I am an artist focused on seeing and representing LIGHT and COLOR in impressionist watercolor paintings. I am inspired by the impressionist tradition and dedicated to translating these ideas into the medium of watercolor. I am excited to share my vision and techniques on this channel.
I am an educator by training and an artist by calling. I use this space to celebrate my love of watercolor and to share tutorials, techniques, tips, product reviews and inspiration. I paint both plein-air and in my studio. If you like what you see please consider subscribing to this channel.
I post new videos regularly and always respond to your questions and comments. If there is a topic or question you would like to see addressed in this channel please add it to the comments below.
In addition to what you will find here, I also offer free resources on my website at: studio.krisdebruine.com/free-resources
I like it for the crazy greens in pallets these days. One really bright wild green can produce all sorts of calm greens when mixed with the neutral tint.
I bought tons of cheap brushes that were labeled as mixed media, suitable for WC just the same at first, thinking that a more diverse range of products was better than just a couple. I figured if I liked it, I would then invest later on on better supplies. I got so frustrated with them that I almost gave up on WC all together. I ended up, on a whim, just ordering an actual watercolor brush, one that was actually made for watercolors! I was so blown away that I ditched every last one of my cheap brushes and just used this new one and ordered a bunch more! It was a complete game changer for me, so much so that it makes me cringe when I hear other artists say to just use what you have. While I get it, not everyone CAN invest in better supplies, trying to do so where and when you can, is also investing in your art and in yourself as an artist! You CAN get by with them, but once you upgrade, you won’t regret it! Once I did this with my brushes, I did the same with my paper and then my paints!! No regrets!! So I recommend in that order to upgrade: brushes, then paper, then paints.
If you’re sticking with just 3 primary colors, I think which ones you should use depends heavily on what kinds of things you’re going to be painting… Because a 3 color palette is actually pretty restrictive in terms of the range of colors you can mix… For example, if you choose a warm yellow like a cadmium yellow deep or Indian yellow, that could be great for a realistic landscape… It will allow you to create extremely vibrant oranges (especially mixed with a warm red, like cadmium or pyrrol scarlet)… But the warmer you go with your yellow, the more you’re also cutting off the most vibrant & brightest green end of the spectrum, which requires a cool yellow. If you choose a warm red in order to mix those brilliant oranges, that’s great… But the warmer your red is, the more you’re cutting off the most saturated, high chroma purples, which require a cool red/magenta/rose color to mix from primaries. Again, if you’re painting landscapes, that might be fine- maybe you’ll only ever need some moodier, more dull purples, for a moody sunset sky, & will have no need of the most saturated purples… Whereas, if you’re painting floral paintings, maybe you do need high chroma purples for violets or irises or whatever. So it’s worth really thinking about the subjects you’ll be painting & the techniques you intend to employ when planning a limited palette. Also, with so few pigments at your disposal, you need to be intentional about whether you want to choose all transparent pigments, all opaque pigments, all semi-, or some tactically selected combination thereof. Personally, I think that, if you can afford to, it’s very much worthwhile (especially if you’ll be painting a wide variety of subjects) to go with a split primary palette. With one warm & one cool red, one warm & cool yellow, & one warm & one cool blue, you significantly expand the spectra of colors you’ll be able to paint- giving yourself the options needed to achieve pretty much the full range of saturation in any direction, from neutral greys, beiges, & browns, to the most intense purples, oranges, & greens. You still have to be selective about transparency vs opacity, because you’d rapidly have to expand to a LOT of paints to cover every combination of opacities for every split primary… A simple split primary palette of six well-selected paints will take you a LONG way.
Most of these colors are low staining. Indigo is medium staining. All this information is found on the Daniel Smith website or as part of the Amazon product listing. You can conveniently follow the links in the video description. Cheers!
Thank you! I’m a beginner.😊 I asked for and was gifted this palette for my birthday after watching your video and looking through your posts. And, I’m going to fill it with your recommended watercolors. I can’t wait to go back and watch all of your videos multiple times. I know that I will learn so much and hopefully improve!
This video is just what I'm looking for. I just bought a primary set because I want to mix my own colors. I'm just getting into water colors since high school art classes (many decades ago). So I've been watching all these videos of people using large numbers of pans of colors. That's too overwhelming. And I just prefer to mix my own colors anyway. Maybe because that's how I learned it, it seems more naturals than picking premade shades. Anyway, that you. I just subscribed to your channel.
Oh I love the last comment! “ keep on growing in watercolour”. My new mantra and thing to share . Thank you. I love mixing greys, browns and blacks. I am going to try some of your recipes that I have not played with yet. 🎉
I absolutely love this palette. I love how a swatch sheet fits behind the clear plastic insert on the other side - it makes for a stunning palette when you open it and can see all of the colors painted out. I also love that it's a one-sided palette (unlike the white fold out ones that hold 20 colors- you can't close this type of palette if they are wet and juicy on both sides). 18 colors is the perfect amount. I also love the round-ish wells. Very easy to fill and holds the perfect amount of paint
This is a great topic, thanks for explaining the importance of grey. The recipes of grey are just handy. Indeed master the art of grey will greatly enhance the outcome. Grey painter like Joseph Zbukvic has a great proportion of his paintings are just grey. Not just grey but clever mix of different shapes of grey.
Have you tried WN cobolt turquoise or teal light? I was gifted DS phthaol turquoise, but have nothing to compare it to. I’m not a fan of all granulating colors. Thanks
No, I don't have any WN colors. I have DS Phthalo Turquoise and DS Cobalt Teal Blue. Between those two colors, I definitely use the Cobalt Teal Blue the most. I also have a free download you might be interested in. I share four recipes for mixing turquoise or teal from common, single pigment colors on your palette. You can get it here: studio.krisdebruine.com/turquoise Enjoy!!
Thanks for this detailed and clear approach. I'm trying it so i can ship paintings out to my kids without fear of them breaking! Kind of a modern look to them, too, don't you think? 🙏
Yes. There are lots of advantages to this method. It provides protection to the painting and allows you to display the work without a frame and glass, if you so desire. Enjoy!!
Are these prices from the United States? I am in Seattle and that set of Holbein paints 5ml costs $60, and Daniel Smith is more like $15-20/tube. Open stock in my art store Holbein is usually quite a bit more than Daniel Smith, around $25/tube. Maybe it's just gone up.
Hi Kris.. just watched the video on mixing 3 primary colors. I have struggles to decide what quality/name I should buy. I have very poor quality beginner watercolor paint. I decided to try mixing color rather then just buy lots of color in a set. In looking for the individual tubes online I could only find Anthraquinoid red in a 15 ml tube. Since it was price I wanted to get the 5 ml tube to start. . Would there be a close substitute for that color? Looking forward to watching your channel. Thanks Diane
Hi Diane. Thanks for watching. Daniel Smith has a Permanent Alizarin Crimson which is similar to the red in this video. In fact it contains PR177 -- plus two other pigments. It comes in a 5ml size. You can find it here: amzn.to/4ePj5zN
This pallette is very nice and keeping the colours in a somewhat accurate colour wheel would undoubtedly come with real benefits but what I would like even more than this is a big bathroom tile and if you want paintwells, lay down a metal ruler ( or more than one) keep your paints in full pans with a little piece of magnetic tape attached to the bottom of each. Pop your magnetic pans in a row in the order of your choice and pop another ruler on top if you need a lid. To have more of the advantages of the roundness of the quiller pallette you could cut 12 equal lengths of your magnetic tape and lay them down on your tile in a circle . At 8, 12 and 4 O clock on this circle you can put your magenta yellow and cyan etc.... and you can stick all your magnetic pans to the magnetic strips if the strips are glued upside down ( so as not to repel the pans) and with a waterproof glue. It's simpler than it sounds but it means that any paint in your studio palette can very easily be popped in and out of a travelling tin of any kind. You might be able to find a removeable flat metal circle which would be better again than the 12 metal strips. So In short, a big porcelain bathroom tile, a metal ring ( a second one for a lid) and magnetised pans is something I think I would like a little bit more than that lovely quiller palette!😊
The inner side of the roll is the "right" side. If you are unsure, you can also tell by looking at the texture. The "right" side of the paper has a slightly more pronounced texture. Hope this helps. Thanks for watching.
thank you for this. i've just started with watercolours and i love the flow it is but i also really like oil painting but i kinda suck at it lol. it's nice to know you could get a realistic oil paint look with watercolours.
