Oh, it was a long title. I should start upfront by saying that I was not impressed at all by the paints though I had ordered it with amazing anticipation after all the reviews i’ve read.
But let’s start with the basics. I bought “Tundra” set by Schminke for several reasons:
– I was born in a tundra region so everything that holds its name is my go to choice;
– Amazing gave extra 15% discount;
– I was thrilled by the idea of granulation;
– I still had my faith in Schminke;
So let’s agree that I was nowhere close to being a wise buyer. Noup! Instead I followed my unreasonable need to buy. Well, it could happen, no shame there at all. The Tundra set has the following five colours in the set: tundra orange, tundra rosa, tundra violet, tundra green, tundra blue. None of them are single pigmented and its ‘feature not a bug’: both pigments (or more) are balanced in a way that they all will be visible after the appliance. At the same time not every colour shows this ability; tundra orange (PR233, PBr7, PY43) ended quite pale. Tundra rose has almost faded away, even when I took the paint directly out of the tube. Tundra green was typical warm sap green. The most interesting ones were tundra violet(PB29, PBr6) and tundra blue(PB29, PBr7). The first one has a very cool ‘second’ layer if it is clean and not in mixes with other colours. The mix of black and brown pigment gave an interesting warm effect. The blue colour is highly granulated [] to me. I should say that with potters pink (especially with very characteristic granulations as Michael Harping’s paint has) this blue will pair perfectly for any sunset/sunrise landscapes.
The lightfastness is not a strong side of those colours. All of them are pretty weak and will lose themselves in mixes with something stronger and more pigmented. The violet will hold to the granulation, but because of the strong black pigment the mix may turn into some dirt.
Overall the set didn't worth the money. Well, live and learn. At the same time I can imagine that together with other colours from supergranulation sets it may pair well and be quite complimentary. My disappointment was very much dictated by the palette: the colours I use on the daily basis are more intense on pigments therefor they ‘eat’ something less vivid.
Here I attach a photo of my first drawing test so you can see how all the colours work together.
NB: for testers I used Lana aquarelle paper, 300gr/rough.