Schmincke Horadam Aquarell Exclusive Colours

Today’s a busy day, what with this being the first of three planned posts.

Another birthday present to try out, or at least a freebie that came with an order of birthday presents. Same thing really. It’s a dot card of 24 watercolours by Schminke for me to try out. An interesting set of colours, most of them primaries, a few secondaries and no blacks, whites or browns in sight. I tip my hat to Schmincke for the selection.

The colours all seem bright and vibrant but I don’t see myself buying them. There are only five transparent colours in there: Ruby red (same pigment as W&N permanent rose, a cool red that I prefer quinacridone magenta over), purple magenta (ah, that is the same pigment as quinacridone magenta), cobalt violet hue (nice granulation but weak tinting strength and I don’t go for standalone violets), cobalt blue light (same pigment as W&N cobalt blue but this version’s transparent) and cobalt azure (same pigment as W&N cerulean blue). The cobalt blue light might be OK but I already have four blues in my main palette that I’m happy with. As for the rest, too many opaque colours suggest that these could produce a bit of mud when mixed.

But still, I needed to swatch those dots and I came up with an idea about how to turn 24 unmixed swatches into a work of art. More in the next post…