Yet Another Watercolor Paint . . .

E-Z Lift?

The very last thing I need in this world is more watercolor paint - or art supplies of any kind, actually. But you all know how it is when you get into an art supply store. Your eyes glaze over and you get all sparkly and inspired. I do think it’s an altered state. I was just in Scottsdale, Arizona on a little vacation and they have both a Dick Blick and a Jerry’s Art-o-rama store nearby in Tempe. My sister-in-law is also an artist, so off we went.

The first thing I found interesting was not an art supply, but the fact that you are much better shopping on the websites than in the brick & mortar stores. The selection is better and the pricing is MUCH better. So, I stopped wishing we had stores in Santa Fe.

But then, I did find something I had never seen before!!!! - at Jerry’s. The Soho paints pictured above were labeled “E-Z Lift”. Anyone who knows me knows that I love “lift”, so I thought it meant the paint would lift easily from the paper.

It does, as it turns out, but that is not what the package meant. They meant that the paint rewets easily so you lift a lot of pigment from the pan. That is not as noticeable as my take on the meaning. This paint lifts very well from the paper. I wanted to determine the quality of the paint since I liked most of the colors and the lift, so I went looking for the manufacturer. It is Jerry’s own brand. Who knew?

The price was good - I think $28 for a set of 36 colors. There are 5 Fluorescent colors (the ones that don’t scan on this chart so well), and 6 Metallic colors. I like the green and purple. The pans are sitting loose in the metal tray and wiggle a lot, so I will be putting magnets on the bottoms of all of them.

The paint is creamy and a little bit more opaque than regular watercolors - more like Kuratake Gansai Tambi. For those who aren’t familiar, this is a Japanese style watercolor that has those same qualities.

These paints come in a nice metal box with three mixing areas in the cover - something like 6”x9" so easy for including in sketch kits, and it has most of what you need. The only color I found missing was a dark brown like Sepia. It does have a nice middle gray.

Here is a scanned color chart that is close to true.

First Sketchbook Spread from my Arizona Road Trip . . .

I did some things differently this time because I have made this same drive so many times. It becomes a challenge to come up with something new to say about it.

I posted a 15 minute video “Sketchbook Talk-Through” of how I created it on my paid subscription level. A lot of what I post there will be instructional - like studio secrets - that’s why subscribing is well worth it. Plus the three rescue Husky puppies need to eat (a lot!).

Til next time.

jessica