Purple Mountain Majesty

Holy Shnikes!! I finally broke down and bought "artist grade" watercolor paints. . .and what a difference they make.  I had been unable to create the type of washes I have seen in other paintings since my cotman paints always seemed to dry up too fast (they are not pure pigment and have too many binders).  These new paints were amazing.

Sunday I went outside and did a quick painting based on a photo references and I was really impressed with the results.  Sorry cotman, I think you have just been retired.

                                           Watercolor on 140lbs paper 9x12

After much research (hey, it is what I do), I decided to buy Daniel Smith paints (M Graham was my second choice).  I also bought another travel kit for the new paints.  It is called the Pocket Palette and it is about the same size as a business card holder. 

Here are the colors once they dried in the pans (pretty cool looking).  The Pocket Palette holds 14 colors but I bought 15 (8 came in a set).  It is a good set of warms and cools, plus a few mixes like sap green and moonglow because. . .well. . .because I like them.