#mgraham

What are my favorite paints?

First of all, I want to make it clear that the best paints are the paints that you use and don’t think about using. What I mean is that if you’re thinking about the cost of your paints while painting, then your paints are working against you and not for you. If you’re thinking about how chalky your paints are, or how fugitive the colors are going to be, you’re not thinking about your painting, and your paints are working against you. If you’re painting and you’re putting all of your focus into the moment, especially with watercolor, then you are using good paints for your purpose.

Digitization is a massive game-changer when it comes to those endless arguments about pigments and lightfastness.  Your artwork will be as archival as the substrate and ink it is printed on and with - and therefore you can definitely use whatever paint and whatever colors make you happiest with the knowledge that digitization will give you the opportunity to push colors into different directions and print something you painted in fugitive inks with a more archival inkset.

I like multiple options of cheap paints with bright and often fugitive colors, quirky paints with some beautiful effects and character, and reliably solid paints with lightfast pigments. This allows me to work quickly and without stress with the intent to digitize the work for its final format in some cases, and it allows me to work on finals that I have the ability to sell without worries about fading and degradation in other cases.

I am a tube and tube-into pan person, unless I’m using liquid watercolor.

My paint kit includes:

1. Angora 36 color cakes, Sakura 12 tube set

I got these for teaching beginners, and offering a heavy-metal free painting option to folks with kids and pets around. Both of these options are okay. I especially like the intensity of the Angora colors, while they have a gritty feel after drying. The Sakuras do the job all right, though they don’t palette that well. If I wanted a fun afternoon painting with kids or starting a layer in an art journal, these paints are fine for those purposes.  The Angora kit, again, while a little overpriced for what it is, triggers my sense of fun.

2. Van Gogh Tubes, Cotman Tubes

I freaking love Talens Van Gogh. The whole range is lightfast, the tubes are about 3-4 bucks a pop max, the colors are solid with the exception of some of the earth tones (use any other yellow ochre and raw sienna, it’s awful) and I can paint liberally without guilt about using it up. One of my favorite quick palettes is a bunch of their convenience colors: sap green, naples light, indigo,  and cerulean hue (kapow!) I think this is the best place to start if you paint regularly or use watercolor as part of a sketch practice. They’re kind of opaque, but I like paint that is. Cotmans offer a lot of the same qualities, but I find their pigment load to be weak. They are more transparent and pure. I use some Cotmans in my casual paintings as a final layer, and they have a nice prettiness for the cheapness.

3. Sennelier

All of the better paint ranges other than WN seem to have separation issues, and Sennelier really can frustrate that way, but holy crap that is the absolute best ultramarine blue, and the ochres on offer are exquisite. I also like the Chinese orange, it’s just versatile enough for everything warm.

4. M. Graham

They’re really beautiful, especially the quinacridones. They’re a little cheaper than Dan Smiths on average, and they offer a more straightforward, less granulating, less quirky experience, without being as anemic as some of the Winsor Newton paints I’ve used. Separation problems? You bet, though nowhere near like the Sennelier paints that I love anyway. They put honey in these, so if you live in a wet climate, you may have even more paletting issues. I’m able to palette mine okay, and I think that some of the issues got better after a reformulation. Don’t be scared off of them. If you read your labels carefully you’ll often find Dan Smith’s going for significantly more for the same pigments.

5. PhMartin Hydrus

These are a whole different animal, no matter how much you activate your tube paints with water. The fluidity, the uniformity, and the saturation are incredible. I love how I can digitize my work without having to do much at all to the color to make it pop. They don’t lift, they don’t budge once dried. Think of it as transparent ink. Lightfast transparent ink.  You can leverage this possibility in lots of interesting ways.

I stick to the hydrus paints because I can’t quite bring myself to jump into the full range of PhMartin fugitive colors for shy of 300 bucks. ...Yet. (The value in buying the whole range versus sets is significant.)

6. Daniel Smith

Yes, they’re really all that. If you need character, granulation, weirdness, and the most fantastic interactions in blends you’ve ever seen, then these are it.  For this reason, I look for the granulating pigments, and I only buy them in shops where I can ogle a swatch page that shows each paint in action. If I’m looking for just a regular color, transparent, non-granulating, there’s nothing special here. In that case, consider whether there’s a cheaper competitive option.

7. Winsor Newton