Yes, its a ton of fun to discover great mixes.

Yay! Thanks Darleen!

My sister in law wipes up all the time and I just don’t get it. 😝

palette dirt can produce awesome skintones.

Why waste it? I use the dirt first, maybe add a little fresh paint

Omg Me too. And I remind myself every single time that I need to use the actual paints🤣 but it’s a complusion and I can’t pass up the on the palette ‘dirt’ . It gives me lovely surprising results.

Cobalts teal and green, and terra Rosa move even in northern Canada with little humidity.

those sound like pretty colors though

Even Cobalt Teal firms up eventually. I have some on another palette and it is firm as can be.

I think you did -- and are doing -- yourself a huge favor by ordering and using this set of paints. The pigments are so much better, and you will learn how to work with high quality paints right away, instead of "graduating" from lower quality paints and needing to learn the properties of high quality paints just as you are more confident in the images that you actually want to paint. You definitely did the right thing here by buying the M. Graham/Steve Mitchell set.

It's going to be hard to get any other paints because you started with the best. Which is good because you didn't waste money. The only other paints comparable are Daniel Smith, IMO. Also, did you get some good paper?

@@wulfseig1864 Yeah, I've been using 300gsm 100% cotton for a while. Warping and blistering drives me nuts, and I like wet-in-wet, so I've been putting my money into paper for a while. [wry smile]

@@angiepen I know what you mean. I like wet in wet as well. I do some practicing and color stories on AquaBee Watercolor Paper. I've tried a lot through the years and AquaBee is the only practice paper I will use.

Love that idea :)

True that.

I've had the same problem with DS and WN way too often. And I am fanatical about setting up pans properly. I threw my WN away in a rage one day and converted completely to Schmincke on the advice of a friend and painted for years with no problem. I am told that that is because they mill more finely. I also had no more problem with excess binder pouring into my pans on first opening WN and (some colors of)=DS. Sometimes the true cost of a brand is not apparent at the outset. My MG have been completely problem free and the texture is so luscious to use.

@@eileent8989 I have that issue with the binder both from W&N watercolor (sometimes DS) and gouache and it's infuriating!

I have a few blues and primateks in a mine lol palette and they dried and fell out…very annoying, but I popped them back in…those bricks are gonna keep working!

@@eileent8989 I just got a set from WetPaint! It's my first ever. I'm super excited.

My "LG" brand stove has a "proof bread" cycle that my wife uses quite a lot for making her own yogurt. Your stove might offer that sort of cycle too. Just leaving the light on works fine though.

I'm admiring both of those pallets. He included links to both , the paints and brushes in the description. I want one of those ceramic 5 spot pallets with the sloped well and the mixing area for the washes. I'm sure any ceramic plate from the thrift store would be fine.

Butcher's trays are available at any art store, Daniel Smith carries them (hopefully they'll be reopening soon) but other's stores like Blick's should have them. Probably available at kitchen stores, too, and many sizes are available on Amazon.

Letting them thoroughly dry is key. I live in the SE US and we are frequently very humid in summer. Never had a problem with them saying runny. Most people just don't let the palette dry sufficiently before closing it up. I will wait a week or more sometimes, leaving it to the open air after a fresh pour.

@@mindofwatercolor Absolutely true: letting them thoroughly dry is key. Once dry tho, keeping them that way is the fun bit (the open-air humidity here can slowly but surely reactivate the honey humectant): enter my trusty little dehydration crystal packs; no rocket science involved. The honey in these paints, apart from terrific pigment load, is what makes these paints such a joy to work with, I find. And I would choose a paint that rewets in a blink any day over stuff which almost needs a scrubber to activate... or patience. I used to just always leave the palette open between usage, with a paper towel lightly draped over (not in contact) to protect it from light. But no matter what - couldn't keep the dog hair out! lol.

I love Azo Green

I picked up this set so I'm starting my relations with Azo Green. I hope Steve does a video dedicated to just Azo Green.

...and yet it is rated light fast by pretty much every reputable manufacturer. People also don't display art (or shouldn't) in bright sunlight. If I have to put it back in the dark to recover the color then I had it improperly displayed to begin with. If its art you really care about and will display, treat every color and pigment as though it will fade. Thats what conservators do. Heat and humidity will also affect fading. Heat is a major factor in sunlight fading tests.

Wonderful!

Artists have used honey in watercolor paints for a long time, apparently. I'm really pleased with my M. Graham paints. The thing that convinced me to buy them originally was working with Cotman paints loaned to me by a friend and watching a number of Mind of Watercolor videos. When I saw how much better his paintings look with M. Graham paints, I purchased them instead of Cotman.

i live in Central Florida (about ten minutes from the ocean) and i was hesitant at first as well. but so far i’ve had no issues with any of my m. graham paints becoming liquid or oozing. i have them in an enamel-coated aluminum palette and they’re stuck in there just fine! still very sticky, and if you touch them, you do get paint on your fingers, but they aren’t wet by any means. i let the palette dry out on my desk for about a week before i started using them, and i let the palette stay open to dry for about half an hour after i’m done using them. if you’re hesitant, i highly recommend them. they’re some of the cleanest pigments i’ve ever used, and they flow and move wonderfully too!

@@rennley_9233 thank you for sharing your experience. That helps a lot.

They don't rewet through and through like they come out of the tube. Basically it's just the surface paint that gets rewet. The water left in the pans may run a little if you have to put it away in a hurry. I usually shake out the water before I pack up and wrap the palette up in a rag. Sometimes I'll even put a folded paper towel inside the palette before closing so watery paint doesn't cross contaminate colors. As soon as I get home I open it up and let it dry. Works like a charm

Steve has some great videos on avoiding mud and on using complementary colors, which may be part of your problem. Overmixing will also make an over-neutralized mix even worse. I think you're right that you need transparent colors. Using student quality paint is a big contributor to mud because it has so little actual color in the tube...mostly cheap filler and binder. This is also the reason why they perform strangely on the paper. I often think that they are misnamed because you'd have to be a pro to paint well with them. It might help your guilty conscience about spending money on paint to realize that student paints are really toys and that decent paints aren't only for professionals. They simply cost whatever they cost. (we all have a guilty conscience about something!) There are ways to bring the cost of professional paints down: 1. Use a limited oalette and get good recommendations from artists before you buy a single tube. You should learn what every single in a paint label means and which considerations are important to you. But that takes time. To get started more quickly, you could look for a good "mixing palette" recommended by an artist. Not all palettes bearing artists names are meant to be general mixing palettes. A mixing palette will be reliable in all situations and it will help you to mix easily. In a mixing palette chosen by an artist, every tube is chosen for how well it plays with the others in that palette . Steve's is a good mixing palette ....,and the price for the set is really low. You could go without needing another color for years. Jane Blundell also has a slightly larger mixing palette for DS. 2, Online stores often have discounts....drop in frequently. 3. Learn about mixing in a systematic way, You can waste a lot of money and, worse, time if you don't know how to mix. Find free youtube instruction that is well-organized. It's easier to learn if you mix while watching and stop to think about what you're seeing happening in your palette. If you become a good mixer you could get by with as few as seven paints ( a cool and a warm of each primary and a dark, like Payne's Gray or Neutral Tint.....but you will only get the mixes that you want with professional paints. You can always add more colors later, but many professional painters don't have much more than these seven in their palettes. Have a great painting summer.

@@eileent8989 WOW .. thank you for all that great information and advice. I also like the fact of how easy the paints re-wet after they have set in the pallet. I have mixed in some glycerin into my cheap paints to keep them from cracking up when they dry. At some point they just fall out of my pallet like little chunks of broken glass, and my gosh I have to keep a spray mist bottle of water on hand ( comes in handy for wetting my paper or moving around pigments on the paper) to constantly keep the paint in the pallet wet enough to get the paint out. Watching how easy he was able to load up his brush with deep rich color blew my mind. I can only get that if I put out fresh paint on the pallet and use it before it starts to dry. I really need to get better paint. 100 dollars for 10 tubes is a great price for the large tubes of paint you get. I was blown away by the olive green he was able to make with this set, I have tried to duplicate it with my yellow and blue paints with no luck. I can get sorta close but never a perfect clean olive green like M. Graham colors provided. Thanks again for your advice and reply. You have helped a lot.

Well the best course is to never put ANY painting in sunlight EVER. Testing is one thing but in practice never do it and you'll never have a problem. 😊

I love the narrow boat shows. Watched several seasons of that on Amazon Prime. Very interesting. Not something we have here in the states.

@@mindofwatercolor you tube has so many narrowboat vlogs....watch Foxes Afloat to start your you tube adventure. There are also a few that are artists and augment their finances while aboard.

I've seen actual narrowboats in Great Britain, but have never been aboard one. I believe that Stan Yorke, the British writer, has written a book devoted to narrowboats and their use on British waterways.

Yes. Sennelier is excellent!

I did!

M. Graham has lots of different themed sets that come with 5 each. Basic, Cobalt, Jeweled, Landscape, Marinescape, Quinacridones. I would have gotten Steve's but it wasn't out when I started with my first one... (sigh) ... and then I was hooked, so I got one set per month... 🙄 except for that month I just had to have two. They're really smooth. They don't dry out like some. They go a long way.. . But there should probably be a warning label: Addicting. 😃

@@ptaylor4923 yeah but I'm wanting something with Steve's name on it because of being a fan of his.

@@brentboyer79 TOTALLY UNDERSTAND! 😃👍👍 (Being a color hound and a complete fan, I can see myself with this on my next shopping list.)

M. Graham goes a LONG way though. It's got such a high pigment load, I think about all the junk paint I got in the beginning, which was money down the drain. You get like 7 half pans from a 15 ml tube. In the long run, the cost is actually much lower than buying half pans.

@@ANonymous-rx6lu You bet. I actually had to teach myself not to overload the paint, because I had trouble getting used to the dense pigment in M. Graham. In this case less is truly more. 😏

Yes, amzn.to/3iR29ya but keep in mind it's just a general guide. It doesn't really match up to specific brand colors.

Well this video is a key demonstration of that. Not much you can't mix with this combo.

Sorry to hear. Highly unusual.

Not online anymore sorry.

Phthalo Blue (Green Shade)

Works just fine.

Yeah those two colors especially. I only fill pans of those 1/3 at a time and then dry them overnight next to my oven light. It takes days and days but eventually it will finally set.

I have some Cobalt Teal in a palette and its as firm as can be. Drying/curing time is the key.

@@mindofwatercolor I’ve HD in in a ceramic studio palette for almost a year. It’s still not firm.

Yes, Cobalt is just slightly cooler than Ultramarine but it should do fine.

@@mindofwatercolor Thank you.

I hear you Eileen! 🤣

@@mindofwatercolor That was a serious question, Steve. Do you know whether there has ever been another artist who developed palettes for two different companies? That sounds like quite an honor to me.

@@eileent8989 Well to be fair I didn't exactly put together a set with two paint companies. Daniel Smith took no part in the first set except supplying the pans as ordered by Wet Paint, who also assembled and packaged the set. It was bit of an experiment. The M. Graham set is different. That was done at the company level between me and M. Graham. I did give Wet Paint an initial exclusive on selling the MG sets but otherwise they didn't get involved.

Of course. I'm just getting started.

It can take quite a long time depending on humidity and how deep your wells are.

@@mindofwatercolor It never dried. I used it to mix other colours and bought another phthalo green. :)

@@creativecolours2022 I do hear this from a few on occasion but it's never happened to me and it's not common from all indications. It will stay sticky but eventually it will dry firm like chewing gum. It may have to do with the amount of gum arabic in the portion squeezed out.

@@mindofwatercolor I don't know. It was very hard to get these colours here in Athens Greece and as things are now there is no option to buy them again. ( high import taxes and the covid situation ). The other colours dried like a gum as you said and performed very well though I had some issues with the way some of them diffused. Some of them have an extreme diffusion that doesn't work that well for me that I paint botanicals and portraits and in multiple layers. But generally speaking are very high quality paints heavily pigmented and brilliant. Perhaps they need a bit less honey.

It can be pretty common. I usually just squeeze out the excess binder into a paper towel until I'm down to just paint. It's usually not that much so doesn't really affect the whole. You can use a toothpick to stir if you want. Plunge it in an out of the tube like a butter churn and stir it around.

@@mindofwatercolor Thx Sir, for the quick answer ,Have a nice one.

I've heard a lot of different ideas on how to prep plastic so it' won't bead up so much. I haven't tried any of them, but to me, the easiest one sounded like using a Magic Eraser on it, (and rinse it off afterwards).

@@recoveringsoul755 I have tried sand paper, magic eraser, cleanser, etc. nothing seems to work very still without scratching up the surface which seems to lead to staining.

Magic Eraser

a Mr. Clean Magic eraser works really well, like Steve said. lately though i’ve been using Bon Ami powder cleaner. it’s like Comet but doesn’t contain any bleach or harsh chemicals; it’s just powdered feldspar and limestone. i’ll make a paste out of it with a little water and just dip a paper towel into it and scrub out the wells. plus it’s also great for cleaning glass cooktops and sinks c:

i should also mention that with the Bon Ami cleaner, the palette will still stain, but you can just wipe the palette down with it again any time that starts to bug you and it comes completely clean to white again. (M. Graham paints stain a lot stronger than any other brand i’ve owned, but if you prefer less-staining pigments, Daniel Smith is your better bet.)

Honey is not the binder. M. Graham uses Gum Arabic just like other watercolors but includes honey as a humidifying agent and preservative. Honey is not the cause of mold. In fact most honey-based paints are less likely to mold than others since its a natural preservative. Mold is caused by prolonged, excessive moisture held in a tightly enclosed palette. Palettes should be left open to completely dry out before storing. Some brands include other fillers and additives that can also promote mold but honey itself is not a contributing cause.

@@mindofwatercolor Thank you Steve for the clarification (I knew I could count on you!)... I raised my concern because after watching many, many youtube videos both on watercolors and Gouache, many people talk about honey being one of the causes for more mold issues on air tight palettes and it was never clear to me what the actual reason was. So again, thank you for your information. And from it I understand then that any paint palette (watercolor or Gouache - I don't know anything about Oil or Acrylic - at least not yet) that is stored for a longer period of time without use, if it is not properly dry first then mold issues may (not always, but it increases the probability) occur independently of the brand. Thank you Steve for the clarification (I knew I could count on you!)... Cheers from Spain!!!!