Day 29--30 Day Coloring Challenge

Today's coloring challenge is another extra large postcard from the postcard watercolor block discussed here.  I also wanted to discuss some new handmade watercolors that I ordered from Rachel Beth at her etsy store. Disclaimer here: I have purchased these watercolors on my own and I am not receiving any compensation for this review. To get straight to the review of the product just skip to the end of this blog post.

I have started collecting the watercolors and I am working with the ones that I have on hand. I purchased the half-pans which will be plenty for my use. This is the first time that I have used pan watercolors. Normally, I use Dr Martin's concentrate.

As you can see, 14 half pans can fit in a regular sized Altoid tin. Each pan is labeled with the color and has a small sheet magnet on the bottom of each tin. Using a small tin is the perfect way to carry your watercolors when traveling (which was one of the primary reasons I chose Rachel's shop).

When I work on a project and decide on a palette, I get a scrap of paper similar to the paper that I will be using. I then make a color sample to reference the colors used.

Today's color palette

Here is the sample color palette.

Sample palette

Rachel provides you a reference color dot of each color on the outside of each pan. She also provides you a color sheet for each set. In another post next week, I will share with you my storage system for the unused pans and why these color dots are so important.

Water color tray

When I get started, I mix colors in my tray. To get these colors, I add water to the tray and then lift color from the half-pan. If I want an undiluted color, I work directly from the half-pan with water on my brush.

The first step of any painting for me is a color sample on the actual paper that I will be using. Here, I mist the paper to remove any sizing and to get the paper to relax. I also mist the back of the paper so it is easier to manipulate. Usually I will tape down the project but today's project had no margins so I had to work on a loose piece of paper.

Paper and watercolor sample

When I work on the sample, I try to work wet on wet and let the colors blend themselves to see how saturated the diluted color is. I am a big fan of diluted colors. If I had know how well the above sample would have turned out, I would have masked out a monogram or something. Once I know how the materials work with each other, I set up my station.

Today's project

Here is my setup. The tin of half-pans are just to the left of the color tray. To begin, I outlined a stencil onto the watercolor paper with a Micron .05 black marker.

All color added

The above image are the shapes with all of the colors from this particular palette. Each color was used in some way or another.  The image below shows the differences in colors from the half-pan (undiluted), those from the color tray (diluted), and those colors that were blended (two diluted colors layered on top of each other, wet on wet). If there is no designation, then the colors fall into the third category. See below for the designations.

Pure vs Diluted vs Layered Colors

Once the colors were dried with a heat gun, I decided to add color to the background with water soluble crayons from Caran d'Ache.

Finished Project

PRODUCT REVIEW
I can't explain how pleasant of an experience that I have had when dealing with Rachel. The dedication and presentation of her product cannot be overemphasized. The colors are amazing and a dream to use. Usually when product lines are in this amount (I think she has nearly 100 color choices), many times there are so many similarities in colors that it is hard to distinguish one shade/color from another. This isn't the case here. The blues aren't interchangeable. The greens aren't either. The colors have a creamy consistency that make them easy to remove them with your brush from the pans. The colors are colorfast and blend beautifully together. More importantly, for me, is that I tend to layer colors rather than blend them. This product is perfect for that and then when they are are the page they are easy to feather into one another. Because they are so easy to layer, this product is perfect for creating shadows similar to those available with blended colored pencils. Several of the arcs above where done with this procedure: base color (often diluted), layer of shadow color (vanilla frosting), third color. Once excess moisture was removed, I feathered the colors into each other with a dry brush. In closing, I can't recommend this product any more highly. Great product, great shop, great seller/owner.

N.B. Please disregard any fault with my watercolor technique. My lack of technique should cause no adverse critique of the product.