Review of Schmincke Horadam Watercolours

I have a Winston & Newton box which is 25 years old that I am still using! When I bought it, I didn´t know that the colors were chosen for painting landscapes and nature, I don´t often paint landscapes, and now I prefer to pick the individual colors that I will use.  I usually like the colors that are perfect for painting city life, cafes, flowers and people. It might make it a bit more expensive than choosing a ready-made kit, but the different brands offer different prices, so I am sure you will find the product to match your budget. A lot of the brands make a student quality that works great.

A friend of my loves Schmincke watercolors so much that they are the only ones she uses. So, I had to try them out for myself, just to see if I would like them as much as she does.

I bought 12 Schmincke watercolors from their range of 110 colors. Of the 110, 70 are single pigment paints and the use of good reliable pigments is prevalent in this brand. I usually buy the tubes because my artworks for exhibitions are large, often 2 to 3 meters high and over 150 cm wide so I need a lot of paint.  But, when I do sketches for ideas or work in my home studio, I need to have a smaller paint set.  This time I chose the tubes. you can get them here.

For me, the primary colors (magenta (red but looks like pink), cyan (blue) and primary yellow.) are the most important and are what I look for first.  These are the basic colors of the rainbow and you can make all the other colors from these. When I went to the shop I found magenta but had to choose another blue and yellow, but they worked out just fine. Besides these three colors, I chose some earth colors and two that are great for painting skin tones. Burnt Sienna or a Burnt Umber are also great choices but I didn´t take them this time as I wanted to try something new.

Below I show how to combine the 3 primary colors to get all the other colors.

When you are choosing the paint,  you also need to consider what you will use them for.  If you are doing illustrations or working in an art journal or sketchbook , they are all good.  But if you are going to exhibit or sell your work you will want to choose a paint that will not fade over time when exposed to sunlight.

One of the colors I chose is not light-resistant but can be perfect for sketchbooks and personal use. I must admit that I will have a problem to keep this color separate. How on earth will I remember which is the light resistant one? I should have checked more closely before buying this one.

Overall, Schmincke is a great watercolor paint and has lovely colors that I like, they did their job well because when I mixed the colors I got exactly the shade I wanted. I absolutely love them. They make some colors that the other brands don´t have and my pallet will include these colors from Schmincke in future.

I was able to get the exact colours of the flowers and it was easy with these paints!

Did you know that you get a printable digital artwork,  and the calendar 2017 and more if you sign up for the free color course  Free color course and If you like this, feel free to share with your family and friends on Facebook.  If you are on a mobile phone and have problems go here

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