New Crayons (Part 2)

The Haul

I recently picked up some new art supplies and I can't wait to show you. New Crayons! What could be better?

One gem is this Kuretake gansai tambi Art Nouveau set. I've had the 36 color set for years – it was one of the first paints I tried out. These Japanese watercolors are slightly more opaque than western watercolors, they have a glue base instead of gum arabic, so areas of higher paint concentration actually have a glossy finish. They also seem to be more prone to blooming texture when they dry. You can see that below, especially on the sketchbook page. They look much smoother on the strips of Arches cold press watercolor paper (top and bottom).

I wanted this kind of texture in a recent piece I made on grief, so I used these paints with plenty of water and let them dry unevenly to make this painting:

I always learn a lot from swatching new materials on different kinds of paper. So in addition to the two types above, I also swatched them on my very non-absorbant Midori MD paper, which accentuated that uneven drying even more.