Finetec Artist Pearlescent Colors and Fabriano Black Black paper

Common Morpho Butterfly painted in Finetec Pearlescent Colors on Fabriano Black Black Mixed Media Paper.

Wow. Someone's come out with black watercolor paper, for painting in gouache, acrylic and other opaque water media. Don't be fooled by the name. This stuff is 300gsm or about like 140lb watercolor paper, not the usual 90lb mixed media paper. It is a good strong heavy paper that doesn't cockle. There's also a White White pad with the same paper but I didn't buy it, since I have plenty of white watercolor paper and nuances on bright white would not be as important as the first actual black watercolor paper I've got to work with. Fully sized with a nice soft cold press texture, this stuff is gorgeous. It's heavy, sturdy and dark. 

Till now my favorite black paper has been black Stonehenge paper, which is still my favorite colored pencils paper. But when I'm bringing in wet media, Fabriano Black Black is well worth it. It's toothy for use with aquarell pencils. I sketched under my Common Morpho Butterfly with my Caran d'Ache aquarell pencils and got beautiful heavy color. The white helped me lighten a couple of areas and strengthened the white dots under the pearlescent white. 

My next delight was finding out how well those Finetec Pearlescent Colors work on black. They are good and bright! Add enough and they're opaque. They're actually pretty easily opaque, a touch more opaque than the Daniel Smith Luminescent watercolors that are my other favorites. They're in pan form rather than tubes and individual colors can be ordered if all you need is a good gold for decorating a medieval scroll or something. 

SCA scribes, this is very convenient gold or silver in a pan to tuck into your scribe kit for illumination. There's also a six color set that's hues of gold, copper and silver which can work well for scribes, but if all you need is one gold, look for Olympic Gold, I think that's the one that's the closest match to shell gold - the real gold dot that's powdered gold in gum arabic. 

The six color Iridescent Set looks to be what Daniel Smith labels Interference Colors - pale with a soft hint of color that changes to its complement when tilted. These are using simila pigments - mica treated and ground to produce shimmering iridescent color. The effects are spectacular. Mystic Color in the 12 Color Pearlescent Set is also an interference color, bouncing between a red and a blue green. It's beautiful and dark, unlike the other interference colors. It's very handy for when I want that effect in lower value areas.

Finetec are artist's mica pigment colors. They're lightfast and high quality, artist grade, I'd have no trouble selling paintings done with them whether that's in combination with other water mediums or by themselves. The form is actually even handier for me because I dislike carrying tubes around but do like painting with friends and some things like an iridescent effect - the Mystic color would be particularly effective on the necks of grackles and pigeons.

Opaque colors can be thinned to light washes just by adding more water. They work very well painted over similar flat hues for a subtle effect. I've often used a thin glaze of blue or aqua over a reef scene and found the iridescence vanishes - thin enough it doesn't really change the hue of non-blue objects like fish or corals, but does give a richness to the water and sense of luminous water that wasn't there without it. Mica paints aren't just for glitz and glitter. 

But they are fun for that too. Any holiday cards or other projects you want to jazz up with shimmering iridescence will benefit from Finetec Pearlescent Colors and Iridescent Colors. Those can be very good on snow scenes in a thin glaze over the entire snow area, since snow has that kind of effect too. Mix a little in with the shadow colors or use it to create slight tints for atmospheric recession - bluish cast in the distance, rosy in the mid values shading up through to thinnest gold or yellow. 

Price is reasonable for artist grade materials, but not in the bargain range for the Finetec colors. They are available at many outlets online including Dick Blick and some of the calligraphy and pens places, because they are so good for embellishing. A friend picked one up from a brick and mortar store too, they're not hard to find. Definitely give them a try. Blick has them in open stock if you want to try just one color first or all you need is scribal gold. That open stock is also convenient since the tin for the 12 color pans may wind up wearing down unevenly, depending on your style and favorite colors. Some colors run out faster than others by area of the painting. 

There is a very nice, subtle iridescent black in the 12 colors set too. It's deep dark, it will vanish on black paper to anything but close inspection.

Fabriano Black Black and White White paper comes in two pad sizes, 8" square and 9 1/2" x 12 3/4" - good convenient sizes. I don't know if it's available in full sheets since I got the larger pad, but it's great stuff and I know I'll use it often. Of course you can also combine these things with a brush or dip pen to do gold and colorful calligraphy on black paper too, to make striking cards!

EDIT: Note to Readers - the entry for the 7th was going to be the Pebeo Masking Marker, which I was all excited about getting. It arrived yesterday. The project is set up to paint with it. Unfortunately, what I found out is that if it got frozen along the way it becomes useless. Blick is replacing it, so hopefully I'll be able to review a working one next week!

Stillman and Birn Zeta Journal

Stillman and Birn have done it again! I love their journals. All of them have great paper, good bindings, archival quality and spectacular performance. The newest S&B journal is no exception. It's a dream come true for anyone who wants to paint and draw in the style of Claudia Nice. This journal is perfect for pen and watercolor.

Stillman & Birn Zeta paper is as heavy as the Beta and Delta. It's pure natural white 180lb smooth paper. A little less absorbent than the Rough paper, its smooth hot press surface gives absolute control of pen textures. The above illustration is a page of life drawings in pen and watercolor from my 7" square wire bound Zeta journal. Zeta comes in both wire bound and hardbound versions, the hardbound Zeta has the fold-flat binding that allows perfect two-page spreads if you're fonder of a hard binding. But I still like the simplicity of a wire binding and the 7" square journal is a convenient size for me to carry with a pan set of watercolors for life drawing excursions.

I first tried out my Zeta with a pure pen page, lots of text and some pen drawings. I was thrilled with the level of control it gave me. The paper is gorgeous and takes pen textures perfectly. I penciled first and it does have enough tooth to allow delicate graphite values, it also erased clean without destroying the texture at all using a kneaded eraser and a white vinyl eraser. I've taken to penciling every page in it because this heavy, elegant paper gives precision to my pen drawing and allows the best of fine details to come through exactly as intended.

On color pages, the effects are a little different. Some artists find them disappointing, because the paper is naturally a bit less absorbent than cold press or rough paper. The smooth plate texture will let your paint float and puddle on the surface longer than it would on a rougher paper. That's something to get used to, but it's nowhere near as difficult as painting on Yupo. Watercolor on the Zeta paper takes a little more thought and planning to get your best effects with it. The apple in my first illustration was painted with a nearly dry brush effect. Strokes will be distinct and mingling takes carefully controlling water quantity and tilt of the journal. So it takes a bit of skill to get exactly the effects you want on the Zeta, but it's well worth it.

The more often I paint in my Zeta journal, the easier it is to get used to the paper's texture and control wet in wet applications. The petals of the top flowers were painted wet in wet within the paper area. I started with a medium-light wash of Rose per petal, kept the edges to the pen lines and then charged in more Rose where the shaded areas were on my photo reference (my own photo) and where I'd accented with pen shading. In the leaves I washed the entire area and then charged in some stronger green, waited for a dry area to get some darker details, played with the values. It may take a little practice to gain control of your watercolor on Zeta paper but the color and values will come up strong and bright on it.

A little goes a long way. Notice that in both pen watercolor pages, the darks come out really dark, the brights come out really bright. The same smooth texture that makes it difficult to control wet in wet applications also keeps more of the pigment on the surface, so a little watercolor goes a long way in a Zeta.

I would recommend if you've never used hot press watercolor before, to start with the last page of your Zeta journal and make a color chart of your watercolors. Mark off shapes or squares with a waterproof ink pen like a Pigma Micron (my favorite waterproof technical pen) and then draw out a shaded patch ranging from very light to its deepest tone for each color. This will also give a sense of how much water to have on the brush while painting.

I used a Niji waterbrush for most of these paintings but have also done some with a squirrel mop along with artist grade watercolors.

This page, painted with the squirrel mop, gave me much more control of the amount of water in each application. I did some objects and portions of objects wet in wet, the first layers on the marble and shell were wet in wet, also some areas of the rock and feather. Later I overlaid color with a damp brush into damp areas, finally some last details were with a nearly dry brush effect on thoroughly dry paper. I got a variety of soft and hard edges on this page with the squirrel mop and a finer point to the mop for getting into details than with the Niji water brush. So I would seriously recommend trying different brushes with your Zeta journal to discover what techniques best suit your work.

The 180lb paper is so heavy that even the wettest areas did not distort the paper or create problems on the other side. On the first demo page, the apple dried with a slight dip in the page on the previous side which was entirely pen work, but none of the ink lines ran because I was using a brush tip Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pen for the sketches on that side. If you put a very loose, heavy application of water there will be a little cockling, this is true for any paper. But it was very minimal and didn't bring any color through at all, as happened in other journals where I had heavy watercolor applications on one side that carried color through to the other.

I don't do many marker paintings but I'm pretty sure this paper will perform well with markers, the Pitt Artist Pens deliver about as much liquid as most alcohol based markers and I had no trouble with dark heavy applications going through or distorting after they went on. There was no distortion on the watercolor side of this page when I went back and did the apple, more that the water seeped through to slightly distort the surface under the can of spray fixative sketch.

Stamping, collage, glitter, special effects and Pan Pastels would all work fine on a Zeta journal, though with its hot press surface you probably won't be able to layer much with Pan Pastels. Use Pan Pastels on this more as an accent and definitely put some fixative over it if you want to layer the Pans. You might have some trouble getting opaque layering with Pans because of its smoothness. For pastels and Pan Pastels my favorite journal is the Beta, right now I've turned my current Stillman & Birn Beta journal into a Pastel Journal with Art Spectrum Multimedia (Colourfix) primer on some of its pages - and not on others, the rough surface of the Beta paper holds pastels and Pan Pastels better than most unsanded pastel papers.

However, a few accents over watercolor such as a dab of Pearlescent Pan Pastel or Metallic Pan Pastel could definitely work, I'd still try multimedia paintings in a Zeta. I might specifically use a sanded primer like AS Multimedia or Golden Pumice Gel if I wanted a pastel passage in a Zeta journal especially. Texture can be created where the paper doesn't have it. Acrylics and inks should work fine in this journal with the same way that watercolor adheres. The paper is very good at holding paint once it's dried!

I wholeheartedly recommend the Stillman & Birn Zeta journal, especially for pen drawing and pen/watercolor painting. Other multimedia and different mediums may work well or poorly depending on how well those mediums behave on a smooth surface. Zeta paper is smooth but absorbent, a thousand times better than Yupo and still has the Yupo Effect of brightening watercolor applications!

When you're feeling detail fussy and a super-fine pen point is calling to you, whether that's a crowquill, a .005 Pigma Micron or even a 6x0 Rapidograph technical pen, reach for a Zeta journal. You won't regret it! Watercolors will float on the surface, giving extra strength and brightness to your wet washes. With watersoluble colored pencils and other colored pencils, treat it as smooth paper. Think detail and careful applications. That's what the Zeta is all about.

I recommend Zeta for all water media with that caveat - it's smooth and it won't act like anything else without a primer or some other way to rough up a section. Its greatest strength is the clean, perfect pen line and minute detail, fantastic control of small details and strokes. Definitely the pen perfectionist's journal!

Sakura Koi Pocket Field Sketch Box

Sakura Koi Pocket Field Sketch Box is the only watercolor set I have that begins to approach the convenience of the Winsor & Newton Field Box. It's even more convenient. It's available in 12, 18 and 24 color sets, the 24 color and 18 color boxes can hold a 4" x 6" watercolor card or block in the lid for easel use. But the tiny 12 color pocket box is so small it'd fit in a normal shirt pocket -- and you don't need to find or carry around a cup of water. The two part waterbrush holds water in its barrel, so once that's assembled, you can just paint directly.

That makes this set a great choice for quick watercolor sketching. If you know you could be interrupted at any moment, this one doesn't take a minute or two to clean out, dump the water and fold it up. You can flip it shut, put the cap on the brush and toss both in your pocket while you're heading for the door. It's only 3 1/2" x 4 1/2" x 3/4" and you don't need to find a source of water if you're in a waiting room or a break room at work.

I think of this as the perfect watercolor set for those who get five or ten minute breaks at their jobs, wherever that job is. Rubber band it to a pocket size Moleskine watercolor journal and you can use it anywhere with faster setup and put-away time than anything else. If you like pen and wash, stick a Sakura Pigma Micron pen and a pencil in the same pocket -- or keep a 3" pencil stub in the box squishing the little sponge to the side.

Many sources rate the Sakura Koi watercolors, tube or pan, as student grade -- but if so, it is at least a very good student grade comparable to Cotman watercolors rather than anything that would give a beginner problems with color strength or pigment load. Perhaps one of the reasons for this is that the colors are all non toxic hues. In discussion with one of Sakura's executives, I came to understand the company has an unusual attitude toward children's products -- they make them good enough for adults to use so that children will come to love the product and continue to enjoy doing art all their lives.

That policy also means I don't need to hide away my adult art supplies from my grandchildren when they come from Sakura. The kids can't wreck them, but will get better results than they do from other child safe supplies and get more encouraged to continue painting and drawing. I know some artists in New Orleans who preferred the strong colors and nontoxic hues of student and children's paints to adults' watercolors, being less thrilled with genuine Cadmiums and Cobalts because their style of painting needed strong color and the qualities that made some artists swear by those mineral pigments interfered with their styles.

This is one brand I wouldn't hesitate to sell a painting I did with it, though I would tell my buyer what brands and colors of paint I used in any case for conservation reasons. I haven't tested lightfastness. They're priced in the student range at $17.46 for the 12 color set and $26.99 for the 24 color set, which is 4 1/2" x 6 1/4" and 1" deep with a bigger water brush, two sponges and a separate hook-on palette tray for more mixing possibilities.

The 12 color set of Sakura Koi tube watercolors is $19.83 and they aren't available in open stock at Blick. I don't know if they are in art stores. The tube colors are similar but you get Burnt Sienna instead of Light Red. So if you recharge your pans in the 12 color set, use up all your Light Red before refilling the pan. Burnt Sienna is useful in most of the same ways, the difference is that Light Red is a bit redder and a bit more opaque with a texture more like the Yellow Ochre.

I like the 12 color palette, even though it hasn't got Burnt Umber. I can mix a good dark brown with Viridian Hue and Light Red, or mix a good black with Crimson Hue and Ultramarine, one or the other would have to be left out. The colors in the 12 color set are well chosen with warm and cold yellows, reds, blues and greens plus Yellow Ochre, Light Red for an earth red, Ivory Black and Chinese White. The lid has five separate mixing areas for those times you don't want to use the pure color.

However, the inclusion of black has left me doing a lot of mixing on the paper rather than on the palette. This set really lent itself to doing Asian style paintings in black or blue monochrome, because of the good point and easy responsiveness of the small water brush. I've done dozens of small Asian style paintings with it, though my example today is more a Western sketch done as if I was working plein air on the site. Mingling color on the paper with this is a snap.

The price is quite a bit less than the Winsor & Newton Artist's Field Box and a bit less than the Winsor & Newton Cotman Field Box. The half pans are molded into one piece of plastic, so they can't be replaced individually when you use up the non toxic paint -- non toxic hues are some of why this gets labeled student grade. The up side is that you don't need to worry if you got blue on your fingers and then picked up your sandwich getting in a quick painting during your lunch.

Once I've used up all the paint in this set, I could refill the half pans with any brand of watercolor I chose. If you do this before running out completely, I'd suggest getting the Sakura Koi tube set of watercolors, they're probably exactly the same pigments and colors available.

I have the 24 color set as well, which has some great favorites of mine including Payne's Grey, Burnt Umber, a strong Purple and Quinacridone Rose. Because of the waterbrush, I use that set frequently too. Though it isn't small enough to fit in a shirt pocket, it's convenient to rubber band a 4" x 6" watercolor block to it and take it outside or go somewhere with it in a coat pocket. It will fit in most coat pockets.

So if your budget is a bit tight or you often paint in situations where you might have to stop very fast and get moving, the Sakura Koi Pocket Field Sketch Box is a good choice, especially the small 12 color set for being able to shove it in a pants or shirt pocket, use in short breaks at work or lightly add washes to a pen drawing. Put a Sakura Pigma Micron pen in your pocket with it and you're good to go with any pocket sized watercolor journal.


Pigeon Point Lighthouse, photo reference by M. Ginsberg, painted by Robert A. Sloan.