Part 1, Yellows & Oranges: Testing EVERY Daniel Smith Watercolor with Color Swatches

An opinionated artist's explorations of 245 watercolors made by Daniel Smith. In part one I make color swatches of the yellow and orange paints using the color sample dot card, and share interesting pigment tidbits and my thoughts about the colors as we go.
Hopefully this is helpful if you are befuddled by all the color options (and how similar some of them are... spoiler alert, some are nearly identical), want to see how the colors look in action, or are looking for a relaxing 35 minutes of color conversation.
What are your favorite yellow and orange Daniel Smith colors? Share in the comments!!
I got the dot cards on Amazon, and it was honestly some of the best hours of entertainment I've gotten from $23 in a long time. Here's the link for the dot sample sheets! amzn.to/3wTb9tL
Sketchbook: Strathmore 400 series hardbound book. I rarely use sketchbooks except for color and painting notes! This is my favorite I've found so far, as the colors are quite true compared to how they appear on a cotton rag paper. amzn.to/3NyX1vg
Paintbrush: an old one from 15 years ago that is no longer manufactured. But it is a filbert shape, which I love for color swatching.
Next up are reds, pinks, and purples!!!
Music: "Eternity" Instrumental by Homage. • Free Chill Storytellin...

[@KariAndresen]

I'd love to see a video in the future on how you create your mixing pages. They're so pretty. 🙂 Maybe if you end up adding new colors to your palette, you could take us along as you test them with mixes..

[@artofhiking]

I LOVE This idea, Kari!! I have some new colors I got over the last year that I think would be great candidates for the pages :) Adding it to my to-make content list!!!

[@PansyColor]

Agreed. Please show us how you do the mixing pages

[@mariablpiedade11]

Thank you so much for the series. I loved seeing all the colors it was very helpful 💜💜 I would love to see a video of your sketchbook with the mixed watercolors it was sooo beautiful 😍 (25:17)

[@artofhiking]

thank you for the note, I appreciate it! And I want to make more of those pages, they are so very relaxing. I'm thinking I might film some of them, as I've had some other folks who were interested in those as well! You're providing some good inspiration to work on that sooner rather than later!

[@tharzanne]

Indian red and yellow are named after the country of India, where those particular pigments are mined. It's the same as colors like English red, where the pigments are aquired from England.

[@artofhiking]

thanks for the note! While I learned more about the pigment names since these videos were made, I still do with that the paint manufactures would change out the name, as the country of origin connection is not well known for a lot of folks (myself included until I did the research for these videos!)

[@berolinastrassmann]

27:13 If you like DS Quin Gold, which is a mix of pigments, you might enjoy Rembrandt's Quinacridone Orange (PO48) which is very similar in hue. This pigment has been discontinued (as was the iriginal Quin Gold PO49) so now it is a good time to check it out.

[@artofhiking]

thank you for the tip! I have the DS quinacridone burnt orange, which I think is the same pigment, and I love it so much! Especially for desert paintings. I may have bought 5 spare tubes :)

[@laurahale5774]

Thank you for the color swatching and mixing charts. Good information to know. I'll be referring back to these videos. Thanks again.

[@artofhiking]

:)))) I still look back at the dot cards and the pages of colors, too, when I hear about a color and want to remember what I thought about it.

[@everartokelli]

Thanks for sharing your swatching, and I love your mixing sheets, very useful way of showing how pigments work together! You might want to put a little water on the dots and wait a minute then use a soft brush to pick up paint, a stiff brush isn't ideal. I've never had an issue with DS dot cards. Indian Yellow refers to the country India, not Native Americans, but I'd also prefer paint manufacturers use descriptive names for colors that don't use countries, people or other names that could be viewed as pejorative despite being classic/traditional names of the pigments.

[@artofhiking]

Thank you for watching, and for the great tip about the drop of water! I always forget about that, as I'm often painting outside and don't want to make my palette too wet, but it would have been just the thing for this project! And, you articulate perfectly the wish for more descriptive names.