Tuesday 21 May 2019

Aquarius palette

Aquarius Watercolours by Romaa Szmal with their hand-painted labels.



Roman Szmal created a new watercolour range that was launched this year. I have painted out the samples he sent and posted them all here.

Roman Szmal wooden 36 colour palette.



He then sent a lovely wooden palette box with space for 36 colours and wondered which I would use to fill it. I thought this lovely palette justified a new post.










It was quite a challenge choosing actually. My largest palettes are 24 colours so adding 12 more meant I had a huge number of variations of each colour. I don't usually have a cool, medium and warm yellow as well as a quinacridone gold. I included two oranges - both gorgeous, and two turquoises and purples. There are seven blues, seven greens and a massive eight earths colours.

My choices for the 36 colour palette.


Here is the printout of my chosen palette. Far more colours than I need but lots of fun. The mixed greens have quite a few pigments but are really lovely and realistic with interesting granulation. The earths are glowing. Many use variations of PR102 and are interesting and rare earth colours.

Aquarius Watercolours - my 36 colour palette


Some of the paints are quite soft, others firmer. They are designed to rewet easily and do lift from the palette very nicely. I look forward to exploring them further.

Aquarius watercolours by Roman Szmal - 12 colour set.

Artur Przybysz's Master Set
A set of 12 colours was released in a palette, shown left. It contains two yellows, two reds and two blues as well as the lovely Natural Sienna Light that I've chosen above, and a PR102 Red Ochre that is a very lovely burnt sienna option. It also has a neutral purple colour called Przybysz' Grey, which is as close as he has to a mixed grey. This was inspired by the Polish artist who helped a lot in the development of these colours.


I've listed the stockists of these paints on my full range post here. Here is an (affiliate) link to Jacksons in the UK. They ship world wide.






Happy painting!

1 comment:

  1. I got to try some of his colors in Fabriano this April. I loved how they rewetted so easily. Also, so many of his earths are all natural pigments. Especially the Caput Mortuum and Van Dyck Brown. Another interesting thing about Aquarius watercolors is that their Dioxazine Violet is not PV23. It's a different violet pigment. All in all, a wonderful new brand.

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