Schmincke Aqua Drops
I recently purchased some liquid watercolours and thought that I would give them a try. If you are familiar with my work, then you will know that I am a big fan of liquid watercolours. I often find that many liquid watercolours are brighter and more vivid than traditional tube or pan paints. So when I saw these Aqua Drops by a brand called Schmincke, I wanted to try them out. Click here to see what I purchased.
What are these paints? They are liquid, pigment-based and highly lightfast. In fact, all their colours rate 4 or 5 stars in lightfastness. There are 24 colours available and they come in a 30 ml bottle with a plastic pipette.
I decided to film myself opening my package and trying them straight away. Want to see my initial impressions and what I painted as I tried them out?
Just click below to watch the video:
How do these measure up to other brands?
Ok, so my all-time favourite liquid watercolours are D.R. Ph Martin's radiant concentrated watercolours. I love how vibrant they are and how effortlessly the colours blend together, making them perfect for painting loose florals. However, they have some drawbacks as they aren't lightfast, which means they can fade over time. They also spread very quickly, so that can be hard to control. So how do these Aqua Drops measure up?
My first impressions:
First of all, I love that the paints are quite thick, (almost like milk, rather than water) which gives them a nice consistency to work with. They go on nicely but do dry quite a bit lighter than how they first go on. The paint also dries relatively quickly which works out well for adding another layer over the top. They don't spread and blend as well as other liquid watercolours, but that can be a positive rather than a negative depending on the painting style that you are trying to achieve. The colours are maybe more matt and definitely less vibrant in comparison to radiant concentrated watercolours.
However, I really love the "Lemon Yellow" colour as well as the "Brilliant Orange". These work well because they are quite opaque, so you get a nice solid colour, which can be difficult to achieve with other brands. I also think the colours are really nice and would maybe complement some of the more radiant colours I like to use.
Lastly, I think I need to continue to experiment with these paints. It's worth trying to mix them with something else or trying them with different papers to see how they react.
Overall, I'm quite happy with these paints and I will keep on using them to find out how I can implement these into my paintings. Make sure to be following me on Instagram to see what I’m experimenting with.
