The 139 HORADAM® AQUARELL colours combine an extremely extensive colour spectrum and meet the highest quality requirements for a premium watercolour. In addition to many well-tried and traditional colours, the range also contains many new colours using special pigments such as perylenes, quinacridones or transparent iron oxides. The large number of 92 single-pigment colours enables particularly brilliant mixing results and the 22 granulating colours provide special effects (marked with "G" in the colour chart).
Many colours within the range are characterised by special pigments, such as perylenes or quinacridones, or provide a perfect complement to the wide assortment due to their transparent, particularly glazing or especially luminous character.
Some examples are:
Quinacridones: With these highly lightfast pigments, the Quinacridone range contains 9 colours, some are evident from the name, e.g. Quinacridone red light, and some are recognisable from the pigment (e.g. ruby red or madder brown).
Perylenes: This special series contains 4 colours formulated with new, highly lightfast perylene pigments (perylene maroon, perylene green, perylene dark red and perylene violet).
Transparent iron oxides: Here, the 3 transparent colours transparent ochre, transparent Sienna and transparent umber complement the opaque colour spectrum of the iron oxides. Due to the very hard nature of the transparent pigments, which are complex to process, these colours are very rare.
With the time-consuming liquid pouring of HORADAM® AQUARELL into half and whole pans, Schmincke creates an unusual and unique quality aspect. The liquid watercolour is poured into the pans in 4 stages, each with a drying time of several weeks. The result is a highly concentrated, maximum-yield watercolour that is easy to pick up and paint with a damp brush.
A key ingredient in artists' watercolours is Kordofan Gum arabic from the arid zones south of the Sahara. Like most natural products, this classic watercolour binder is subject to annual fluctuations. That is why Schmincke tests all available charges every time buying Gum arabic and selects only the best charges of the respective vintage. This brings small but noticeable quality advantages. The special method of purifying the natural product is also important. The other recipe ingredients are also carefully selected accordingly and, of course, used individually in each recipe to achieve a harmonious quality assortment that is consistently easy to pick up with a brush.
Supergranulating colours are watercolours with a special property: the combination of at least 2 granulating HORADAM® pigments intensifies this effect to "supergranulation".
The colours are formulated with pigments from different colour ranges, resulting in additional colour changes besides the granulation effect. For example, the shade "Deep Sea Indigo" (14 952) is a combination of violet and green pigments, while "Glacier Brown" (14 965) contains a brown and a green pigment. This novel, natural structure formation of the colours varies depending on the paper and the amount of water used. The rougher the paper, the stronger the granulating effect.
The 40 supergranulating colours are divided into 8 thematic series of 5 colours each:
The colours are available in half pans and in 15 ml tubes. All supergranulating HORADAM® AQUARELL colours have exclusively 4 and 5 stars lightfastness and contain only pigments already known from HORADAM®. The opacity of the colours is predominantly semi-transparent / semi-opaque.
All supergranulating colours can be used on their own and perfectly in combination with all 139 HORADAM® AQUARELL watercolours as well as all AKADEMIE® Aquarell watercolours.
The extensive paint box assortment contains everything demanding watercolour painters need, from the small travel box to the classic metal boxes in various configurations, numerous "supergranulation sets" (in half pans, 5- and 15-ml tubes) to elegant, richly equipped wooden boxes.
The popular AQUA medium series offers a wide range of mediums for even more creative options, for special effects or to protect the finished watercolour paintings.