What happens when you give three artists nine new tubes of paint, tell them to choose three and get creative? Well, you get a very cool project. Charlie O’Shields, World Watercolor Month and Doodlewash.com creator, paired up with Da Vinci (website) to do a unique project called “3 Colors, 3 Artists”. Charlie asked me and Tonya from Scratchmade Journal to collaborate with him and Da Vinci watercolors on a project to introduce Da Vinci’s new line of 8ml Vegan watercolor tubes. All three Da Vinci Watercolor Trios will be on sale on Da Vinci’s website well before the launch of the full line of 8ml tubes. What a thrill!
Now, if you’ve been reading me for any length of time, you know that I love color. To winnow nine watercolors down to three was arduous, to say the least. Painful in fact, lol. I want ALL the colors but I also thought it was high time I try a limited palette and hey, if you’re gonna do something, why not go all the way? So, A TRIO it is!
What Do I Like Most?
I started testing out Da Vinci watercolors when I got one of their dot cards. I was immediately struck by how easily the paint re-wet. Just by touching my brush to them, I had rich, creamy color. There was no scrubbing needed so my first five seconds with Da Vinci was smile worthy. Then I started painting with it. I was truly impressed with their saturation of color and vibrancy. When I looked up the stats on all their tubes I was thrilled to see so many transparent and semi-transparent colors. Oh my gosh, this is my wheelhouse! By my count, there’s Seventy-three transparent or semi-transparent colors. That comprises almost 70% of Da Vinci’s watercolors, and not only that but 68% of the line is also single pigment colors! That’s amazing. Did you know they’re also all handmade in the USA? Ya, that’s impressive.
It Was Obvious From The Start…
I bought a few colors and started really playing. By the start of 2018 I knew I had a new brand. I didn’t know just how much I would love these paints until I was forced to only use three of them. This project has let me learn how beautifully Da Vinci watercolors work for me. These paints are well behaved. I find that they actually do what I want them to do. I’ve never had that experience before. I feel like the sun just came out on a cloudy day. I’m an addict, I love me some Da Vinci. Most of my palette is now converted over to this brand.
Why These Three?
Da Vinci has 105 watercolors (not including iridescent) in their full line of paint. As you can imagine, I had trouble choosing nine let alone winnowing it down to THREE. Holy smokes, I want them ALL. There is a wonderful range to choose from, enough to satisfy any watercolorist but let me tell you why I chose these three colors. My Da Vinci watercolor trios is Hansa Yellow Deep, Red Rose Deep & Phthalo Green.
- All three are single pigment colors. I like my colors to be true and bright. I also like them to stay that way when I mix them. If I use as many single pigment colors as possible I know I’ll never get mud when I’m mixing colors. Mixtures tend to stray toward mud when they contain more then three pigments in the mix. So keeping most colors in my palette as single pigment, naturally prevents me from mixing muddier colors.
- All three are highly transparent. I love paintings to glow, to jump off the page at you, so using the most transparent colors I can find makes sense to me as an artist. When I layer transparent colors on top of one another, the color below shines through. This creates a dimensional effect for the eye as you look through the top layers to see the deeper shadows.
- I love the brightest colors that I can get my paint covered hands on! Well, this seems obvious when looking at most of my artwork. As I said above, I want my paintings to jump off the page and accost the viewer. I love when, through color or detail, my pieces assault the viewer’s senses.
My “Juicy” Trio
Hansa Yellow Deep (PY65), Red Rose Deep (PV19) and Phthalo green (PG7) are wonderfully bright, transparent and single pigment watercolors. They mix beautifully bright, cheery colors and also more subdued, moody ones. Both powerful and delicate shades can be created from these mixes. I found this range to be pleasing to my senses so they made a perfect choice for my Da Vinci watercolor Trios set. I named it Jenn’s “Juicy” Trio. :o)
The Hansa I find is so much like the original New Gamboge that is now not available in the paint industry and it reminds me of warm sunshine. It’s one of my favorite yellows. The Red Rose Deep is a more saturated version of Permanent Rose (PV19), which for many artists is their goto cool red in their palette. I loved the deep, rich beauty of this red-pink color so it ended up my #2 color. The phthalo green beat out cobalt turquoise, cobalt turquoise deep and phthalo blue for one reason, I wanted to paint a blue Ball jar for this project! I found that both turquoises didn’t give as much of a range as the phthlo green did with my other two colors. The final win was when I found I could mix a nearly identical color to Payne’s grey with a wonderful bluish or purpleish tint, depending on if the mix leaned toward the red or green end of the spectrum. My perfect Juicy Trio.
Making Dark Neutrals From My Da Vinci Watercolor Trios Set
I was so thrilled to find that using just two of the pigments achieved very similar colors to my two favorite neutrals. I use Payne’s Grey Bluish for shadows that an object casts. This is a cool dark neutral. If you think of the cool shadow that a tree casts on the concrete when the sun is shining, you’ll understand why I use this deep, cool color. Payne’s makes you feel cooler, which is what shadows on the ground make you feel. On the other hand, shadows within an object are warmer. I regularly use Neutral Tint for this. It’s a warmer dark. I like when the two kinds of shadows are made with two different neutrals, I find it adds interest to any painting. Mixing both a Payne’s grey bluish and a Neutral tint can be done using just the Red Rose Deep + Phthalo green from my Da Vinci watercolor trios. All you have to do is lean the color toward either the Red or the green side. Towards the green you get Payne’s, toward the red and you get Neutral tint. If you’d like a great warm black , just mix all three colors equally with little dilution.
How To Buy & Where Else To Learn
All of the art was done using only my “Juicy” Trio (Hansa Yellow Deep, Red Rose Deep & Phthalo Green). These Da Vinci watercolor Trios are an exciting new launch for Da Vinci Paint. Tonya, Charlie & I are thrilled to be promoting the Trios with our names on them and they help herald the coming of the full line of 8ml tubes. But for now, only our Trios will be available and we’d all be so thrilled for you, our readers, to go try Da Vinci watercolors by getting one of our sets. Please visit Tonya and Charlie’s post to see their art and their Da Vinci watercolor trios.
I used Hahnemühle Cézanne watercolor paper for all the art (review here). Da Vinci will be including a sample pack of Cézanne cold pressed watercolor paper with each purchase of an artist’s trio (Charlie’s “Shiny” Trio, Tonya’s “Nature” Trio, Jenn’s “Juicy” Trio). You will also get a postcard with explanations of each Da Vinci watercolor trios set you purchase and a little info about the artist who chose the three 8ml tubes. https://www.davincipaints.com/product-p/set-wcjenn-3s.htm
Finally, if you would like to BUY my “Juicy” TRIO, Please Click Here And Make Your Own #DaVinciMoment!
The Giveaway!
Ok, that’s it! Whew, that was a lot of information. Since your persevered and made it down to the bottom of my post, let me reward you with a little fun information about me and a GIVEAWAY! Da Vinci Watercolor has asked me some interview questions. They have generously donated one of my trios and a couple sample packs of Cézanne cold pressed paper for the Giveaway. The winner will also receive a Hahnemuhle watercolor book and one of my DIY Altoid Palettes so you’ll already have a place to pour your three new Da Vinci paints! Go HERE to enter and read all the details. Entering is simple. You just might WIN and you’ll be able to read all about me as I answer some personal questions in TRIO form.
Da Vinci Watercolor Trios:
Tonya Lee
Jenn, your artwork and Trio colors are lovely!!! I think I’m going to have to order all of the Trios so I can play with all of the ideas and fun colors together. Many congratulations on this project. You deserve it, my beautiful artist friend!
Charlie O'Shields
Your trio is so awesome Jenn!! And, as you know, I’ve always been a fan of your art (those watercolor tubes… how do you DO that?? So cool!). Thanks so much for jumping into this project with me! It made it so much fun! That Payne’s Gray and Neutral Tint mixing trick is a revelation!! Definitely going to be trying your trio! 😃💕
Linda K
oh wow- Jenn your watercolor art is amazing!!! I learn so much from your posts too. Love your trio choice and thanks to you I see all those color possibilities just from these three paints- so impressive! Congrats!
Adelaide Dunn
Love your selected trio Jenn, thanks for sharing.