Koi Reflections

Koi Reflections

Image Size 15" x 22"

Watercolor

Well, I did paint koi on paper this week but it's not abstracted like last week's painting.  My intention was to do another acrylic painting but to use paper instead of canvas.  I decided to use watercolors instead because I just got a new brand of watercolors that I was excited to try.

Golden Artist Colors Inc., known for their acrylic paints, has a new line of watercolor paints called QoR (pronounced 'core').  Their watercolors are made with a different binder called Aquazol instead of gum arabic, which is the commonly used binder in other watercolor paints.  The paints are supposed to have more density of color and dry without dulling like so many watercolors do.  Also, they are supposed to re-wet in the palette more easily.  You can read more about them on Golden's website.

I was very excited when I heard that Golden was making watercolors because I love their acrylic paints. I also like them as a company.  They offer workshops that teach artists all about their acrylics and various mediums and their website has a ton of useful information and videos for artists.  Their virtual color mixer is really fun to use.  You should check it out.

I had high hopes for the watercolors and they haven't let me down.

I enjoyed working with the paints.  The colors I used in this painting were indanthrone blue, quinacridone gold, quinacridone burnt orange, pyrrole orange, cad. yellow (not their brand) and a little bit of cobalt teal.

The colors are definitely intense and I needed less paint to get the strong colors.  You know how I love strong, bright colors!  I'm not sure if they dry less dull than other watercolors or not.  I think I would need to paint identical paintings with the different brands to see if there was a difference.  The paints re-wet very easily in my palette and gave strong color without a lot of brush swishing.

I really like the paints and I am looking forward to using them on a poured painting next.  I think that because the colors are so intense, I'll probably be able to use less paint.