 |
| Click here to enlarge this image so you can see the swatches more clearly. |
🌿 I've used Da Vinci artist watercolors for several years. These have extensive pros and can be a fantastic value, but I do have a few reservations.
First, the pros.
I was so happy to find watercolors made by a small family business based in Southern California. Da Vinci is run by third-generation paint makers who are deeply involved in every aspect. If you e-mail the company, you'll probably receive a reply directly from the owner.
I'm also glad to report all colors except one (ivory black) are reported to be vegan.
Da Vinci artist watercolors are extremely highly pigmented. If you want a big payoff from one swipe of your paint brush, Da Vinci is for you. This can actually present a learning curve if you've been using weak craft or student grade lines. Go easy on these at first!
Need proof of the saturation of these pigments? Click here to see an enlarged version of my swatch chart.
The value is something discussed by many watercolorists. If you paint large, Da Vinci is a fantastic choice because of their choices of 8ml tubes, 15ml tubes, and gigantic 37ml tubes.
That said, there's one big hurdle with Da Vinci. Their tendency to bronze, especially with phthalos and quinacridones, can be frustrating. This occurs with other artist quality brands like Schmincke Horadam as well, but I've noticed it less with honey-based paints like Jackson's, Sennelier, and White Nights.
Bronzing happens when paint dries shiny at full masstone, so you'll see it wherever you paint heavily. Theoretically, the way to avoid this is to swish your paint around on a mixing palette first rather than using it straight from the pan. You can also avoid it by building up gradual layers rather than using bold amounts of paint all at once. However, I paint ink and wash on hot press paper, and I sometimes get the shiny finish even when following these guidelines.
Da Vinci's bronzing is an issue for me with colors like permanent rose, perylene maroon, quinacridone red, hansa yellow deep, perylene green, phthalo turquoise, etc. Thankfully, I barely see it at all with Da Vinci's legendary Earth tones or their convenience mixes.
I would also recommend cross-checking any Da Vinci pigments which interest you with Kim Crick's independent lightfast testing. Her problem pigment list is a helpful resource. I try to avoid purchasing those pigments from any brand regardless of whether or not they've been labeled fugitive by the company.
These are the Da Vinci colors I'm using alongside other brands in my everyday, lightfast palette:
- Da Vinci Nickel Azo Yellow // py150 // available at Blick or Da Vinci
- Da Vinci Permanent Magenta // pv19, pb29 // available at Blick or Da Vinci
- Da Vinci Burnt Sienna Deep // pr101 // available at Blick or Da Vinci
- Da Vinci Burnt Umber // pbr7 // available at Blick or Da Vinci
- Da Vinci Raw Umber // pbr7 // available at Blick or Da Vinci
The nickel azo yellow is a nice warm, bold alternative to my cooler, subtle Winsor and Newton Winsor Lemon. I paint a lot of animals, so adding these beautiful browns to my palette has been an excellent decision. The permanent magenta is just plain pretty.
- color | Da Vinci artist watercolors (130+ colors at Da Vinci | 106 colors at Blick)
- paper | Canson XL Watercolor Paper (at Amazon | at Blick)
- printer | Epson WorkForce Pro (at Amazon)
- swatch chart | Canva template and printable PDF available on my Patreon page
0 comments