Kremer's all about hand made paints. I've gotten a ton of their pigment colors to slowly work through over time as I run out of other brand tube paints (Holbein, M Graham etc). I've got all but the gold in your collection and they're really nice colors once you 'get to know them' well enough. I've spoken with them before (The US branch in NYC) and they're such nice people. Helped me figure out colors to start out with and then colors to get from there. I would definitely recommend you get more of their colors if you can. Fun side-tangent: I pic out one or two expensive colors per order. Time before last I got Lapis Lazuli, and then my most recent order I got Dioxazine Purple. So expensive getting it in raw powder form but I love the texture and richness of the color.
@@BeckyTregear Yeah, I really wish they were more widely available. It's an under appreciated brand from my perspective. Hopefully in the future you can find some more if you go abroad again :)
The mixing white is actually very useful if you want paper hues rather than dilute pigment. Very helpful in botanical subjects and portraits. It is such a transparent white that it does not swamp the coloured pigments. I love this set, and have even built replica palettes with other brands as Kremer paints have their own unique characteristics. Kremer is quite a big company where pigment is concerned, in a way the paints are secondary to that. I have several other Kremer palettes, all are interesting, and I like their individual colours too. Actually I have another palette on my wish list! Even with your paper issues 8 enjoyed you paintouts a lot and think they look full of character. I love the way the paints dry on the surface and are not over mulled so the pigment is not bland. Even a small colour chart of this box give a surprising variety of colours. Hope you have a lot more fun with this box. I loved the gold so much that I ordered two full pans more, they were good value but the postage was crazy expensive. If you know anyone in London who might be passing your way you could get a pan of Kremer titanium white instead, or you could pick your favourite white instead. I would add another colour though!
Great colours for granulating except for that white. I wish they could make more opaque whites. The gold is beautiful and I love your painted birds. Have a great weekend Becky.
Ahhh, the vulture. My favorite bird. they have such interesting personalities. Both paintings turned out nice. Too bad about the sizing on the one. ( this reminds me to use what I have) tfs!
They definitely have a vital role in the ecosystem! We don't have vultures in Australia, so I am not super familiar with them but I do find them fascinating when seeing nature documentaries etc! It's so frustrating when sizing breaks down; I need to get through some other books too before this happens again, lol.
Your birds turned out really well. Love your vulture! 😀🐦 Such a shame about the expensive Etchr book paper. I'd better check mine! I have a slightly used A5 and A6, and a Perfect sketchbook, which is still pristine and untouched in its plastic wrapper since 2020 or thereabouts (afraid of ruining it, lol). I believe its paper is Fabriano Artistico, so I think that should still be ok. I also bought a couple of their concertina-style sketchbooks but the smell of them was absolutely awful. Not sure if it's because of the paper or the lovely brown vinyl covers. Haven't used those yet either. A newer sketchbook that I'm enjoying is the Hahnemühle 100% cotton hardback. The only thing with that one is that it doesn't seem to cope with taping the edges very well. As always, thanks for your wonderful video.😊
I imagine the Perfect sketchbooks will be a lot better because I haven't had any issues with my stash of Fabriano Artistico paper. I'm going to try a Hahnemuhle sketchbook next, so I'll keep the tape issue in mind. 😊
Oh wow, those watercolors looked quite nice to work with! Pretty neat to have a gold that can be activated more quickly. Oh no, I'm getting more and more worried about all my Etchr sketchbooks and all my other watercolor paper that is starting to get really old. Yikes! I need to paint even more than I already do, lol!
It's possible the Etchr books have improved, as I bought the original ones from their Kickstarter and maybe they've gotten better since then? It's a hope anyway! I think some watercolour paper lasts a lot longer than others. But yes, I worry about my collection too. Not enough time in the day to paint on it all!
I've been tempted to get the greyscale set to help me learn how to use values better in paintings and I've gone back and forth *so* many times 😄 Sad to see the sizing going on your sketchbook, any chance you can buy some sizing medium and apply that to get a final bit of use out of it? I bought some Holbein watercolour sizing liquid myself to try and "bump up" the quality of cellulose paper and it has improved it a tiny bit
Enjoy video found it interesting and informative, gold is a hot color in canada and usa watercolor art work for artists that use pen and marker, abstract designs get a bit more bling, and i think people like that bit of bling in their creative art pieces.. the one artist that uses the gold is cee creations shes canadian artist i believe.. 💛🇨🇦🇺🇲🎨👩🎨💛
Lovely - I have been pining after Kremer for a while, especially their grey palette... one day - btw, Gubbio is a town in my Country (Italy) and it's pronounced "goo-bee-ow" - I feel your pain with the Etchr sketchbook, mine "went" within a couple of months, I figured it was a bad batch, but watching you struggle makes me wonder. Hugs!
Oh dear....my pronunciation was totally off! 🤯 The grey palette would be a very interesting one to have. The Etchr books have sadly not held up well...I think the Perfect Sketchbook version would be a lot better. The price though! 😵
they are VERY heavy- I like them a lot, but they are really heavy intense pigments in an unusual binder- they function like watercolors, but definitely behave quite differently in washes and mixes. I'm on the fence- I want to finish my collection with them, but I really struggle with them sometimes even though I love the hearty, intense earthiness of them.
I would agree. I have a number of the Kremer watercolors in pans. They are VERY different than anything else I have ever used. I would not replenish them if I ever use up all of the pans, except for their metallics. Their metallics are stunning and some of the best I have ever seen or used. I also find that the regular paint pans have a distinct and lasting "odor" but no odor from the metallics. An odd duck of paints for sure. But love, love, love their metallics.
So silly question but what makes a paper loose it's sizing? I have to admit I've never heard of this before and wouldn't have thought it would have happened on the Etchr as they are so damn expensive! I loved both paintings and them paints were lovely! Granulating paints are so fun! :D
sizing is basically a super thin layer of glue, and like glue disintegrates over time in book binding (crackling, yellowing, pages falling out, etc.), the ultra ultra thin layer in watercolor paper - especially if it's super watered down- can just microscopically crack and wear off a surface, especially if the formulation is not quite right, or it never really bonded with the fibers of the paper to begin with. Hope this is helpful!
@@martinanelsonartandpsychol6478 You only notice when you start painting. the paint absorbs too deep into the paper and the page gets over saturated. the paint bleeds everywhere even if there isn't water already applied on the surface.. The colours dry muted. You get speckling/dark spots on the paper when wet. so washes become impossible. it takes ages to dry. Its a real bastard of a thing when paper expires. I just had an entire a3 100% cotton watercolour pad expire on me.
The sizing goes? 😳 Ack! So all the sizing may have gone on my hoarded watercolour paper? What about all that old watercolour paper you have hoarded as well?
Not all sizing goes at the same time; some papers last much longer than others. The worst I've seen is in my Etchr books, and also Saunders Bockingford paper, but not yet with their Waterford paper. So yes, paper needs to be used but don't panic that they'll all die together, lol. It is worth trying to use it up though. I say as I look at the giant pile of paper and books in my hoard....😬
Hi Becky I have a random Sunday question that's unrelated to this paint brand. Do you have in your paint collection Schmincke's raw umber? I've been reading a great book by Hazel Soan called "Art of the limited palette" and I'd quite like to try one of the mixes she uses that has raw umber in it but I only have Daniel Smith paints and it looks like Schmincke's raw umber, which she's using, is much more yellow looking. I know you have the Daniel Smith dot cards and I'm hoping that if you have Schmincke's raw umber you could see if there is a similar color with a different name in Daniel Smith's lineup. Trying to judge the difference using online art store samples is not working for me and neither is going by the pigment number.
I just had a look now and I only have burnt umber by Schmincke, not the raw version so alas I can't answer your question as I am unsure what it looks like too. I'd like to get my hands on the Schmincke dot cards for swatching out all the colours along with the DS ones I have. I'll see if I can find them somewhere; not so easy to get here for some reason.
@@BeckyTregear Thank you for looking. It was worth a crack. You have access to brands I've never seen over here, including the brand in this video. Even across brands we don't seem to get everything they make. Like we might have watercolor from a specific brand but no access to their gouche. I think I'll try what ms rocketscience said above and make my own custom color mix. Cheers
I got mine during their kickstarter so it was the first ever batch. That was maybe 2018, 2019? It has taken me that long to finish them as I used the books mainly for filming videos. I've picked something else for my next book. 😊
@@BeckyTregear so the sketchbook isn’t a recent one, thank goodness! I have some cotton watercolor sketchbooks that I acquired in 2021/2022 and 2023, so hopefully I don’t have to panic I about the sizing going bad quickly. Thanks for the reply. 😊
Back here, have you thought of contacting Etchr About the issues you’re having with the book being Australian myself. I know how expensive they are for us to get. And they should go for at least a couple of years. I would thought before you started getting issues this severe. And it’s not like you’ve had it sitting in the sun and air rating, you would’ve stored properly. I think it’s worth writing to them.
Yeah I'll probably send them an email soon with some feedback. I did look at getting some Perfect sketchbooks, but the price was too prohibitively expensive!
@@BeckyTregear I agree those ones are quite expensive every now and then they go on special on Jacksons and they’re not too bad, but I prefer the white ones to be honest.
Ive seen alot of american and Canadian ytube watercolorist use the gold color especially if they use pen and markers on their art creations..and alot of colorist use the gold in their coloring books, i think its the bling look that we like..
A lot of people who do Book Illumination, book-related art, and restoration specifically use Kremer- a bulk of their pre-made colors are sold to people who do that work and they use quite a bit of gold, especially in restoration and illumination and book arts.
@@gingerblue Book arts! I must confess, I never thought of that. But if artists are restoring books, shouldn’t they use pigments and binders that were in use at the time the books were published?
I hit the line button about ten times but it wouldn't accept it. If you don't have a many likes on this video maybe it happened to others as well. Might want to contact RUclipss ace team of bots to let them know they have failed to do their job properly. Finally... another ten to twenty times and it finally light up.
YT does inexplicable things sometimes and usually glitches get fixed eventually but there's always something else that needs sorting out. That's technology in a nutshell really! Thanks for trying, I appreciate the likes very much. 😊
I find it hard to navigate their site, but on the other hand they have so much information and so many products on it. 😊
Kremer's all about hand made paints. I've gotten a ton of their pigment colors to slowly work through over time as I run out of other brand tube paints (Holbein, M Graham etc). I've got all but the gold in your collection and they're really nice colors once you 'get to know them' well enough. I've spoken with them before (The US branch in NYC) and they're such nice people. Helped me figure out colors to start out with and then colors to get from there. I would definitely recommend you get more of their colors if you can. Fun side-tangent: I pic out one or two expensive colors per order. Time before last I got Lapis Lazuli, and then my most recent order I got Dioxazine Purple. So expensive getting it in raw powder form but I love the texture and richness of the color.
They're pretty difficult to find from Australia but maybe I'll see more if I get to travel again! I do love a good Lapis Lazuli. 💙
@@BeckyTregear Yeah, I really wish they were more widely available. It's an under appreciated brand from my perspective. Hopefully in the future you can find some more if you go abroad again :)
The mixing white is actually very useful if you want paper hues rather than dilute pigment. Very helpful in botanical subjects and portraits. It is such a transparent white that it does not swamp the coloured pigments. I love this set, and have even built replica palettes with other brands as Kremer paints have their own unique characteristics. Kremer is quite a big company where pigment is concerned, in a way the paints are secondary to that. I have several other Kremer palettes, all are interesting, and I like their individual colours too. Actually I have another palette on my wish list!
Even with your paper issues 8 enjoyed you paintouts a lot and think they look full of character. I love the way the paints dry on the surface and are not over mulled so the pigment is not bland. Even a small colour chart of this box give a surprising variety of colours. Hope you have a lot more fun with this box. I loved the gold so much that I ordered two full pans more, they were good value but the postage was crazy expensive. If you know anyone in London who might be passing your way you could get a pan of Kremer titanium white instead, or you could pick your favourite white instead. I would add another colour though!
If I'm ever in Europe again, I'll be looking for more Kremer paints. As you say, international postage is always so expensive!
You win some and lose some, love your honesty Becky ❤
Pretty much this, haha! 😂
Great colours for granulating except for that white. I wish they could make more opaque whites. The gold is beautiful and I love your painted birds. Have a great weekend Becky.
Thank you! Titanium white would be my choice. Weekend was good, as I hope yours is!
Seems you met the challenge of the paper and unusual palette colors :)
Mostly! 😂
Hi Becky, the paints are pretty..especially the gold! I know of some people who purchased pigments from kremer for making their own watercolor paints.
They certainly seem like excellent quality pigments!
Love the red and yellow really popping in the painting!
Thank you!
I am enjoying just using what Spotlight has in stock. I always buy multiple sketchbooks at a time to have a few of them.
They have really expanded their art section lately!
That granulation is … Wow! 😮 Amazing!
I thought so too! ❤️
I did't know about these paints, and I went to Germany back in June-July. I definitely will have to look for them next time I'm in Europe
Ahhh, the vulture. My favorite bird. they have such interesting personalities.
Both paintings turned out nice. Too bad about the sizing on the one. ( this reminds me to use what I have)
tfs!
They definitely have a vital role in the ecosystem! We don't have vultures in Australia, so I am not super familiar with them but I do find them fascinating when seeing nature documentaries etc! It's so frustrating when sizing breaks down; I need to get through some other books too before this happens again, lol.
Your birds turned out really well. Love your vulture! 😀🐦 Such a shame about the expensive Etchr book paper. I'd better check mine! I have a slightly used A5 and A6, and a Perfect sketchbook, which is still pristine and untouched in its plastic wrapper since 2020 or thereabouts (afraid of ruining it, lol). I believe its paper is Fabriano Artistico, so I think that should still be ok. I also bought a couple of their concertina-style sketchbooks but the smell of them was absolutely awful. Not sure if it's because of the paper or the lovely brown vinyl covers. Haven't used those yet either. A newer sketchbook that I'm enjoying is the Hahnemühle 100% cotton hardback. The only thing with that one is that it doesn't seem to cope with taping the edges very well. As always, thanks for your wonderful video.😊
I imagine the Perfect sketchbooks will be a lot better because I haven't had any issues with my stash of Fabriano Artistico paper. I'm going to try a Hahnemuhle sketchbook next, so I'll keep the tape issue in mind. 😊
Oh wow, those watercolors looked quite nice to work with! Pretty neat to have a gold that can be activated more quickly. Oh no, I'm getting more and more worried about all my Etchr sketchbooks and all my other watercolor paper that is starting to get really old. Yikes! I need to paint even more than I already do, lol!
It's possible the Etchr books have improved, as I bought the original ones from their Kickstarter and maybe they've gotten better since then? It's a hope anyway! I think some watercolour paper lasts a lot longer than others. But yes, I worry about my collection too. Not enough time in the day to paint on it all!
I've been tempted to get the greyscale set to help me learn how to use values better in paintings and I've gone back and forth *so* many times 😄 Sad to see the sizing going on your sketchbook, any chance you can buy some sizing medium and apply that to get a final bit of use out of it? I bought some Holbein watercolour sizing liquid myself to try and "bump up" the quality of cellulose paper and it has improved it a tiny bit
I might try painting on some watercolour ground but I'll probably just use gouache or something opaque. That grey set would be awesome!
Enjoy video found it interesting and informative, gold is a hot color in canada and usa watercolor art work for artists that use pen and marker, abstract designs get a bit more bling, and i think people like that bit of bling in their creative art pieces.. the one artist that uses the gold is cee creations shes canadian artist i believe.. 💛🇨🇦🇺🇲🎨👩🎨💛
I love gold too so I was happy for it to be in there, especially as it's such a great one! It's fun to add in shiny accents to paintings.
If the sketchbook isn’t working with watercolours you can use pastels or coloured pencils in it instead so you can fill those last two pages 😉
I might try gouache or other opaque paint so it should hide the paper underneath. Working on finishing it soon! 😊
@@BeckyTregear Yes! Gouache is a great idea!
Lovely - I have been pining after Kremer for a while, especially their grey palette... one day - btw, Gubbio is a town in my Country (Italy) and it's pronounced "goo-bee-ow" - I feel your pain with the Etchr sketchbook, mine "went" within a couple of months, I figured it was a bad batch, but watching you struggle makes me wonder. Hugs!
Oh dear....my pronunciation was totally off! 🤯 The grey palette would be a very interesting one to have. The Etchr books have sadly not held up well...I think the Perfect Sketchbook version would be a lot better. The price though! 😵
@@BeckyTregear I won't be trying that - once bitten... sticking with Arches! xo
Oooh! Kremer! Interesting but I must confess, they are not on my wish list
they are VERY heavy- I like them a lot, but they are really heavy intense pigments in an unusual binder- they function like watercolors, but definitely behave quite differently in washes and mixes. I'm on the fence- I want to finish my collection with them, but I really struggle with them sometimes even though I love the hearty, intense earthiness of them.
I would agree. I have a number of the Kremer watercolors in pans. They are VERY different than anything else I have ever used. I would not replenish them if I ever use up all of the pans, except for their metallics. Their metallics are stunning and some of the best I have ever seen or used. I also find that the regular paint pans have a distinct and lasting "odor" but no odor from the metallics. An odd duck of paints for sure. But love, love, love their metallics.
@@gingerblue Thanks so much for sharing your experience 😊
@@cj_kirby Ok, so it’s clear: you love their metallics 😂. It’s interesting that you and ginger say that Kremer paints are different to other paints.
So silly question but what makes a paper loose it's sizing? I have to admit I've never heard of this before and wouldn't have thought it would have happened on the Etchr as they are so damn expensive! I loved both paintings and them paints were lovely! Granulating paints are so fun! :D
sizing is basically a super thin layer of glue, and like glue disintegrates over time in book binding (crackling, yellowing, pages falling out, etc.), the ultra ultra thin layer in watercolor paper - especially if it's super watered down- can just microscopically crack and wear off a surface, especially if the formulation is not quite right, or it never really bonded with the fibers of the paper to begin with. Hope this is helpful!
@@gingerblue Thank you! :)
@@gingerblue You beat me to it, haha! I've seen sizing break down on Bockingford paper as well. It's heartbreaking when that happens!
@@BeckyTregearhow do you know? Can you see it with the eye? Or do you only notice, when you have already started?
@@martinanelsonartandpsychol6478 You only notice when you start painting. the paint absorbs too deep into the paper and the page gets over saturated. the paint bleeds everywhere even if there isn't water already applied on the surface.. The colours dry muted. You get speckling/dark spots on the paper when wet. so washes become impossible. it takes ages to dry. Its a real bastard of a thing when paper expires. I just had an entire a3 100% cotton watercolour pad expire on me.
The sizing goes? 😳 Ack! So all the sizing may have gone on my hoarded watercolour paper? What about all that old watercolour paper you have hoarded as well?
Not all sizing goes at the same time; some papers last much longer than others. The worst I've seen is in my Etchr books, and also Saunders Bockingford paper, but not yet with their Waterford paper. So yes, paper needs to be used but don't panic that they'll all die together, lol. It is worth trying to use it up though. I say as I look at the giant pile of paper and books in my hoard....😬
@@BeckyTregear Best we start making our own sketchbooks with our hoards then!!
Hi Becky I have a random Sunday question that's unrelated to this paint brand. Do you have in your paint collection Schmincke's raw umber? I've been reading a great book by Hazel Soan called "Art of the limited palette" and I'd quite like to try one of the mixes she uses that has raw umber in it but I only have Daniel Smith paints and it looks like Schmincke's raw umber, which she's using, is much more yellow looking. I know you have the Daniel Smith dot cards and I'm hoping that if you have Schmincke's raw umber you could see if there is a similar color with a different name in Daniel Smith's lineup. Trying to judge the difference using online art store samples is not working for me and neither is going by the pigment number.
Daniel Smith’s raw umber is PBr7 and Schminke’s raw umber is PBr7 and PY43. So, mix some yellow ochre with the raw umber. Hope that helps!
I just had a look now and I only have burnt umber by Schmincke, not the raw version so alas I can't answer your question as I am unsure what it looks like too. I'd like to get my hands on the Schmincke dot cards for swatching out all the colours along with the DS ones I have. I'll see if I can find them somewhere; not so easy to get here for some reason.
@@BeckyTregear Thank you for looking. It was worth a crack. You have access to brands I've never seen over here, including the brand in this video. Even across brands we don't seem to get everything they make. Like we might have watercolor from a specific brand but no access to their gouche. I think I'll try what ms rocketscience said above and make my own custom color mix. Cheers
@@ms.rocketscience4924 Thank you I'll give it a try.
Hello Becky! I enjoyed both paintings. Out of curiosity, how long have you had the Etchr sketchbook for?
I got mine during their kickstarter so it was the first ever batch. That was maybe 2018, 2019? It has taken me that long to finish them as I used the books mainly for filming videos. I've picked something else for my next book. 😊
@@BeckyTregear so the sketchbook isn’t a recent one, thank goodness! I have some cotton watercolor sketchbooks that I acquired in 2021/2022 and 2023, so hopefully I don’t have to panic I about the sizing going bad quickly. Thanks for the reply. 😊
All the paintings were fabulous (*-*)
Thank you! I wish the sketchbook paper had stayed fabulous instead of failing on me! 😭
Back here, have you thought of contacting Etchr About the issues you’re having with the book being Australian myself. I know how expensive they are for us to get. And they should go for at least a couple of years. I would thought before you started getting issues this severe. And it’s not like you’ve had it sitting in the sun and air rating, you would’ve stored properly. I think it’s worth writing to them.
Yeah I'll probably send them an email soon with some feedback. I did look at getting some Perfect sketchbooks, but the price was too prohibitively expensive!
@@BeckyTregear I agree those ones are quite expensive every now and then they go on special on Jacksons and they’re not too bad, but I prefer the white ones to be honest.
I could never understand why Kremer adds a gold to it’s sets.
Ive seen alot of american and Canadian ytube watercolorist use the gold color especially if they use pen and markers on their art creations..and alot of colorist use the gold in their coloring books, i think its the bling look that we like..
A lot of people who do Book Illumination, book-related art, and restoration specifically use Kremer- a bulk of their pre-made colors are sold to people who do that work and they use quite a bit of gold, especially in restoration and illumination and book arts.
@@nattyw495 Thanks for the information 😊👍🏼
@@gingerblue Book arts! I must confess, I never thought of that. But if artists are restoring books, shouldn’t they use pigments and binders that were in use at the time the books were published?
I hit the line button about ten times but it wouldn't accept it. If you don't have a many likes on this video maybe it happened to others as well. Might want to contact RUclipss ace team of bots to let them know they have failed to do their job properly.
Finally... another ten to twenty times and it finally light up.
YT does inexplicable things sometimes and usually glitches get fixed eventually but there's always something else that needs sorting out. That's technology in a nutshell really! Thanks for trying, I appreciate the likes very much. 😊
First! Hi 👋🏼