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Schmincke Aqua Drop

Date: 11-01-2021
News, Tips & Info

Schmincke combine history with innovation to bring us the best in artist colours, and always Made in Germany.


It’s not often a new type of paint comes along, so there’s a lot of excitement around Schmincke’s latest release: Aqua Drop.
Schmincke Aqua Drop is a concentrated, lightfast, liquid watercolour in 24 transparent colours plus an opaque white. In a first, Aqua Drop delivers brilliant, true artist quality watercolour in liquid form, drop by drop. Included in the range is a brush-tip Aqua Drop Liner that can be filled with the colours.


I think Schmincke call it Aqua Drop because it’s so strong, you only need a drop!
Aqua Drop is perfectly timed. Over the last ten years, watercolour has grown hugely in popularity. Techniques using other liquid colours such as acrylic and alcohol-based inks have also flourished. Aqua Drop marries the subtlety of watercolour with the dynamic fluidity of Schmincke Aerocolor.


Its liquid character makes Aqua Drop perfectly suited to large watercolour painting. It is spread easily whether using a brush or dropped directly from the pipette onto wet paper to blossom and bleed. Aqua Drop can be used to establish fast backgrounds for standard watercolour painting or used right the way through to the final stages. Fine detail can be applied with the Aqua Drop Liner brush-tip pen.

Aqua Drop is a unique liquid colour that is able to be used in a loose manner that creates subtle shifts and softly glowing colours, very different from acrylic inks. It will appeal to the bold as well as the traditional.


Aqua Drop is specially formulated to be a highly lightfast (all colours 4 & 5 stars), pigmented, concentrated liquid watercolour. This differentiates Aqua Drop from coloured inks, which are made from weak dyes and are not lightfast; and from merely diluting tube watercolour, which reduces both colour and binder strength.

Product information such lightfastness, transparency, and pigmentation can be found on the Aqua Drop label.


Few artists can resist the temptation of new colours! Of the 24 colours transparent colours in the range, 13 are single-pigment colours for clean mixing possibilities, while others are delicately balanced mixtures that produce unique hues such as the dirty warm glow of Amber and the complex depth of Jade Green.

The crystal clear transparency of Aqua Drop is perfect for glazing, as the Madder Red circle shows. Opaque and lighter colours can be made by adding Opaque White, mixed with Magenta here to make an opaque pink.


The Opaque White can be used pure as strong white, and in mixtures with Aqua Drop to lighten colours and increase opacity. Opaque White can be applied with brush or nib but due to its more viscous consistency is not suitable either pure or in mixtures for use in Aqua Drop Liners.

The liquid consistency of Aqua Drop makes it perfect for quickly colouring up full sized sheets of watercolour paper.


Any watercolourist who is working on the scale of a half or full sheet of watercolour will love the ability to spread colour evenly across a large area, while still controlling the colour intensity from highly concentrated to pale dilution. One issue with painting watercolour large has been picking up large amounts of the same consistency colour. Tube colour needs to be evenly thinned to avoid a dollop of colour in one part of your brush. Aqua Drop addresses this by providing an even, free-flowing colour that’s easily worked over full sheets of watercolour paper.  

Simple to fill and use, the Aqua Drop Liner features a firm brush tip for detail and line work. To fill, undo the collar, fill drop by drop (initially around 16-20 drops), and wait for the tip to fill with colour.


Aqua Drop is not just good for large areas – it also offers a high degree of control for detail, line and calligraphy painting techniques. This is especially so when using the Aqua Drop Liner, which has a fine brush tip and can be filled with any of the colours, except Opaque White pure and in mixtures.

Urban sketchers have been quick to adopt Aqua Drop in Europe. They like the ability to quickly fill areas with wash or density, without having to first break down tube or pan colour. Likewise, Aqua Drop suits illustrators and cartoonists, as it offers some similarities to traditional inks while providing better colour strength and permanence.


Aqua Drop can even be used through the finest airbrush.


Aqua Drop comes in a 30ml pipette bottle with a ball to shake the colour up. It can be thinned with water, remains resoluble on the palette, and is fully compatible with Horadam Watercolour. All colours are the one price.


Aqua Drop gives artists a concentrated dose of colour in every drop!

 

 

 

Comments

  • Date: 04-06-2020
    Maureen Johnston

    an idea of price regarding these new liquid watercolours would be welcome and also the range of colours.

  • Date: 04-06-2020
    Anneke Cottle

    Only thing missing in your write up of the Schminke Aqua Drop is the price . . .