(Originally posted 6/24/14)
If this blog continues long enough, you’ll probably hear me complain over and over again on how America has very few suppliers for pans. After reading Bruce McAvoy’s Schmincke review on Handprint.com, I was very skeptical on trying these watercolors. I had another (admittedly very petty) reason for avoiding them as well- Schmincke insists on stamping its logo on the inside of one of the palette wells, and I was mildly offended that they would take up such precious limited mixing space just so you could be reminded on what brand you were using.
But I couldn’t shake my curiosity on these pans since several artists I admire use Schmincke, and I read some of the most glowing reviews. While browsing in Korea, I finally found the set of 12 whole pans for relatively cheap, so I finally decided to give them a shot.
I’m very glad I did. They were very rich and quite controllable. The paints felt very creamy on my brush and slid onto the paper as easily as anything. The best way for me to describe them are like buttery little candies. I ended getting a 36 pan set later on and then switching the boxes so that the half pans went into the smaller palette while the whole pans went into the larger one. I also purchased colors I liked open stock online.
Paints aside, the metal folding palette it comes in is wonderfully made. It’s very sturdy, strong, and has a nice matte finish. There’s a ring for your finger underneath, and the tray holding the pans can also be removed for even more mixing areas. The tray is also snug enough inside the box that should your box flip over, the pans won’t come clattering out. Schmincke also provided you with a handy color testing chart that includes the pigments and the lightfastness.
Extra pans don’t fit down the middle, but I generally prefer to store a brush or a pencil in there anyway. The box does stain noticeably though I don’t mind too much. I was also curious to see if I could fit an extra full pan in the sliding metal space. It’s possible! I can fit 14 full pans overall in the 12 pan palette once I replace all the colors I dislike.
Which brings me to my con… I don’t like half the pigments included in the 12 pan set. Granted, this is likely to happen with any pre-packaged set you’ll buy, and I don’t blame Schmincke for picking out the colors that it did. The colors they selected are normally recommended for most starter palettes. I usually like only a few of the colors provided in paint sets, so if I could do everything over again, I would just buy all my paints open stock. I personally would rather pay more money for pigments I love rather than have a bunch of pigments I barely use. In this case I was just too anxious to try real pans and I did find them for pretty cheap.
To start with what I don’t like about the colors, I generally don’t like opaque or toxic pigments. Therefore the cadmium paints included in this set see very little use from me. I also don’t usually like a pre-mixed green paint since I like to mix my own for color harmony. If I’m using a green, it’s probably Phthalo green, and that’s rarely used outside of mixing blacks. Other greens might come in handy whenever I want to quickly mute a red.
Prussian Blue is okay…but I usually like Phthalo Blue when I want a green biased blue. Yellow Ochre doesn’t see much use from me either except when I want a quick skin tone while sketching on location. English red is too opaque and overpowering in my mixtures to be of any real use to me. Sepia is okay for darks, but I would normally choose a Burnt Sienna or a Burnt Umber.
I do prefer Sepia over Ivory Black for monochromatic studies though. It does have black in it, but it’s a bit more interesting for me to look at. That being said, Schmincke is an excellent watercolor paint, and it’s lovely to use. The box is handy enough that I can forgive Schmincke for stamping their logo inside. But I really do recommend trying to buy the pans open stock even if that option is more expensive.