REVIEW: Schmincke HORADAM® AQUARELL Supergranulation Watercolour Sets

For some time now, Schmincke has been releasing curated sets of Schmincke HORADAM AQUARELL Supergranulating colors. Each set of has a theme, with a range of complimentary colors chosen to paint beautiful landscapes, but useful for other subjects as well.

Supergranulating – now there’s a mouthful.  Almost as bad a word as supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, and almost as magical.

Ten sets have been released so far, and they are limited edition. When the sets are gone, they will be gone, but forty of the colors have been added to Schmincke’s permanent line of watercolors.

All the colors have a lightfast rating of good or excellent, and are a combination of pigments that are well-known, meaning they are highly stable. Most of them are semi-transparent or semi-opaque.

You may ask what granulation is, and how does super-granulation differ?

You probably have some granulating colors in your palette. Commonly used pigments include cobalt blue, ultramarine blue, cerulean blue, yellow ochre, and raw sienna. There are many others – they tend to be blues, greens, or ‘earth’ colors.

The granulating effect is caused because there are heavier particles mixed with lighter, and the heavier ones settle into the paper indentations. In some cases, the lighter particles might attract each other, and also settle into the indentations. This gives your painting a pebbly look.

Supergranulating colors are a combination of two or more granulating pigments, which means the colors not only granulate, but separate into more than one color. In some cases, the colors are totally different — green and brown for instance. In other cases, the difference is simply lighter and darker. Whichever, it adds to the richness of the colors.

With any granulating color, it can be surprisingly difficult to get the granulation. It’s a bit easier with these supergranulating colors, but you still need the right combination of paper, water, and brush.

Forget smooth paper. You need a good cold press, and rough is even better.  You know, the watercolor papers that have lots of texture.  They may even feel a little gritty to the touch.

Fortunately, with a little practice, you can get the most from your granulating colors.

You may wonder if it would be possible to mix these colors yourself, if you have tubes of the listed pigments. Possibly. But the same pigment can look and act very differently depending on how it is processed, and how much of each pigment is added to the mix. So your mixes may not granulate or separate in the same way, and may look different in color.

Schmincke Horadam Aquarell – The Packaging

These limited edition sets of Schmincke HORADAM AQUARELL Supergranulating colors are available in different types of packaging.

Sets of 3 and sets of 5 colors come in cardboard packaging. The tubes are 5 ml each. The colors in the 3-set, are also found in the 5-set.

I’ve found this packaging the easiest to find.

The sets are available in a metal tin with 5 half-pans.

The tin is pretty standard, with a mixing flap, room for more half-pans and a ring on the bottom to hold the pan while painting. The nice thing is the addition of a travel brush that can be capped to fit in the tin. The brush itself is only so-so, but good enough for quick sketches on the go.

This is the classiest set, holding five 15 ml tubes. It is about double the price of the cardboard or tin sets, but the best bang for the buck given the amount of paint you get.

The box has a small hinge, and the Schmincke Owl logo is burned into both the outer and inner side of the lid. Neither the weight of the wood or the hinge would hold up to rough treatment, and there is no mixing area so this isn’t the best option for on the go.

The box can hold 30 half-pans so I converted mine to hold all of my super-granulating colors in one place. I’ll have to buy another if I decide to buy any more of the sets!

Other set options available at this time:

• Best of Horadam Watercolor : Super Granulation Set 12 half pans – metal box
• Best of Horadam Watercolor : Super Granulation Set 24 half pans -metal box
• Superganulation Set of 40 half pans tubes – metal box
• Superganulation Set of 10 15 ml tubes
• Superganulation Set of 40 5 ml tubes in a Wooden Box

The Limited Edition Watercolor Sets

Sets not shown here: Deep Sea, Galaxy, Shire, Haze.

The first 40 Supergranulating colors are now part of the permanent Schmincke line so if the sets aren’t available, you can still buy the colors separately.

Each set has a theme, and the color names follow that theme – for instance the Glacier set names all include Glacier, the Forest set all have Forest, and so on.

You will notice that many of the colors are in the same color family — Glacier Blue, Forest Blue, Desert Orange, Tundra Orange, etc. They are all different colors. Many have the same pigments, but they are combined differently to produce a different finished look. Some of them are very similar, some are not.

For the examples done for this review, I painted scenes that match the theme of the set., But I’ve been using these fantastic paints a lot over the last few months. Sometimes I only use the colors in one of the themed sets, and sometimes I mix and match from among the sets. As you can see, these supergranulating paints can be used to paint almost anything!

For the best granulation, it helps to stay simple when working smaller paintings or to work on larger sizes so that the paint has room to spread out and separate.

To give you a better idea of how paper effects the granulation, I’ve done some of my examples on rough paper which gives the best granulation, and some on cold press, which doesn’t granulate as much, but is more commonly used.

The colors in the swatches match the colors named in the list below them.

Desert

Pigments:

• Desert Yellow PY159/PBr7
• Desert Orange PY159/PBr33
• Desert Brown PY159/PR108/PBk11
• Desert Green PY108/PG26
• Desert Grey PY159/PBk11

This example was done on 4 x 6 inch cold-press paper.

Forest

Pigments:

• Forest Olive PG18/PBr7/PY43
• Forest Green PG19/PBr33
• Forest Blue PB36/PBk11
• Forest Brown PG26/PBr7/PY43
• Forest Grey PBr7PG50/PBk11

This example was done on 6 x 6 inch rough paper.

Glacier

Pigments:

• Glacier Blue PB29/PG50
• Glacier Turquoise PG50/PV16
• Glacier Green PR233/PG50
• Glacier Brown PBr6/PG26
• Glacier Black PBk11/PB35

This example was done on 6 x 6 inch rough paper.

Tundra

Pigments:

• Tundra Orange PR233/PBR7/PY43
• Tundra Pink PB29/PBR233,
• Tundra Violet PB29/PBRr6
• Tundra Blue PB29/PBR7,
• Tundra Green PBr6/PG19

This example was done on 6 x 6 inch rough paper.

Urban

Pigments used:

• Urban Yellow PY159/PV16
• Urban Red PY159/PR108/PB35/PBr6
• Urban Green PY159/PB36/PBk11
• Urban Brown PY159/PR108/PBk11
• Urban Grey PY159/PR108/PB35/PBk11

This example was done on 4 x 6 inch cold-press paper.

Volcano

Pigments:

• Volcano Yellow PY169,
• Volcano Orange PY159/PR108
• Volcano Red PR108
• Volcano Violet PV62/PR108
• Volcano Brown PR108/PBk11

This example was done on 4 x 6 inch cold-press paper.

About Schmincke

Schmincke is a German brand producing paints for over 130 years. In 2022 Schmincke has been awarded for the fourth time Brand of the Century with the Schmincke Horadam AQUARELL and thus remains in the circle of Germany’s strongest and best-known brands.

Schmincke Watercolors have a high level of lightfastness,. They are bound with Kordofan Gum Arabic, easily rewet once dried, and giving great control.

Links of Interest

• DOODLEWASH REVIEW: Schmincke 2017 Custom Set & New Colors
• DOODLEWASH REVIEW: Schmincke, Sennelier, MaimeriBlu 

Tools

• Schmincke – Supergranulation Sets 
• Hahnemuhle Collection Watercolor Block Rough 9.5×12.6 Inches 
• Hahnemuhle Collection 100% Cotton Watercolor Pad, 300 GSM, 9×12″, 12 Sheets 
• Rabi Alieva da Vinci Brush Set for Watercolor & Gouache 

Disclaimer:

I bought all of the Super-granulation sets used in this review. I loved them and felt others would like to know about them. I received no considerations from Schmincke Horadam or anyone else, though this post may contain affiliate links which help support the Doodlewash community. As always, all opinions expressed are my own.

Sandra Strait

I’m a self-taught artist who dances about with all sorts of artistic mediums. My main loves are Watercolor, Zentangle and Ballpoint pen. The subjects of my work are many and varied and change at whim. I’m a little bit crazy, but doesn’t that come with being an artist? I post Reviews and Tutorials here on Doodlewash.

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