German watercolour brand Schmincke has introduced a new series of paints: super-granulating watercolours.

The NEW Schmincke Horadam Super Granulating Watercolour Paints are an addition to their existing Horadam Aquarell Professional range and are highly lightfast and mostly semi-opaque or semi-transparent.  Schmincke make their Horadam paints with a combination of gum arabic as the binder and natural oxgall as the wetting agent.

There are 40 new colours in this series, divided into 8 themed sets of 5 colours each; Deep Sea, Glacier, Galaxy, Forest, Tundra, Volcano, Shire & Desert.

They are formulated with pigments from their existing range, combining at least 2 granulating Horadam pigments to make a ‘super-granulating’ effect.

What is Granulation in Watercolour Painting?

Granulating paints are sought after by artists because of the effects it can bring to a painting as the paint particles gather to form an uneven ‘mottled’ texture on the paper.  The effect can be heightened particularly if a rough watercolour paper is used as the heavier pigments gather into the troughs of the paper.

Some colours have been formulated from pigments from different colour ranges which means that not only do you get the granulation effect, but also colour changes.  For example ‘Deep Sea Indigo’ is a combination of violet & green pigments whilst ‘Glacier Brown’ contains a brown & green pigment.

Here’s a brief overview of the colours in each set.

Schmincke Super Granulating Desert Colours

The Desert colours are all warm earthy browns, the Desert Green is particularly striking, splitting from a deep green into a burgundy.  This set would be a great addition to your palette if you paint landscapes.

Schmincke Super Granulating Galaxy Colours

Galaxy Colours include all the colours you need to create a space themed painting, the Galaxy Pink granulates into a cool pink and purple pigment and the Galaxy Black granulates really well with a mixture of black and ultramarine.

Schmincke Super Granulating Tundra Colours

Of note in this set is Tundra Violet which splits into a violet and black, the other colours are an orange, pink, blue and green.

Schmincke Super Granulating Deep Sea Colours

Deep Sea is a set of beautiful blues from the malachite coloured Deep Sea Green, and the dark blue of Deep Sea Indigo, through to an intense Deep Sea Violet. 

Schmincke Super Granulating Shire Colours

The Shire series includes some stunning greens and if you struggle mixing a green then this set will give you a good variety of different greens, with some lovely granulation and interesting pigment combinations.

Schmincke Super Granulating Forest Colours

Forest Colours a must have set for landscape and botanical painters, a fabulous array of green shades with some impressive granulating effects. The Forest Blue would look particularly effective and create lots of textural interest for foliage and shadows.

Schmincke Super Granulating Glacier Colours

Glacier Colours are a series of cool colours associated with mountainous scenes, the Glacier Green combines both green and brown and the Glacier Black is based on mars black with cobalt blue

Schmincke Super Granulating Volcano Colours

The Volcano series contains a set of warm fiery colours with a yellow, orange and red plus a really interesting violet and a stunning dark brown.

These new super granulating colours will enable you to create some unusual and intriguing watercolour washes and provide some captivating textures into your painting.  They are definitely worth a try!