Papers

All the swatches with watercolor technique are painted on a 300g/m² Hahnemühle Aquarell-Karton. It's a natural white, mould made, cold pressed watercolor board. All four sides are deckle-edged, and has a nice watermark in one corner. I buy 500x650 sheets, and cut them into 55x100 swatch cards.

All gouache swatches are painted on a Fabriano Bristol paper. It's a 250g/m², 100% Alpha-Cellulose, acid-free, affordable paper. From an A4 size page I can cut 3 strips.

Acrylic swatches are painted on a Daler Rowney System3 Acrylic paper. It's a 230g/m² acid-free paper with irregular linen texture with some tooth.
Watercolor swatches
Number of paints |
Small watercolor swatches |
Watercolor swatches |
||
---|---|---|---|---|
A. Gallo Honey-Based Watercolor | Watercolor | 86 | 86 | 0 |
Blockx Aquarelles | Watercolor | 72 | 72 | 71 |
Blockx Pigment | Pigment (without binder) | 70 | 1 | 0 |
C. Roberson & Co Pigments | Pigment (without binder) | 75 | 1 | 0 |
Da Vinci Watercolors | Watercolor | 116 | 1 | 0 |
Daler Rowney FW Acrylic Ink | Acrylic Ink | 45 | 15 | 0 |
Daniel Smith Extra Fine Watercolors | Watercolor | 177 | 164 | 0 |
Daniel Smith Primatek Watercolors | Watercolor | 36 | 30 | 0 |
Dr. Ph. Martin's Hydrus Fine Art Liquid Watercolors | Liquid Watercolor | 36 | 12 | 0 |
Golden QOR Watercolor | Watercolor | 84 | 11 | 1 |
Holbein Artists' Gouache | Gouache | 140 | 55 | 2 |
Holbein Artists' Pigment | Pigment (without binder) | 80 | 2 | 0 |
Holbein Artists' Watercolor (HWC) | Watercolor | 123 | 109 | 0 |
Honsell JAXON Aquarell | Watercolor | 19 | 19 | 0 |
Jackson's Artist Pigment | Pigment (without binder) | 100 | 94 | 0 |
Kremer Pigmente Pigment | Pigment (without binder) | 189 | 171 | 65 |
Kusakabe Artist's Pigment | Pigment (without binder) | 98 | 2 | 0 |
Kusakabe Artists' Water Colours | Watercolor | 90 | 1 | 0 |
Lascaux Gouache | Acrylic Gouache | 3 | 2 | 0 |
Lefranc & Bourgeois LINEL Extra-Fine Gouache | Gouache | 77 | 38 | 0 |
M. Graham & Co. Artists' Watercolor | Watercolor | 70 | 1 | 0 |
Maimeri MaimeriBlu | Watercolor | 91 | 89 | 87 |
Maimeri Tempera Fine | Gouache | 27 | 11 | 4 |
Mijello Mission Gold Watercolor | Watercolor | 125 | 125 | 2 |
Nicker Acrylic Gouache | Acrylic Gouache | 93 | 0 | 1 |
Nicker Designers Colour | Gouache | 95 | 1 | 0 |
Nicker Poster Colour | Poster Color | 84 | 48 | 0 |
Old Holland Classic Watercolours | Watercolor | 173 | 162 | 32 |
Renesans Extra Fine Watercolour | Watercolor | 54 | 44 | 0 |
Roman Szmal Aquarius | Watercolor | 180 | 9 | 0 |
Royal Talens Gouache Extra Fine | Gouache | 60 | 22 | 0 |
Royal Talens Rembrandt Water Colour | Watercolor | 120 | 99 | 34 |
Royal Talens Van Gogh Watercolour | Watercolor | 72 | 72 | 0 |
Schmincke AKADEMIE Gouache [Series 22] | Gouache | 30 | 7 | 0 |
Schmincke Designers' Gouache (HKS) [Series 25] | Gouache | 60 | 21 | 0 |
Schmincke HORADAM Aquarell [Series 14] | Watercolor | 217 | 179 | 20 |
Schmincke HORADAM Gouache [Series 12] | Gouache | 51 | 12 | 23 |
Schmincke Pure Artists' Pigments [Series 18] | Pigment (without binder) | 48 | 1 | 0 |
Sennelier Pigment | Pigment (without binder) | 90 | 2 | 0 |
Sennelier l'Aquarelle | Watercolor | 98 | 56 | 11 |
Shinhan PWC | Watercolor | 104 | 104 | 1 |
Shinhan Professional Designers Gouache | Gouache | 72 | 22 | 0 |
Turner Acryl Gouache | Acrylic Gouache | 236 | 22 | 0 |
Turner Artists' Water Colour | Watercolor | 151 | 145 | 0 |
Winsor & Newton Cotman Water Colours | Watercolor | 40 | 11 | 4 |
Winsor & Newton Designers Gouache | Gouache | 89 | 41 | 0 |
Winsor & Newton Professional Water Colour | Watercolor | 118 | 98 | 6 |
If you interested, how I store my cards, you can read about that here.
Gouache swatches

I paint 5 swatches from each color. One tube color - whenever it's possible without adding water - and some lighter values (by adding white) and some darker values (by adding black).
I prepare the cards with masking tape, separating into 5 value sections. To speed up the process, I dont 'measure' just use different rulers' width. I paint the tube color slightly broader.
For gouaches I use Schminchke Akademie Gouache 100 White PW6 for lightening and Linel Extra-Fine Gouache 269 Ivory Black PBk9 for darkening.
For Nicker poster colors I use their own 051 White PW6 PW4 and 054 Black PBk1.
Gouache, especially painted straight from tube need some protection. I separate the painted swatches with a strip of glassine paper.
Number of paints |
Gouache swatches |
||
---|---|---|---|
Golden Fluid | Acrylic | 83 | 1 |
Golden Heavy Body | Acrylic | 153 | 1 |
Golden High Flow | Acrylic | 49 | 9 |
Holbein Artists' Gouache | Gouache | 140 | 35 |
Lascaux Artist | Acrylic | 54 | 6 |
Lascaux Studio | Acrylic | 54 | 26 |
Lefranc & Bourgeois Acrylique | Acrylic | 49 | 6 |
Lefranc & Bourgeois Flashe | Acrylic | 76 | 6 |
Lefranc & Bourgeois LINEL Extra-Fine Gouache | Gouache | 77 | 36 |
Liquitex Soft Body Acrylic | Acrylic | 100 | 12 |
Lukas Cryl Pastos | Acrylic | 68 | 1 |
Nicker Acrylic Gouache | Acrylic Gouache | 93 | 1 |
Nicker Designers Colour | Gouache | 95 | 1 |
Nicker Poster Colour | Poster Color | 84 | 48 |
Old Holland New Masters | Acrylic | 169 | 5 |
Royal Talens Gouache Extra Fine | Gouache | 60 | 25 |
Schmincke Designers' Gouache (HKS) [Series 25] | Gouache | 60 | 21 |
Schmincke HORADAM Gouache [Series 12] | Gouache | 51 | 8 |
Schmincke PRIMAcryl [Series 13] | Acrylic | 85 | 18 |
Sennelier Acrylique | Acrylic | 120 | 1 |
Shinhan Professional Designers Gouache | Gouache | 72 | 23 |
Turner Acryl Gouache | Acrylic Gouache | 236 | 20 |
Vallejo Acrylic Artist Color | Acrylic | 97 | 2 |
Winsor & Newton Designers Gouache | Gouache | 89 | 45 |
Acrylic swatches

For lighter and darker values I mix with Lascaux Studio 983 Tint White PW5 PW5 or 973 Carbon Black PBk7.
Number of paints |
Gouache swatches |
---|
Scanning
I scan the swatches with an Epson V600 scanner in Adobe RGB. I have the settings on, to keep the texture of the scans. Along with the swatches, I also scan a small card every time, painted with Golden Neutral Gray N5. It's a middle value neutral gray, I use it to consistently set the white balance. I export the swatches from Photoshop to sRGB, where obviously we loose some color information. So the displayed colors could look different not only because of individiual screen settings, but also because of the technical limitation of the scanning workflow.