Camel Artists' Water Colour - lightfastness test results

About one year ago, when I first got the first Pan Box of the Camel Artists' Water Colours, I prepared a lightfastness test to check them, as these watercolors are produced in India and supposed to be in the "artist" quality range. At the time I did a few tests and found them behave quite well in terms of value ranges, color intensity, mixing qualities, dispersion on wet paper, etc. They were similar to student and artist quality paints of other brands I have tested, and I (still) consider them an affordable, but still of good quality, tool for people starting to learn watercolor. The quantity you get for little money allow lots of experimentation without thinking their cost, as the final total cost (shipping and duty fees included) is at less than 50% of student quality paints one can get at local shops in Greece.

However, for the more advanced watercolor painters, the findings bellow should be seriously taken into account with respect to color selection, if you intend to get your painting on the market, and have them into shows/exhibitions.

Test Conditions

 Watercolors Brand: Camel Artists Watercolors

Made in: India

Distribution Package: Pan Box with 18 shades Palette

Colors: Lemon Yellow, Gamboge Hue, Orange, Yellow Ochre, Scarlet, Light Red, Crimson, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, Raw Umber, Cobalt Blue Hue, Ultramarine Blue, Cerulean Blue Hue, Emerald Green, Viridian Hue, Sap Green, Black

Test Preparation Date: 12/07/2014

Test Conditions: outdoor, south facing, very strong direct sun light all year long (Greece), under glass, rain protected area

Test End date: 17/07/2015

The test paper before cutting it to get the half strips of each color exposed outdoors. The other half strips were kept in absolute dark.

Test Results

Colors strongly affected by direct sun exposure:

Orange – the red component is almost completely lost (right side the exposed)

Crimson – the rose component is affected very much, which is more obvious in the light value area (left side the exposed) 

Cerulean Blue –after exposure the color appear very dull, looking like it contains a lot of white (or filler) (right side the exposed)

Gamboge Hue – the red component is affected, the bit of orange feeling of the color is lost and appears as a strong value medium yellow (right side the exposed) 

Scarlet – some of the color intensity is lost, especially noticeable in the light value area (right side the exposed)

Colors affected by the exposure in a noticeable to slightly noticeable way (photos only for first two, which are more obvious):

·    Burnt Umber – the “reddish” component has been affected (left side the exposed)

Yellow Ochre – slightly affected in the strong value areas (left side the exposed)

Burnt Sienna – some of the color intensity is lost, especially noticeable in the light value area  

Ultramarine Blue – slightly affected in the strong value areas

Emerald Green – slightly affected in the light value areas 

Colors not affected at all

Lemmon Yellow

Light Red

Raw Umber

Cobalt Blue Hue

Viridian Hue

Sap Green

Black

White

Conclusion

As far as I am concerned, there are 2 colors which I will avoid even for the beginners' workshop: Orange and Crimson. For the Cerulean Blue, Gamboge Hue and Scarlet, I think they are "usable", if we don't have other options at affordable price, for the beginners' workshop, with the recommendation that they are replaced as soon as each student moves on and decides to keep going with watercolor painting.

For the rest of the colors, even for the ones with noticeable issues, I consider them as being on the safe side (artist quality), as I must point out once more that the test conditions were quite heavy, taking into account the very strong sun light (all year long) here in Greece.

Note: Except of the pan Camel watercolors, I do have a large collection of their tube colors, and 6 months ago I have started another test, comparative one, for the "reds" and the "blues" I have from all brands to be more fair with my tests. I am looking forward for this comparison.

The "overseas" surprise - Mijello sample colors arrived

Quite a few months ago I came across with an announcement (it could be on WetCanvas I saw it) about a free sample of Mijello Watercolors distributed by Martin F. Weber Co. When entered their site at weberart, I felt a bit of disappointment because they were only shipping to USA, Puerto Rico and Canada, but I did experience that before and found a way around. Luckily for me, my sister-in-law lives in USA, and she usually comes to Greece each year. If it is not something heavy or very big, she brings it to me. So, I did fill in the order form for the free sample, and explained why the address is not my actual address. Furthermore, in the special requests field I also mentioned the workshop I teach at the Community Center, and asked for additional samples for the ladies to test at the workshop, if possible.
And guess what??? My sister-in-law just arrived to Greece, with a surprise for me - the Mijello sample colors, which I asked for months ago and she never told me over the phone that were sent to her!

And, yes, they were so kind to send me additional sample sets for our workshop! Although each set has only has two sample colors (Mijello Blue and Peacock Blue), I am sure they will be of great use for our seascape paintings when we will start again in September!

The surprise did not stop there, the package also contained one full set of 9 tubes (7 ml each) of the Mijello watercolors for me to try, which you can see bellow.

I must say that this made my day!!! It is difficult to believe that a few tubes of watercolors would bring such a reaction, but I am in a "happy corner" all day long, and thinking about the best way to test my new colors! Of course, the usual swatches and preparation of light exposure tests will follow (by the way, I just got from outside the Camel test colors, which have been exposed to strong sunlight for over 12 months now - results to follow soon), but I would also like to have a comparison of Mijello watercolors with other brands I have in a small series of paintings. I just need to figure out which similar colors I have from at least another 2 brands, and which subject would be best for the resulted palette.

I would like to close this post by saying thank you again to Kelly Elizabeth Clawson, the Brand Manager at Mission Gold by Mijello for this wonderful surprise!

Cherry Tree in Bloom - making foliage with a natural sea sponge

At the last workshop session, on the 8th of May 2015, I demonstrated to the group the technique of using a piece of natural sea sponge to make realistic tree foliage very easily. These paintings were done to demonstrate the variations in texture one can achieve by using pieces of sponge that have different texture. All paintings are 10x7 inches in size, and are done using Camel Artists' Watercolors on Saunders Waterford 90 lb CP paper.

Breaking waves - dreaming of summer

The big breaking waves and the white foam coming close to our feed while walking on the seaside are reminding us of the lovely summer days and vacation! During the previous week workshop I introduced the masking fluid usage to the workshop group, and what better choice to show how to save the white of the paper than with the white of the waves foam. These two are the examples I had ready before the workshop, to give an idea of what we are aiming at (I have another 2 in work, which I partially did during the workshop). Both are 10x7 inches in size, and are done with my usual watercolor palette.

Sailing - small seascape study

This small seascape study was intended as a test of a new student quality paper I found to one of the library stores in the city, namely Hahnemuhle Britania (300 gr) watercolor paper. I have been asked by the ladies following the workshop at the community center about a good enough paper for them to practice at home, but keeping it at an affordable price and easy for them to find. I have used Cotman watercolor paper, and I know it is quite good, but the Hahnemuhle paper is even cheaper.
I did cut the paper in small size to also give it to the ladies to test by themselves to decide, and also did a test myself on a card-size piece of paper (~4x6 inches).

The paper takes well a few washes and has a good absorbancy. The colors moves quite ok, but still it get dry faster than artist quality papers I have used so far. Also it gets very buckled when wet, so any larger size has to be stretched on a board. However, it is a good choice for students and beginners, who do not afford artist quality watercolor paper.

Tropical fish - did you miss these blue fishes?

I did miss them, and decided to have another go but this time a bit larger, as my previous watercolors of tropical blue fishes were all of them ACEO size (and most of them already sold). The first two of the new paintings are ready, size 7x5 inches. Both done with my usual watercolor palette (mix of Daniel Smith, W&N and American Journey) on Saunders Waterford 140 lb CP paper.

More to come this week!

Autumn leaves and water drops

Back in November 2014 I did a few studies and paintings of autumn leaves and water drops, that I didn't manage to scan until the previous days. Although it is not the right season for this subject, you might like to see them. I had some reference photos taken on a rainy day, during a short sunny spot, with some leaves still holding on the tree. I started these studies to prepare a short demo for the watercolor workshop, working on the simplest composition, but then I moved on to a more complex painting and with a stronger blue sky, which I like a lot how it come out in the end.

Here is the final painting, watercolor on paper, size ~10x7 inches.

 This is the smaller study that I started with (5x7 inches):

Here is the simplified version that we worked with during the workshop (again 5x7 inches):

And this is an imaginary study of water drops on a plant leaves, just to show how to make the drops and their cast shadow:

Bosphorus Boats made it for the Twitterartexhibit!

I have painted a small watercolor (post card size) for the Twitterartexhibit that will take place in Moss this year, and I am glad it was safely received as David mentions:

Wow! @OtiliaKocsis Your boats made me think of summerholiday in Greece #twitterartexhibit @HomeStartMoss @DavidSandum pic.twitter.com/lhOTsJUER3
— Twitrartexhibit (@twitrartexhibit) February 21, 2015

The reference for this painting was a photo of the WDE  January 30, 2015 (from WetCanvas, as usual), posted by jloren (thank you for sharing those wonderful photos!).

Practising landscape on small size - ACEO

After the roses series I didn't paint much the last days, but I am trying to practice a little bit on landscape painting. This small ACEO (3.5x2.5 inches) is just an imaginary landscape, to exercise on trees and foliage textures/colors.