It’s time for PART 2 of this blog post from June of last year:  My watercolors, brushes, and other painting tools

Since that entry, I’ve added *just* a few more paints to my arsenal. Most of my watercolors at the time were student grade pan sets, but after practicing for months, I thought I deserved a good selection of artist grade watercolors that I can use for the commissions that were surprisingly starting to trickle in (thanks to my posting of work online). 🙂

After consulting with friends, doing lots of research on sites like Handprint and WetCanvas AND considering what I can afford, I chose the brands ShinHan PWC (Premium Watercolors) and Holbein. These two Asian brands are known for creamy, brilliant colors that are quite similar in behavior and quality. I chose tubes because I have a tendency to mix pan colors on the pans themselves and after a while, I can’t tell which is which anymore. Obviously I won’t have that problem with tubes if I squeeze out just enough for what I need at the time of painting.

ShinHan PWC Extra Fine Artists Watercolors in 5ml and 15ml tubes — Permanent Red, Vandyke Brown, Ultramarine Deep, Mineral Violet, Viridian, Cadmium Yellow Deep, Permanent Magenta, and Marine Blue. (Locally available from ArtWhale)

I already have a few tubes of the ShinHan Korean Colors which I already reviewed here and here. PWC is ShinHan’s top-of-the-line paint and is made with high quality pigments and the finest grade gum arabic which produces beautifully transparent but vivid, fade-resistant colors, as you can see in the swatches above. I also love how I can mix a variety of interesting hues from just those few colors in my palette.

Can’t get over how intensely pigmented these premium #ShinHanArt PWC paints are and they’re available from @artwhaleph, in sets and in individual tubes, starting today! ?? I received some tubes to test but I couldn’t help buying a few more to complete my #limitedpalette artist grade set. (Rainbow colors + Van Dyke Brown, not in photo) ?? _____ I’ll be at @steadysundaybazaaro to sell prints & shrinkplastic goodies from 12-6pm at TomatoKick Malingap St. There’ll be lots of artisan food & other indie arts & craft goods. Come and join us! ? #SteadySundayBazaaro

A photo posted by Cynthia Bauzon-Arre (@arncyn) on Sep 26, 2015 at 5:01pm PDT

And here’s a comparison test I did sometime ago where you can clearly see the difference between ShinHan Korean Colors and ShinHan PWC.

Quick sketches to compare #ShinHanArt Korean Watercolors with ShinHan PWC. ? Both offer intense pigmentation but the Korean Colors are creamier and more opaque while the PWC paints are more transparent, blend easily and flow more fluidly. There are advantages to both so I guess it really depends on how you intend to use them. ?? (Both are available through @artwhaleph)

A photo posted by Cynthia Bauzon-Arre (@arncyn) on Nov 13, 2015 at 12:55am PST

In my previous blog post, I mentioned that I already had a few tubes of Holbein Watercolors but that I haven’t really used them much because of the colors I picked. Since that time I purchased a travel set containing colors from their 12-tube set in pan form. The set also includes a little flask, two synthetic hair travel brushes, sponges, and receptacles for water for easy use when painting plein air.

Holbein watercolors in the Pro-Compo Mini II Travel Kit – Burnt Sienna, Chinese White, Crimson Lake, Permanent Green #1, Prussian Blue, Viridian, Burnt Umber, Cobalt Blue, Ivory Black, Permanent Yellow Light, Vermilion, and Yellow Ochre + 5ml tubes of Compose Blue, Cobalt Turquoise Light, Lilac, Violet Grey, Lavender, Jaune Brilliant #2, Opera, Leaf Green, Permanent Violet, and Indigo. (Available from Deovir Arts though my travel kit is from an indie seller on IG)

Holbein, like ShinHan PWC, is wonderfully creamy and vibrant and re-wets easily. Just dab your wet brush onto the dry paint and the color will leap into your brush like metal files to a magnet. 😀 It also produces beautiful transparent washes and intense hues. I’m very happy with my choice of paints.

Here’s something I painted entirely with Holbein:

A photo posted by Cynthia Bauzon-Arre (@arncyn) on Jan 27, 2016 at 12:13am PST

(Lots more on Instagram as always.)

And now for the brushes I’ve added to my tool kit —

From left to right: Winsor & Newton Foundation Brushes #2, 4, and 6; Silver Brush Black Velvet #8 , and Escoda Reserva #8 which I keep in a Tweed & Twine rollup tool case

• The W&N brushes are actually from my workshop kits (so if you signed up for my Watercolor Portrait Workshop on Feb.20 at Hey Kessy, you’ll be receiving a set of these!). I got a set for myself from IFEX Philippines and I’ve been using them as an alternative to my W&N Series 7 Kolinsky brushes since I don’t want to wear those out. These ones are synthetic and have a good snap to them, making them excellent for detail work! (Available at NBS & Fully Booked branches for only P185/set)
• This Black Velvet brush is made of a blend of squirrel hair and synthetic filament and I find it very soft and absorbent. I love how the point stays in shape so I can make both fine lines and bold strokes with it. (Available locally from Craft Carrot though I got mine as a gift from a relative in the US)
• The Escoda Reserva Kolinsky-Tajmyr Sable is my absolute favorite watercolor brush because it’s an all-in-one — it’s a travel brush so it can be collapsed. It also has terrific liquid-retaining capacity and the hair holds sharp points, making it perfect for juicy washes, bold strokes, and fine lines. Also, how gorgeous is that golden brass ferrule? (Available from ArtWhale)

See also: My watercolors, brushes, and other painting tools and My favorite watercolor papers

How about you, what are your watercolor painting must-haves? Please do share!

A few projects are keeping me on a food-drawing blitz and, encountering some downtime last night, I thought of painting a tomato using all the brands of watercolor that I have on hand. This Tomato Watercolor Chart™ (LOL) should prove useful as a reference since it clearly shows (1) color/pigment intensity; and (2) paint dispersion or how they spread on wet paper and into other colors. Let me share my findings with you.

For consistency’s sake I used a sheet of Canson Montval Torchon (280 gsm) for the exercise.

Prang (student grade) – colors are bright and the paint itself is fluid and easy to blend. Very transparent too so glazing is not a problem. Just look at that smooth finish — very impressive for a student brand. The only downside with Prang is that the colors will fade over time so it’s really best for practice work and illustrations that will be scanned/digitized anyway. (Available at NBS branches)

Van Gogh (high quality student grade, in the league of W&N Cotman) — as with Prang, Van Gogh colors are bright, fluid, transparent, and very easy to dilute and blend. The reds and greens are more intense though and from experience, the color intensity lasts pretty long. (Available at Deovir Arts)

Louvre (student grade brand by Lefranc & Bourgeois, in the league of Reeves and Pebeo) — colors come in tubes and are very bold and bright for a student brand but are more on the opaque side. It took me a while to get the colors to blend correctly (which explains the splotches) so I guess Louvre is best for artworks that are rendered in a more “painterly” or impressionistic style where strokes are intentionally pronounced and visible. (Available at NBS branches)

Gansai Tambi (high quality student grade brand by Kuretake and IMHO in the league of ShinHan Korean Colours) — very radiant colors that are more opaque than usual — but look at how bright the colors are! A little difficult to blend and produce a smooth finish though as you can see, my attempts to blend the colors yielded interesting results. I think the Gansai Tambi is more suited for flat, gouache-like renderings. (Available from Zig Philippines though I got mine from Amazon.com
)

Shin Han Korean Colours (high quality student grade brand) — I already did a lengthy review here but based on the tomato test, the colors are creamy and very intense — shockingly so that I had to water it down a bit. It was fairly easy to blend the colors but the thick quality of the paint makes it more suitable for painterly and gouache-like renditions. (Exclusively available from ArtWhale Philippines)

ShinHan PWC Extra Fine Premium Watercolors (artist grade) – straight out of the tube, these paints look bright and saturated and once you add water to the colors, they just flow into each other like butter — not kidding at all. I looove how fluid and juicy the paints are and when I use them for portraits, I can just feel the painting paint by itself LOL. And because it’s an artist grade paint, there is very little chance of fading especially if you use archival paper. (Exclusively available from ArtWhale Philippines)

Holbein (artist grade) — in my portrait painting experience Holbein is as radiant and flows and behaves almost exactly like ShinHan PWC and I can’t tell the difference, even when I use them together. The tomato above looks slightly more orangey since I don’t have Permanent Red in my Holbein set, but the colors are bright and wonderful for if you want to achieve a true “watercolor look.”  (Available at Deovir Arts though my pan set is from an independent seller I met on IG)

Examples of how I’ve used some of the brands in portraiture —

A photo posted by Cynthia Bauzon-Arre (@arncyn) on Jan 11, 2016 at 5:42am PST

Prang

A photo posted by Cynthia Bauzon-Arre (@arncyn) on Jan 14, 2016 at 8:54am PST

Van Gogh Watercolors

A photo posted by Cynthia Bauzon-Arre (@arncyn) on Jan 31, 2016 at 8:12pm PST

Louvre

A photo posted by Cynthia Bauzon-Arre (@arncyn) on Aug 17, 2015 at 11:42pm PDT

ShinHan Korean Colors

A photo posted by Cynthia Bauzon-Arre (@arncyn) on Sep 10, 2015 at 7:47pm PDT

ShinHan PWC

A photo posted by Cynthia Bauzon-Arre (@arncyn) on Nov 7, 2015 at 7:31pm PST

Holbein

You can also check out my previous post My watercolors, brushes, and other painting tools for other notes regarding the brands, plus there’s so much more example work to be found (in real time!) on my IG @arncyn 😀