New paints (I think)

Hi-
I am new here, so please forgive me if this is not the way to post correctly. I am a person who has mainly played with Caran D'Ache Aquarelles and gouache through the years, never too seriously. About a year ago, I ran into my old paints which lead me to the internet and I found this site at some point. Occasionally I would pop in, but oils are still in the future, so I never joined. Today, though, I was in a local art store and finally got to play with water soluble oils and loved it!
I went to the Daniel Smith store in Seattle and they were showing their new(?) paints. They had an easel at the door and practically shoved a brush into my hand. The employee was painting a sunset, and the colors were beautiful! Watching her mix a palette was mesmerizing and now I'm pretty sure this is where I am heading.
Having not messed with oils, I don't know how these compare. The Smith watercolors have really strong pigments and they do a mineral based series that I really like. The water soluble oils that I saw seemed very heavily pigmented, too. The French Ultramarine blue really stood out and the greens we made were delightful. There were only 5 colors to play with, but the other customers were making incredible pinks and soft oranges that seemed impossible. There is a reason people are afraid of oils!
With no experience to use for comparison, all I can say is that I really enjoyed this! Are all water soluble oils this nice? My friend's husband, who is a local artist, said the water soluble oils were clumpy and sticky, but these weren't at all. It was a pleasant surprise.
Anyway, if I can stop thinking about the Dreamsicle orange someone mixed, I will go to bed. Its been a long time since I had visions in my head like this! No wonder you are all hooked. Lynne

Welcome Lynne:

I am glad to hear that you are joining our ranks. It is wonderful to be in an art store and to come back with an experience like you had... certainly that would make anyones day... . I am not too familiar with the Smith series of WSO, but I am sure with what you are saying it must be awesome.

The quality of WSO varies from one manufacturer to another. I am relatively new to WSO and I started with Artisan made by W&N and boy I struggled, it was clumpy and I had problems with the yellows quite a bit. Although some experienced users on this forum use it on a regular basis and they have tamed it to fit their needs. I have moved on to Grumbacher MAX and what a difference, boy I am in love with it. The paints are so well behaved. Sometimes it is a personal preference too.

Welcome to the forum and WSO.

F Tariq

The Daniel Smith miscible oils were only recently released. In fact, I only heard about them last week. Their regular oils are often highly regarded as a decent artist grade paint, so hopefully these will be the same. I welcome them to the small list of water miscible oil paint companies.

http://www.danielsmith.com/Item--i-G-284-390

Their color selection is extremely small and the pigment choices are not that great, but here's hoping that they expand those limitations soon.

The other brands of miscible oils vary in handling. Holbein's Duos usually get the highest marks for good consistency, at least from me. The Talen's Cobra and Lukas Berlins are also nice. The other brands have been around longer and are usually what most people associate the water miscible paints to behave like (Artisans & Max.) Unfortunately, their handling is not as consistently equal, often behaving in a stiff or gummy manner.

Hi Lynne,

It sounds like you had a great first experience with the paints. I start with W/N Artisans about 10 years ago and found them clumpy and sticky especially if you added water to them to thin them. I now use W/N thinner for them in the early layers of the painting and then walnut oil in the later layers if I need it. That took care of the problems.

I also use Holbein Duos and Cobras and like them both right out of the tube. I have no problem using any of the three interchangeably depending on the color I am looking to mix.

Hope you give them a try and keep us posted on how you like them.

Judy

Has anyone bought and used these Daniel Smith WMOs yet?

Cheers

Doug

Doug, I am still plugging away with Artisans. I bought many tubes of their paints, so I am "invested" in them for awhile yet.

I'm using Artisans too, but wondered how the new Daniel Smith paints compare. I've heard on WC tht DS paints have a reputation for being highly pigmented, quality paints. It would be nice to have another artists quality WMO to choose from! :-)

I have not come across the Daniel Smith at the local stores here. Asel arts carries Artisan, Grumbacher MAX and Holbein. I would not mind trying one of them if they were readily available...

I have tried them and they caused me to turn to Water Soluable Oils for my subject painting. I tried the Winsor and Newton years ago and that whole gummy feeling turned me off of watersoluble oils so I went to Acrylics instead. I havn't tried any other brands. I have noticed that it takes a while to make the DS paints dry, a little longer than regular oils.

I however will say, I am not a fan of the Cadmium Hues they offer. I tend to shy away from paints with multiple pigments. They have great color but I do not like they way they mix. If you are going to use the cads strait out of the tube then they are good.

I have tried both the watersoluble linseed oil they offer and gumbacher's Max Quick Dry Medium. I hope the Max alkyd really does make them dry faster.

I think it's sad that the ony water mixable oils that you usually see in an art store are Winsor Newton Artisans. I bought a ton of them at first and gave up on painting with watermixable oils. I went to Rembrant traditional oils for several years, and then tried the Cobras and Lukas Berlin when they came out. I'm very happy now, but it's no wonder that people think water mixable oils are inferior to traditional oils.

The local Blick near me carries the new Cobra. I decided to try out a tube. I decided to get a tube of Pyrrol Red. Since the DS doesn't offer a good true red besides their Quin Red. I love the Quin Red but sometimes I just need a Opaque color not a transparent one. I have to say I really like the red that I tried.

Many of use received a sample which was the Pyrrol red when Cobra first came out with the WSO. I really liked the creamy feel of the Cobras after having been using W/N Artisans most of the time.