Sometimes it’s nice to slow down and try different products. I recently bought a Schminke travel split primary watercolor set. It is made in Germany and costs a fortune. I got mine on sale, thankfully. I haven’t really worked with it much until now. I had used it in a sketch last week, but the colors are not quite what I am used to, and I needed brighter colors, so fell back to my Koi set.
I set up a little plate of fruit—a half-eaten apple (I liked the ridges), a half-peeled tangerine (I liked the peel), and some strawberries. I sketched out the drawing in pencil, then started with the oranges. The orange color was nice and intense, I watered it down for lighter values, then built up layers with less water. The yellow color was perfect for the apple (kind of a Naples yellow), but doesn’t always give me the results I want if I mix it with other stuff. I need to experiment with the colors it will make. I worked through the berries, then mixed a purple to use for the shadows. I was thankful I took a color theory workshop years ago to help me know what to mix. But I’d be wise to make a color chart for all these new colors. Here they are: Perylene dark red, Saturn red, Cobalt Azure, Phthalo sapphire blue, yellow orange, rutile yellow, Potter’s pink, Perylene violet, perylene green, hematite black, viridian, and mahogany brown. I have a lot to learn, but I had fun, plus a ready-made snack afterwards!