The German brand Schmincke has launched a very interesting new product: professional watersoluble paints from the Horadam series, created exclusively from natural earth pigments and plant resins/extracts. In this article, I will discuss the distinctive features of the Schmincke Horadam Naturals series and why they are worthy of attention.
Schmincke Horadam Naturals
The most important difference of this series, consisting of 16 colours, is the use of exclusive natural earth pigments and plant resins, which automatically creates a 100% vegan composition.
Eco-friendly, high quality, vegan watercolour is a powerful argument for people who are concerned about environmental protection, absolute naturalness, and the vegan component of the paints they use. The binder in this series, as in the watercolour and gouache line, is gum arabic resin, which means that these paints are watersoluble, and can be used either in their pure form or diluted with water.
In terms of their behaviour and features of working with them, the paints are similar to both watercolour and gouache. From gouache they took the possibility of a matt, dense paint layer, and the dense consistency of the colours from the tube themselves, and from watercolour, the behaviour of the paint to work with, and its transparency. Unlike standard watercolour paints, the Naturals series paints allow you to create a dense, opaque layer, without shine or excess thickness. Thus, in terms of the way it works and behaves, it is an amazing hybrid of watercolour and gouache, taking the best of both materials. By the way, this series can be mixed and combined with both watercolour and gouache paints from standard lines.
The lightfastness of each paint is correlated with the natural characteristics of the pigment, and, as always with Schmincke, these are high values. All paints are available individually in 15 ml tubes, as well as in two themed sets.
One of the most interesting aspects of the paints is the colours and the pigments themselves, on the basis of which they are created. The Naturals series includes 16 colours, eight of which are based on “earth” pigments, and eight which are based on ‘plant’ pigments. Let’s take a closer look at the shades and specific features of some of the paints in the series.
A Closer Look at Some of the Colours of Schmincke Horadam Naturals
Dragon’s Blood NR31
Red paint with the most poetic name and a romantic legend associated with it. The original resin of the dragon tree (as well as similar bright red resins such as cinnabar) was thought to be appreciated in the ancient times for its supposed medicinal properties. The name of the colour, according to the ancient Roman poet Pliny, comes from a battle between an elephant and a dragon-like creature, in which the blood of the two animals mixed and created this special red.
Dragon’s Blood is interesting not only by its name, but also by its shade, which is definitely cool and muted red-pink, as well as by its very interesting granulation. This is the most highly granulating paint of the entire series, and the pigment literally crumbles onto the surface of the paper into a very fine sand. It looks really spectacular!
Indigofera NB1
A natural indigo pigment made from blackish-blue plants. 100 kg of the dried plant only yields 1.5 – 2 kg of indigo pigment. This is one of the oldest pigments known to us. The oldest evidence of its use comes from excavations, and dates back to 3000 BC. It was also widely used in Roman paintings of the 1st century, in early medieval miniatures, and in paintings from all the eras of European painting. This colour gives you the opportunity to feel like a real ‘old master’.
Indigofera, the only blue colour in the new Naturals line, is very universal: depending on the amount of water with which the colour is diluted, it varies in the range from soft blue, to a fairly dense blue colour. Natural indigo is medium in lightness and brightness, a warm blue shade, and it is lighter than the synthetic indigo colour we are familiar with.
Dyers’ Green NB1, NY3
This colour is similar to Grass Green or Sap Green, and very pleasant, natural, not muted, but not too bright. It is the perfect shade for painting grass and treetops.
Celadonite PG23 | Caucasus Earth PG23 | Green Slate PBk19
These three colours are made from earth pigments, and their behaviour on paper fits the phrase “very transparent micas”. They have a slight tint (greenish in the case of Celadonite and Green Slate, taupe in the case of Caucasian Earth), and they are really very transparent. When you look at them in their pure form, it seems like you are looking through old glass.
Stil de Grain NY13
The most unusual and natural colour. The composition is not disclosed, and the pigment is produced according to a special secret recipe by only one company, which has been making this pigment since 1873. Stil de Grain is a very cool mustard colour, like how moss appears when lit by the sun. This is an incredible and very beautiful colour in its pure form, a cross between mustard and very cool yellow, with a green undertone – ideal for mosses, as well as frost-covered grass in bright sun.
Yellow Ochre PR102
Yellow Ochre is one of the most successful and popular colours in the main line of Schmincke Horadam Watercolours, and the Yellow Ochre from the Naturals series is in no way inferior to its “colleague”. It is a standard, warm, yellow-orange colour, intense and bright, a shade of linden honey. At the same time, the colour looks a little less saturated, and a little more orange than the usual Yellow Ochre, and is slightly granulating. It is curious that the original natural pigment for this paint was natural iron oxide – which is, essentially, rust.
Red Bolus PR102
In shade, this colour is very similar to the usual Burnt Sienna – the same dim orange with a red-brown bias. On paper it granulates quite strongly.
Lalvarit Violet N/A
This is a rare pigment created from andesite rock, which is mined from lava flows. One of the most interesting shades of the new Naturals line: warm and muted purple, fading into grey. Lalvarit Violet is an ideal colour for painting shadows – it is difficult to describe and find an analogy, so you need to see it in person, but it is in the range between purple, grey, beige, and brown. Imagine the colour of coffee with milk, to which you added a little bit of blackberry jam – and you get a colour similar to Lalvarit Violet.
Graphite Black PBk10
A very dark and dense colour, and the most opaque colour of the entire line. The pigment is natural ground graphite, and interestingly, it lies on the paper without the specific shine that graphite usually gives on the surface.
In addition to these colours, the line includes:
Rügen Chalk PW18 (White Chalk)
Kamala NO2 (semi-opaque cold orange-yellow)
Curcuma NY3 (warm light yellow)
Madder Lake NR9 (fine cool red)
Vine Black PBk8 (neutral granulating black)
The Lightfastness of Schmincke Horadam Naturals
To make the seven plant-based colours in the Schmincke Horadam Naturals range, soluble plant dyes are precipitated onto an insoluble matrix. This process, known as ‘laking’ has been used for centuries to improve the lightfastness of dyes and make them suitable for making artist paints. However, lake pigments are not as lightfast as many modern pigments.
The lightfastness of the Horadam Naturals range has been tested in Schmincke’s in-house laboratory using the Blue Wool Scale. The test consists of eight strips of wool fabric, each dyed with a different dye with different defined lightfastness properties. The paint samples (applied on watercolour paper as a gouache-layer of 30µm) are tested alongside these control strips. The test is carried out for around 1600 hours until the most lightfast test strip, level eight, begins to fade slightly. The colour is compared with the test strips and given a lightfastness rating based on the blue wool strip that most closely matches the change in the colour sample. According to the Blue Wool Scale, a rating of eight is the highest, while one is the lowest.
To communicate lightfastness on their tubes, Schmincke use a 1-5 star rating which is given according to the Blue Wool Scale test. Stil de Grain has a two star rating (a four on the Blue Wool Scale) and it has the lowest lightfastness of the range. The other plant-based colours are rated between three and four stars (between five and seven on the Blue Wool Scale), depending on the dye-stuff that has been used to make it.
With the exception of Rugen Chalk, the inorganic colours have a four-star lightfastness rating (between five and seven on the Blue Wool Scale), which is lower than would be expected from an earth pigment. This is because, unlike synthetically produced iron oxides, the pigment contains naturally occurring impurities that may darken over time.
Most of the paints are odourless, but some have a subtle odour, that could be because of the natural ingredients. For example, Green Slate and Celadonite smell like stone heated in the sun, Curcuma smells like a spicy seasoning of the same name (turmeric), Caucasian Earth – like chalk, and Dyers’ Green – smell like something sweet.
The new watersoluble line is sold in 15 ml tubes, which are available individually, as well as in two thematic sets.
Further Reading
Schmincke Supergranulation Watercolour Urban Set
The Difference Between Luminescent, Pearlescent, and Iridescent Paint
A Guide to Painting a Self-Portrait From Life
A Guide to Watercolour Painting
Shop Schmincke Horadam Naturals on jacksonsart.com
What is the lightfast ratings of the new
plant based ones?
Hi Dawn, the Schmincke Horadam Naturals have good lightfastness with ratings ranging from 3-5 stars across the 15 colours.
These are beautiful. I like the fact that
they are matte even at high strength. But I
am extremely skeptical about the
lightfastness rating of the plant-based
paints. I’d expect the earth colors to be
very lightfast but none of these plant
colors are typically considered anything
other than fugitive. I looked on
Schmincke’s website and they don’t really
explain how, for example, they could give
Madder Lake a lightfast rating of 4 out of 5
stars. Unless they processed these in
some new way, which they don’t detail, I’d
assume all of the plant pigments/dyes are
fugitive. Which is fine as long as the artist
expects this.
Hi Lori, we have added a new section to the article, explaining Schmincke’s approach to determining lightfastness. Thank you!