My order for the compete set of Watercolor Sticks from Cheap Joe's has been on backorder for about 6 months! They finally arrived today along with an order from Daniel Smith for these plastic cases to store them in. They get sticky and messy when wet. These cases are a great solution and solve the problem nicely. I have about 8 colors from Daniel Smith's watercolor sticks. I was excited to try them out today and compare the two lines. Daniel Smith's sticks are very pricey....$12 each! Cheap Joe's were about $4 each, at least when you bought them as a set. This particular painting had my gesso transfer over an old painting. This is a very rough surface to paint on but produces great texture. DON'T USE GOOD BRUSHES as they will wear away quickly. I drew with ink using a new stick I found at Michael's. I bought an entire package (should last awhile!) and they look sort of like fat, flat, large toothpicks. After the ink dried, I wet the watercolor stick by dipping it into water and started using it like a crayon, then took a wet brush and blended out the color. I need to try the Cheap Joe's sticks on a more traditional watercolor surface before coming to any permanent conclusion, but the new sticks seem to have a serious wax coating on them and do not have the richness of color I find in the Daniel Smith brand. This may be a case of "you get what you pay for"
8 comments:
I like the textures you achieved in this painting. I, too, have found that many of Cheap Joe's brand products, like American Journey, are not very good. As you wrote, you get what you pay for!
Thanks so much for sharing your experimentation with these watercolor sticks! Saves us the time and money, sometimes :) Or clues us into something we just have to buy! Perhaps the DS sticks will come down in price once they become more popular?
Myrna, How do these watercolor sticks compare with Caron D'Ache Neocolor watersoluable sticks?
Myrna, you are very talented! The product is unknown here but maybe the larger city stores will know about it. Your depiction of character in people is amazing!
I have had a set of the Cran D arche watercolor crayons for years and never taken the time to really use them...but I have time now..so hopefully I can do something as nice as what is done here with the Cheap Joes sticks. I bought a set of Cheap Joes American Journey brushes (watercolor, synthetics) and they are ok but I should have spent the money on 2 or 3 good sables! But they work well with gouache and acrylic!
Myrna, though the colors here aren't as bright and vivid, I have to say that I like the "muted feel" of this piece.
Many thanks for the info. One of my artist friends here in Ga recently turned me on to Cheap Joe's. I called and got their catelog. Haven't purchased anything from them yet. I do like DickBlick.com, and they are very fast in getting your order to you. Have a great day.
Thanks Myrna, that's good to know. Thanks for all your sharing :-)
Lately I've been too busy to comment, organising an exhibition of NZ art here in Italy, but I always enjoy seeing what you are doing.
Thanks for doing the research on sticks Myrna.Very helpful.
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