I don’t have any of the other brand of paints or I would show you the differences. However, I think anyone worth their salt can tell the Alizarin Crimson is not how it should be. I think I remember the sales guy saying these paints are the hues of the color. That was after I had already bought and used them. I went back to ask my questions when I figured out the colors were weird. Well, what good is it to me that they’re hues? And the Burnt Sienna? It looks almost like the Yellow Ochre, very little, if any difference.
The other colors are passable. What can I do? A commenter on the 100 Paintings Challenge said Go buy new paints and move on! I’m not quoting verbatim, just the general concept. I’m inclined to agree. This is so annoying. And she named these paints The Paints That Annoy. I love it!
With that, I used The Paints That Annoy and painted. That apple is done. Over. Kaput. I moved the items around once more and painted them without the stupid apple.
I allowed myself the twenty minutes I’ve been having success with and stopped. It’s a little smooshy, but not horrible. Getting away from the apple helped since I didn’t have to use much of the reds. The Paints That Annoy are going to have to keep company with paints I can rely on. Time to shop!
Hi Dora, I have been enjoying your 20 minute paintings with and without apple. I remember one instructor saying to stay away from hues as they are mostly meant for student work. I found this reference on Cheap Joe’s about hues. Explains it well. Cotman is the hue version of Winsor Newton and are totally useless if you have ever used WN which are the pure pigments. I was advised only to buy ‘professional’ quality, and in the long run they are cheaper because they have much more pigment, are more intense, hence go a longer way. http://www.cheapjoes.com/cat/4531/
Thank you Prairie Painter for that information! I had no idea. I should stick with tried and true. Thanks so much for commenting. I’m glad to know you’re reading along and enjoying my yapping and painting!
hmm hopefully this will help to easy your paint annoyance (I feel for you seeing as I’ve had the same problem more time then i can count!) OK — hue = cheap/ very watered down version of whatever “expensive” pigment is created. I wrote more in depth about watercolor pigments, the quality of specific brands, etc here.
I’m wondering if you are using the mameri blu venezia – which is the scholastic grade, or if you’ve had trouble with the mameri blu artist grade paints? A few of my constant watercolor color palette colors are made by mameri, in the pro grade and I’ve never had trouble…. Hope this helps!
katie
Dear Dora,
Thank you for sharing the precious informartion.
The uploaded work beautiful.
Cheers, Sadami
Katie-thanks for the info. I’m going to read it soon as I can. I need to look at my paint tubes to check which version of paints I have. It’s very possible I bought the student grade unknowingly. What a pain!
Hi Sadami! I’m glad you like this work. The paint info is quite valuable. What paints are you using in your wonderful works? I’m curious about this now.
Oh Dora – I had some of those Maimeri also -way back when I first started – a friend bought them back from the States as a pressie for me. I tried them on one painting – and promptly gave them away! Ugh, not worth the time 🙁
Sorry you’ve gone through it too .
Pat, I haven’t had the time to check, but it’s possible I bought student grade instead of artist quality like the first commenter suggested. Maybe I bought some of one grade and some of the other. Whatever it is, I’m stuck with them and need to purchase the old stand by Windsor&Newton.
Hi again Dora, glad the info was useful. I have turned to using Daniel Smith watercolours. Excellent quality and about 1/2 the price of WN. Plus they are made in the US (Seattle). I order on line as I can’t get them locally and have never had any problems with them. Also, they have quite a number of interesting pigments from minerals.
PS Prairie Painter is me, Lorraine K in Saskatoon :-). I realized it was putting my google name and I hadn’t switched it.
Hey Lorraine!! I never heard of that brand of paint. I have investigating to do now. I knew the difference between student and pro paints when I was using oils, but watercolor is relatively new to me and I forgot to ask when I bought these.