Watercolors!

[eller]

Eller’s Artisan Watercolors: The Ill-Advised Set



Handmade*, artisan** watercolors*** in a travel-sized**** set that will delight***** beginning as well as professional****** artists! Unique colors******* in a small-batch******** limited edition*********!

*a pretty much meaningless designator, considering how all the main ingredients are products of chemical processing done in a real lab, but whatever
**consistently shitty quality, that is
***that one, at least, is perfectly correct
****not-enough-colors
*****or at least amuse
******an outright lie
*******uniquely weird colors that no one will ever find a use for. Notice that LOVELY dark brown with discreet shimmer?
********at least I didn’t waste too much good pigment
*********I’m learning from my mistakes! Sorry to the single person out there who will sorely miss the exact shade of their guinea pig's fur!



….just to be clear: I’m not selling these. And not only because I can’t ship them internationally anyway these days. Unfortunately, I’m too much of a honest person. I'm just making fun of the way people on Etsy promote their selfmade colors. (Actually, I just realized that by providing information about the pigments I used, I'm being MORE professional about this than, like, 90% of sellers on Etsy. That's... just sad.)

But I'm happy that I managed to make colors that are somewhat useable. Also, Candle Glob is my perfect yellow.

Comments

[howsmyenglish]

I don't know a thing about watercolors, but they do look nice! And the brown is the color of the chocolate soy pudding that I'm craving right now)))

[eller]

Chocolate Soy Pudding would be a good name for an artisan watercolor, too! XD

[goss]

A+++

XD

[howsmyenglish]

Absolutely!
Also, guess what they just brought me for breakfast? I've checked: exactly the same color! :D

[yhlee]

They look fun! :D

And yeah, the lack of pigment information is why I avoid so many Etsy watercolor sellers. :/ I got the mica watercolors anyway because what even does pigment info mean when it comes to mica, I just wanted sparklies. XD

[eller]

I, uh, might have ordered some artisan watercolors on Etsy, INCLUDING some sparkly ones... I simply like my daily dose of sparkle. XD

[yhlee]

You tempt me to get into making cockamamie watercolor paints =D especially since a transparent shading near-black is EXACTLY what would be useful to me. XD I just need to get paid soon...XD

Your yellow is extraordinarily pretty, too! :)

[eller]

My advice? Don't do it. XD

I mean, it's fun - but the results, at least in my case, are nowhere near professional quality. If a transparent shading near-black is what you need, you're probably better off taking ready-made watercolor, a transparent blue (like ultramarine or one of the phthalos, depending on whether you want your paint to be granulating or not) and a transparent black (like PBk6), and mix those on your palette or in an empty pan. From a result-oriented point of view, making your own watercolors is a waste of time and resources.

The fun part, for me, is the process of playing with pigments, chemicals, honey, and - in one case of a still unfinished paint - gin. (I'm even wearing an improvised protective mask for handling the pigments. At least my lab training has SOME use right now...) Having the end result of, uh, mediocre watercolors in weird shimmery shades, is not something I need for my personal happiness. XD

[yhlee]

Yeah, you're probably right. It would have been fun though. XD I almost did buy watercolor pigments & do-it-yourself supplies last year as research for Phoenix Extravagant because that process was something Jebi would have been familiar with, but instead I just read up on it and handwaved the details (which was much cheaper and involved less breathing in of risky particulates [1]).

I think I would probably get nice results from Phthalo Blue (green shade) + PBk6, but because I rely so much on India ink I actually don't own ANY blacks, which I clearly need to remedy! XD I'll think about it for the next time I order art supplies...

[1] Ever since I learned of the serious health risks involved with some of the sealants commonly used with painting BJDs (ball-jointed dolls), I have been paranoid about particulates. :p

[eller]

There's nothing like paranoia about particulates - even I wear a mask when handling pigments, and, lacking a properly secured workplace, I do the whole thing in the bathtub because that's the place with least risk of air disturbance...

PB15:3 + PBk6 will probably work but give you a blue-black with a bit of a greenish tint. For an actual blue-black, I'd probably use Phthalo Sapphire (PB15:6) or add a tiny bit of PV19...

...wow, no black watercolor? How is that even possible? XDDD

[yhlee]

I lied--I own Daniel Smith's Lunar Black, which hadn't occurred to me as a "regular" black--I like the granulation. That might be fun to experiment with PB15:3 + Lunar Black since those are what I have on hand, and then later I can try PB15:6 and/or PBk6 and compare. XD

[eller]

Lunar Black is fun! :D Granulating iron pigment mixed with other colors creates some nice effects, there's even a company making these color combinations as a ready-made mix!
https://www.royaltalens.com/en/catalog/van-gogh-watercolour/watercolour-pan-dusk-green-630/ I own this pretty Dusk Green, which is, essentially, the Lunar Black pigment (granulating PBk11, the same thing as in DS Lunar Black) with phthalo green (PG7). It's a lovely product, and I'd guess you'll receive something very similar if you mix it with PB 15:3, just in more blue-ish.

[light_of_summer]

I'm enjoying your artisan watercolor experiments, and I like the colors you've made. The raven drawing using Night Glob was very cool!

I keep thinking about requesting a drawing (maybe an ATC?) from you. But I'd really like it to be a trade, and I haven't been doing very well at making time for art, since the pandemic canceled my weekly art class...

If you're interested in maybe doing an ATC trade, sometime, are there particular subjects or styles that you do or don't want to collect?

Thanks again for pointing me towards the ATCs for All community, back in 2018 or so!

Best wishes to you and yours.

[eller]

Sure, let's exchange ATCs! :D I was planning to get the next stack of mail out on monday, so I can draw something for you this weekend, no problem. I can also use my new watercolors for that! XD Just send me a message with your address.

Is there anything in particular you'd like to receive? Unfortunately the raven drawing is already gone (I sent that one to someone else already) but I can draw another raven or another bird if you like? What do you collect on ATCs?

For me, there's nothing that I really don't collect, stylistically. My favorite subjects are... Flowers and nature in general. Mermaids, dragons and other fantasy-ish subjects. Sundials. If you want to draw people, I collect my OCs. But generally I like all kinds of art! :D

All the best wishes to you and yours as well!

[light_of_summer]

I sent you a Dreamwidth private message about this. Thanks so much!

[goss]

Very cool! :D