Daniel Smith Watercolor Sampler

A while back, I purchased one of Daniel Smith's Try It samplers. From my experience, Daniel Smith makes the best artist grade watercolor paints, Period. Super vibrant & highly pigmented, I've said this before. If I was going to start all over again buying watercolor paints, I would have bought all Daniel Smith products.



This is how the sheets came, and I wanted to test them in some kind of organized way so I cut them apart-



Then stapled them to small pieces of heavy weight rough handmade Indian watercolor paper. (I used rough so I could see the way the paint would lay on the surface and in the nooks and crannies.)



There wasn't really enough of the Interference samples for me to get a good idea how they would work. I have some interference acrylics from DS that i like, but have not yet tried any of the watercolors.



The Iridescent paints were okay, but I can't see an immediate use for them.



A few earthy colors that didn't do much for me. Like the purple a little.



Again, barely enough of the Duochrome & Pearlescent samples to adequately judge them. Bummer. Really wanted to check out those top two as well...



These are "Hues." A hue is a synthetic alternative to the real thing, (often due to price.) and typically do not look as good as these. I prefer to use the real thing when available.



I *LOVE* the DS Quinacridone paints. From the DS site: "Turn your palette from ordinary to extraordinary! Quinacridones combine the power of the staining pigments with the luminosity of the transparents. They flow beautifully for extremely smooth washes, have incredible depth of color and can be lifted easily while still wet. Quinacridone watercolors are exceptionally strong yet transparent. They're ideal for glazing and many artists use them as vibrant replacements for earth colors."



"No other colors have both the intensity and transparency of the quinacridone family. They are synthetic organic pigments, created in the world’s most advanced color laboratories. Minuscule pigment particles are exceptionally uniform in size and shape, which translates to unfailing behavior in the paint."



And now on to the Prima Tek samples; unique paints made with pure, authentic mineral pigments mined directly from the earth. I don't have any of these, (they can get a little pricey) so I was eager to try them. This batch was nice, but not really anything I'd use.



Nice colors, many of these tend to be on the light side.



I'll stick with SAP and Hooker's Green, thanks.



This batch offered up a fascinating combination - though I still think I'd be hard pressed to use such light colors in what I do.



Can you see the sparkles in the Sugilite?

I had fun playing with the samples, but didn't really find anything I'd want to buy outside a few of the Quinacridone colors that I don't already have.