wanted - a small amount of really nice watercolour paints

I'm learning watercolour.  I looked at the price of supplies and found I could buy 24 colours of paint for the price of one... so I did.

And now I see why.

So I'm putting this out there to the universe.  Does anyone out there do watercolour and have a small amount of some nice paints you can spare? I'm hoping for a half or quarter pan of a red, yellow and blue - they don't have to be pure, in fact, earthy colours would be better.   Just enough so I can experience some nice watercolour paint to compare to this cheap stuff.  

Would you like some yarn or something else as a trade?  Goose feathers perhaps?  

Your post sent me hunting for my old watercolor tins...for me these were primo after cheap sets but I'm not sure they are the quality you are looking for?
The brand is 'Marabu' made in Germany. I found them at a junk store

The tube watercolors are old, mostly dried up but that shouldn't matter for watercolors. Some were mom's and a few of mine left from college so fifty plus years old.
Brand names 'Cotman' and 'Artist's Watercolor'.  Less expensive than the german one's I suspect?

Maybe someone knows where either of these ranks as far as good watercolors go?
I would gladly share the tubes with you...not the Marabu...they are my 'carrot' hoping I'll paint again someday

I am hoping that a barter/trade situation will out though I wonder if you have thought about making your own watercolors?

I found several articles on making your own watercolors though I picked this one as it is a commercial site rather than someone's blog:

https://www.jacksonsart.com/blog/2020/09/25/making-handmade-watercolours-with-jacksons-artist-pigments/

Looks like it wouldn't be too tricky to get the tubes into usable paint.



Love your photo composition.

And another take on restoring dry watercolor tubes.

That is great to know they can be reconstituted.

If you think they might be useful I would be happy to send all of the tubes to you.

Four of the lesser used ones are still soft (burnt umber, ivory black, burnt sienna and viridian)but most are dry...a half tube of cadmium yellow and one of vermilion.  The rest are only very small amounts dried up by the cap...ultra marine blue, hooker green light, red oxide, cad. yellow deep, and another bit of green....

It would be great to know they are being used as they have been tucked away far too long.

My preference is to gift them.

...oh, and maybe gently urge you to produce that next book in your series

cotman are good. i haven't heard of marabu but they look decent enough from here. i also keep hoping to get back into painting, maybe we need a paint-along?

definitely recover the ones in the tubes, it's quite easy. and you posted the lego thing recently (i think it was you), that is a great way to reuse them and make them portable (an old ice cube tray is good too, but less portable).

when i was (a starving art student) in college i used to trawl the lost-and-found boxes and thrift stores for art supplies, they often ended up there at the end of the term when people finished their course/moved out and decided they were done with painting. they do last pretty much forever, so if you have anyone who is in a school setting maybe have them keep their eyes out.

Anne Miller wrote:
I am hoping that a barter/trade situation will out though I wonder if you have thought about making your own watercolors?

I found several articles on making your own watercolors though I picked this one as it is a commercial site rather than someone's blog:

https://www.jacksonsart.com/blog/2020/09/25/making-handmade-watercolours-with-jacksons-artist-pigments/

Oh that looks like so much fun!

I've spent the last few days drooling over permies earth pigment thread.  

It looks like I want some special tools and ingredients.  Honey and tree sap I have, but I'm not sure I know enough about painting yet to know if any paint I made would be good or not.  That's why I'm looking for some comparison paints.  

I'm especially interested in the idea of "limited palette" painting where the artist has two or three colours plus maybe black and white for value change.  Seems like it would be handy for painting in the garden or on the go because I wouldn't have to overload my brain trying to decide which of the 3 greens are in my set to use - I could mix one.  

I am super-excited about getting some real paints.  The dollar store has a set of those tiny containers for, well two dollars (didn't the dollar store used to be everything under a dollar?).  The point is, it's affordable and I'm so glad I chose a medium where we can revive old paint.  

I have a small Winsor and Newton set that I've been using for 30+ years. Old watercolours work great!

I've also had good luck with finding quality paints and brushes through thrifting. If there is a fine art supply store near you, it can be worth your time to go in and look around. You'll be able to see what the finest quality stuff looks and feels like, (especially the brushes) so you can know which ones are worth picking up used.

So far, the only pigment I've done from scratch is black walnut ink. It is super easy, just soak rinds in water, then run it through cheesecloth and then let it dry down to a solid. It's a lovely brown that can be used as ink or paint. You can also expose it to iron and it will give you a transparent black. It also keeps for years, once dry.

Judith Browning wrote:That is great to know they can be reconstituted.

If you think they might be useful I would be happy to send all of the tubes to you.

Four of the lesser used ones are still soft (burnt umber, ivory black, burnt sienna and viridian)but most are dry...a half tube of cadmium yellow and one of vermilion.  The rest are only very small amounts dried up by the cap...ultra marine blue, hooker green light, red oxide, cad. yellow deep, and another bit of green....

It would be great to know they are being used as they have been tucked away far too long.

My preference is to gift them.

...oh, and maybe gently urge you to produce that next book in your series

I wish I had checked the cost of shipping before offering...really cost prohibitive across the border for such disreputable paints

I hope someone closer has some to share with you!

Maybe I'll have to watch those videos and try to revive them myself....

Thanks so much for giving it a go.  Cross border shipping is tricky. I means a lot that you gave it a try.

Going to put the hope back out to the universe.   I don't need much, just enough to find out how good paints differ from these learning paint sets.