This video is from 3 years ago but still one of the best tips I've found on RUclips. I'm a beginner artist and never went to art school or anything. This video has motivated me to actually look at my paints (I've bought so many different brands, both professional and student grades) and study pigments, lightfastness, etc. Thank you so much for this video, Denise! Keep up the great work!!
I had no idea how time consuming it was to organize all my Daniel Smith and QoR watercolors. Along with watercolor swatching, I cross referenced my pencils, Faber Castel, Prismacolor, Derwent Coloursoft and Inktense pencils on the back of each 2.5 x 3.5 ATC (Strathmore 140# Artist Trading Cards and the baseball card binder sheet) by name, number . Now I am able to find the perfect family match at the flip of a page. THANK YOU for your wonderful organization, inspiration and all the tutorials you present.
I’ve been painting on and off for years and I also collect Pokémon cards - this binder trick for organizing swatches is EVERYTHING!!!! 🎉🎉🎉 I appreciate this collection of tips so much, thank you! ❤❤❤
I finally decided to swatch my paint on good watercolor paper, and I used your idea. I really like that glaze you added, so mine have that. I have too many paints! And I don’t really know how they look. I also bought a “book” for swatching, but when I bought more, they didn’t fit on the page! Plus, I don’t know what the paper is. This is so much better!
Not sure if you guys gives a damn but if you're bored like me atm then you can watch pretty much all of the latest series on InstaFlixxer. Have been binge watching with my brother for the last couple of months xD
Thanks Denise! I recently came back to transparent watercolors and have found your videos very helpful. I an now planning to make my own swatch cards. The ability to lay out colors side by side is what convinced me to take on this project. Thanks for the paper comparison, too! I get tempted to use and buy more inexpensive papers, but I get frustrated with results using them. It's not worth hoarding my Arches paper for "good" projects.
I totally agree with you on swatching on the paper you use! It cost a bit more but over time saves you money! I swatched everything on fabriano artistico hot press because that is what I use.
In Liquid Color what I also have recently been doing is punching 2 small holes in the swatch card to color match with my reference! It's been a big help to isolate the color and match it with paints I have. I've done this with mixing chart too.
Very involved, but so organized! I love it! I think I found your use of these swatch cards is what lead to me subscribing to your channel I appreciate your fastidiousness!
Would it be helpful to use a hole punch somewhere in the painted area so you could match colors more readily? I'm aware you could match from the ends, but isolating color is an easier way for me to match. I have an instructor who does this with skin tone swatch cards. It made me think this might be helpful to do with these cards as well.
I'm just starting out in watercolor. Someone is gonna gift me some Sennelier paints and you were the first one I saw reviewing it and I just loved your swatch cards. I kinda like organizing colors and now I started buying some pocket sleeves hahahaha
if you're using arches paper can't you put another color on the reverse side if you're trying to save a little money using the more expensive paper? I believe arches is the same on both sides correct? Thank you I very much enjoy your videos
I am lazy, so for my swatches I use blank 2.5 x 3.5 140# watercolor ACEO trading cards and cut them in half leaving me 2.5" x 1.75" inch cards. A pack of 50 (100) 140# cards is about $6-8 on eBay usually with free shipping. It's worth it for me because if I am faced with cutting up whole sheets of paper I just won't do it.
Oh no all my swatches are on Montval 90lbs paper lol XD But it would take so many sheets of good paper to do them all again... I love your swatches, that nice big area of color :)
Thanks Eve! Whatever works for you! :) It was so tempting for me to use my cheaper paper but with this particular technique using as much water as I'm used to with my Arches, it just doesn't work for me personally.
I'm glad it was helpful! I certainly do not want either of you to be sad about your current swatches though! I think solely for my purposes, the reason the difference is so big is that Arches is my go to paper and it absorbs SO much more water than the Montval does. I use Montval for my channel paintings often and always struggle with the spread. Perhaps if I had done my swatches on Montval, I'd know how to paint with it better ;)
Hehe :) My swatches work for what I use them, but they are indeed a poor representation of the paint on good paper. I mostly use them to keep track of pigments and paints I have... but I'll keep in mind that Arches makes for fancy swatches if I ever need a more accurate representation of the paint's behavior :)
I used my cheap student quality paper on my swatches, but I mainly use them for tracking which pigments I have :D mine are bit larger and have more information, like where I keep the paint, is it opaque, granulating or staining. That binder idea is great, mine are currently on pile organised by pigment.
I'm so thankful that Steve Mitchell introduced me to your channel. I first learned about pigments from esperoart who also has done extensive studies. I so appreciate all your work and really gleamed so much from your comparisons of different brands uses of the same pigments. I e strived to keep mostly single pigments on my one and only Jon pike palette. I inherited a Mijello pallet that was empty. I hope to fill it soon to compare to your updated one. Also want to develope a swatch card notebook of the paints I have and will purchase soon. What is your knowledge of watercolor dot cards and ways of getting them? I would love to explore more colors.
Eldritchbirdie fabriano artistico is a great paper however the hotpress 300lb is having issues right now and have been for over a year now. The factory was testing the paper and the issues but they had a fire and that has been put on hold for now. But all the other weights and textures are fabulous!!!
I'm using Fabriano Artistico , both cold press and hot press extra withe 300g , in blocks. it's what I find at best price at my local art stores here in Italy. Yes and they're cold press studio (25% Cotten) for urban sketching and study's. Have done my color swatches on the last paper, I might rethink that now. Love your swatches Lady In Liquid Color ;-)
Older video, but Oto just posted a Burnt Sienna comparison that also demonstrated how important the paper is to showing the hue. Makes me kinda wish she'd used better paper for the whole series!!
Amazon shipping is too expensive for me, but I found plastic coin holders on eBay so order those. My cards will be smaller, but I'll have something :D Thanks for the idea and for this video!
I've been meaning to do this but I have to set aside some Arches paper. I have some swatches in a Canson mixed media book but the book is getting so warped and paints are starting to rub onto the pages and lose their color because it's so chunky now 🤣🤣🤣
I am surprised how all of you watercolor artists on yt seem to prefer Daniel Smith, Graham and everything else over my favourite brand, Schmincke Horadam. Thb I thought they are the very best watercolors to ever find. I have some studio quality Lukas and white nights and didnt really like them. After those I hopped back to Schmincke. Then again I guess there are different preferences depending on how or what you draw. For the bold and opaque colours I use they are perfect. Nevertheless I am more open minded now and plan on trying most of the colors you covered on your channel. I still prefer Schmincke (yet 😂), but I‘d love to get a good set of Daniel Smiths too, they look absolutely stunning! Sadly, they are even more expensive haha
Hey Cyan! I talk about the rankings of my favs in the top 10 favorite brands video. My top three are DS, MG, and Schmincke in that order, primarily because Schmincke is incredibly expensive here. Daniel Smith is reasonably affordable and MGraham is super affordable. I'd have no problem using Schmincke day and night if it was more accessible :)
I am trying to work in soft pastels and sennelier and schmincke are the softest and most pigmented. The same pigments used in the sticks are the same as in the watercolors. My chief problem with them has been price also I did not find them exceptional in use over even Grumbacher's pro line of watercolor paints. Denise has gotten me "hooked" on DaVinci Paint company these paints are just so wonderful! I know this is an older video but it is never to late to discover a new favorite experience!
Artist quality paint should list them on the tube. Sometimes you have to reference a brands online materials, and cheaper paints may not list them at all.
I just made swatches! Can you tell me how you sort them? By pigment or by what the colour looks like? Because a yellow pigment can give a green colour, etc. I'm not sure in what order they make most sense. Thank you for the great video!
Do you put all of your paints in pans? I’m having a hard time deciding how to store my paints. Put them all in pans by maker? I’m so confused! I’ve made my swatch cards per your instructions, but now I don’t know how to proceed! Colgone take me away!! LOL
I have the flu at the moment, and instead of tossing & turning all night, I decided instead to get up at 2am and be productive and start cutting up some paper (that's all my brain can handle at the moment) in readiness to start swatching - thus the reason I came back here for inspiration ;) Denise, I noticed @2:31 you mentioned your Kuretakes (what did you mean 'not-quite watercolors', and is it still on your to-do list?), and also you mentioned @2:40, your handmade watercolors. Will you get to tell us about those one day?
Debi Taylor I hope you feel better! Kuratakes are gansai paint which is similar but not the same as watercolor. Sade over on Sadie Saves the Day has an awesome video explaining. I have a review of the Pfeiffer handmade watercolor from when I first got them. I was asked not to review Redwood Willow a while back so unless she changes her mind I won't do one for those unfortunately.
The part that confuses me is including the width of the tape used to tape all the squares off. The width of the tape eats into the dimensions used to divide everything up?? And I don’t want to have to wait on swatches to dry before peeling tape off and re-taping areas.
This video is from 3 years ago but still one of the best tips I've found on RUclips. I'm a beginner artist and never went to art school or anything. This video has motivated me to actually look at my paints (I've bought so many different brands, both professional and student grades) and study pigments, lightfastness, etc. Thank you so much for this video, Denise! Keep up the great work!!
I had no idea how time consuming it was to organize all my Daniel Smith and QoR watercolors. Along with watercolor swatching, I cross referenced my pencils, Faber Castel, Prismacolor, Derwent Coloursoft and Inktense pencils on the back of each 2.5 x 3.5 ATC (Strathmore 140# Artist Trading Cards and the baseball card binder sheet) by name, number . Now I am able to find the perfect family match at the flip of a page. THANK YOU for your wonderful organization, inspiration and all the tutorials you present.
Yay!! I'm so glad it has been helpful. It is a lot of set up, but worth in my opinion!
I’ve been painting on and off for years and I also collect Pokémon cards - this binder trick for organizing swatches is EVERYTHING!!!! 🎉🎉🎉 I appreciate this collection of tips so much, thank you! ❤❤❤
I finally decided to swatch my paint on good watercolor paper, and I used your idea. I really like that glaze you added, so mine have that. I have too many paints! And I don’t really know how they look. I also bought a “book” for swatching, but when I bought more, they didn’t fit on the page! Plus, I don’t know what the paper is. This is so much better!
I love these swatch cards. I didn't realize how differently they would swatch out on different paper. Thanks a million for this video!
Glad it's helpful!
Not sure if you guys gives a damn but if you're bored like me atm then you can watch pretty much all of the latest series on InstaFlixxer. Have been binge watching with my brother for the last couple of months xD
@Edwin Jordy Yup, been watching on instaflixxer for since november myself =)
Thank you for another great video. I started swatching my newly organized quiller palette today. What fun, really.
Thank you for demonstrating the swatches on different paper, wow what a difference it makes too!
Thanks Denise! I recently came back to transparent watercolors and have found your videos very helpful. I an now planning to make my own swatch cards. The ability to lay out colors side by side is what convinced me to take on this project. Thanks for the paper comparison, too! I get tempted to use and buy more inexpensive papers, but I get frustrated with results using them. It's not worth hoarding my Arches paper for "good" projects.
Thank you! So far your method of making watercolor swatches is my favorite 👍 and appreciate you taking the time to make this video!
Ooh! Let's play Pigment Poker! It'll be fun!
Hahah!
Is it strip poker? That would at least make it more fun. LOL
I totally agree with you on swatching on the paper you use! It cost a bit more but over time saves you money! I swatched everything on fabriano artistico hot press because that is what I use.
Perfect! Thanks Erin :)
In Liquid Color what I also have recently been doing is punching 2 small holes in the swatch card to color match with my reference! It's been a big help to isolate the color and match it with paints I have. I've done this with mixing chart too.
Erin S. that's a great idea!
So pretty! I might have to do this with mine.
Very involved, but so organized! I love it! I think I found your use of these swatch cards is what lead to me subscribing to your channel I appreciate your fastidiousness!
Would it be helpful to use a hole punch somewhere in the painted area so you could match colors more readily? I'm aware you could match from the ends, but isolating color is an easier way for me to match. I have an instructor who does this with skin tone swatch cards. It made me think this might be helpful to do with these cards as well.
Oh wow! That IS a huge difference! This is a good reminder that I should really start using that Arches paper I bought...
My cold pressed Arches is definitely my favorite :)
Thank you for this great tip. I've been swatching on not so good paper. But that has just changed. Thanks again.
I'm glad it's helpful!
I'm just starting out in watercolor. Someone is gonna gift me some Sennelier paints and you were the first one I saw reviewing it and I just loved your swatch cards. I kinda like organizing colors and now I started buying some pocket sleeves hahahaha
if you're using arches paper can't you put another color on the reverse side if you're trying to save a little money using the more expensive paper? I believe arches is the same on both sides correct? Thank you I very much enjoy your videos
I find that Arches is mostly the same front and back. It's a bit different but shouldn't matter much for swatches.
Great idea and nice tutorial. Thanks!
I am lazy, so for my swatches I use blank 2.5 x 3.5 140# watercolor ACEO trading cards and cut them in half leaving me 2.5" x 1.75" inch cards. A pack of 50 (100) 140# cards is about $6-8 on eBay usually with free shipping. It's worth it for me because if I am faced with cutting up whole sheets of paper I just won't do it.
That's not lazy, that's smart! I never thought about using the trading cards, but they would be the perfect size for this binder.
this is a great idea ~ and I am just starting my swatching so I certainly purchase these!!
I don't even do swatches - like to save them and stuff, but I think it's really important in building your palette.
Oh no all my swatches are on Montval 90lbs paper lol XD But it would take so many sheets of good paper to do them all again...
I love your swatches, that nice big area of color :)
Thanks Eve! Whatever works for you! :) It was so tempting for me to use my cheaper paper but with this particular technique using as much water as I'm used to with my Arches, it just doesn't work for me personally.
I'm glad it was helpful! I certainly do not want either of you to be sad about your current swatches though! I think solely for my purposes, the reason the difference is so big is that Arches is my go to paper and it absorbs SO much more water than the Montval does. I use Montval for my channel paintings often and always struggle with the spread. Perhaps if I had done my swatches on Montval, I'd know how to paint with it better ;)
Hehe :) My swatches work for what I use them, but they are indeed a poor representation of the paint on good paper. I mostly use them to keep track of pigments and paints I have... but I'll keep in mind that Arches makes for fancy swatches if I ever need a more accurate representation of the paint's behavior :)
Hello! I love this video too ❤ I would like to know which Cold Pressed Arches you use Satinèe ou fine grain? Thanks 😊
Is it weird that this makes me swoon?... the order, the color, the info... all so yummy! I need this in my life.
Tina Kurcz not at all!! 💜
I used my cheap student quality paper on my swatches, but I mainly use them for tracking which pigments I have :D mine are bit larger and have more information, like where I keep the paint, is it opaque, granulating or staining. That binder idea is great, mine are currently on pile organised by pigment.
My pile was outta control hahaha!
Just did this with all of my colors on 2x3 . Thanks for sharing this . When I flip the pages, cards pop up on the top rows.
You are SO organized! Thanks for sharing.
Only in my swatch binder ;)
I'm so thankful that Steve Mitchell introduced me to your channel. I first learned about pigments from esperoart who also has done extensive studies. I so appreciate all your work and really gleamed so much from your comparisons of different brands uses of the same pigments. I e strived to keep mostly single pigments on my one and only Jon pike palette. I inherited a Mijello pallet that was empty. I hope to fill it soon to compare to your updated one. Also want to develope a swatch card notebook of the paints I have and will purchase soon. What is your knowledge of watercolor dot cards and ways of getting them? I would love to explore more colors.
This was very helpful, thanks for sharing
I wish I could afford the Arches paper. That is a significant difference. Have you had good results with any of the Fabriano line?
Eldritchbirdie I've heard fabriano artistico is a very good paper. It's comparable to Arches but it has less sizing in it, so the results may vary.
Eldritchbirdie fabriano artistico is a great paper however the hotpress 300lb is having issues right now and have been for over a year now. The factory was testing the paper and the issues but they had a fire and that has been put on hold for now. But all the other weights and textures are fabulous!!!
I haven't gotten to use Fabriano yet but I hear from one of my viewers that I have some coming my way!
I'm using Fabriano Artistico , both cold press and hot press extra withe 300g , in blocks. it's what I find at best price at my local art stores here in Italy. Yes and they're cold press studio (25% Cotten) for urban sketching and study's. Have done my color swatches on the last paper, I might rethink that now. Love your swatches Lady In Liquid Color ;-)
Thank you Li Art! :) I'm excited to try out the Fabriano once it arrives :)
Older video, but Oto just posted a Burnt Sienna comparison that also demonstrated how important the paper is to showing the hue. Makes me kinda wish she'd used better paper for the whole series!!
I understand why they're using the cheaper paper, but it is nice to see paints on a good quality paper!
Amazon shipping is too expensive for me, but I found plastic coin holders on eBay so order those. My cards will be smaller, but I'll have something :D
Thanks for the idea and for this video!
I'm glad it's helpful! Have fun setting them up.
You answered my question- thank you!
I've been meaning to do this but I have to set aside some Arches paper. I have some swatches in a Canson mixed media book but the book is getting so warped and paints are starting to rub onto the pages and lose their color because it's so chunky now 🤣🤣🤣
Oh another thing......do you do color charts for your pans?? I’m thinking you should so you know what the colors are.
I am surprised how all of you watercolor artists on yt seem to prefer Daniel Smith, Graham and everything else over my favourite brand, Schmincke Horadam.
Thb I thought they are the very best watercolors to ever find.
I have some studio quality Lukas and white nights and didnt really like them. After those I hopped back to Schmincke.
Then again I guess there are different preferences depending on how or what you draw. For the bold and opaque colours I use they are perfect.
Nevertheless I am more open minded now and plan on trying most of the colors you covered on your channel.
I still prefer Schmincke (yet 😂), but I‘d love to get a good set of Daniel Smiths too, they look absolutely stunning!
Sadly, they are even more expensive haha
Hey Cyan! I talk about the rankings of my favs in the top 10 favorite brands video. My top three are DS, MG, and Schmincke in that order, primarily because Schmincke is incredibly expensive here. Daniel Smith is reasonably affordable and MGraham is super affordable. I'd have no problem using Schmincke day and night if it was more accessible :)
I am trying to work in soft pastels and sennelier and schmincke are the softest and most pigmented. The same pigments used in the sticks are the same as in the watercolors. My chief problem with them has been price also I did not find them exceptional in use over even Grumbacher's pro line of watercolor paints. Denise has gotten me "hooked" on DaVinci Paint company these paints are just so wonderful! I know this is an older video but it is never to late to discover a new favorite experience!
Thanks for showing us how you do swatches. I really enjoyed that. Where do you get the numbers at the bottom?
Artist quality paint should list them on the tube. Sometimes you have to reference a brands online materials, and cheaper paints may not list them at all.
Excellent! So glad to know! I will start looking for the color info on my paint!
I'd like to ask where you purchase the clear swatch holders from please?
Linda P link in the description
In Liquid 🌟Color
I just made swatches! Can you tell me how you sort them? By pigment or by what the colour looks like? Because a yellow pigment can give a green colour, etc. I'm not sure in what order they make most sense. Thank you for the great video!
(i'm mostly confused about colours like azo green. There doesn't seem to be a proper place to put that one haha)
8:00 Lol I thought you were gonna write "cricket" on the swatch card
Very helpful, thanks!
Thanks for this!
Wouldnt 2 x 3 cards make up a 6 x 9 sheet of paper?
Do you put all of your paints in pans? I’m having a hard time deciding how to store my paints. Put them all in pans by maker? I’m so confused! I’ve made my swatch cards per your instructions, but now I don’t know how to proceed! Colgone take me away!! LOL
lol. was just wondering what size cards were.
Great video!
Thank you, very helpful!
I have the flu at the moment, and instead of tossing & turning all night, I decided instead to get up at 2am and be productive and start cutting up some paper (that's all my brain can handle at the moment) in readiness to start swatching - thus the reason I came back here for inspiration ;) Denise, I noticed @2:31 you mentioned your Kuretakes (what did you mean 'not-quite watercolors', and is it still on your to-do list?), and also you mentioned @2:40, your handmade watercolors. Will you get to tell us about those one day?
Debi Taylor I hope you feel better! Kuratakes are gansai paint which is similar but not the same as watercolor. Sade over on Sadie Saves the Day has an awesome video explaining. I have a review of the Pfeiffer handmade watercolor from when I first got them. I was asked not to review Redwood Willow a while back so unless she changes her mind I won't do one for those unfortunately.
The part that confuses me is including the width of the tape used to tape all the squares off. The width of the tape eats into the dimensions used to divide everything up?? And I don’t want to have to wait on swatches to dry before peeling tape off and re-taping areas.