This is no April Fools!

I am reviewing the watercolors called
Sonnet from St. Petersburg watercolors
(Their image from their site, right.)

First off,  I bought them for the pretty box.
Why don’t more makers use pretty colors
for their watercolor palettes?
They are selling to artists!  We like color!

Because of this I didn’t realize the watercolors
were student grade, so my scrawled
hand-written commentary below is about how they are not very good paints…
but for student grade they are!

You can see the first fast posie sketch in a Hahnemühle
Nostalgie Sketchbook using lots of bright colors, above.
I used the Hansa Yellow and the Yellow Medium in the sunflower petals,
and the Orange and Light Red in the tall petals.

So let’s talk about student grade versus professional grade watercolors.  For student grade these are good — I had some Cotman watercolors that had poor pigmentation (I gifted them to a 4-year-old).  These have a brilliance which is nice.  My initial reaction (written left) was comparing them to my artist grade, which do have better depth of color.

Below, giving Sonnet from St. Petersburg watercolors a chance on good watercolor paper
in a Hahnemühle Watercolour Journal…  Colors are still flat.
Again, I have no other adjectives to describe it, but if you love watercolors
you will know what a flat appearance is,
because good watercolors have a brilliance, even if they are matte pigments.

I will be leaving these for the next time budding student artist
or a child, comes to the studio,
and off they go in a secondary tin, because…

I love the tin!

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