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  • #994333

    Time to play a bit, as summer is the best season to do so. :)
    So let’s play the cheap watercolour set challenge.

    The rules of the game are:

    Paint a subject of your own choice with a cheap under 5 dollars, euros, pounds** watercolour set of your choice. No name sets will be preferable! :lol:

    You can use your favourite paper and brushes if you like and you can work on any size you want too BUT when you’ll post your finished work you are obliged to post a photo of the watercolour set you used, its price and the kind and size of paper you worked on.

    If you want you can tell here some things about the whole experience too.. ( if you want .. )

    The challenge has no time limit.

    So grub the cheap paints and lets see what we are able to make with them! :grouphug:

    **ETA Offers and discounts are excluded! :lol:

    #1256347

    Hm Hm.. I don’t see any reactions! :confused:

    Don’t you like games? :p

    Here is a sketch that I made right now.
    Made with my Lidl watercolour set, priced 3.99 euros ( I got 1 cent change!! :rolleyes: :eek:) on my Strathmore 400 A4 sketchbook.

    This box is a bit abused as some of the paints broke on the way and then I used the pans to mix other paints. I painted my sketch with the colours that were left in the box.

    Here is my sketch ..

    Well these colours are not that bad as I thought. Are a bit dull and chalky but they are heavily pigmented and is not needed that much effort to load the brush with them.

    They are also a bit opaque, but with plenty of water can be worked decently.
    And their black is really black. ( see above).

    I think I’ll start using them more often. :)

    Com’on.. bring your cheap watercolour set sketches and paintings!!

    #1256293
    maryinasia
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        fun idea! beautiful painting.

        #1256348

        fun idea! beautiful painting.

        If you like the idea get some cheap paints and join! :thumbsup:

        #1256301
        Cyntada
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            No reactions? I’m over here painting swatches from a Prang set! Stay tuned!!

            CK =)
            I take great comfort in knowing that my genuine typos will probably be blamed on some device's autocorrect. :angel:
            DIY art supplies, sketches, and more: cyntada.com / @cyntada
            #1256263

            No reactions? No cheap watercolour set.

            Doug


            We must leave our mark on this world

            #1256302
            Cyntada
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                Ok, here are the results of some very fast sketching with an 8-color Prang set. I’ve had this so long I have no idea how much I spent on it, but found it online for $3.88USD, so it counts, right?

                First, some swatches. I was thinking to paint out this set anyway, and now with this challenge decided to go ahead and do it. Here’s each color in the set, with adjacent samples of known pigments that seemed similar.


                Actual pigments in the Prang set are a complete unknown of course. The Alizarin Crimson that I painted to compare, is Grumbacher Academie student grade, all other comparison pigments are pro grade. Wish I had Perinone Orange (PO43) to compare to the Prang orange. PO73 is way too neon, but PO62 was too yellow. That’s about all the oranges I have, the rest are all too red or brown.

                Now, to put these fine pigments to use! I painted the swatches on Strathmore Windpower 140lb Cold Press. Not a paper I normally use, I keep it for painting swatches and color wheels and such. It’s not bad paper, but slicker than I normally prefer. Here’s a Gouldian Finch from the reference library, painted very fast without a sketch:

                The Prang paint is surprisingly nice to work with. I did little mixing, but liked how the paint flowed and mingled in the few areas that relied on blending. The brilliant yellow-green on the bird’s head was mixed on the palette. I was not inclined to do a lot of mixing with this set actually. The colors just kind of scream PAINT ME and I wanted to splash them all over without hesitation. This must be my inner kid talking, because the primaries in my current palette are at least this vibrant (some more so) and I mostly use those in limited, kinda muted palettes. :confused:

                Now, here is another take on the Gouldian finch, this time with pro grade paint on the same paper:


                In real life the birds are next to each other on the same page, and there’s no discernible difference in color brilliance. (A little bit in the reds, but that’s it. Most folks that aren’t artists would say they’re the same.) The pro paint was more predicable to handle, but that was the biggest difference.

                Something I noticed was that the Prang paint seemed to move around with the slightest touch, even after it was well dried. The pro grade paint on the Strathmore was lifting too easily as well, so to investigate further, I turned to Garza Papel and painted a Painted Bunting:

                Now, this is familiar territory, as the paper is in my sketchbook and I’m working with it day after day. I felt a lot more inclination to blend and flow paint together, and it seemed much easier to handle overall. Lesson learned is that (for me anyway) paper makes a bigger difference to me than pigment or paint quality. The Prang paint worked beautifully on this paper, although the inner kid was still screaming PAINT ME and I just couldn’t make myself try for anything muted.

                The one thing that really turned me off about Prang, is that it seems to be perpetually moveable. It was more than dry enough to come by with a wash adjacent, and yet the moment the background water touched the purple on the head, it started to run like I was painting wet-into-wet. The same happened on the bird’s red breast, and some of the background color seeped into the finished bird. This was annoying to say the least, and I can see it frustrating the heck out of a beginner. All you’d need is one book stating that step three is to place a fresh wash next to the previously-painted area, then the hapless student’s Prang color flows madly everywhere, and of course the book won’t say a word because it wouldn’t happen with any other paint! When it happened on two very different papers, it suggests this is the nature of the paint. So, word to the wise on that point.

                I repaired the Painted Bunting by coming back with another layer of the purple and red/orange when the background was dry. This pumped up the color substantially, plus cleaned up the edges so it didn’t look so sloppy. Still an unfortunate hazard though. I’ll be well aware of it in the future.

                The brown paint included was surprisingly wimpy. It was hard to get it even close to a masstone for the swatch and took some work scrubbing up enough to make the bird’s branches. Another thing I didn’t love is that black paint. It’s actually incredibly dense, very easy to get completely solid coverage. I am tempted to try it for a monochrome study. It would also work well if your style involves an ink-brush look. (It’s dense enough to pass for ink.) So for those purposes it would serve well, but just to use as a dark neutral? Bah. Way too powerful. I was tempted to outline the rest of the bird just to make it look like I ink-brushed it on purpose and didn’t just overdo that wing. ;)

                For the record, the blue and orange in my set do combine to a nice neutral. I didn’t try the red and green, I can’t neutralize and red and green in pro pigments, so didn’t expect these to somehow be easier. Here’s the blue/orange mix with the pan black. I like the mix and would definitely use it where a soft gray is called for, rather than trying to control a tint of the black:

                Last note, I very uncharacteristically used a #4 Red Sable brush to paint all this. Dipping a brush continually felt really strange after using a waterbrush for so long. That was actually cramping my style, though it took me the whole test to realize it. To give Prang a completely fair evaluation, I may do another sketch with the waterbrush.

                So, will I convert all my palettes to Prang? Not anytime soon! I have the set to use as inexpensive color for filling calligraphy pens, and it is a favorite for that purpose precisely because the pigment load is so dense. So I will probably reserve it for that. On the other hand, if I found myself out in the world, having an art crisis and needing some paint right *now*, Prang will get the job done cheap and in style. :wave:

                CK =)
                I take great comfort in knowing that my genuine typos will probably be blamed on some device's autocorrect. :angel:
                DIY art supplies, sketches, and more: cyntada.com / @cyntada
                #1256349

                We’d like to thank Cyntada for publishing and supporting her excellent doctorate Thesis on Prang watercolours! :thumbsup:

                I agree that Prangs are great watercolours no matter if they are made for children and with the aim to keep the price low.

                One of my first sets was Prang and its memory still lives within my inner child.

                In fact I’m still trying to get one Prang set with not that much of success though. I literally begged two friends who travelled recently to US to get for me the 8 paints set with no luck at all..

                The first didn’t manage to find them at Michael’s somewhere, the second one who travelled as far as Austin TX for a scientific conference, didn’t manage to persuade his driver to make a stop at a Walmart and get one for me.

                I think that Prangs have the tendency to move easily on the paper because they are made in purpose this way, in order not to stain and be easily washable.

                I bet that if you used your Prangs on a paper with less sizing, like f.e the Conqueror Connoisseur ( that is all cotton and has no sizing and so it sucks the colours) would probably worked fine and that is the reason why they worked better on the Indian paper that probably has less sizing too.


                Doug
                ..I’ll tell you the easiest and most evil way to get a cheap watercolour set but keep it secret please and don’t tell it to anyone.
                It goes as follow:
                Wait hidden beside a door until your grandchildren come into your house. Then appear suddenly, grab from them their paints and run as fast as you can.. :evil: :lol: :lol:

                I’ll do the same with my nephew’s paints.. :lol:

                P.S. When I wrote about less that 5 euros/dollars/pounds I had Prangs in mind too, but it seems that prices are some how higher for these sets nowadays.
                So I’m changing a bit the rules. Prangs are in even if they cost more that 5 euros dollars pounds.

                #1256415
                PattyA
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                    Oh, my ! I will have to buy a set …::lol:
                    I’ve never seen Prangs here in Spain, but there are a few brands that probably every Spanish kid has used at (pre)school.
                    I began painting at 9 years old….with oils :eek:

                    #1256350

                    Oh, my ! I will have to buy a set …::lol:
                    I’ve never seen Prangs here in Spain, but there are a few brands that probably every Spanish kid has used at (pre)school.
                    I began painting at 9 years old….with oils :eek:

                    All cheap or children, or washable no name, with name, paint sets are acceptable.
                    You are welcomed to join with whatever set is available in Spain! :)

                    #1256289
                    pjartwc
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                        Goes to show that you don’t need to spend a fortune on paint to get a good painting.

                        C&C WELCOMED

                        Jan

                        #1256294
                        pezk
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                            If anyone wants to read the history of Prang watercolors, heres the link:
                            http://www.dixonusa.com/history/prang.cfm

                            Louis Prang did more for art education in the US schools than anyone else. Hes also known as the Father of the American Christmas Card. Very interesting.

                            patk
                            C/C

                            #1256411
                            JMark501
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                                Here’s my profile pic, which was probably my 7th or 8th painting (attempt) – my attempt at a version of Charles M. Russell’s “A Bad Hoss”. Prang 16-color set and Strathmore 90 pound mixed media paper. I tend to use a good bit of water & do a fair amount of layering.

                                Edit to add that I mixed colors & believe I only used 5 or 6, if that –

                                ----
                                Jim

                                #1256351

                                I made another sketch with the Lidl colours.
                                It is Doug’s challenge made on Rives Shetland Extra White 28x38cm paper.

                                #1256352
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