The first things I thought about when I saw the DANIEL SMITH Earth: Desert to Mountains Watercolor Halfpan Set were textures of weathered buildings, streets paved in stone, terra-cotta rooftops and sun bleached doorways…beautiful cities built of stone and earth. It also brought to mind vast arid landscapes of dunes, rocky cliffs and deep gorges.

Lucca, Italy by Brenda Swenson

While this set is not intended to be a stand-alone palette (it has no blues), these watercolors were selected for their mixing ability and unique visual qualities – they’re a great way to expand your color collection. My piece above was painted using the set along with Cobalt Blue.

Swatches painted from the Earth: Desert to Mountains set

This sketch was produced on handmade paper to consider the composition and the colour scheme. When I work on my sketches, they are really intended to just fix the idea in my head so they can be very quick and loose. I won’t even refer to the surface detail unless its very specific and unusual. The sketch is to create an impression and will be always unfinished (and perhaps abandoned fairly quickly) once I know what my goal will be.

Buff Titanium is semi-opaque. Drop it into a wet sky for atmospheric quality. It adds weight to other colors in what’s known as “body color” (a pigment that adds opacity or hiding power). Also used in my ink and watercolor sketches to subdue ink lines.

Raw Sienna Light has a slight granulating quality. It’s warm like sunny wheat fields and sun-bleached Italian buildings.

Bronzite Genuine is a warm bronze pigment from the Primatek line that’s unique because of the glistening particles of iron oxide that come from the natural mineral used to make the pigment. When used alone or mixed with other colors, it creates an intriguing effect.

Venetian Red is an opaque, granulating pigment that’s similar in hue to terra cotta rooftops and brick. When mixed with yellows, it’s warm and the granulating quality really shines.

Burnt Sienna Light is transparent and non-granulating – a wonderful mixing color. Mix with scarlets to get golden oranges or with Phthalo Blue for amazing greens. This color is a real workhorse on my palette for its mixing ability.

Lunar Black is transparent, granulating and amazing! The textural quality and the mixing ability is like nothing you’ve ever experienced in a black pigment. Mixed with other colors, the pigment becomes granular and darker in value, but does not change the hue. Lunar Black brings excitement to the mix – it works brilliantly for wet into wet or glazes.