Daniel Smith Art Supplies...and temptation!
Daniel Smith Sample Sheet Test, originally uploaded by Cathy (Kate) Johnson.
Oh my. Daniel Smith has started sending out little watercolor "palettes" with your order--they consist of dabs of paint squeezed onto WC paper and allowed to dry. This lets you TRY before you buy, and is a brilliant marketing move! (There are notes on this in my Flickr album--just click on the image above.)
Well, mostly anyway...it also saves me money, when I can see I don't, in fact, "get it" with the interference paints (I knew that already) and don't really get excited about the duochrome.
These are two of the ones on the black sample at lower right--the metallic gold is fun, though, and I can see why other people might like the interference and duochrome colors. (I guess I DO need to explore them for the new North Light book updating my popular Watercolor Tricks and Techniques--who knows, I might get hooked yet!!)
Still, what great way to get to play with these colors! The Perylene Red would work instead of Cadmium, and Hansa Yellow Medium (I have HY light) is lovely.
(My dear and generous e-friend, Roz Stendahl of http://rozworks.com took a page from their book and sent me samples of Indigo that way not long ago--it's a GREAT idea!)
Each sampler comes with an information sheet, like the one above...click on it to open a readable version, in my Flickr album. LOTS of information about the colors, their makeup and their use, including information on lightfastness, staining properties, granulation, and transparency--all factors in why I choose one pigment over another, beyond color considerations.
The two smaller samplers of three colors each had some of the new Primatek mineral colors along with Transparent Pyrrol Orange (which I already have, it's gorgeous!) and Opera Pink, which I rather wish I'd seen before I bought--it's not for me, and I'll be passing along the tube I got a few months ago. (The small sheets came with black and white Xerox info sheets, though...still useful!)
The Primateks on the samplers, by the way, lift much more readily and make much more intense colors than the ones I explored a year or so ago. May have to give them another go...
Thank you, Daniel Smith! This was great fun...