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No, this was actually not planned, but a funny and very fitting coincidence: finally, my newest homemade watercolor is ready! Today is the best day to publish a paint called "Living Sun", right? Happy Solstice to everyone who celebrates, and a wonderful time to everyone else, too! :D



Filling the pans took a while: I learned that PY159 is a very annoying pigment, even more difficult to work with than the PB71 I already complained about. It loves to unmix and it loves to make awful lumps that no amount of grinding managed to remove: after an hour, new lumps inevitably formed. I'm soooo glad I somehow got this into the pans!



I added a small amount of PY138 because... PY159 granulates nicely but is not a particularly intense color. So, the PY138 (which is a cool and very intense yellow) unmixes on the paper from the (warm) PY159, and it's an effect I'm actually very happy with. Looks much nicer in real life than in the photo!

If there is one color that defines the North German autumn, that would be this one.



Okay, technically, heather season is already over, but... It's definitely not a coincidence that I decided to produce this particular shade of granulating purple. 

In case you were wondering: yes, the Lüneburg Heath has some heather. XD That's a bit of an understatement, actually: heather bloom is such a spectacular view that people track it online so you can find the best spots for heather-viewing... (Oh, and they have pretty pictures, too.) Ah, unique North German hobbies. XD

By the way, the weather models predict the year's first frost for this weekend. Kale, YAY! (The kale plants need frost before they can be harvested and eaten.) I'm so looking forward to kale season! :)

...or: the chemical adventure goes on. I was missing a yellowish color in my little landscape paint set, so, this is what happened. Still very wet; will likely need ages to dry. As usual.




When used relatively dry, the color looks like a relatively neutral "normal" ocher. When used very wet and/or on textured paper it unmixes into warm yellow and (thanks to the PW18, which is a dark dusty rose really) more reddish dark zones.

Pigments: PY138, PY154, PV19, PW18

Another botanical ATC (6,4 x 8,9 cm), and the first attempt to actually use my new selfmade watercolors. Turns out they work as expected, with textures and everything, which is a relief, because otherwise I'd be stuck with a year's supply or so of green paint I hate. XD Of course, I had to use some other (store-bought) greens on this as well, but that's okay. (It's perfectly clear that only two greens are not nearly enough.) I'm just glad I didn't botch things.



Used watercolors:
Michael Harding: Titanium White, Pyrrole Red, Bright Green Lake, Phthalocyanine Green Lake, Dark Morellone Earth
Schmincke Horadam: Dunkelrot
Isaro: Magenta
Nila Colori: Ocra Violetta Armena
My own paints: Living Tree, Living Forest



I didn't need the blue and the brown for this picture (come to think of it, I almost never need blue), but test paintings with those (and, ugh, they really look nicer than in this photo; sorry, bad lighting here) will follow soon.

My newest watercolor-making experiment! Producing this stuff at home is a lot of work, but hey, it gets me some colors not commercially available, so... XD



I wanted a supergranulating multi-pigment color that unmixes when you use it very wet, and I think it worked just fine! On rough (Torchon) paper, it creates these interesting effects. I think I'm going to use it a lot in landscape sketches!

This is for your amusement! A tube of watercolor that's a) old (the company hasn't been using this tube design in 12 years, so this thing is at least that old) and b) was stored with the cap not entirely closed. So, I want to make clear that what happened to this poor tube of paint was not the manufacturer's fault. It's not a quality issue. Anyway - I got this (and some other art supplies in questionable state) from a friend who apparently used it in some tentative painting attempts, then stored it and forgot about it. I was, of course, overjoyed to take someone else's trash. (I'm North German, after all! This can still be used!)



So, what do we have here? YES! It's completely dry! This is actually quite impressive and not something I've seen before. (It's much better than half-dry, which always causes a huge mess.) This enabled me te get all the paint out of the tube... By cutting the tube away! XDD (By the way: this is not a case for a good knife; this is what cheap boxcutters are for.)



I was able to, ahem, surgically remove the dried-up paint, roll it up (thanks to the gum arabic in the binder, it's elastic enough) and cram it into pans. (I used a few drops of water in the pan to glue the paint in once that dried.) I'm glad to inform you all that, hey, it works just fine! I mean, it's no different than refilling a pan from a tube in a more conventional manner, right? XD Anyway. This is a perfectly fine (well, if you are as good at ignoring aesthetics as I am) two half-pans of good PV23, and I fully intend to use them!

...abused to make a watercolor box (well, if we're being generous with that term, anyway) from corrugated board, wire, duct tape, and a piece of string. Clearly, it's a masterpiece - even the "button" (generous with the term) is simply wire wrapped in duct tape! XDDD Duct tape is my friend!



But then, it's not supposed to be pretty. It's just that I had this dot palette (again, generous with the term: it's just a postcard-sized piece of paper with colors on it. Why use "real" palettes when there's a primitive solution that works just fine?) of Michael Harding watercolors lying around, and I wanted a way to store them so they don't catch dust. (They are excellent paints, but of the kind that re-wet very easily, so when they catch air humidity, the surface is always a tiny bit sticky. Leaving them on my desk without some kind of cover is not an option.) Here, you also have the unique chance (haha) to see how tidy I am while doing art.



I'm still not sure what I'm going to do with the cover of the box, though. I could leave it in "cardboard color", but also, I could draw something on it. Maybe with a silver acrylic pen included to match the duct tape? After all, color coordination is very important. ;) Any suggestions what to draw?

...better late than never, right? XD So, this is the Art Toolkit Pocket Palette.



I received this cute little traveling watercolor palette as a gift from yhlee ages a few months ago and... uh... was at first unsure what to do with it. Not that there's anything wrong with it - it's a great concept, little magnetic pans that can be filled with paints, very practical - except, of course, I already have this super awesome handmade watercolor box (also from yhlee) in use and (obviously) don't plan on replacing it.

So, I couldn't use this little thing the way it's intended, for a basic color selection... Instead, it had to become something that adds to my basic color selection (which is, essentially, a selection of very bright pigments - the finest of organic chemistry - because I need those for botanical art) so I have more paints available on the go. (You can never have enough watercolors... Right?!? RIGHT.) The problem was... There were so many possibilities to choose from. Do I turn this thing into a glitter paint palette? Am I going to be boring and add more bright organic pigments for the fun of it? So many possibilities!



In the end, I decided to make this essentially an earth tone palette. I almost never use ochre and granulating colors and stuff (which is why those are not in my basic set), but occasionally I find myself missing them. Having small amounts in my bag at any time seemed like a good idea.

These are the paints I decided on:



Large pans on the left: these are the two ochres I find myself missing most often.
Phoenix Yellow Ochre (PY42): Ironically, my favorite yellow ochre is a super cheap one. These paints are sold as student grade (!) and, indeed, most of that series suck, but.. The ochre doesn't. It's (somewhat surprisingly) an awesome product.
Renesans Orange Ochre (PY42): Oh, this one is invaluable for skin tones! The only reason it's not in my basic set is that I don't draw people very often. Diluted, it becomes a light flesh tint, and in thicker layers it's also good for painting medium-brown skin. Very useful.

Second row from the left: Nila Colori earth tones.
These are awesome earth tones but I don't really like filling them in pans because they don't re-wet very well... It always takes a bit of time to dissolve them again. Still: if I do an earth tone set, I want the nicest earth tones, and, well, these are it. From top to bottom: Ocra Dorata Armena, Terra di Siena Bruciata del Monte Amiata, Terra d'Ombra Naturale, Ocra Violetta Armena.

Right half of the palette: Daniel Smith PrimaTek.
I'm still somewhat sceptical because of the obviously incorrect pigment labeling, but I have not experienced any lightfastness issues with these colors, which is what matters in the end... And, I mean, they granulate (and unmix) very nicely. I've wanted to use them more often, except whenever I found myself wanting one of these, I didn't have it available... Heh. Which is why they ended up in the tiny pans. These are really small amounts (dots, basically), but for rarely-used paints, that's prefect. From left to right, top to bottom: Bronzite Genuine, Serpentine Genuine, Green Apatite Genuine, Garnet Genuine, Diopside Genuine, Jadeite Genuine, Purpurite Genuine, Amazonite Genuine, Zoisite Genuine, Amethyst Genuine, Sodalite Genuine, Black Tourmaline Genuine.

Questions fromyhlee. :)

If anyone wants five questions from me, just say so in the comments.

1. You can magically make any THREE watercolor pigments lightfast that aren't currently, but you have to GIVE UP a pigment forever that you currently use in your main palette(s). What are your choices?!

Oh, that's easy. I want alizarin crimson, real indigo blue, and aureolin yellow in lightfast versions, please. For that, I'd be willing to give up even my beloved indanthrene blue (PB60), because I'd replace that with the indigo and feel okay about it. Though it would probably even easier to give up my current standard cool yellow (PY184, which is very similar to aureolin in hue and wonderfully intense but unfortunately more opaque than I like) for magically lightfast aureolin.

2. What food/drink local to you confuses foreigners/tourists the most?

Mett. (Wikipedia says: "The name is derived from Low German mett for "chopped pork meat without fat", or Old Saxon meti for "food".") That's raw pork, usually eaten on bread rolls. It's very typical, and very confusing to tourists who can't believe anyone would eat this. Or should I say, it grosses out virtually all tourists?!? Tastes great, though. (Geographical food rule of thumb: the further up north you go, the more likely you are to find cultures willing to eat raw meat. It's possibly related to vitamin D intake?!?) Americans are typically entirely unwilling to even try the stuff, which is unwarranted: it's typically served with onions, which are not only a spice but also pretty good disinfectants... (Also, unsurprisingly, the local food safety rules around meat are really strict when compared to the USA.)

3. You gain the ability to magically talk to one animal species (they can talk to you too) - which one is it?

With my luck, it's probably squirrels. Dumb, noisy, aggressive towards anyone and anything, love to throw stuff... Yep. Squirrels. I'm sure those are going to be some great conversations. (If I get to choose, I'd love to talk to an octopus, please. But if it's the universe that assigns superpowers, um, yeah, I'm afraid it's really squirrels.)

4. You're trapped on a desert island with a chess grandmaster, past or present. Which one and why?

Oh hell no, that would mean something has gone very wrong in my life. I mean, of the present ones, I would have to choose one of the guys I'm personally acquainted with, simply because that's less awkward and would assure at least a minimum of cooperativeness towards mutual survival. Otherwise - I'd really want to play chess against Mikhail Tal, but that's the predictable answer, isn't it? For non-chess issues and general attitude... Probably David Bronstein. He was interesting.

5. What is the most cracktastic/bizarre Nibelungenlied-inspired work of art (opera, novel, poem, artwork, whatever) you've experienced?

I think some Nibelungenlied-inspired Third Reich propaganda fits the bill of bizarre for sure, though the 'work of art' aspect is usually questionable... (Humor is if you laugh anyway.) Otherwise... The Wagner opera stuff is also pretty bizarre on the narrative/fanfic level though at least parts of the music are pretty good. Um. And obviously there's a lot of pretty kinky fanart that's cracktastic but also true to the spirit of the original.

Look what I received from yhlee! He made a mysterious box for me! :D I mean... That's some impressive craft right there. Everything fits perfectly and is nicely decorated with flowery chiyogami paper... SO PRETTY!!!



...and if you want to see more - like the inside of this box, more pictures are behind the cut.

( LOOK AT THIS AWESOME BOX!!! )

Thank you SOOOOO much!