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Sunday, 22 November 2015

Daniel Smith 'try it' dot cards for watercolour

I have been cleaning up my studio, and I found a number of dot cards that I had filed away to play with some time. These are a terrific way to try new colours and I really appreciate the companies that make them. Daniel Smith were the first, and they make a fabulous series of four sheets with 238 of their colours to try. These have been invaluable for deciding which colours to buy in full tubes. Colour charts and websites are great, but nothing beats getting a brush to the paint yourself.

I have used up a few of these sets to create the watercolour swatches found on my website, to test colour mixes and just to play :-) but with this one I painted the colours out on the chart. It can be very helpful to compare the colours side by side like this.



Daniel Smith have also created dot cards of the Primateks, a number of individual artists' palettes and other sets over the years. I've painted them out and I thought I'd post a few here as it can be hard to track them down if you are interested in finding them.

Winsor & Newton created a dot card of a few limited edition colours and QoR created a few for their watercolour launch, which I wrote about here.


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4 comments:

  1. Unknown23 November 2015 at 05:32

    Have you ever used the duochrome, interference or iridescent colors? They sound funny but i have the feeling they are hard to integrate into a drawing

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    1. Jane Blundell23 November 2015 at 10:20

      I have used some of them in certain subjects, such as shells, that have an iridescence to them, and have provided them for my students to try. I have seen them used to give the actual sparkle of water in landscape paintings and they are obviously wonderful for fantasy themes. You will notice some of the dot cards I'll be posting up do contain one or more of this range. They can be interesting over the top of another colour or on darker paper. Some of the Primateks also have a sparkle, such as Amethyst Genuine, Sugilite Genuine, Fuchsite Genuine and Kyanite Genuine.

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  2. Unknown29 March 2016 at 13:41

    I'm dying to try these dot cards out and I think I'm going to bite the bullet. Earlier I just ordered quite a few DS paints (mostly 5ml tubes) but I'm obsessed and need to play with more colors..lol. I love the idea of these sample sheets as it really helps decide which colors to invest in (at least right away since I want them all eventually .) :P

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    1. Jane Blundell29 March 2016 at 14:21

      They are not a large amount of paint but they do give enough to give the colours a try so you do save money in the long run. There are easily 40 colours that I live to have, including my regular palette colours and then some wonderful convenience or special effect colours. With watercolour it isn't just about the colour (like oil and acrylic), but also about the characteristics and you need to test a few colours to figure out which you most enjoy.

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