[Aquanet] Fw: paint brands?

Wed Oct 8 01:20:01 EDT 2008

----- Original Message ----- 
From: patchapin at mindspring.com 
To: NitaLeland 
Sent: Tuesday, October 07, 2008 7:46 PM
Subject: Re: [Aquanet] paint brands?

This is the scientific approach, Nita, and I thank you!

 Like Nita, for many years I kept sheets of watercolour paper with test strips, although I wasn't intelligent enough to keep student grade paints too.  Living on the outer edges of civilization pre-'Net, sometimes it would take two years for me to find out a company had changed hands and also quality.  It maddens me that when an outfit changes hands, it rarely results in an increase of quality. 

So, I used to send away for art supply catalogues like some people collect stamps; a couple of times a year would find me with a list of paint, paper, brushes and other things I needed, on the floor with the various catalogues arranged around me, figuring what to get from which outfits, shipping and such being all part of the equation.  Thank goodness, the 'Net changed all that.

WN has been the most popular watercolour for the last couple of decades, and they certainly do more marketing, but so many times I don't like the handling quality of the paint itself as compared to another; as well, I guess I have to admit I hate their tiny little caps, more than one of which has flipped off somewhere into a corner and will not be found except by a questing dog or parrot.  

And Nita is certainly correct, everyone and their brother suddenly started to make paint, even people like Blick (shudder). 

Sometimes too I will get something because it has piqued my curiosity.  I do not fall for the different names, that was beaten out of me in school by a particular professor who had lists of brands' names for paints you already had.  However, if I see a shade called Green Pink, it gnaws at the back of my brain until I can find out what it is (mustard with a green tinge, I haven't found the 'pink' yet).  So I have a section in my taboret that is full of the weirdo things like this, or of 'old' paints I don't use any more because I found better (there must be people who still like Bistre, and on another list there's an oil painter who was recently interested in English Red, both of which are in that section of my taboret).

At the bottom of Nita's chart is what for me is the basic -- while the pigment load may be comparable, the handling qualities of the individual brands can be quite different.  (Even then, the tube of Moonglow that I have from Daniel Smith is much different than the Neutral Tints I have from several other outfits, so perhaps I'm not reading this correctly?) Coming to the desert from the Coast has initiated a necessary change in the palette I use, so I was interested in what the different folks on the list use as their, let's say, 'primary' brand.

I'm going to go study this chart for a bit, and see................  

pat chapin
www.patchapin.com

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: NitaLeland 
  To: patchapin at mindspring.com ; Aquanet at thedigitalbraintrust.net 
  Sent: Tuesday, October 07, 2008 6:49 PM
  Subject: Re: [Aquanet] paint brands?

  The attached chart is based on tests I've done over the past many years, updated when brands added or discontinued colors, when I was able to keep up with it. There are many brands I've tested that didn't meet my specifications, so they aren't on the chart. This would include all student grades and some that purport to be artists' colors but aren't sufficiently pigmented to suit me. It's a very individual thing. You don't need to stick to one brand unless you really like it, but you also don't need a gazillion colors. I used to like Grumbacher, too, and it was on the list, but the company changed hands and product so much over a period of time that even the artist's colors weren't reliable, so they fell off the chart, so to speak. There are others that are hard to find in the stores (Old Holland) that aren't on my chart, although I do use one of their colors and buy it wherever I can find it (Blue Violet).

  Most of my colors are WN, so they are in the first column, and colors that I think are equivalent in other brands are in the rows across. If I don't like a particular color or if it isn't available in a brand, the space is blank. My current direction is not to be brand-specific, but to look for ASTM color-index names like PB15 for phthalo blue. Then you don't end up with one each of every brand with a different name (Winsor Blue, Rembrandt Blue, Thalo Blue, Intense Blue, etc.) that are all the same color, PB15. 

  There's a two-page color chart in my new Confident Color book that shows 70 colors, giving their composition and color index names, along with their common names, that might also be a useful guide. (I think I just said please buy my book).

  Anyway, I hope the attached chart helps.

  Nita

  Nita Leland
  nita at nitaleland.com
  www.nitaleland.com
  http://nitaleland.blogspot.com 
    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: patchapin at mindspring.com 
    To: Aquanet at thedigitalbraintrust.net 
    Sent: Tuesday, October 07, 2008 8:10 PM
    Subject: [Aquanet] paint brands?

    The time has come, I guess, for me to clear some of my taboret, and before I begin on this odious project, I figured I might ask you guys if you have 'favourites' in paint brands.

    I know a lot of people are with Winsor & Newton because they started with them, or their student brand Cotman.  I started with Grumbacher and am still partial to some of their paints.

    But there are so many companies and some of them I've never tried, or not tried in so long my knowledge is not current, and I'm curious -- me, I like different colours in different brands, but if I had to stick with one, it would probably be Graham or Smith, although I'm really fond of 
    some Holbein hues, and then there's the Talens.................. but that might be tainted, as they asked me to 'test' paints for a bit.

    Input here please?  Just opinions, is all, something for me to chew over before I decide what I ditch and what I keep?

    pat chapin
    www.patchapin.com

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