Some stuff about painting.

I've ordered several tubes of Primatek watercolors from Daniel Smith. The ones I've used so far are Sodalite, Serpentine, and Lapis Lazuli. Sodalite seems darker than a remember and granulates a lot if used in a wash, but does make a nice blue-black. Serpentine seems to consist of two components. One is extremely green and seems to stay suspended in the water for a long time. The other component is reddish, looking similar to red ocher or other iron containing clay pigments. This rapidly settles out of the wash, giving a granulated effect that I like. From a distance, a passage painted with Daniel Smith Genuine Serpentine appears an earthy yellowish-green, a good color for painting weeds or brush. Lapis lazuli despite the great name was, in my opinion, the least satisfactory paint, as it has low tinting strength. In my test painting I used it for the sky in a sunset and, while the grayish blue worked well for this, it did not do anything a mixture of less expensive pigments wouldn't have done.