Let Watercolor Take You on a Sedimental Journey!

Watercolor artists have a wonderful opportunity to take advantage of expressive effects unique to the medium, if they are willing to become a student of pigment characteristics and paper quality. Once the artist is confident in their knowledge, they can go with the flow of pigment and water directed by gravity.  Evocative paintings filled with the essence of the subject are the result!

There are many beautiful tubes of watercolor on the market, but many manufacturers do not make it easy to access the behavior and characteristics of their pigments.  This technique utilizes pigments that granulate and are non or low staining for the recovery of light areas.  These characteristics (and many more) of Daniel Smith Extra Fine and Primatek Watercolors are reliably defined at this link:  www.jjcindustries.com/category/watercolor-15ml-tubes/tag/granulation-granulating+staining-1-non-staining/

This link will take you to a simple and useful table which sorts and beautifully describes each pigment that satisfies a search you can customize according to your needs.  It is preset to include each DS Watercolor Pigment sold in 15ml tubes (not all DS pigments are sold in 5ml sizes), the selection boxes for granulating pigments and non-staining (1) pigments are already in place.  Then, you simply click on the “Show Colors” box at the bottom.  Beautiful descriptions of each pigment fitting those parameters along with a color sample of the hue will be available to scroll through to the left of the table.  If you wish to expand the search to low-staining (2) pigments, simply remove the non-staining selection by clicking on the box and click the low-staining box and again click on “Show Colors”.  Be sure to make a list before visiting your dealer or art website!  Remember to check the Series number of each hue.  Series 1 hues are very affordable but as they progress to Series 4, they become more expensive.  If you are going to enroll in one of my Granulating Transparent Watercolor Workshops, this procedure guarantees you will have pigments that will work well with the techniques I teach.

Additionally, Arches Bright White 300 lb. Rough paper placed on a non-absorbent support yields the best results, enhancing the granulating effect while resisting buckling during the painting process.  This paper is also sized both internally and externally to allow lifting techniques for both wet and dried paint.