John Cogley, the owner of Daniel Smith, was in Singapore to conduct a workshop recently and that's when I found out that Daniel Smith has started selling gouache.
John Cogley said he travels eight months out of a year to talk to artists around the work regarding his paint. He would hold workshops talking about characteristics of paint and how paint is made. This workshop was held in collaboration with local art shop Straits Art which obviously sells Daniel Smith products – I buy my paint from them.
He also shares much of his knowledge on the Daniel Smith Youtube channel.
These are the colour swatches for the Primatek series watercolour paint.
Primatek watercolour paint is made with semi-precious stones. It's really interesting to hear about how Daniel Smith would source the stones from mines around the world, how the stones are broken down, milled and separated into pigment powder before being made into paint.
Many of the semi-precious stones are harder than metal that the milling machines have to be replaced every few years due to wear and tear. Semi-precious stones can be made into jewellery. For the purpose of making paint, Daniel Smith buys the stones leftover from jewellery or craft makers.
The reason why some paints are so expensive is due to the scarcity of the stone and the length of manufacturing process. Paint can take up to four months to make from stone. Synthetic paint by comparison are easier to make.
The imperfection is one characteristic of such paint made from these mineral stones.
If I am not wrong, Daniel Smith has the largest variety of watercolour in the market.
That's Paul Wang, my friend who is also a brand ambassador of Daniel Smith. Do check out his beautiful sketches if you have not.
Paul was also there to talk about the characteristic of paint.
And lastly there's this hands-on session where participants can play around with watercolour paint.
Daniel Smith makes good quality watercolour paint and I have been using this brand for years. The pricing of their watercolour pint from Straits Art is good, better than Schmincke and Winsor & Newton which are both noticeably more expensive here in Singapore.
Click for a larger view.
Shown above are the colour swatches for the Daniel Smith Extra Fine Gouache. The company currently sells 74 colours. I've not used their gouache before and I don't paint with gouache so I can't say much about the quality. The colours do look opaque enough which is the main selling point of gouache.
Daniel Smith does sell dot cards for watercolor paint and gouache so you can buy those to sample the paint first. They also sell a primary mixing set with Hansa Yellow Medium, Pyrrol Red, Ultramarine Blue and Titanium White.
If you have used their gouache before, let me know what you think about the quality.
