Thank you so much for making this video! It's so good to hear your opinion on these paints. Your idea of cutting the cover sheet into strips is such a good idea. Thank you very much for mentioning my channel as well, really appreciate it.
Thank you for explaining how pink went from being a shade of yellow to the color we know it as today. As someone who sews, I knew exactly what a “pinked edge” is, I just never associated he two. Fabric seams used to be finished with zigzagged scissors called pinking sheers. The queens favored roses must have had edges that looked liked they’d been pinked.
Naples yellow is often used as an underpainting colour in classical watercolour methods (English school in particular, I think), sort of like a more controlled yellow ochre since it doesn't go so dark. I used it for underpaintings frequently, as does one of my mentors when he does realistic fish renderings. Some versions end up very yellow but I prefer the creamier ones, like this Sennelier one. You'd think the white would make it lift (especially in gouache) but I find it actually stains well so it's good for the first layer.
Hi Melissa - I'm sure the naples underpainting has shown up in a few of my plein air timelapses, but I haven't discussed it in depth in a voice-over I don't think. Not yet, anyway!
I put the Graham version on my palette specifically for trying as a staining first layer. It also is incredible to drop into transparent washes as it pushes the other colors away and gives things a nice golden glow.
Its too bad the original Naples Yellow "PY41" is too toxic for paint. Its Lead antimoniate and was also called Antimony Yellow. Interesting that is was manufactured as a pigment since the 1400's and some Antimony Yellows appeared in the middle east as early as 500 BC. Little did they know how lead affects the body.
Hi Denise! Thanks again for giving us another great Swatch With Me to chill out and relax to. Love that you did Sennelier this time, and I'm really looking forward to the M Graham coming up! To answer your query about caput mortum--it's a color I love and find myself reaching for a lot. It's a great warm shadow color and I often use it to do an underpainting in certain illustrations; it's also a great shadow color for certain skin tones when doing portraits (or even when illustrating human characters in children's books, which is my main bread and butter). I tend towards really bright, bold colors, but caput mortum is great for adding depth, especially when you need a warm shadow versus a cool one. However, one down side (apart from the opacity, which isn't a problem as long as the washes aren't super thick) I've found with Sennelier's caput mortum is the excess of binder in the tube--an issue you also ran into. I thought maybe I got a dud tube that had separated, that it was only the beginning of the tube and would go away, but now my tube is half used up, and every time I uncap it and squeeze some onto my palette, a bunch of binder spills out. It seems that Oto has the same problem, based on the dot card she sent you--so maybe that's just how this paint is? I'd love to find this exact color, but transparent and without the excess binder issue, so my search continues--but if I don't find it, I'll be buying another tube of Sennelier caput mortum. I love it that much. As far as the earth pigments being really weak, I agree with you. I've been doing children's illustrations for a zoo and natural history museum so have been painting a ton of animals recently--and while I have multiple brands I use (I go more by color than brand, but tend to prefer watercolors that have honey in them), I consistently reach for 3 Sennelier colors: raw sienna, warm sepia, and caput mortum. Raw sienna does an amazing honey-colored wash for the undercoat of certain furs. I've used warm sepia as a soft gray for packrats up to a deep, dark muzzle for reindeer (and pug dogs!). A thin, thin wash of naples yellow gives a nice, sunlit glow to white fur. Occasionally, I also get to use these colors, and they're gorgeous: Hooker's green, greenish umber, turquoise green, cad yellow orange, and indanthrene blue (although I prefer M Graham's version, like you, so it doesn't get used often). Hopefully, someone will find all this helpful--it's what I've experienced so far. Thanks again for this awesome video and keep up the amazing work! Melissa
In the Sennelier website they have a color chart of their entire watercolor paints available with name, number, series, ASTM rating, opacity, and pigment information for all of them.
Nice video. I recently bought a tube of transparent brown, which I really love (I paint portraits and work from models quite often.) A version of raw sienna that I really love is Blick's brand (surprise!) Blick also makes a really nice version brown madder, which is actually a good solid red with some rich brown under tones (sort of like a plate of sauteed mushrooms made without wine - the version made with wine is richer tasting.) 2 things about the color names - I think that royal blue might be named after the color of the French flag before the revolution, which was that light blue with a gold fleur de lis in the middle. I once thought that caput mortum was made from mummies, but someone on another channel corrected me. Apparently the waste from a mining process was infused with lead or something else poisonous and the containers had a death's head (caput mortum) on them. Someone started to make this color paint out of it and called it after the death's head on the containers. Later on they started making it without the poisonous pigment.
"There is so much cat hair, I keep moving it and it comes back." Man, that is the story of my life. And as always love the swatch with me videos. That Caput Mortum color.. man. That's gorgeous. No Sennelier around where I live, anything similar in Daniel Smith or Holbein?
Thanks so much for making this video! I don't know why I didn't watch it sooner. I have a lot of Sennelier paint being sold on it by great reviews of its luminosity. However using it myself, I found it to dry blotchy and streaky depending on the pigments you are using. Even working wet into wet on artist grade paper. A few are great though. Especially my French Vermilion.
This is one of my favorite paint brands and I reference this video before buying new colors. Which is so often. Thank you so much for all of the hard work you put into these swatching videos! They are so valuable to artists🤍
The French vermilion and yellow Sophie are my absolute favorites in my Sennelier palette. It's worthwhile checking how the French vermilion and emerald green make the most beautiful soft grey when mixed.
Oops, noticed a mistake. The pigments of alizarin crimson (the 3 pigment mixture) are wrong. It does not contain pr83 but py83 (it is the same 3 pigments as their scarlet lake). They are not that crazy to put pr83 in two tubes! You can check their colour chart to make sure it is so.
Yep, you are right! PY83-Diarylide Yellow 83 ....PR179-Perylene Maroon....PR209-Quinacridone Red. They should at least call it Alizarin Crimson Hue. don't you think? ;-) .
I would put Payne’s grey, neutral tint, Van Dyck brown, and sepia (and a few others) on the neutral/neutralising side of my palette and group them together, so maybe that was Sennelier’s thinking? 🤔 Might an ochre from a specific natural deposit be a mix of pigments like the French ochre? I haven’t done any investigating about that yet, because that would mean I’d have to stop watching-and I’m pretty excited that I’m still only partway through this video and have lots more to see. Having to sit still and watch and getting to hear your commentary on my fave watercolour brand is exactly what I needed to make myself relax on my day off!
Holy smokes! This was absolutely terrific! Doubtful I'll be buying any new art supplies for a while, but this really makes me want these!! lol! Thank you, as always, Denise, and such a great presentation and narrative!
Thanks so much Mark! I've fallen off my no-buy year pretty hard with a limited edition palette I didn't want to pass up followed by the news that my local art store is closing :((( I bought a couple MGraham colors I didn't really NEED today, but they're new to me :p
Great video! I was really looking forward to this one. I have a love-hate relationship with Sennelier, and I was sooo curious for your opinions. I too found the Cinerous Blue odd and useless - until (and I don't know if I figured it out on my own, or someone suggested it to me), I started seeing it as a non granulating manganese blue hue. That opened new mixing possibilities I really wasn't aware of. I mixed it with the Alizarin Crimson (any Indian Red type color will work the same) It made stunning light luminous greys. Plus, I managed to mix 'Cobalt Teal Hue' by mixing in a tiny bit of the Viridian and Lemon Yellow and diluting it down. I haven't managed to get the same results by diluting just the PB15:3, which was interesting to me :) Secondly, I wonder. two of my colors - Cobalt Blue and Helios Purple behave odd wet in wet - they develope a weird texture. almost like granulation, but not the good kind. Did you test them wet on wet? That texture also made the cobalt blue opaque! It's not the paper as I tested on coton papers as well. Daniel smith's PR122 had the same weird texture by way, Schmincke's didn't, and both of their Cobalt Blues didn't have it - they granulated beautifully, as they should. I'm currently waiting on both of those pigments from Schmincke, I just couldn't work with them. Also, Sennelier's Quin. Gold is absolutely my favorite hue, other then maybe Schmincke's new one, but I don't find it as vibrant as sennelier's. Rose Madder Lake and Indanthrone are gorgeous, had a feeling you'd love 'em. Oh! And the French Vermilion is stunning indeed. It's also available from Schmincke's, it's one of the new 2017 colors. Geranium something? It's more transparent then Sennelier's but not as vibrant IMO.
Thanks for all the info Palmira! I'll try to remember the wet on wet tests when I can get to them, but good to have a heads up. I'll also try some greys with the cinerous!
I thought it might not be related but maybe it is (because the pigment is yellow), but "pinka" means "to urinate" in Swedish (a Germanic language) Some believe it comes from old Germanic languages apparently now that I read about it.
I wanted to point out what Bruce at handprint said about Dioxazine violet PV23. Quote> The most robust paints in my tests were manufactured by Daniel Smith (which gives the pigment a lightfastness rating of "1, excellent") There were some glaring lightfastness failures in other brands of watercolor paint, such as Utrecht, Schmincke, Rowney Artists and MaimeriBlu. I thought you might like to see this if you haven't read this one already.
I looove working with Sennelier but I do have to agree that their selection of colors isn't the best. I often wish I could buy more paints from them, but they lack so many nice pigments, and have a lot of unnecessary multi pigment paints that I don't want to go anywhere near. That being said I'm working up quite the collection of them still. Lol.
I don't understand. My chart, downloaded (pdf) from the Sennelier site, has the pigment numbers listed under the swatches along with permanence, opacity, etc.
Nothing personal, but I have to stop watching your swatching videos! I toggle between watching the video, and Blicks Art Supply, loading up the basket with colors that you've been watching! 😂 Keep it up though, it's a great way to get a good look at some new colors! 🎨
My first (and only) pan set was Sennelier's 24 half-pan set. It contained some pretty odd colours (but I was such a newbie when I bought it, I didn't realize that at the time). It does re-wet beautifully, but I did notice it is not as nice on poor quality paper. They do seem to make a lot of multi-pigment colours, as you noted. The Payne's grey in my set at times appears almost indigo. Thanks for this extensive swatching video Denise.
I love your opinions on paint. I get a kick out of it because some paints you love and I go yuck! LOL! Yes, PBR7 can be pretty green. As a child, I grew up in the Willamette Valley where the soil has an enormous amount of Iron in it. My siblings and a few friends would scoop out the ready to use clay from the bottom of a high hill that was cut through by a bull dozer, and make pottery with it to bake in the sun. We called it Indian clay. The color range is from the lightest earth colors of yellows (yellow ocher color)to red siennas and earth greens. Reds from light orange to a deep terracotta to almost violet. Where one draws the line between PBr7 and PY43 is beyond me. The Iron is now fired and treated to get those earth tones. In ancient times, it was right there in the earth. But PBr7 & PY43 is all natural Iron Oxide so earth color names do not define the pigment. The pigment just defines the color range you can get from it.
I'm really happy looking at all those reds and purples. You did a tremendous work here! it took me two days to watch it all, but I did! now can't wait to get my Sennelier set for botanicals, I got it from Jackson's though Amazon and they're coming all the way to Southern Chile! so a few weeks until they arrive. Thanks again! Oh and prussian blue I put everywhere oops.
have you tried their student line I really want some opinions on them because I haven't heard many things about them and they seem a little cheaper than cotman watercolor and i'm an a budget and a beginner so pls help!
I have, I just haven't been able to do a review of them yet. From my recollection of my first impression, they were okay, but I wasn't super excited about them (of course compared to my usual professional paints, which isn't exactly fair). However, if they're cheaper than Cotman for you, I'd say absolutely them over Cotman. The only thing is that I haven't been able to find ANY pigment info on them.
PS, I don't think its just your paper here. I have found Sennelier to be very blotchy even used on Arches 100% cotton unless you glaze in very thin fine layers.
Denise, I totally agree when it comes to earth tones - one can never have enough browns! I'm lucky in that my palette gives me plenty of space. I have room for 45 colours - 22 of them are earth tones! :D
Just cuz I'm that annoying person who corrects everybody, here's a couple: Sennelier = 3 syllables: Senn el yay (no emphasis on the second syllable) Rose Doré means Golden Pink. Doré is a bit like Do Ray ("A drop of golden sun..."). :^) I'll be back the moment I can be annoying again. ;^>
Can't we all just paint along? Lol ... Yep, I'm in Ohio.. M. Graham sets up solid with a sticky surface, Daniel Smith dries between perfect and hard, and WnN Prof dries like Kevlar. Lol just a few of the earthtones. I pour a pan 3-4 times here no matter the weather, and I get best results. Happy holidays!
Honey helps any color with hardness and dry or brittle hardening. I make mine liquid before mixing in. ( Not hot... Just fluid...much easier to mix)...also, paint inside surface of your half pan w honey before pouring for less shrinkage from walls.
Sennelier colours are said to be good for glazing. If you haven't already done so, could you show us how it layers and compare it to DS colours out of the tube and/ or layered. Cheers
They labelled it wrong, Helios purple is simply Quinacridone magenta which is lightfast. Sennelier does have the wrong lightfastness for aureolin and Prussian blue
Nice, and I'll watch every one of the others swatching video's too :) I have a rather large selection of them and find myself never using them and I want to love them. It seams you have to work with them a bit differently.
Perhaps I'm alone in this one, but I would like to see a manufacturer make a neutral tint that combines ultramarine blue and burnt sienna. I mix it for myself all the time, but I would simply want it for convenience.
Phillip E Maxwell.....There is! it is called Jane's Grey, in DS. See the maker of this pigment her videos, Australian Miss Jane Blundell....on janeblundellart.com. It is slightly off from half way, as it slightly blue grey.
I believe that the red pigments that have PR N/A are a Quinacridone pyrrolidone , They are the only red pigment that I know of that says PR N/A. They have been tested for light fastness by Bruce at Handprint dot com and he rated it very good. This pigment is often used as an Alizarin crimson replacement.
Hey! regarding the royal blue, I'm confused as well. It is called royal blue because it was the symbol of french monarchy with the lily flower, except it is indeed supposed to be a deep dark blue, kinda like the blue of the french flag. At least it should be close to an ultramarine. So yeah. Personally I don't really know. Maybe my history teacher lied to me ?O.o. Nah...
Royal blue is usually a mid-dark blue close to Ultramarine. But if you check Pantone, there are three shades of Royal Blue, a light, mid and a dark, so perhaps that's where it came from? But yeah, I agree with Denise, that blue should be called Cornflour Blue.
Hmmm, I don't know where the "royal blue" name comes from, but I'm unsure about that explanation because the colour associated with the Bourbons was actually white (like their lily)-represented in the white of the flag rather than the blue.
Rose madder lake and yellow lake are 2 of my favorite colors by Sennelier. But that cobalt teal is calling me. I'm pretty sure my purse is about to feel lighter.
I’ve got dot cards from two brands so far and really like the swatches I made from them. They are both references as well as a way to let myself try other colours without breaking the bank. Would love to have this Sennelier dot card. Do your friend sell it? I think the idea of exchanging dot cards with art friends is really nice. I wish there were a group I can join somewhere to be able to do that. I love the swatches videos you make. Thanks for them!
Like you, I was curious about the odd names of these colors... this is what I found... Royal Blue of France --- "Bleu de France (Blue of France) is a colour traditionally used to represent France. Blue has been used in the heraldry of the French monarchy since at least the 12th century, with the golden fleurs-de-lis of the kings always set on a blue (heraldic "azure") background." /via Wikipedia Brown Pink - "Originally a fugitive yellow lake made from buckthorn berries also known as Dutch Pink." /via WatercolorPainting.com
Denise, I have a chart I downloaded that has all colors with pigment and other properties. (an official Sennelier). Let me know where to send it if you still need/want this. Great video as always - love your work!!
Lol every color except for the one color im super picky about. If a set doesnt have a decent magenta/pink im hesitant to buy it because i use it so often. Out of all of the opera paints ive been comparing, sennelier's is one of my favorites.
I think the lighter version of royal blue might be associated with Louis XIV and the court dress. which is lighter than what I would generally think of as a royal blue
I'm interested in Caput Mortum - it seems like an intriguing colour. I've seen it on the Winsor & Newton shelf, but have not yet bought it. Can anyone comment on what they mostly use it for - what subject matter? Not sure if Daniel Smith makes anything like it. I don't believe M. Graham does.
I'm in love with using Caput Mortum, mainly for shadows. But I did use it as a really moody brown/purple in a hand lettering illustration commission. Usually, I reach for it when painting animals and portraits--it makes a really nice shadow color for certain skin tones.
Thank you for all of these swatch videos! I frequent them every day almost 😂 Also, I 100% agree that emerald green HAS to have white in it. I got it because it was a single pigment and although it is a gorgeous color to look at it mixes like a white and I really really don’t like that. Definitely won’t repurchase it.
Forgive this input from an oil painter, but this is what I think Sennelier's "Royal Blue" is. In oil, we have a "King's Blue," which is a convenience color blue pigment mixed with white. It is not the deep rich blue we usually think of with royal blue.
26:50 wait pigment information’s array means ratio? :O I didn’t know that... So amount of first pigment is more than second and second pigment is more than third pigment in a paint right?
This is very handy to see. I’ve got their 6 cool and warm primaries, but I’m leaning way more towards Roman Szmal. I have 12 of theirs, not primaries, mostly autumnal, love them and they’re also cheaper, though I like Sennelier’s price and bigger tubes.
Well in ceramics we use iron oxides to stain a piece and iron oxides can come in many colors like black,red to brown shades,green,yellow and I’ve seen some blues.
I just got about a dozen tubes of these and they seem to dry chalky to me. Did you notice anything like that? I'll probably add some gum arabic but I was really surprised. Forest Green and Prussian blue were fine though. It might just be the reds. I don't know.
It was their french vermillion and scarlet laquer that seemed the worst. Their cad red purple was okay but still seemed very dead. Maybe it's just their reds...I did notice the caput mortum was like a different color and so so much better once dried in a pan and rewet.
@@jaimeanderson9238 Intriguing! Did you try to glaze more than one layer? They do look a bit flat on the first pass but shine a bit more in glazes :D I am sorry you had that experience with them. I'm looking forward to refilming this video on cotton paper sometime soonish.
I didn't glaze them but did put down as much as I normally would for a swatch. I think I want to try again with dried paints in pans and lift and glaze a few layers and see if a lighter application works. When I rewet my swatch and lifted some out it improved so I think where heavy applications can work with other brands it just doesn't with this one. I don't know if you noticed but I think that glow affect comes from the pigment getting really far down in the crevices of the paper almost like sparkling water. So I think it might be finer and thinner and just applies that way so when I use a heavy hand it's like putting 5 layers down in one spot at once causing the problem...just a guess. And my from the tube caput had the consistency and texture of your green earth swatch and then when it was dried in a pan it was beautiful and granulating reminiscent of a daniel smith paint. Just so strange.
Going forward YESSSS!!! It is amazing how an animal reference really tells us what the color is! More trustworthy than even seeing it on the screen! I could immediately picture a mourning dove that used to wake me up growing up in Tucson! Love that idea! So excited for all the upcoming ORANGE critters! Yay! hahahaha
Since I am a Grey, I can stand in front of your camera if ever you need help recalibrating your colors. HAHAHAHAHA! This is SO corny and I am laughing so much! (Mental image of my fat face sliding in the shot) Thanks for educating us on all your tools! Picture was great from start to finish.
My only worry is so many multipigment colors.. I don't know how many of those my set will have, I guess I will have to wait until it gets here and check.
I'm not sure which is correct or if they're two different things, but it's mentioned widely on this pigment database if that's helpful :) www.artiscreation.com/yellow.html#.WtfJY4jwaUk
It seems that you don't care for these paints, but aren't completely willing to come out and say so. Either way, I enjoyed your perspective on these paints.
Hello! I hope this doesn't get lost in the sea of comments but I was just wondering if your ultramarine deep granulates much? I'm on the hunt for a non-granulating ultramarine. Thank-you :)
I am also hunting an ultramarine that doesn't granulate...So I asked Jane Blundell, and went through her extensive swatches. So we have Ultramarine Finest, by Schmincke and a few others. janeblundellart.com.au
I'm sure Sennellier isn't out killing animals for their bones and I'm pretty sure they aren't harming the bees to harvest honey. My uncle is a bee keeper and he takes excellent care of his bees it only makes sense they wouldn't want to keep buying them.
Numerous viewers have asked for vegan information regarding paints, for which I complied a very well researched video for the channel, and mention it in passing when I do videos like this. I am not a vegan, but I prefer my paints not have charred animal bone in them regardless of who is doing the killing. Personal preference. I myself clearly use paints with honey. If it doesn't apply to you, you can just breeze past it.
im sorry if its been asked already, i recently bought the full set in the wooden box of the tube paints, and about 4 of them were extremely liquid, just poured out of the tube like water even after i stopped and stirred it with a little stick. Is this normal for this line of watercolors? ive always used daniel smith and schmincke, and its the first time this happened to me, i dont remember the exact color names now, but there was a yellow, the emerald green, a red and a light blue i think it might have been one of the cadmiums.
Hmm, if you mixed the gum arabic into the pigment and it was still liquidy, some of them are just like that. It depends on the specific pigments formula. It should still dry down for you but will loose a lot of volume. You can always contact them and ask if it's troublesome! If it's atypical for those colors they may replace them.
They do have a slightly sweet smell to them from the tubes. That smell dissipates over time so that when they are in a painting, on a dot card, or in small quantities in a palette, they don't really have a smell.
I’ve legitimately watched this video all the way through like 6 times
Hahaha me too, (with all Denise’s swatch videos ) !!
How come?
Ruby Duby because there is so much info and comparison in it! I love rewatching /skimming through these before making new purchases.
Thank you so much for making this video! It's so good to hear your opinion on these paints. Your idea of cutting the cover sheet into strips is such a good idea. Thank you very much for mentioning my channel as well, really appreciate it.
Oto Kano thanks for making it possible!
Thanks Oto !!!!
Thank you for explaining how pink went from being a shade of yellow to the color we know it as today. As someone who sews, I knew exactly what a “pinked edge” is, I just never associated he two.
Fabric seams used to be finished with zigzagged scissors called pinking sheers. The queens favored roses must have had edges that looked liked they’d been pinked.
Oh how fun! Thanks for the info as well :)
Denise, you have such a generous and kind heart towards others. It really sets you apart. So happy to 'know' you😜
I love the Sennelier paints. Super for wash work and most colors play wonderfully together.
I'M EARLY!! I HAVE SENNELIER AND I LOVE IT SO MUCH :'3 I really like the ability to layer the colours :'D
Naples yellow is often used as an underpainting colour in classical watercolour methods (English school in particular, I think), sort of like a more controlled yellow ochre since it doesn't go so dark. I used it for underpaintings frequently, as does one of my mentors when he does realistic fish renderings. Some versions end up very yellow but I prefer the creamier ones, like this Sennelier one. You'd think the white would make it lift (especially in gouache) but I find it actually stains well so it's good for the first layer.
Oh, interesting! Thanks for the insights Mary!
Thanks for sharing, Mary! Such an interesting idea--have you demonstrated this in your channel? I'll have to go check it out--love your work!
Hi Melissa - I'm sure the naples underpainting has shown up in a few of my plein air timelapses, but I haven't discussed it in depth in a voice-over I don't think. Not yet, anyway!
I put the Graham version on my palette specifically for trying as a staining first layer. It also is incredible to drop into transparent washes as it pushes the other colors away and gives things a nice golden glow.
Its too bad the original Naples Yellow "PY41" is too toxic for paint. Its Lead antimoniate and was also called Antimony Yellow. Interesting that is was manufactured as a pigment since the 1400's and some Antimony Yellows appeared in the middle east as early as 500 BC. Little did they know how lead affects the body.
Hi Denise! Thanks again for giving us another great Swatch With Me to chill out and relax to. Love that you did Sennelier this time, and I'm really looking forward to the M Graham coming up!
To answer your query about caput mortum--it's a color I love and find myself reaching for a lot. It's a great warm shadow color and I often use it to do an underpainting in certain illustrations; it's also a great shadow color for certain skin tones when doing portraits (or even when illustrating human characters in children's books, which is my main bread and butter). I tend towards really bright, bold colors, but caput mortum is great for adding depth, especially when you need a warm shadow versus a cool one. However, one down side (apart from the opacity, which isn't a problem as long as the washes aren't super thick) I've found with Sennelier's caput mortum is the excess of binder in the tube--an issue you also ran into. I thought maybe I got a dud tube that had separated, that it was only the beginning of the tube and would go away, but now my tube is half used up, and every time I uncap it and squeeze some onto my palette, a bunch of binder spills out. It seems that Oto has the same problem, based on the dot card she sent you--so maybe that's just how this paint is? I'd love to find this exact color, but transparent and without the excess binder issue, so my search continues--but if I don't find it, I'll be buying another tube of Sennelier caput mortum. I love it that much.
As far as the earth pigments being really weak, I agree with you. I've been doing children's illustrations for a zoo and natural history museum so have been painting a ton of animals recently--and while I have multiple brands I use (I go more by color than brand, but tend to prefer watercolors that have honey in them), I consistently reach for 3 Sennelier colors: raw sienna, warm sepia, and caput mortum. Raw sienna does an amazing honey-colored wash for the undercoat of certain furs. I've used warm sepia as a soft gray for packrats up to a deep, dark muzzle for reindeer (and pug dogs!). A thin, thin wash of naples yellow gives a nice, sunlit glow to white fur.
Occasionally, I also get to use these colors, and they're gorgeous: Hooker's green, greenish umber, turquoise green, cad yellow orange, and indanthrene blue (although I prefer M Graham's version, like you, so it doesn't get used often).
Hopefully, someone will find all this helpful--it's what I've experienced so far.
Thanks again for this awesome video and keep up the amazing work!
Melissa
Thanks for all of your vast knowledge with this brand Melissa! Is your work posted anywhere? I'd love to see it!
You're welcome, Denise! Thanks for showing an interest in my work. Please feel free to visit my website, www.melissabaileyillustrates.com :-)
In the Sennelier website they have a color chart of their entire watercolor paints available with name, number, series, ASTM rating, opacity, and pigment information for all of them.
Nice video. I recently bought a tube of transparent brown, which I really love (I paint portraits and work from models quite often.) A version of raw sienna that I really love is Blick's brand (surprise!) Blick also makes a really nice version brown madder, which is actually a good solid red with some rich brown under tones (sort of like a plate of sauteed mushrooms made without wine - the version made with wine is richer tasting.)
2 things about the color names - I think that royal blue might be named after the color of the French flag before the revolution, which was that light blue with a gold fleur de lis in the middle. I once thought that caput mortum was made from mummies, but someone on another channel corrected me. Apparently the waste from a mining process was infused with lead or something else poisonous and the containers had a death's head (caput mortum) on them. Someone started to make this color paint out of it and called it after the death's head on the containers. Later on they started making it without the poisonous pigment.
Wikipedia claims yet another origin of the name.
"There is so much cat hair, I keep moving it and it comes back." Man, that is the story of my life. And as always love the swatch with me videos. That Caput Mortum color.. man. That's gorgeous. No Sennelier around where I live, anything similar in Daniel Smith or Holbein?
Thanks so much for making this video! I don't know why I didn't watch it sooner. I have a lot of Sennelier paint being sold on it by great reviews of its luminosity. However using it myself, I found it to dry blotchy and streaky depending on the pigments you are using. Even working wet into wet on artist grade paper. A few are great though. Especially my French Vermilion.
This is one of my favorite paint brands and I reference this video before buying new colors. Which is so often. Thank you so much for all of the hard work you put into these swatching videos! They are so valuable to artists🤍
The French vermilion and yellow Sophie are my absolute favorites in my Sennelier palette. It's worthwhile checking how the French vermilion and emerald green make the most beautiful soft grey when mixed.
Thank you! I'll try that out!
That French Vermilion is irreplaceable. So beautiful! I have it.
Oops, noticed a mistake. The pigments of alizarin crimson (the 3 pigment mixture) are wrong. It does not contain pr83 but py83 (it is the same 3 pigments as their scarlet lake). They are not that crazy to put pr83 in two tubes! You can check their colour chart to make sure it is so.
Yep, you are right! PY83-Diarylide Yellow 83
....PR179-Perylene Maroon....PR209-Quinacridone Red. They should at least call it Alizarin Crimson Hue. don't you think? ;-) .
I would put Payne’s grey, neutral tint, Van Dyck brown, and sepia (and a few others) on the neutral/neutralising side of my palette and group them together, so maybe that was Sennelier’s thinking? 🤔
Might an ochre from a specific natural deposit be a mix of pigments like the French ochre? I haven’t done any investigating about that yet, because that would mean I’d have to stop watching-and I’m pretty excited that I’m still only partway through this video and have lots more to see. Having to sit still and watch and getting to hear your commentary on my fave watercolour brand is exactly what I needed to make myself relax on my day off!
Holy smokes! This was absolutely terrific! Doubtful I'll be buying any new art supplies for a while, but this really makes me want these!! lol! Thank you, as always, Denise, and such a great presentation and narrative!
Thanks so much Mark! I've fallen off my no-buy year pretty hard with a limited edition palette I didn't want to pass up followed by the news that my local art store is closing :((( I bought a couple MGraham colors I didn't really NEED today, but they're new to me :p
Great video! I was really looking forward to this one. I have a love-hate relationship with Sennelier, and I was sooo curious for your opinions.
I too found the Cinerous Blue odd and useless - until (and I don't know if I figured it out on my own, or someone suggested it to me), I started seeing it as a non granulating manganese blue hue. That opened new mixing possibilities I really wasn't aware of. I mixed it with the Alizarin Crimson (any Indian Red type color will work the same) It made stunning light luminous greys. Plus, I managed to mix 'Cobalt Teal Hue' by mixing in a tiny bit of the Viridian and Lemon Yellow and diluting it down. I haven't managed to get the same results by diluting just the PB15:3, which was interesting to me :)
Secondly, I wonder. two of my colors - Cobalt Blue and Helios Purple behave odd wet in wet - they develope a weird texture. almost like granulation, but not the good kind. Did you test them wet on wet? That texture also made the cobalt blue opaque! It's not the paper as I tested on coton papers as well. Daniel smith's PR122 had the same weird texture by way, Schmincke's didn't, and both of their Cobalt Blues didn't have it - they granulated beautifully, as they should. I'm currently waiting on both of those pigments from Schmincke, I just couldn't work with them.
Also, Sennelier's Quin. Gold is absolutely my favorite hue, other then maybe Schmincke's new one, but I don't find it as vibrant as sennelier's. Rose Madder Lake and Indanthrone are gorgeous, had a feeling you'd love 'em.
Oh! And the French Vermilion is stunning indeed. It's also available from Schmincke's, it's one of the new 2017 colors. Geranium something? It's more transparent then Sennelier's but not as vibrant IMO.
Thanks for all the info Palmira! I'll try to remember the wet on wet tests when I can get to them, but good to have a heads up. I'll also try some greys with the cinerous!
Winsor and Newton also has a Perylene Green :) it's my favorite of all the ones I've tried.
I thought it might not be related but maybe it is (because the pigment is yellow), but "pinka" means "to urinate" in Swedish (a Germanic language) Some believe it comes from old Germanic languages apparently now that I read about it.
I wanted to point out what Bruce at handprint said about Dioxazine violet PV23. Quote> The most robust paints in my tests were manufactured by Daniel Smith (which gives the pigment a lightfastness rating of "1, excellent") There were some glaring lightfastness failures in other brands of watercolor paint, such as Utrecht, Schmincke, Rowney Artists and MaimeriBlu. I thought you might like to see this if you haven't read this one already.
I looove working with Sennelier but I do have to agree that their selection of colors isn't the best. I often wish I could buy more paints from them, but they lack so many nice pigments, and have a lot of unnecessary multi pigment paints that I don't want to go anywhere near. That being said I'm working up quite the collection of them still. Lol.
This video is weirdly addictive. Extremely useful though. Thanks
I don't understand. My chart, downloaded (pdf) from the Sennelier site, has the pigment numbers listed under the swatches along with permanence, opacity, etc.
Others have linked the chart. I must have had an old version.
Nothing personal, but I have to stop watching your swatching videos! I toggle between watching the video, and Blicks Art Supply, loading up the basket with colors that you've been watching! 😂 Keep it up though, it's a great way to get a good look at some new colors! 🎨
Haha my apologies Stacy!
No worries! It's the one Splurge I allow myself. I'm disabled, and painting is my therapy of sorts, since my Mobility is compromised.
My first (and only) pan set was Sennelier's 24 half-pan set. It contained some pretty odd colours (but I was such a newbie when I bought it, I didn't realize that at the time). It does re-wet beautifully, but I did notice it is not as nice on poor quality paper. They do seem to make a lot of multi-pigment colours, as you noted. The Payne's grey in my set at times appears almost indigo. Thanks for this extensive swatching video Denise.
I love your opinions on paint. I get a kick out of it because some paints you love and I go yuck! LOL! Yes, PBR7 can be pretty green. As a child, I grew up in the Willamette Valley where the soil has an enormous amount of Iron in it. My siblings and a few friends would scoop out the ready to use clay from the bottom of a high hill that was cut through by a bull dozer, and make pottery with it to bake in the sun. We called it Indian clay. The color range is from the lightest earth colors of yellows (yellow ocher color)to red siennas and earth greens. Reds from light orange to a deep terracotta to almost violet. Where one draws the line between PBr7 and PY43 is beyond me. The Iron is now fired and treated to get those earth tones. In ancient times, it was right there in the earth. But PBr7 & PY43 is all natural Iron Oxide so earth color names do not define the pigment. The pigment just defines the color range you can get from it.
Excellent video again thank you ....and thanks to Oto ! Love Sennelier paints !!!
I found PG8 in Utrecht's brand of watercolor and I just got it in yesterday.
I'm really happy looking at all those reds and purples. You did a tremendous work here! it took me two days to watch it all, but I did! now can't wait to get my Sennelier set for botanicals, I got it from Jackson's though Amazon and they're coming all the way to Southern Chile! so a few weeks until they arrive. Thanks again!
Oh and prussian blue I put everywhere oops.
have you tried their student line I really want some opinions on them because I haven't heard many things about them and they seem a little cheaper than cotman watercolor and i'm an a budget and a beginner so pls help!
I have, I just haven't been able to do a review of them yet. From my recollection of my first impression, they were okay, but I wasn't super excited about them (of course compared to my usual professional paints, which isn't exactly fair). However, if they're cheaper than Cotman for you, I'd say absolutely them over Cotman. The only thing is that I haven't been able to find ANY pigment info on them.
Thanks so much for doing this! I was looking forward to your thoughts on Sennelier multiple pigment mixes, and found your comments very helpful.
PS, I don't think its just your paper here. I have found Sennelier to be very blotchy even used on Arches 100% cotton unless you glaze in very thin fine layers.
Denise, I totally agree when it comes to earth tones - one can never have enough browns! I'm lucky in that my palette gives me plenty of space. I have room for 45 colours - 22 of them are earth tones! :D
Royal blue__ the colour for past french kings' wardrobe, wall colour, flags etc...tres francais madame...for all you poor non-french peasants. Haha
Just cuz I'm that annoying person who corrects everybody, here's a couple:
Sennelier = 3 syllables: Senn el yay (no emphasis on the second syllable)
Rose Doré means Golden Pink. Doré is a bit like Do Ray ("A drop of golden sun..."). :^)
I'll be back the moment I can be annoying again. ;^>
Can't we all just paint along? Lol ... Yep, I'm in Ohio.. M. Graham sets up solid with a sticky surface, Daniel Smith dries between perfect and hard, and WnN Prof dries like Kevlar. Lol just a few of the earthtones. I pour a pan 3-4 times here no matter the weather, and I get best results. Happy holidays!
Honey helps any color with hardness and dry or brittle hardening. I make mine liquid before mixing in. ( Not hot... Just fluid...much easier to mix)...also, paint inside surface of your half pan w honey before pouring for less shrinkage from walls.
Haha!
I bought Naples yellow and I don’t know what it used for. Should have seen your videos.
Sennelier colours are said to be good for glazing. If you haven't already done so, could you show us how it layers and compare it to DS colours out of the tube and/ or layered. Cheers
Thanks Paul, I have a demo video of me painting a full piece with them and talking about the layering.
The Helios purple, unfortunately, is fugitive, but the French Vermilion has a 1 ASTM rating (+++ Sennelier rating) 🐅
They labelled it wrong, Helios purple is simply Quinacridone magenta which is lightfast. Sennelier does have the wrong lightfastness for aureolin and Prussian blue
Schmincke now have a color made only with PR242 (Geranium red 341).
Nice, and I'll watch every one of the others swatching video's too :) I have a rather large selection of them and find myself never using them and I want to love them. It seams you have to work with them a bit differently.
They are quite a bit different from other brands in my opinion. I like them when I use them, but once I put them away, I often forget about them :(
Perhaps I'm alone in this one, but I would like to see a manufacturer make a neutral tint that combines ultramarine blue and burnt sienna. I mix it for myself all the time, but I would simply want it for convenience.
Phillip E Maxwell.....There is! it is called Jane's Grey, in DS. See the maker of this pigment her videos, Australian Miss Jane Blundell....on janeblundellart.com. It is slightly off from half way, as it slightly blue grey.
I believe that the red pigments that have PR N/A are a Quinacridone pyrrolidone , They are the only red pigment that I know of that says PR N/A. They have been tested for light fastness by Bruce at Handprint dot com and he rated it very good. This pigment is often used as an Alizarin crimson replacement.
Interesting! Do you think this is the Bright red pigment?
Hey! regarding the royal blue, I'm confused as well. It is called royal blue because it was the symbol of french monarchy with the lily flower, except it is indeed supposed to be a deep dark blue, kinda like the blue of the french flag. At least it should be close to an ultramarine. So yeah. Personally I don't really know.
Maybe my history teacher lied to me ?O.o. Nah...
Royal blue is usually a mid-dark blue close to Ultramarine. But if you check Pantone, there are three shades of Royal Blue, a light, mid and a dark, so perhaps that's where it came from?
But yeah, I agree with Denise, that blue should be called Cornflour Blue.
Hmmm, I don't know where the "royal blue" name comes from, but I'm unsure about that explanation because the colour associated with the Bourbons was actually white (like their lily)-represented in the white of the flag rather than the blue.
On my tube of Sennelier Phthalo Blue it says PB 15:3... dunno if this helps 😊 now, to continue the video! Thanks so much!
Thank you! I appreciate it :)
Rose madder lake and yellow lake are 2 of my favorite colors by Sennelier. But that cobalt teal is calling me. I'm pretty sure my purse is about to feel lighter.
Hahah! :)
I’ve got dot cards from two brands so far and really like the swatches I made from them. They are both references as well as a way to let myself try other colours without breaking the bank. Would love to have this Sennelier dot card. Do your friend sell it? I think the idea of exchanging dot cards with art friends is really nice. I wish there were a group I can join somewhere to be able to do that. I love the swatches videos you make. Thanks for them!
Thanks so much. I don't know if Oto is planning on selling them but her channel is in the description if you want to see her work!
Like you, I was curious about the odd names of these colors... this is what I found...
Royal Blue of France --- "Bleu de France (Blue of France) is a colour traditionally used to represent France. Blue has been used in the heraldry of the French monarchy since at least the 12th century, with the golden fleurs-de-lis of the kings always set on a blue (heraldic "azure") background." /via Wikipedia
Brown Pink - "Originally a fugitive yellow lake made from buckthorn berries also known as Dutch Pink." /via WatercolorPainting.com
Denise, I have a chart I downloaded that has all colors with pigment and other properties. (an official Sennelier). Let me know where to send it if you still need/want this. Great video as always - love your work!!
That would be great Gail! My email is inliquidcolor @ gmail.com thanks so much
Maybe the royal blue is a throw back to the blue diamond Louis XV had reset in his crown.
Lol every color except for the one color im super picky about. If a set doesnt have a decent magenta/pink im hesitant to buy it because i use it so often. Out of all of the opera paints ive been comparing, sennelier's is one of my favorites.
I think the lighter version of royal blue might be associated with Louis XIV and the court dress. which is lighter than what I would generally think of as a royal blue
Interesting, thank you!
That was my first thought.
I'm interested in Caput Mortum - it seems like an intriguing colour. I've seen it on the Winsor & Newton shelf, but have not yet bought it. Can anyone comment on what they mostly use it for - what subject matter? Not sure if Daniel Smith makes anything like it. I don't believe M. Graham does.
In hindsight, I think Daniel Smith's Lunar Red Rock (PR101) may be similar to Caput Mortum, but not sure.
Thank you for that tip.
I'm in love with using Caput Mortum, mainly for shadows. But I did use it as a really moody brown/purple in a hand lettering illustration commission. Usually, I reach for it when painting animals and portraits--it makes a really nice shadow color for certain skin tones.
Thank you for all of these swatch videos! I frequent them every day almost 😂 Also, I 100% agree that emerald green HAS to have white in it. I got it because it was a single pigment and although it is a gorgeous color to look at it mixes like a white and I really really don’t like that. Definitely won’t repurchase it.
Forgive this input from an oil painter, but this is what I think Sennelier's "Royal Blue" is. In oil, we have a "King's Blue," which is a convenience color blue pigment mixed with white. It is not the deep rich blue we usually think of with royal blue.
26:50 wait pigment information’s array means ratio? :O I didn’t know that... So amount of first pigment is more than second and second pigment is more than third pigment in a paint right?
This is very handy to see. I’ve got their 6 cool and warm primaries, but I’m leaning way more towards Roman Szmal. I have 12 of theirs, not primaries, mostly autumnal, love them and they’re also cheaper, though I like Sennelier’s price and bigger tubes.
It DOES look like King’s Blue, but Sennelier has a King’s Blue in their oils.
Lol. Love that you’re doing everything except that one color that I’m basically obsessed with. =>.
Haha I know - I'm sorry Kat! It wasn't here available :(
In Liquid Color gurrrl, you coulda just hit me up! You know I’ve got the hookup! =>.
Haha I know that NOW, I wasn't aware when I was prepping the video :)
We put the colour swatches in the order they are, because...we are french darling.
Offering single pigment phalo green yellow shade, but not blue shade. Strange!
Indeed, it's quite strange!
Well in ceramics we use iron oxides to stain a piece and iron oxides can come in many colors like black,red to brown shades,green,yellow and I’ve seen some blues.
I just got about a dozen tubes of these and they seem to dry chalky to me. Did you notice anything like that? I'll probably add some gum arabic but I was really surprised. Forest Green and Prussian blue were fine though. It might just be the reds. I don't know.
Chalky? Oh my! No I haven't experience that with Sennelier at all. Perhaps are you referring to some of the opaque colors?
It was their french vermillion and scarlet laquer that seemed the worst. Their cad red purple was okay but still seemed very dead. Maybe it's just their reds...I did notice the caput mortum was like a different color and so so much better once dried in a pan and rewet.
@@jaimeanderson9238 Intriguing! Did you try to glaze more than one layer? They do look a bit flat on the first pass but shine a bit more in glazes :D I am sorry you had that experience with them. I'm looking forward to refilming this video on cotton paper sometime soonish.
I didn't glaze them but did put down as much as I normally would for a swatch. I think I want to try again with dried paints in pans and lift and glaze a few layers and see if a lighter application works. When I rewet my swatch and lifted some out it improved so I think where heavy applications can work with other brands it just doesn't with this one. I don't know if you noticed but I think that glow affect comes from the pigment getting really far down in the crevices of the paper almost like sparkling water. So I think it might be finer and thinner and just applies that way so when I use a heavy hand it's like putting 5 layers down in one spot at once causing the problem...just a guess.
And my from the tube caput had the consistency and texture of your green earth swatch and then when it was dried in a pan it was beautiful and granulating reminiscent of a daniel smith paint. Just so strange.
I love when you say, “they’re fiiiinnnne. “ about colors that you don’t like. Ha ha ha ha!!!
"If I was painting a pigeon, I'd want it..." 🤣🤣🤣 (I'm just going to comment on everything that is cracking me up.)
Hahaha. So, what do you think, should I go through and rename every color for an animal? hahah
Going forward YESSSS!!! It is amazing how an animal reference really tells us what the color is! More trustworthy than even seeing it on the screen! I could immediately picture a mourning dove that used to wake me up growing up in Tucson! Love that idea! So excited for all the upcoming ORANGE critters! Yay! hahahaha
Since I am a Grey, I can stand in front of your camera if ever you need help recalibrating your colors.
HAHAHAHAHA! This is SO corny and I am laughing so much! (Mental image of my fat face sliding in the shot) Thanks for educating us on all your tools! Picture was great from start to finish.
Tiffany Grey omg you're hilarious 😂😂😂
I've got the full set and I love them!
Hi Denise, what would you use instead of Cadnium Yellow Lemon ? Primary Yellow ? trying to stay clear of cadniums.
My favorite yellow from Sennelier is Yellow Sophie :)
My only worry is so many multipigment colors.. I don't know how many of those my set will have, I guess I will have to wait until it gets here and check.
I thiiiiink the “disazo” yellow might be someone’s typo for diazo yellow.
I'm not sure which is correct or if they're two different things, but it's mentioned widely on this pigment database if that's helpful :) www.artiscreation.com/yellow.html#.WtfJY4jwaUk
It seems that you don't care for these paints, but aren't completely willing to come out and say so. Either way, I enjoyed your perspective on these paints.
Bright red is pr3 (according to DickBlick)
Eta: it looks like bright reds tube number is 619, which lines up with Helios Red, which iz PR3
Denise, the alizarin crimson with 3 pigments is mislabeled. Instead of pr83 it uses py83. I sent Jane a note letting her know too.
Oh okay, thanks Alice!
Hello! I hope this doesn't get lost in the sea of comments but I was just wondering if your ultramarine deep granulates much? I'm on the hunt for a non-granulating ultramarine. Thank-you :)
Chloe it doesn't granulate much in my opinion compared to other ultramarines
Agreed, it doesn't granulate as much as other ultramarines.
I am also hunting an ultramarine that doesn't granulate...So I asked Jane Blundell, and went through her extensive swatches. So we have Ultramarine Finest, by Schmincke and a few others. janeblundellart.com.au
This is so helpful for buying paints ^_^
Just wondering what brush you are using?
How about some colour swatches from Bruce MacEvoy's top 40 at handprint ?
I'm sure Sennellier isn't out killing animals for their bones and I'm pretty sure they aren't harming the bees to harvest honey. My uncle is a bee keeper and he takes excellent care of his bees it only makes sense they wouldn't want to keep buying them.
Numerous viewers have asked for vegan information regarding paints, for which I complied a very well researched video for the channel, and mention it in passing when I do videos like this. I am not a vegan, but I prefer my paints not have charred animal bone in them regardless of who is doing the killing. Personal preference. I myself clearly use paints with honey. If it doesn't apply to you, you can just breeze past it.
What firm of aquarelle you show on 46:47?
im sorry if its been asked already, i recently bought the full set in the wooden box of the tube paints, and about 4 of them were extremely liquid, just poured out of the tube like water even after i stopped and stirred it with a little stick. Is this normal for this line of watercolors? ive always used daniel smith and schmincke, and its the first time this happened to me, i dont remember the exact color names now, but there was a yellow, the emerald green, a red and a light blue i think it might have been one of the cadmiums.
Hmm, if you mixed the gum arabic into the pigment and it was still liquidy, some of them are just like that. It depends on the specific pigments formula. It should still dry down for you but will loose a lot of volume. You can always contact them and ask if it's troublesome! If it's atypical for those colors they may replace them.
thank you! ill wait a few days for them to dry a bit and test them out, if they give me any trouble ill contact jackson's.
Random question but do the Sennelier paints smell sweet? Because they have honey and all...
Not that I've noticed :)
They do have a slightly sweet smell to them from the tubes. That smell dissipates over time so that when they are in a painting, on a dot card, or in small quantities in a palette, they don't really have a smell.
Whybwas their two pv19 but their different?
ruclips.net/video/4-wvmLhU6VI/видео.html
Oh, Denise! You clearly were not having a good time with this brand! Sennelier Is a strange one! LOL
I somewhat kinda find this satisfying..
For your allergies...see tony pantallaresco at herbsplusbeadworks channel. Sorry about the chemtrails.