Search for a Violet Dark Horse

 

9/29/22 Maple Leaf neighborhood (Instead of orange, I used a yellow-orange Museum Aquarelle here, which I thought better captured this aspen's turning leaves.)

When I was putting together my secondary triad palette for the season, I noted the difficulty in finding a cool violet in Caran d’Ache’s palette, especially if I wanted to stay within the Museum Aquarelle line. I surmised that the issue is lightfastness: Since all Museum Aquarelles are supposed to be lightfast enough to meet artist-grade standards, it must be difficult to make a good range of violets, a notoriously fugitive hue. It’s not that I care so much about lightfastness; it’s more the softness and heavy pigment that I love so much about Museum Aquarelles. But if lightfastness is not a high priority (unless I’m making a commissioned piece, of course), maybe I’ve been looking too narrowly.

Ever since the pandemic, I gradually transitioned to having two sketch bags – my primary larger Rickshaw and my small fitness-walking Rickshaw. That means I like to have two sets of triad colors so that I’m not constantly moving pencils from one bag to another. I kept the triad I put together a few weeks ago in my primary bag. For my walking bag, I decided to dig through my watercolor pencil stash for some alternative violets. Perhaps a dark horse would come to light!

The first one I tried was an ArtPOP Premium Plus Watercolor Pencil, which is a product newly available at Blick. For the mid-range price, these soft, waxy watercolor pencils are in the vast “not bad” category. I tried the Violet on my 11^th anniversary sketch.

ArtPop Violet

Next, I tried a Faber-Castell Albrecht Dürer Blue Violet (137) (that sketch was shown a few days ago in this post). I have long felt that Dürers are too hard for me to use when sketching on location, when I prefer to slam on a fast single application instead of multiple layers, but I was trying to be open-minded.

Albrecht Durer Blue Violet

Then I tried a Kalour Premium Watercolor Pencil in Heather Purple Deep (058) in the sketch at the top of the post and below. Kalour is one of those budget brands that Amazon is full of. You know the kind – a gazillion colors in a very low-priced set. Very soft, these pencils do not intensify in color as much as many watercolor pencils do when water is applied, but for the price, I was surprised by their pigment content and softness. Of the three, this is the one I’m keeping in my walking bag for now. I don’t know if it qualifies as an overall dark horse, but it’s a good addition to my secondary triad.

Kalour Heather Purple Deep