic source of pigment information is http://www.artiscreation.com/ColorCharts.html Manufacturers offer information in various forms including proper chip charts, some of which can be purchased from suppliers like Jacksons. This as opposed to printed ones that are more freely available. Winsor and Newton do a very good leaflet on their artists watercolours. Holbein and Schminke also have good literature- if you can find it. The chip charts and most of the printed colour charts don't normally give pigment details but if you search manufacturers websites it is usually there somewhere. Some are easy to find others more difficult.
The starting point is that these should be single pigment paints, which are superior for mixing purposes and clarity. All are reliably lightfast although even here there can be differences between manufacturers. Bruce recommends you do your own lightfastness tests but I don't bother.
Many popular pigments like PY3 and PY97, usually called Lemon Yellow (PY3) or Primary Yellow (PY97) or similar have not been included. If you are using a yellow that doesn't appear here and you are perfectly happy with it comment by all means but remember I am not setting our `rules' that must be followed nor saying you shouldn't use this or that paint. Bruce McEvoy might but not Peter Ward. There is plenty of information about fugitive paints and most manufacturers rate them accurately but it's often in the small print! Overall there are more than 25 different yellow pigments on the market and this may be a slight underestimate. New ones, as with other colours, appear regularly. Actually if you look at the `artiscreation' link above you'll see the list of yellow pigments is enormous. However I refer primarily to those used for watercolour as listed by Handprint.
Essentially yellows come in three basic groups. Light Yellow (Lemon), Medium and Deep. The general consensus, if having only one on your palette, would be a medium yellow.
Where do we start? The obvious one is Cadmium Yellow which comes in deep/pale/light/lemon and medium hues. Two pigments are closely linked here PY35 and PY37. Incidentally P stands for pigment and Y for yellow. PY35 leans towards green and PY37 towards red. Widely available most leading manufacturers offer two or three versions. Make your choice and take your pick. The toxic nature and opaque quality of the cadmiums is something to be considered.
Next is a newish pigment PY110 tsoindolinone Yellow R, a deep yellow listed currently only by Daniel Smith and Graham. I have bought the Graham version via Lawrence of Hove but not used it yet. It is described as a warm yellow orange. Daniel Smith calls it Permanent Yellow Deep and Graham Indian Yellow (Hue).
We now come to Green Gold PY129 azomethine copper offered by W & N, Rowney, Old Holland as `Golden Green' , Graham as Azo Green and Daniel Smith as `Rich Green Gold'. This is an interesting paint that I have used for a while. It's a cool yellow that ranges in colour, depending on dilution, from yellow green to light yellow. A good one for landscape greens, particularly early in the year. I don't think PY129 can be considered as a standalone yellow but one to add if and when you expand your palette. This is one of the paints referred to as `two-tone'.
PY150 nickel azomethine yellow is another fairly recent pigment currently offered by Daniel Smith and Graham as Nickel Azo Yellow, Winsor and Newton and Schminke as Transparent Yellow. I've tried the W & N version and am not sure about it at all. So there you are Bruce! Winsor and Newton use it as one of the pigments in their Quinacridone Gold paint, a three pigment mixture.
PY153 nickel dioxide yellow. A deep yellow. This is one I use by Rowney called Indian Yellow. On my most recent courses Charles Reid had added it to his palette as Winsor and Newton New Gamboge. Daniel Smith also offers it as New Gamboge while Sennelier call it Indian Yellow. The original true Indian Yellow, something to do with cow dung (!)I believe is no longer available.
PY154 benzimidazolone yellow H3G. A neutral yellow which Winsor and Newton call Winsor Yellow. Rembrandt offer two paints Azo yellow Light and Azo Yellow Deep, while Sennelier call it Sennelier Yellow Light.
Looking for other sources I see Lukas offer Green Yellow (PY129) and Gamboge (PY153), so being well priced might be worth trying. Amongst the student quality the situation is meagre. W & N Cotman offer PY153 as Gamboge Hue so that might be worth a try and Van Gogh PY154 as Azo Yellow Light. In the USA genuine Cadmiums are part of the Cotman range BUT not in the UK (to Windsor and Newton's shame and I've told them so).
To sum up this isn't an exhaustive study by any means but a taster perhaps for further investigation if you're interested. There are many more yellow pigments but these have been singled out as outstanding. As I've suggested I'm not yet convinced about PY150 (I've had another look at it and NO I'm not) but Handprint is the place to go because he covers virtually all the currently available yellows and gives a very detailed analysis of each pigment. Some might not agree with his findings but no one else has gone into the subject in such depth. One alternative for a medium yellow is the popular PY97. I have seen different views about this pigment and have used the Maimeri version in the past. Recently I obtained some of the `Try it 'sheets from Daniel Smith.They call it Hansa Yellow Medium. I quite liked it and almost ordered a tube from Jacksons, which I may do at some future stage. Added 19.10.12: I later purchased the Daniel Smith Hansa Yellow Medium and find it excellent. Something that I should have made clear is that you find the pigment information somewhere on the tube of paint. All the major manufacturers put it on their tubes, although usually it is in very small print and almost requires a magnifying glass to read! The following website gives good general information on pigments (and much else). http://www.channeling-winslow-homer.com/
I'll conclude by again pointing out this piece is not meant to be some sort of gospel that everyone should follow. As Bruce McEvoy says different manufacturing tecniques and paint recipes means that the same pigment doesn't appear as an exact homogenous mix across the range of manufacturers. Variations exist and when choosing personal preference comes into it. In addition pigments are supplied by several firms and this is a factor in the resulting paint.
There are also other important yellows in the earth colours and they will be covered separately.
Amongst commercial sources Dick Blick http://www.dickblick.com/categories/watercolors give detailed information on the huge range of watercolours they sell, although you have to follow several links. Another fantastic source of pigment information is http://www.artiscreation.com/ColorCharts.html Manufacturers offer information in various forms including proper chip charts, some of which can be purchased from suppliers like Jacksons. This as opposed to printed ones that are more freely available. Winsor and Newton do a very good leaflet on their artists watercolours. Holbein and Schminke also have good literature- if you can find it. The chip charts and most of the printed colour charts don't normally give pigment details but if you search manufacturers websites it is usually there somewhere. Some are easy to find others more difficult.
The starting point is that these should be single pigment paints, which are superior for mixing purposes and clarity. All are reliably lightfast although even here there can be differences between manufacturers. Bruce recommends you do your own lightfastness tests but I don't bother.
Many popular pigments like PY3 and PY97, usually called Lemon Yellow (PY3) or Primary Yellow (PY97) or similar have not been included. If you are using a yellow that doesn't appear here and you are perfectly happy with it comment by all means but remember I am not setting our `rules' that must be followed nor saying you shouldn't use this or that paint. Bruce McEvoy might but not Peter Ward. There is plenty of information about fugitive paints and most manufacturers rate them accurately but it's often in the small print! Overall there are more than 25 different yellow pigments on the market and this may be a slight underestimate. New ones, as with other colours, appear regularly. Actually if you look at the `artiscreation' link above you'll see the list of yellow pigments is enormous. However I refer primarily to those used for watercolour as listed by Handprint.
Essentially yellows come in three basic groups. Light Yellow (Lemon), Medium and Deep. The general consensus, if having only one on your palette, would be a medium yellow.
Where do we start? The obvious one is Cadmium Yellow which comes in deep/pale/light/lemon and medium hues. Two pigments are closely linked here PY35 and PY37. Incidentally P stands for pigment and Y for yellow. PY35 leans towards green and PY37 towards red. Widely available most leading manufacturers offer two or three versions. Make your choice and take your pick. The toxic nature and opaque quality of the cadmiums is something to be considered.
Next is a newish pigment PY110 tsoindolinone Yellow R, a deep yellow listed currently only by Daniel Smith and Graham. I have bought the Graham version via Lawrence of Hove but not used it yet. It is described as a warm yellow orange. Daniel Smith calls it Permanent Yellow Deep and Graham Indian Yellow (Hue).
We now come to Green Gold PY129 azomethine copper offered by W & N, Rowney, Old Holland as `Golden Green' , Graham as Azo Green and Daniel Smith as `Rich Green Gold'. This is an interesting paint that I have used for a while. It's a cool yellow that ranges in colour, depending on dilution, from yellow green to light yellow. A good one for landscape greens, particularly early in the year. I don't think PY129 can be considered as a standalone yellow but one to add if and when you expand your palette. This is one of the paints referred to as `two-tone'.
PY150 nickel azomethine yellow is another fairly recent pigment currently offered by Daniel Smith and Graham as Nickel Azo Yellow, Winsor and Newton and Schminke as Transparent Yellow. I've tried the W & N version and am not sure about it at all. So there you are Bruce! Winsor and Newton use it as one of the pigments in their Quinacridone Gold paint, a three pigment mixture.
PY153 nickel dioxide yellow. A deep yellow. This is one I use by Rowney called Indian Yellow. On my most recent courses Charles Reid had added it to his palette as Winsor and Newton New Gamboge. Daniel Smith also offers it as New Gamboge while Sennelier call it Indian Yellow. The original true Indian Yellow, something to do with cow dung (!)I believe is no longer available.
PY154 benzimidazolone yellow H3G. A neutral yellow which Winsor and Newton call Winsor Yellow. Rembrandt offer two paints Azo yellow Light and Azo Yellow Deep, while Sennelier call it Sennelier Yellow Light.
Looking for other sources I see Lukas offer Green Yellow (PY129) and Gamboge (PY153), so being well priced might be worth trying. Amongst the student quality the situation is meagre. W & N Cotman offer PY153 as Gamboge Hue so that might be worth a try and Van Gogh PY154 as Azo Yellow Light. In the USA genuine Cadmiums are part of the Cotman range BUT not in the UK (to Windsor and Newton's shame and I've told them so).
To sum up this isn't an exhaustive study by any means but a taster perhaps for further investigation if you're interested. There are many more yellow pigments but these have been singled out as outstanding. As I've suggested I'm not yet convinced about PY150 (I've had another look at it and NO I'm not) but Handprint is the place to go because he covers virtually all the currently available yellows and gives a very detailed analysis of each pigment. Some might not agree with his findings but no one else has gone into the subject in such depth. One alternative for a medium yellow is the popular PY97. I have seen different views about this pigment and have used the Maimeri version in the past. Recently I obtained some of the `Try it 'sheets from Daniel Smith.They call it Hansa Yellow Medium. I quite liked it and almost ordered a tube from Jacksons, which I may do at some future stage. Added 19.10.12: I later purchased the Daniel Smith Hansa Yellow Medium and find it excellent. Something that I should have made clear is that you find the pigment information somewhere on the tube of paint. All the major manufacturers put it on their tubes, although usually it is in very small print and almost requires a magnifying glass to read! The following website gives good general information on pigments (and much else). http://www.channeling-winslow-homer.com/
I'll conclude by again pointing out this piece is not meant to be some sort of gospel that everyone should follow. As Bruce McEvoy says different manufacturing tecniques and paint recipes means that the same pigment doesn't appear as an exact homogenous mix across the range of manufacturers. Variations exist and when choosing personal preference comes into it. In addition pigments are supplied by several firms and this is a factor in the resulting paint.
There are also other important yellows in the earth colours and they will be covered separately.
Saturday, 6 March 2010
Watercolour Paints
I recently found a site, which appears to be American, called http://www.art-paints.com/ . This purports to list all available artists paints, running to hundreds. As my interest starts and ends at watercolour I looked up the watercolour information. To my astonishment 58 - yes 58 - different brands are listed! This list is a mishmash of well-known and unknown (at least to me) brands including such names as Niji. MIR, Yasitomi, Morocolour and Marie's. This is just a sample. Without exception each brand is described in identical wording as `one of the most popular watercolour brands in the world' and the opening paragraph appears to be a standard one with a few modifications for each make. Looking at the information for some of these `most popular' brands they all seemed to have a very limited range, some as few as eight colours. This site had a number of ads for art suppliers including Dick Blick which surprised me a little, still commercialism knows no bounds. `Full' information is claimed for each colour yet one of the crucial ones - pigment details - are missing.
I now turn to the question of `artists' and `student' quality paints. Generally speaking most - not all - well-known manufacturers list an `artists' and a `student' range. Some like Talens have three, Rembrandt at the top, Van Gogh as a middle range and Amsterdam as the student quality. Without exception the student ranges have a reduced number of colours, around 40 compared to between 70 and 100 plus in the artists quality. Some of the student quality use similar pigments in the cheaper series 1 and 2 but replace the cadmiums, cobalts and ceruleans, as well as a few others, by `cheaper' alternatives. This is what Windsor and Newton do with the Cotman range in the UK,while offering full cadmiums and cobalts in the USA, 50 colours in total instead of forty. Some of these expensive pigments also seem to be on offer on the Continent. Great Art, who are German, but have a UK ordering telephone number , offer 40 colours as in the UK but seem to have a few Cadmiums and Cobalts in addition to the `hues'. I haven't ordered any so cannot confirm this as gospel. Correspondence with W & N produced just waffling on their part and an enquiry to Richard Bromley of Ken Bromley Artists Supplies about the Cotman situation, despite him being very helpful on a previous query, brought no response. Industry politics?
The standard description of students quality is the use of extenders and fillers to bulk up the paint with the amount of pigment being reduced. The only artist I know who used and recommended Cotman, as against the more expensive artists quality, was Ron Ranson and his private comments were quite dismissive. I did note though that, when on a painting course at his then home, he had artists quality paints in his studio. This in itself is not evidence since some manufacturers actively court a number of well-known artists, supplying them with paints either very cheaply or even (so I have been told) FOC. This is in return for that artist using and promoting their product. When on courses students always want to know what make(s) and colours the tutor uses.
This is becoming rather long and the usual information for blogging is to make the comments short and sweet but I'll go against the grain and plough on. So far the gap between artist and `student' quality is fairly clear. However there are one or two makes that `claim' to be artists quality and are promoted as such by the art suppliers who stock them. The most obvious is the Russian St Petersburg, now known as `White Knights'. This is a very competitively priced paint with a good range of colours, increasingly popular with amateur painters and used and promoted by some professionals. Read what Bruce McEvoy says on his handprint site http://handprint.com/ and look under paints then brands. He dismisses the claim they are artists quality unequivocally. Fact - amongst the pigments used by White Knights are several obselete ones that are fugitive - this means they fade. Consult Michael Wilcox's Guide to Watercolour Paints. One White Knights colour is Rose (PR81), Wilcox's comment `it is a mobile disaster area as an artists's watercolour'. I'm assuming the colour chart I have, which was printed when St Petersburg was re-branded as `White Knights' is still relevant. I've seen no information that the paints have been reformulated, which has happened in recent years with most reputable brands.
Another very recent brand which has arrived in the UK is Shin Han. This is again being promoted as `artists' quality at a very competitive price and is said to be proving very popular. They have 5 series and are priced at about half that of the top of the range Windsor & Newton. There are 72 colours and the naming of individual paints seems to suggest they are shadowing Holbein, the respected Japanese make, Jaune Brilliant No2, Mineral Violet etc. I tried one colour - Jaune Brilliant No 2 and a fellow painter one of the violets. Not that impressed but it is a very small sample. I managed to obtain, with difficulty, pigment details of the range and was even less impressed. There are only 20 single pigment paints - 28% much lower than other artists quality ranges - with 11 paints having white (PW6) as one of the ingredients. There also appear to be dyes present (RV10, Opera) and a few other fugitive pigments (PV3 Permanent Violet) . PR83 Alazarin crimson is used in 4 colours. Read what Bruce McEvoy say s about this pigment. Windsor & Newton still offer it but also list a `permanent' version. When the inevitable reviews appear in one or other of the art magazines will these things be highlighted?
I now turn to the question of `artists' and `student' quality paints. Generally speaking most - not all - well-known manufacturers list an `artists' and a `student' range. Some like Talens have three, Rembrandt at the top, Van Gogh as a middle range and Amsterdam as the student quality. Without exception the student ranges have a reduced number of colours, around 40 compared to between 70 and 100 plus in the artists quality. Some of the student quality use similar pigments in the cheaper series 1 and 2 but replace the cadmiums, cobalts and ceruleans, as well as a few others, by `cheaper' alternatives. This is what Windsor and Newton do with the Cotman range in the UK,while offering full cadmiums and cobalts in the USA, 50 colours in total instead of forty. Some of these expensive pigments also seem to be on offer on the Continent. Great Art, who are German, but have a UK ordering telephone number , offer 40 colours as in the UK but seem to have a few Cadmiums and Cobalts in addition to the `hues'. I haven't ordered any so cannot confirm this as gospel. Correspondence with W & N produced just waffling on their part and an enquiry to Richard Bromley of Ken Bromley Artists Supplies about the Cotman situation, despite him being very helpful on a previous query, brought no response. Industry politics?
The standard description of students quality is the use of extenders and fillers to bulk up the paint with the amount of pigment being reduced. The only artist I know who used and recommended Cotman, as against the more expensive artists quality, was Ron Ranson and his private comments were quite dismissive. I did note though that, when on a painting course at his then home, he had artists quality paints in his studio. This in itself is not evidence since some manufacturers actively court a number of well-known artists, supplying them with paints either very cheaply or even (so I have been told) FOC. This is in return for that artist using and promoting their product. When on courses students always want to know what make(s) and colours the tutor uses.
This is becoming rather long and the usual information for blogging is to make the comments short and sweet but I'll go against the grain and plough on. So far the gap between artist and `student' quality is fairly clear. However there are one or two makes that `claim' to be artists quality and are promoted as such by the art suppliers who stock them. The most obvious is the Russian St Petersburg, now known as `White Knights'. This is a very competitively priced paint with a good range of colours, increasingly popular with amateur painters and used and promoted by some professionals. Read what Bruce McEvoy says on his handprint site http://handprint.com/ and look under paints then brands. He dismisses the claim they are artists quality unequivocally. Fact - amongst the pigments used by White Knights are several obselete ones that are fugitive - this means they fade. Consult Michael Wilcox's Guide to Watercolour Paints. One White Knights colour is Rose (PR81), Wilcox's comment `it is a mobile disaster area as an artists's watercolour'. I'm assuming the colour chart I have, which was printed when St Petersburg was re-branded as `White Knights' is still relevant. I've seen no information that the paints have been reformulated, which has happened in recent years with most reputable brands.
Another very recent brand which has arrived in the UK is Shin Han. This is again being promoted as `artists' quality at a very competitive price and is said to be proving very popular. They have 5 series and are priced at about half that of the top of the range Windsor & Newton. There are 72 colours and the naming of individual paints seems to suggest they are shadowing Holbein, the respected Japanese make, Jaune Brilliant No2, Mineral Violet etc. I tried one colour - Jaune Brilliant No 2 and a fellow painter one of the violets. Not that impressed but it is a very small sample. I managed to obtain, with difficulty, pigment details of the range and was even less impressed. There are only 20 single pigment paints - 28% much lower than other artists quality ranges - with 11 paints having white (PW6) as one of the ingredients. There also appear to be dyes present (RV10, Opera) and a few other fugitive pigments (PV3 Permanent Violet) . PR83 Alazarin crimson is used in 4 colours. Read what Bruce McEvoy say s about this pigment. Windsor & Newton still offer it but also list a `permanent' version. When the inevitable reviews appear in one or other of the art magazines will these things be highlighted?
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