PROFESSIONAL Watercolor paints that made me STAND UP AND say WHOLLY COW!

Click on the image above to see my YpuTube video review of QoR watercolors. Below are all the links pertaining to this video. If you have any questions please leave a comment.

My wife, Marilee and I are trying something new. Some of you know the Popovich household is 100% artsy-fartsy. I am a fine artist while Marilee is a graphic designer and marketing geek. She has been working behind the scenes creating videos and developing my marketing brand and strategy.

We are combining our talents to bring a more in-depth and more vibrant body of information. Like before I will bring everything watercolor - all of my 40+ years of observing, painting, and art teaching experience. While Marilee will be asking me questions on our videos and presenting additional information from an artist’s marketers point of reference when it applies. She has to help me promote my watercolor paintings and watercolor classes/workshops so I can spend more time painting. In fact, in the last year, art leagues have had her share her knowledge about getting an online presence.
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WATERCOLOR SOCIETY OF INDIANA
Sunday, March 17th Marilee and I drove 2.5 hours to Indianapolis for the Watercolor Society of Indiana meeting. It’s quite a large group of passionate artists from all over the state and beyond with a round 200+ members. 

Valeria Allen - Golden Artist Colors

GUEST PRESENTER FROM GOLDEN ARTIST COLORS
​Their guest speaker was Valerie Allen http://valerieallenart.com from Golden Paints. Valerie is a working artist who lives in Michigan and gets to play with and present all of the Golden products. She walked the group through their products but of course I wanted to hear more about their relatively new to the playing field watercolors called QoR (pronounced core.)
Prior to Valerie’s talk the group had a raffle with plenty of swag. Lucky Marilee! Or should I say lucky Dale? She won a a six-tube set of Qor Modern Watercolor paints.
As you know I’ve been professionally painting for 40 years trying every watercolor brands out their. If you have taken classes from me you know my opinion about each brand. I’ve been very pleased with my recommended paint brands — they are like old, comfortable friends. And it would take a lot to to get me to stand up and say WOW!

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​A  LITTLE ABOUT GOLDEN ARTIST COLORS
​Golden Artist Colors, Inc. began on June 16, 1980 by Sam Golden. Here’s their link to read more about their history . www.goldenpaints.com  You can learn about all their lines, amazing technical information and a link to their newsletter and social media.

Like I said earlier QoR is new to the watercolor world. Here’s what they say about their paints:

QoR MODERN WATERCOLORS
The unique formulation of QoR Watercolors accentuates the luminosity and brilliance of pigments even after drying. QoR provides the subtlety, transparency and flow of a great watercolor, with colors that have as much vibrancy and fire as the best acrylic or oil paint.

Choose from 83 high-intensity colors, including three Iridescent colors. The addition of QoR Mediums and Grounds can increase gloss, improve flow or wetting and provide different textured surfaces, to expand the creative opportunities in watercolor painting. www.qorcolors.com

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Sam Golden – Photo courtesy Golden Artist Colors

To see the full line of Qor Watercolors click on color chart above

BACK IN MY STUDIO – VIDEO REVIEW
I was quite excited to try out our six new tubes of paints. I was quite excited to try out our six new tubes of colors. I wanted to see how they perform, so  I recreated a demo I did for one of my weekly classes. PLEASE NOTE: The demo used Talon watercolors, was a full palette and a finished painting (1-1/2 hours) where the QoR is a study that took 20 minutes. But I still feel I could give an accurate review. ​

​COLORS
QoR MODERN MODERN WATERCOLORS
QoR Paints I'm Testing Today:

• Burnt Sienna (Natural)
• Pyrred Red Light
• Hansa Yellow Light
• Permanent Alizarin Crimson
• Ultramarine Blue
• Phthalate Blue (Green Shade)

If you are interested in trying these paints yourself I am sharing the Amazon Link with you on the right. Leave a comment below with your painting experiences.

BRUSHES
I prefer real hair watercolor brushes if you can afford them.

• 1” flat brush
• #10 round
• #4 or #6 round brush

PAPER

• Indigo Artpapers https://indigoartpapers.com
• Handcrafted 100% cotton rags
• Cold press sheet
• Four deckle edges
• Produced using an environmentally friendly process with no chlorine, bleaches, or harmful chemicals, these sheets are acid-free, internally and externally sized, and watermarked
• 22" × 30" (56 cm × 76 cm) sheets
• Weight: 640 gsm (metric: GSM = grams per square meter) Here’s a handy chart ekaterinasmirnova.wordpress.com.
• Indigo Artpapers is based in Canada, milledq in India

THE SCENE
October 5, 2018: the Presqile River near Marenisco, MI on old route 2. Marilee and I spent our 33rd wedding anniversary doing what we love most – hiking the Northwoods during autumn. Here's a place we spent a lot of time capturing it from every angle. The golds of the leaves and the black water was a bewitching place that left us speechless.

Click on the image above to see my YouTube video review of QoR watercolors. If you have any questions please leave a comment.

THE QoR VIDEO DEMONSTRATION
As I stated earlier, I planned on doing an interruption using the Golden paints’ QoR watercolors. I  compared their watercolors to Talens watercolors which are paints I’ve used for over 40+ years. The video is around 20 minutes start to finish.

​I started this painting like all watercolors paintings using three basic steps. ​
Step #1: The Block-In

• Painting large to small areas. 
• Painting background to foreground.
• Painting values light to dark. Putting down values to represent something for the lights and something for the darks. 
• Painting colors intense at the beginning to less intense as you move through the painting. This first step is quick and all encompassing and will take the least amount of time to paint. 

In Step #1 I slightly wet the paper where I painted the sky to get a fluid felling. From there I dove into the autumn leaves as a mass. I started by mixing the Hansa Yellow Light with the Pyrred Red Light to get an autumnal orange. Which was quite vibrant, so I mixed in more yellow to get the color I was looking for. Remember to change up your color every five or six brushstrokes. I added Burnt Sienna (Natural). So far pretty good color. QoR says there is more pigment in the paint, and it appears to be, but we will see once it dries.

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This is a question I get all the time:
Q. Why don't I use my dried paints?
A. I covered this subject in the video. I also share how I extend the life of my paints for a day or two.

STEP # 2: Establishing Secondary Masses

• Working in smaller masses your painting process slows down. Follow the block in process previously stated.
• This step takes twice as long as the block-in.
• Remember background to foreground in a painting is a repetitive process till finished.
• You begin working your darks darker. This will allow your lights to start to appear lighter.
• What to anticipate when a watercolor is drying comes with experience.

Note: Usually darks dry much lighter -- lets see what QoR does in this test.

Now I wanted to see how the QoR watercolors handled a dry brush technique. I saw no difference in the paint from others when dry brushing. Also ever so slightly spraying the paint. I'm checking the flow. So far I was able to keep the vibrant color. You have probably noticed I keep the painting reasonably abstract. It will all pul together at the end.

I used a lot of water and QoR watercolors maintained its vibrancy. These paints are reacting very well. I was impressed so far – remember I have never used QoR paints before.

STEP # 3: Final Details

• Slow your process down to a crawl. This last step takes three times (or longer) than block-in.
• Every three to five brush strokes step back and take a look at what you have done and what you need to do.
•  Never paint a painting from start to finish with your nose on the paper.
• Always step back.
• Squint down for the values.
• Open your eyes for the color.
• Take your time, this is not a race.​

I'm in the final phase of this watercolor study or sketch. When I do a sketch I want to lay the paint down fast to get a feel for the paint colors and composition. I don't labor the details on a sketch.

I see positive results from QoR.

AT THE END OF THE VIDEO
I shared this same painting I created in one of my weekly classes as a demonstration. Now I have to admit there were some differences. The larger piece was painted with Talens watercolors, the painting was a full palette of colors and took me 1-1/2 hours. This was an actual demonstration while the QoR painting was just a 20-minute study. But I felt I got a good read on the QoR paints in 20 minutes.

Side-by-Side Test
I compared Burnt Sienna by QoR and Talens. The colors were slightly different but I expected that. Both brands were in the acceptable Burnt Sienna family. The Talens was more granular. and because of that I preferred the QoR 

On the flip side I sampled Ultramarine Blue by QoR and Talens. The colors were also slightly different – QoR is a touch warmer and Talens was a little cooler – a slight variation, both paints are good. No gramulaton.

Well, the QoR watercolors are looking very good.

BRANDS - Left: QoR Right: Talens Royal. COLORS: burnt sienna and ultramarine blue

​​IN CONCLUSION
I tried Golden Artist Colors line of watercolors called QoR. I found that the intensity, luminosity, and flow of the watercolor on Indigo watercolor paper was quite impressive.

• The QoR watercolor colors are more vibrant even when diluted. Remember you can grey down your colors, but you can not make more vibrantly directly from the tube.
• I like the cleanliness of the colors
• The colors are saturated (a lot of pigment), mix well, flow beautifully and when dry shows the vibrancy of what you should expect from professional watercolor. They don't dissipate - colors hold true when they dry!
• Excellent transparency while keeping its vibrancy. This is hard to achieve.
• Did some dry brushing, scrubbing, and lifting with positive results. Reacts positively to all techniques.
• Overall positive results
• While some said on the online reviews that their tubes weren't full, I did not experience that.
• I would definitely be interested in employing a full-color palette using their watercolors paints.

The difference was remarkable. Yes, I'm saying WHOLLY COW! I give this two paintbrushes up. I'm placing an order today.

UPDATE: Got my shipment from Dick Blicks today!
​I'll let you know in a future vlog what I think as I start painting with QoR watercolors in a full palette.

AFFILIATE DISCLOSUREAmazon: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.