Mission Gold Watercolours by Mijello - complete set

I had painted swatches of a few Mission Gold colours previously, is seen here, but have now had a chance to try the whole range. This is an interesting brand, made my Mijello of Korea. There are 105 colours but they are largely mixed hues created with very few pigments. There are no cadmiums or genuine ceruleans and the only genuine cobalt is Cobalt Blue. The paints are very predictable to work with, in the sense that they re-wet with the touch of a brush and brush out bright and strong, with very little granulation and very little drying shift.

If you love bright colours and are starting out in watercolours, this could be an interesting range to try, though I certainly wouldn't recommend getting the full range, just the single pigment colours. Personally, I miss the granulation that I love as only a couple granulate at all.

October 2018 - The swatches were originally painted out in a rather random order, but I have re-photographed them in a more useful order.  I'll add them all to my website soon. Here is the full colour chart, with the meanings of the symbols. 

If choosing a limited palette of largely single pigment colours, Lemon Yellow or Permanent Yellow Light would be possible cool to mid choices.

Mission Gold Watercolours by Mijello - Chinese White, Titanium White, Lemon Yellow, Aureolin, Permanent Yellow Light.

I like PY65 as a warm yellow option. 

Mission Gold Watercolours by Mijello - Gamboge, Indian Yellow, Permanent Yellow Deep, Yellow Orange, Orange.

Mission Gold Watercolours by Mijello - Red Orange, Autumn Red, Scarlet Lake, Vermilion, Permanent Red Light.

Mission Gold Watercolours by Mijello - Permanent Red, Permenant Red Deep, Rose Madder, Rubine,
Permanent Alizarin Crimson.

Permanent Rose is an excellent pigment choice for a primary or cool red.

Mission Gold Watercolours by Mijello - Perylene Maroon, Cherry Red, Permaent Rose, Compose Opera, Bright Opera.

Most of the purples and violets contain PR122 so Permanent Magenta is a great mixing colour.

Mission Gold Watercolours by Mijello - Bright Rose, Compose Rose, Permanent Magenta, Red Violet, Crimson Lake.

Mission Gold Watercolours by Mijello - Bright Violet, Compose Violet, Violet Lake, Bright Clear Violet,
Ultramarine Violet.

Indanthrone Blue is a beautiful deep warm blue, however this sample didn't paint out very nicely.

Mission Gold Watercolours by Mijello - Mijello Blue, Compose Violet Deep, Shadow Violet, Blue Violet, Indanthrone Blue.

Mission Gold Watercolours by Mijello - Ultramarine Blue, Ultramarine Light, Cobal Blue #2, Coblat Blue #1,
Prussian Blue.

Mission Gold Watercolours by Mijello - Manganese Blue, Cerulean Blue, Marine
Blue, Indigo, Peacock Blue

Mission Gold Watercolours by Mijello - Bamboo Green, Chromium Oxide Green, Hooker's Green, Permanent Green No 2, Permanent Green No 1

Mission Gold Watercolours by Mijello - Sap Green, Olive Green, Yellow Green, Leaf Green, Greenish Yellow.

 Yellow Ochre No 2 is the only single pigment earth yellow in this range.

Mission Gold Watercolours by Mijello - Green Gold, Yellow Ochre No 1, Yellow Ochre No 2, Raw Sienna, Gold Brown.

Burnt Sienna is a real problem in this range - it is more like a Quinacridone Gold hue and not useful to mix with ultramarine and other blues to create interesting greys as one would normally do.

Red Brown PBr25 is used in a number of the Mission Gold mixes and is an interesting alternative to the more opaque Indian Red in the palette. 

Mission Gold Watercolours by Mijello - Naples Yellow Deep, Burnt Sienna, Light Red, Red Brown, Indian Red. 

Van Dyke Brown is a good rich chocolate brown.

Mission Gold Watercolours my Mijello - Burnt Umber, Raw Sienna No 2

Mission Gold Watercolours by Mijello - Payne's Grey, Neutral Tint, Ivorry Black, Bluish Pearl, Yellowish Pearl.

 The tints - all these tints have some white in them and have a bit of a feeling of gouache.

Mission Gold Watercolours by Mijello - Naples Yellow, Jaune Brilliant No 1, Jaune Brilliant No 2, Shell Pink, Brilliant Pink

Mission Gold Watercolours by Mijello - Lilac, Violet Grey, Lavender, Verditer Blue, Blue Grey.

Mission Gold Watercolours by Mijello - Horizon Blue, Compose Blue,  Cobalt Turquoise, Turquoise Blue, Cobalt Green.

Mission Gold Watercolours by Mijello - Green Grey, Emerald Green, Melon Green, Davy's Grey, Yellow Grey,
Grey of Grey.

 I enjoyed painting out these colours as they are very vibrant and 'well-behaved'. They disperse well in water and are easy to paint with, making them very consistent and predictable, as stated in the website. That will appeal to a lot of people. I admit they don't appeal to me - I enjoy playing with a whole range of characteristics in watercolour, not just the colour - but if colour alone is your goal, these are an excellent choice.

The pigments have been improved since the range was first introduced and are now more light-fast. I think they would suit those wishing to work with a full gamut palette, as the range of earth colours is limited. 

If you wanted to create a basic set I would consider Green Gold PY150 or Lemon Yellow PY3 as your cool yellow, Permanent Yellow Deep as your warm and Yellow Ochre as your earth yellow.

For reds look at Scarlet Lake for warm and Permanent Rose for cool (or Permanent Magenta PR122 if you love that pigment) I'd add Rose Madder for a crimson as well.

For blues look at Cerulean Blue (hue) PB15:3 as a cool phthalo blue and Ultramarine Light PB29 as the warm.  

For greens, only to be used for mixing, I'd suggest Viridian (hue) PG7, which is phthalo green BS and neutralises a crimson, and/or Bamboo Green PG36, which is Phthalo Green YS, and neutralises PR122 and PV19.

The earths are tricky, but I'd look at Yellow Ochre PY42 as mentioned, Red Brown PBr25 or Indian Red PR101 as an earth red. I'd probably add Van Dyke Brown as a deep brown and make my own custom version of a burnt sienna with the Yellow Ochre and Red Brown.

Happy painting and thank you to Winifred for the samples :-)

The power of one little symbol

I don't know about you, but I keep lists. Lists of things to do, paintings to paint, books to read (and write), blog post ideas, wish lists, movies to watch, household jobs, orders to make up, paints to order, website elements to add...I rather need lists of my lists. I keep them in a notebook, so they are all together, and refer to them often.

I work in paper notebook and with a paper diary as I still find that the most efficient way to manage my time. I had to go to October in this year's diary to find a month that has nothing in it - yet - though I plan to go to the US and Canada...anyway, here is the weekly spread from my favourite planning diary.

This diary is a great design by kikki.K. I use the A5 size diary so I can always have it with me. It
actually has enough room for Saturday and Sunday activities (!) and also a notes section on each weekly spread. That's where I plan out my weekly tasks.

It also has a planning section for each month - that's where I plan out the monthly tasks.

But it only has a few (well - 6) pages for notes in the back. There is a page for Websites, there is a Wish List page, one each for Movies, Books, Restaurants/Bars, 6 pages of Expenses and 4 for Addresses. It's been well thought through. But not enough room for all my lists. Yes I could go back to the Filofax system and have them all together in one folio but I prefer this style of annual diary.

So I keep another notebook for lists. It's better than lots of pieces of paper or stick-it notes. I have tried cutting out indentations creating different sections but you end up wasting pages when other sections take more space than expected. So I simply add an index to the back of the notebook, number each page (the Leuchtturm1917 are already numbered) and start a new page for each list, adding that page number back into my index. It works. Mostly.

I'd tick the tasks completed, asterisk the most important, and the rest would just have a • waiting to be done. I'd write them into the next week or the next month (or the next year...) and those • would still be there, catching my attention when I looked back through even though they had been written elsewhere.

Then I came across a very clever little symbol '>' in the Bullet Journal system designed by Ryder Carroll. In his system, > means migrated to another place. He also uses < to mean scheduled for another month but that is not as significant as the > to me. All those visually distracting little • marks get turned into > when I have migrated them elsewhere and I don't have to look at them any more. The power of one little symbol. Thanks Ryder!

In case you are interested, the Bullet Journal system is about keeping one notebook for everything - diary, notes, lists - everything - which is not what I was interested in, but the annotation system is interesting. Briefly -
• denotes a task. Once done, or written elsewhere, it gets changed to one of the following -
x task completed (I prefer a tick/check so will continue with that - it seems more positive :-)
> migrated to another place
< scheduled for another month
Cross out the task if it is not longer relevant - don't waste your time.
o a circle denotes an event such as a birthday
– notes, quotes etc - no action needed
! research needed, *priority, etc can be added to emphasis the above notations.

Don't worry, I am not going to show my diary and notebook lists on-line (though it is amazing how many people do!) but I did want to share this little symbol as I found it very helpful :-)

Watercolour and gouache choices - some of my palettes painted out.

I have a number of palettes of different sizes set up in many different ways and thought I'd share some of them all in one post. Most I do actually use, but some are set up ready to go and may be sold. I tend to set up the colours from light though yellows to reds to blues, then greens then yellow earths etc through to the darks. It works sell for me - I don't try to separate warms and cools as some do as I nearly always mix up warm and cool colours together.

My intention is always to set up palettes so I can paint any subject - landscape, figures, florals, urban landscapes, seascapes - rather than specialist palettes. I make pigment choices based on what type of palette it is and what sized paintings it will be used for - small travel sketches or larger studio paintings.

If I am setting up a travel or plein air palette, I will tend to include Cerulean and Ultramarine for painting skies, for example, and may well include primatek colours that are fun for extra granulation. I may also tend to put more granulating earth colours to capture the landscape. My studio palettes only contain pigments I have tested to be lightfast and very predictable as I do most of my botanical paintings in my studio. Photos of a range of palettes can be seen on my website. Here are the paint-outs.

Herring Compact half pan palette
set up with 24 half pans of
Daniel Smith watercolour,
covering the thumb hole.

This is the Herring Compact palette from the UK. This can be set up in a number of different ways. This is my favourite configuration - 24 colours with a space for a travel brush. You can see other variations on my website here. It is plastic, so nice and light, but has excellent mixing wells.

The colours are Buff Titanium, Hansa Yellow Medium, Quinacridone Gold, Transparent Pyrrol Orange, Pyrrol Crimson, Quinacridone Rose, Ultramarine, Phthalo Blue RS, Cerulean Chromium,  Cobalt Turquoise, Phthalo Green BS, Perylene Green, Undersea Green, Sap Green, Rich Green Gold, Goethite, Raw Sienna, Transparent Red Oxide, Burnt Sienna, Indian Red, Piemontite Genuine, Burnt Umber, Raw Umber, Jane's Grey.

This palette is wonderful for plein air as there are so many greens, interesting granulating earths and the Transparent Red Oxide and Piemontite are wonderful for painting rust.

24 colour paint-out of a wonderful plein air palette. #Daniel Smith watercolours painted in a handbook watercolour sketchbook A5 landscape.

Mijello palette set up with 18 Daniel Smith watercolours

The Mijello palette is a great design for larger brushes and I am using this for demonstrations when teaching. There are 18 paint wells so I have included less convenience mixes than the above palette.

Colours are Buff Titanium, hansa Yellow Medium, Pyrrol Scarlet, Pyrrol Crimson, Quinacridone Rose, Ultramarine, Cerulean Chromium, Phthalo Blue GS, Phthalo Green BS, Perylene Green, Yellow Ochre, Goethite, Raw Sienna, Burnt Sienna, Indian Red, Raw Umber, Jane's Grey. This is my Ultimate Mixing Set, along with yellow ochre, raw sienna and perylene green - a great range of single pigment colours.

Mijello palette painted out on Stillman & Birn Alpha paper. 18 colour Daniel Smith watercolour palette.

Little lipstick palette set up with
7 Daniel Smith watercolours.

This little palette is actually from a makeup store and was intended for lipsticks. It is too small for a normal travel brush but is set up with an interesting and practical range of 7 colours. I haven't used it yet, and may end up selling it, but I like the way these colours work together.

Colours are Hansa Yellow Medium, Quinacridone Gold, Quinacridone Rose, Ultramarine, Perylene Green, Burnt Sienna and Jane's Grey.

The smallest palette I will actually use is 7 colours, though I love to come up with extremely versatile limited palettes. This is one of three 7-colour palettes I have. The others are a locket and a keyring :-)

Paint-out and mixes of a versatile 7-colour palette of Daniel Smith watercolours,
painted in a Stillman&Birn Alpha A4 Sketchbook

Robertson style Paintbox with 20 colours.

This is my studio palette - a lovely handmade brass palette based on the Robertson designs. The 20 colours are a wonderful range with some convenience greens and great dark blues and greens. These are my basic colours to paint with in my studio, though I have other extras for special purposes.

The colours are Buff titanium, Hansa Yellow Medium, Quinacridone Gold, Transparent Pyrrol Orange, Pyrrol Crimson, Quinacridone Rose, Ultramarine, Indanthrone Blue, Phthalo Blue RS, Cerulean Chromium, Phthalo Green BS, Perylene Green, Undersea Green, Sap Green, Goethite, Burnt Sienna, Indian Red, Burnt Umber, Raw Umber, Jane's Grey.

My favourite 20 palette colours. Daniel Smith watercolour, painted in a Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook, A4.

I have another Herring full pan palette set up with gouache. It is a mix of M.Graham and Schmincke gouache as they will re-wet in a palette, along with a couple of opaque watercolours - Buff titanium and Indian Red. 

I carry this palette with me when sketching and use it in my studio. It is more convenient having the gouache ready to paint in the palette than squeezing it out freshly each time.When I use up the yellows I will probably replace them with cadmium pigments for greater opacity.

I paint a palette chart on the first page of each sketchbook. As gouache is an opaque medium I have painted this chart in the Strathmore toned tan sketchbook. It's not a perfect sketchbook for watercolour or gouache but I'll just paint on one side of the paper.

My opaque palette - largely a gouache palette with a mix of Schmincke and M.Graham gouache, along with Buff Titanium and Indian Red DS watercolours. Painted in a Strathmore Toned Tan sketchbook, 5.5"x 8.5" portrait.

This is my Little Lady, a tiny bespoke brass palette set up with my basic palette of 20 colours as painted out at the top. It has 4 extra colours on the right which I can change around. Currently it has Cobalt turquoise (great for copper domes), Serpentine Genuine (great for grassy areas), Green Apatite Genuine (lovely for foliage) and Lunar Black (an amazing granulating black) as the extra colours, though I sometimes put in Piemontite, Transparent Red Oxide and/or raw sienna if I am sketching more urban scenes.

This palette lives in my handbag, in a sketching kit. The waterbrush is an extra short one as seen in the very top photo - this is a really tiny treasure!





This is a little travel palette from Singapore, designed to hold 12 half pans but adapted to hold 14 of my Ultimate Mixing Set. It's just missing Indian Red, but you mix and Indian Red hue with the palette colours Pyrrol Scarlet and Phthalo Blue.

Travel palette with 14 watercolours -
from my ultimate mixing set.

My Ultimate Mixing set of 13 Daniel Smith colours (plus Jane's Grey) in a travel palette.

Travel palette with all 15 of my
Ultimate Mixing Set

The colours are Buff Titanium, Hansa Yellow Medium, Quinacridone gold, Pyrrol Scarlet, Pyrrol Crimson, Quinacridone Rose, Ultramarine, Cerulean Chromium, Phthalo Blue GS, Goethite, Phthalo Green, Burnt Sienna, Raw Umber and Jane's Grey.

Update - thanks to MagaMerlina (comment section) I have squashed the metal divider down (it is very well attached so will take some serious tools to remove completely) and squeezed all 15 of my Ultimate Mixing set into this little palette. I have used the slightly more square Schmincke half pans and sanded a little off the ones in each corner, though if you have the smaller Winsor & Newton pans they will fit in even better.

Indian Red added - I do love this colour not only to create a lovely earth triad with goethite and cerulean chromium, but also for its softness in portraits - lips, eyes and cheeks, if really watered down.

Now to get on with some painting!

Maimeriblu watercolour chart

I had a lot of trouble finding the MaimerBlu colour chart, so here is a screenshot of their 2011 chart.

I haven't tried all the colours, but I'll add some painted swatches of the ones I have tried soon.

Here is a link to the Italian website, thanks you to an email from Faith.

Thanks to Winifred, I now have the whole range to add. Watch this space!

It's nice to be a guest sometimes

I have a lot of ideas of possible blog posts, and want to get them written more regularly. However it was rather interesting to be writing a Guest Post and answering someone else's questions. Thanks for featuring me Charlie.

Here's the post.

https://doodlewash.com/2016/03/28/guest-doodlewash-line-colour-with-jane-blundell/

There have been 150 or so other artists featured too so well worth a look :-) and Charlie's critters are delightful.

Mulitpersonality pigments - PV19

As people become more aware of the pigments in the paint they are using, they start to notice that there are a number of pigments that crop up in completely different coloured paints.
PV19 - pink and rose to crimson to violet
PB36 - turquoise and teal to greenish blue
PR101 - transparent burnt orange to granulating burnt orange to earthy red to very opaque earthy red
and
PBr7 - yellow earth to warm orange browns to dark orange browns to dark cool browns
- are some of the most schizophrenic!

Have a look at the PBr7 and PR101 section in this page of my website and you'll see what I mean. Some pigments cover a small range of colours, like PB29 Ultramarine,  but others seem to cover a very large range not only of hue but also of characteristics. I'll look at PV19 here.

PV19 has a more rose version and a more violet version, though it also appears as a crimson (Alizarin Crimson Quinacridone by Da Vinci) and a dusky pink (rose Madder Permanent Hue by Art Spectrum.) Generally speaking, the more rose version will be called a Quinacridone rose/permanent rose colour where the more violet version will be called Quinacridone Violet or perhaps a magenta or mauve, but it does make it a little difficult to choose a colour based on pigments alone. As always, you need to look at the brand and the name to be sure of what you are getting.

I love Quinacridone Rose as an excellent 'primary' red. It mixes beautiful purples with any blue, especially ultramarine, but also mixes pretty oranges and reds with a yellow. I find the Quinacridone Violet colour less useful as you can make a violet by adding a little blue to the rose, though you can't make a pink by starting with the violet. 

The crimson hues made with PV19 are also useful to consider in a limited palette - Alizarin Crimson (quinacridone) by Da Vinci for example is a more crimson red, but still mixes nice purples and oranges.

Watercolours and Wine - what a great workshop combination :-)

My next two day workshop is approaching and I am excited to be teaching at Bunnyconnellen in Queensland - you can see all the information here.

http://www.bunnyconnellen.com.au/announcements/watercolour-workshop-with-jane-blundell

This is a two day workshop, but either day will be presented as a stand-alone workshop, so participants can attend either or both days. The first is perfect for those new to watercolour and just getting set up but will also go into more depth for those wanting to understand more about the medium. The second day is for anyone who wants to get out and paint en plein air with their watercolours.

We'll be looked after with lovely lunches on this beautiful vineyard. Book soon!

To Book: Call 07 46979555 or book online for Saturday, Sunday or the full weekend workshop.