mineral pigments

The local art store recently started carrying Daniel Smith watercolors, so I went to their "testing day" to try out some of the new colors. Most of my watercolor paints are Daniel Smith brand, which I like because their pigment is very intense and a little goes a long way with very reliable color. One of the things I was most interested to see was the mineral and rock display that the rep brought along. As you can see above, it wasn't the most organized collection but it was quite interesting nevertheless.

Here's a fuchsite mineral with a wash of the watercolor made from it.

This one is rhodonite - mineral and watercolor.

Rhodonite makes a good color to paint something like these roses, perhaps. (Slipping in another garden pic here!) :)

I enjoyed finding the paint that matched the mineral sample, but it wasn't easy to do since there were tubes scattered everywhere. I really thought the gems were beautiful and interesting since they weren't cut or polished.

Here are some of the colors I checked out. I didn't photograph it, but one of the new colors that I liked best was interference gold. It looked very pretty layered on top of a color, adding depth and sparkle at the same time.