M. Graham Intermediate 10-Color Watercolor Paint Set, 1/2-Ounce Tube

Product Information

For a start, not all brands of paint are available in pans. So if you’re keen on trying some M. Graham paints for example, you simply can’t buy them in pans! The transparency properties of the paints is relatively good. I think Azo Yellow is a little too opaque for a yellow. At the same time, it was quite impossible to lift up Yellow after it is dried on paper. The rest work pretty well. Honey was used in the 19th century by French colourmen and was then copied by English manufacturers. Manufacturers soon substitued the honey with industrial sugars, probably for economic reasons. I highly encourage anyone who asks to buy artist-grade paints. When it comes to watercolors, you usually get what you pay for, so splurging for quality materials can be worth the cost. But once you enter the world of well made paints, there really is no perfect brand.

Later, as you progress you should move towards professional watercolors. Tubes or Pans – Which is Best? You often see pans in ready to go palettes. The problem here is that you don’t get to choose your own colors, which I think is restrictive. For a better range of mixing possibilities it’s best to choose your own hues (more on which colors to choose below). Concentrating on these components of watercolor paint will steer you towards the best choices. Professional or Student Grade Paints? Spontaneous combustion occurs when a drying oil or similar material is combined with cellulose or another material capable of holding onto the oil and the heat generated in the process of drying is not allowed to dissipate. The heat then builds up until it reaches an ignition temperature and combustion occurs. Rags and paper towels are two examples of cellulose material that, when crumpled or folded, can prevent heat from escaping and start to ignite. Ambient temperature can either slow or accelerate the process. In general, the higher the temperature, the more rapidly the oil dries and the greater the possibility of combustion.

Colours I know to be very popular in the MG range are Naphthol Red, Azo yellow and Azo green. Their ultramarine is very nice and their yellow ochre particularly bright. I also like the colours of their Burnt Sienna, raw umber, terra rosa and neutral tint, as mentioned above. So it would be very easy to create a 12-colour palette choice in this range. Add Quinacridone Rose as a cool red and Cerulean as a cool blue.

I have tried several brands of watercolors for my sketches and watercolor painting, but I have not tried M. Graham yet. However I have heard some of painter friends recommending and talking about their experience with M. Graham. And if you are also new to M. Graham like me, and do not wish to spend a fortune buying too many paints and then regretting later, the basic 5-color set is highly recommended. This is exactly the same reason I bought the basic set to test before I commit myself to getting the rest of the colors. Even if you are new to watercolor but want a fairly good watercolor paints to start with, M Graham might be the brand you may want to try out, as it has a long standing reputation of producing high quality artist paints.

Overview of M. Graham Watercolors

Steve Mitchell, creator/founder of The Mind of Watercolor YouTube channel, in cooperation with M. Graham & Co and Wet Paint Artists’ Materials & Framing, is introducing his first ever M. Graham watercolor set. The set – made up of ten 15ml tube colors chosen personally by Steve - is available now, and exclusively through Wet Paint. The color index name is established and published by the American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists and The Society of Dyers and Colourists. The color index name is a generic category and does not refer to a specific pigment. While it enables the artist to form a general idea of opacity, transparency and lightfastness, for a pigment in a certain color space, it does not provide definitive information. Many grades of pigment are available from a number of manufactures with a very wide range of physical attributes. Basic set of 5 contains:Permanent Alizarin Crimson,Sap Green,Ultramarine Blue, Azo Yellow and Burnt Sienna. Raw Sienna: PBr7 (Semi-transparent & single pigment). This color has a similar appearance to Yellow Ochre. One of its distinctive qualities is that you can paint superb glowing skies without giving a green tint to you blue sky wash!

Much of what brand you prefer depends upon how you paint, so favorite brands vary widely from person to person.Many artists (like me) use a mix of brands. When it comes to watercolor brands, the only “rule” is this: Use the color that you love regardless of brand. Third Row: Ultramarine Pink, Quinacridone Violet, Dioxazine Purple, Burn Umber, and…room for two more! Cool Yellow – Lemon Yellow: PY175 (Transparent & single pigment). This is a very light yellow which holds its color value well as it dries. Very useful for mixing bright greens when combined with a cool blue. Secondary Colors: There may be just 5 colors in the basic set, but these form the limited color palettes sufficient to complete a painting. It is light weight and not too cumbersome to carry around if you are painting plein air. The range of colors you get through mixing these basic 5 colors is amazing. Here’s what you can do with a limited palette. Single Pigments – All colors in this selection are single-pigment colors with the exception of Neutral Tint. This helps keep mixes clean and predictable.

My current sketching tools.

A number of strategies have been developed over time to deal with the possibility of spontaneous combustion. There are two primary ways in current use of which we are aware: allow the heat to dissipate or slow the drying of the oil. Marinscape set of 5 contains: Ultramarine Blue, Azo Orange, Prussian Blue, Permanent Alizarin Crimson and Raw Sienna. Daniel Smith began in 1976 with the manufacture of printing inks, but they have become one of the most popular watercolor brands in the U.S. Daniel Smith's popularity has partly arisen from their massive selection of colors,but also their watercolors are often made with pigments that no other company offers.

Split Primary Selection – The primaries in this set are divided into warm and cool versions of each primary zone to maximize color mixing flexibility. Indian Yellow/Azo Yellow, Scarlet Pyrrol/Quinacridone Rose, & Ultramarine Blue/Phthalo Green Blue Shade Pigment load – M. Graham boasts one of the most intense pigment loads in the watercolor industry. This is perfect not only for intense colors when needed but also for creating subtle, highly transparent tints using the least amount of pigment. So in the following lines I’ll give you the simple truth about what you need to look for when selecting watercolor paints. Why I Use M. Graham Watercolors By Mike Bailey AWS and NWS member Mike Bailey @me_bailey_art shares why M. Graham paints permanently reside in his palette in the latest M. Graham blog.Cool Red – Quinacridone Rose: PV19 (Transparent & single pigment). This is a beautiful bright saturated pink color. It mixes very smoothly like all the quinacridone paints that I use. Most artists agree this makes an excellent cool primary red. In mixing greens, I used the pre-mixed Sap green for the test, instead of using a mixture between Ultramarine and Azo Yellow. Putting Sap Green in the basic set is great because the hue reflects quite closely to the foliage green we see everyday. It is not exactly the green we see in our environment but it is ‘greyed’ enough to be a home-based green to start with while painting foliage. Landscape set of 5 contains: Yellow Ochre, Cerulean Blue, Sap Green, Burnt Umber and Dioxazine Purple. Ok… Great! So that just gives you one more choice to make! But let me make life simple for you – choose tubes!