I was interested to see your thoughts on this brand, you hinted at a review previously and I was intrigued. Scheveningen Blue Deep is an even more intense Phtalo blue! The cheapest I have found them is from German sites. I often wonder if the company gives the paints hard Dutch names on purpose as a joke on non Dutch painters. Another colour I recomend is Scheveningen Red Deep. I love the painting that you did!.
Ooooh, I really enjoy the colors you chose for your painting. I have often wondered about these paints, and I think I will try them out in the near future. I have seen the test set, and it looks like a good deal, it's like 31 Euros here, which seems like a good deal for these paints. And I am just really curious as to how I would like them, since I have never tried anything by this brand at all. How far would I go to get paints that aren't easily available around here? Hmmm, good question. I don't think I would go out of my way, really. I live in Germany, and we have a massive amount of different watercolors, and art materials in general, available here. All the German brands, obviously, and all of the European brands are sold here, and we have international brands like Daniel Smith, Mijello, Qor, and so on. And then online we can buy things like M Graham, Shinhan, Paul Rubens, Holbein, and so on, and that is just so much to choose from that I really don't think that it would make sense for me to go searching high and low for one particular brand of paint that I could not get here. With all the choices that are easily available to me here, I could surely find something that will be just as good. And also, when I really like a particular paint, I enjoy knowing that I can easily replace it when it is used up. That makes me feel safe, so I actually prefer buying and using paints that are easily available to me.
Another wonderfully informative, beautifully presented, and thoughtful review and demo. You always cover any question i could come up with, even before I come up with it! lol! Well done and thank you! :)
Thanks for this wonderful review. I love Old Holland. It is ridiculously pigmented, rewets like crazy and fortunately I don't have the problems stated below. Loved your painting.
I bought some individually chosen Old Holland half pans to make up my own set from Jackson's UK when they were on sale and I really love them. I only have the Turquoise Deep in a small tube, but it's gorgeous. It's worth looking for a sale if you are patient, even with international shipping.
Great video Eve! 😁 I didnt know about the word "lake" in the color name. Yay... learned something new. 😃 I did wonder as to why lake was used. I should look up the history on that. The painting came out beautifully.
I haven’t tried them, but can find them easily in the UK on Jackson’s. I wouldn’t go to lengths for paint, though maybe I would if there weren’t any available nearby. I’d start with the cyan, magenta and yellow for the bright green and purple. Those dull shades from red and ultramarine have been off-putting especially in the beginning and I’m glad to understand more now (watched Oto’s series). I was just reading Old Holland’s website, especially their history cos I’m curious about all the brands, amazing longevity and changes with the times. This is a useful, comprehensive review.
That demo painting is so beautiful! Really love all the rich and warm neutrals you were able to mix up, and while it's cool to show off the raw color itself, I think the mixes those colors were able to achieve are more interesting and useful! Old Holland is a brand I've heard of, but never used! I'll do my best to not go mad and find myself in need of buying them, but gosh.... those dried pans were sooooo shiiiiiiiny. Also, that whole naming/pigment thing not being on the tubes seems like a weird and unhelpful choice. Wonder why they went down that road.
I have no idea why they chose that naming and labeling convention, it's really not instinctive or easy to figure out. They are good paints, but if you have other good brands available, you don't really -need- these. They did dry shiny, I wonder if it's the glycerin in the formula..?
I'm really excited for the intro set coming to me from Jackson s to Cali,USA. I'm sure they are beautiful and after finding my favorite paint, Mission Gold 24 pure pigment set, I wonder how they stack up. I also recently purchased a 48 Kuretaki Gansai Tambi and the Gem shimmer set of 6. Sadie saves the Day said that Old Holland watercolors remind her of Gansai. Do you feel any similarities? I decided to choose additional colors after getting a feel for the intro set. Nice landscape colors surely and I'm planning a landscape palette anyway so great news. Thanks for the review and if these are somewhat like Gansai Tambi I know that I will likely love them!
Nice printer triad ;) Glad you tried them out in a new vid. Too bad your yellow was warm though. You should do a 3 color challenge with them? :) What a gorgeous painting. These paints are quite nice :)
Actually, old holland is on if the few (old smincke and some rest of a former w+n) professional watercolor my art store has! So I can get the full range, and i have the printer primarys, because my dad gifted them to me! But they are actually too expensive for me, and I rather order on Jacksons! But I agree, that primary blue is just.... perfect Aaaaaa Tho I have experienced a weird thing about their formula, which seems to vary between paints, the magenta actually dried to a gummy consistency that can easily get pulled out the paint well, while the blue didn’t and is still like stuck bubblegum to glue.... and I get a lot of backgruns with them, might be because I use canson XL tho! Overall love my three little tubes, already sad they are running out ~~
If you use paints like that...use good paper...:) It makes all the difference...or make the backruns work for you? Maybe try Canson Montval 300gsm it is still not too expensive (in Europe) but reacts better (in my opinion) then XL. The problem of the consistency I don't know about. My paints stay semi sticky, but not like bubble gum. Big plus...they rewet like crazy and a tiny bit goes a long way. They are crazy pigmented...and expensive. Have fun with them. They will last you a long time.
Great video. Thank you! How did you like glazing and layering with these paints? Cuz I just saw Sadie Saves the Day's video on them and Old Holland paints remind her of Gansai and don't glaze at all according to her. Did you have a similar experience? I'm asking because in this video you mentioned that "lake" colors in Old Holland are good for glazing (if I understand you correctly). Thanks in advance 💐
the dutch are known to make really vibrant colors,rembrandt is one of them,from the talens company, old holland too, only thing I hate - while being dutch,duhh- is the prices they ask wich dont come cheap,though quality wise,it certainly pays to check out starter kit options. if you like really vivid browns do check those out as they have a big selection of those.
ps if you look at the old masters from the netherlands their strong points are using mainly darks and neutrals, wich is why current strong selling points from dutch brand is selling really rich vibrant darks. you dont see much color in the netherlands like you do in france or greece,so our palette exists for big part out of muted earthy colors, you can ask any dutch artist,they all carry a big veriaty of muted colors for dutch landscape,unless they paint botanicals as well,lol.
I'm crazy about browns - they're a whole world unto themselves. Hues from Greenish Umber, thru yellow, and right over to orange & red. Only deep, muted, and moody! On Jane Blundell's earth tone page, you have to hover your mouse to find out what a colour is. I notice that many of the ones I like turn out to be Old Holland. www.janeblundellart.com/earth-watercolour-swatches.html
Heh, good brand watercolor are already hard to comeby in my area, so I have to prob to find where I can get it online. Hence why I decided to look into Holbein since their prices match up with what I can get in the US due to my location.
Nice review, and the final piece looks wonderful! As for myself, I've got mixed feelings about Old Holland. They do have very strong and brilliant colours, but they also have quality issues more often than not. Their binder tends to separate from the pigment in the tubes, so that one often gets a gooey mess pouring out when one opens the cap. Other than that, I noticed a really nasty smell. I gave back the first set of tubes I bought from Old Holland because of both issues. However, I decided to give that brand another chance by buying some half pans - they only offer half pans - but I was disappointed, yet again. Some colours rewetted brilliantly, whereas others stayed hard as rocks, with not a chance of getting any pigment off. Those were mainly earth colours, but I'd bet their Viridian might behave similarly. The boss at my favourite art supplies store told me that he was considering taking Old Holland off their list of watercolour paints because of all the complaints he often gets about them. The company specialises in oil colours, that are supposed to be some of the best worldwide. They seem to apply the same production steps to their watercolours, without caring whether that might be appropriate for that particular medium. As I said, I cannot decide whether I like them or not. They are wonderful to paint with, and their pigment load is truly amazing WHEN they work. But their smell, and the inconsitent quality paired with a hefty price don't make them very attractive. And their stubbornly antiquated attitude concerning the lack of pigment information on tubes seems quite ridiculous, too.
The separation of pigment and binder is not uncommon. I have a few mineral paints from Daniel Smith who do the same. Think it has something to do with the heavyness of the pigment? I know what paints react like that, so I use a toothpick to stir things up in the tube, before I use them or put them in pans. The other issues I haven't experienced yet...fortunately. Maybe contact Old Holland directly if you have complaints/issues? With a bit of luck you get an answer and new paint? Good luck!
Thanks for your reply and thoughts. I've been experimenting with more than 16 watercolour brands (yes, more than sixteen - here's a link to my review chart leochi.deviantart.com/art/All-tested-watercolour-brands-in-one-grouping-355273699) and Old Holland has been the worst by far. I would expect more from such a high priced watercolour. The separation of binder and pigments occurs when the tubes stay on the shelf for too long, and this might be one reason why it happens with the Old Holland more than with others. They're so expensive they probably don't get bought that often. Tbh, I don't like buying "new" tubes and having to fret with toothpicks and gooey substances. But what bugged me even more was the rock hard half pan. The replacement pan was exactly the same. Even cheap student grade pans from Cotman rewetted fairly easily compared to the OH - things like that make me wonder about quality control. And why not declare the pigments used on their tube leaflets? It's become standard to print that information on the packaging, but OH still don't seem to care about customer service enough.
Woah, I like that you gave a review within this review, and this information is really interesting! You said initially you noticed a bad smell with the first batch, was there a crazy smell with the dried half pans? I guess I'd also be willing to give a pass on the binder separation, just because I've also had other paints do that, but it's really irritating when a paint won't re-wet well, and I'm pretty confused about why they chose their naming/labeling... well, it's not really a scheme so much as a lack of scheme. Quality/consistency issues that you mentioned are what concern me most, because if these are small-batch handmade artisanal watercolors then I let a lot of that slide... But company machined colors need to be consistent and reliable, no exceptions. What were some of the inconsistencies you noticed? I'm curious. You already mentioned the rewetting (especially with earth colors which, okay, sure, that makes sense....) but were there other inconsistencies?
Thank you for your kind words! No, I fortunately haven't noticed any bad smell with the OH pans. As for inconsistencies, the a.m. is about all I noticed. I haven't worked with those colours as much as with my other watercolours (mainly Schmincke, Holbein, W&N as my go-to paints) to give an even more in-depth review. I'll list some of the things I noticed in the following. The colours I own are all in pans, I don't have any tubes, and those pans are pretty old. I bought them a couple of years ago, so the company might have changed their formula in the meantime. My experience with the rock hard pans dates from last year, though: Colours from my collection, that don't rewet well, are the following: green earth, raw umber, golden green, blue grey, viridian green deep, raw sienna, manganese blue, cobalt blue Some of the colours dry up with a kind of glossy sheen that I find unpleasant. Those are: Scheveningen yellow light, bright violet, dioxazene mauve, gamboge light extra, naples yellow reddish extra, magenta, blue grey, green earth, cadmium yellow lemon, brilliant pink, turqoise blue deep, raw umber, sepia extra, Italian brown pink lake, golden green To end on a positive note - here are the colours that are really beautiful, strong and and brilliant (without sheen). I'd probably rebuy them if I ever used them up: alizarin crimson lake extra (BEAUTIFUL!!!), indigo extra (more on the phthalo blue side), rose doré, blue lake, cadmium red light, Indian yellow orange lake, French ultramarine light extra
I have heard of this brand; but, can't get it locally. I checked Amazon and there are a few 6 ml tubes available; but, not any sets. How far would I go to get a set? Maybe 6 miles. That's how far the nearest town is; but, it is smaller than the city where I live, so I don't think I would be able to find Old Holland paints there.
I was interested to see your thoughts on this brand, you hinted at a review previously and I was intrigued. Scheveningen Blue Deep is an even more intense Phtalo blue! The cheapest I have found them is from German sites. I often wonder if the company gives the paints hard Dutch names on purpose as a joke on non Dutch painters. Another colour I recomend is Scheveningen Red Deep. I love the painting that you did!.
Ooooh, I really enjoy the colors you chose for your painting.
I have often wondered about these paints, and I think I will try them out in the near future. I have seen the test set, and it looks like a good deal, it's like 31 Euros here, which seems like a good deal for these paints. And I am just really curious as to how I would like them, since I have never tried anything by this brand at all.
How far would I go to get paints that aren't easily available around here? Hmmm, good question. I don't think I would go out of my way, really. I live in Germany, and we have a massive amount of different watercolors, and art materials in general, available here. All the German brands, obviously, and all of the European brands are sold here, and we have international brands like Daniel Smith, Mijello, Qor, and so on. And then online we can buy things like M Graham, Shinhan, Paul Rubens, Holbein, and so on, and that is just so much to choose from that I really don't think that it would make sense for me to go searching high and low for one particular brand of paint that I could not get here. With all the choices that are easily available to me here, I could surely find something that will be just as good. And also, when I really like a particular paint, I enjoy knowing that I can easily replace it when it is used up. That makes me feel safe, so I actually prefer buying and using paints that are easily available to me.
Another wonderfully informative, beautifully presented, and thoughtful review and demo. You always cover any question i could come up with, even before I come up with it! lol! Well done and thank you! :)
Thanks a lot Mark! I really love trying out paints, I'm happy I can share what I find :)
That golden green😍
It's really pretty! :D
Thanks for this wonderful review. I love Old Holland. It is ridiculously pigmented, rewets like crazy and fortunately I don't have the problems stated below. Loved your painting.
Love that painting, such a lovely atmosphere, and the paints are nicely pigmented!
I bought some individually chosen Old Holland half pans to make up my own set from Jackson's UK when they were on sale and I really love them. I only have the Turquoise Deep in a small tube, but it's gorgeous. It's worth looking for a sale if you are patient, even with international shipping.
This is the nicest painting you've done for review purposes!! maybe because of the color choices?
Thanks! Colors are a matter of tastes, but I'm glad you like it! :)
Great video Eve! 😁 I didnt know about the word "lake" in the color name. Yay... learned something new. 😃 I did wonder as to why lake was used. I should look up the history on that. The painting came out beautifully.
I'd love to try them!! Loved the painting in the end
I haven’t tried them, but can find them easily in the UK on Jackson’s. I wouldn’t go to lengths for paint, though maybe I would if there weren’t any available nearby. I’d start with the cyan, magenta and yellow for the bright green and purple. Those dull shades from red and ultramarine have been off-putting especially in the beginning and I’m glad to understand more now (watched Oto’s series). I was just reading Old Holland’s website, especially their history cos I’m curious about all the brands, amazing longevity and changes with the times. This is a useful, comprehensive review.
That demo painting is so beautiful! Really love all the rich and warm neutrals you were able to mix up, and while it's cool to show off the raw color itself, I think the mixes those colors were able to achieve are more interesting and useful!
Old Holland is a brand I've heard of, but never used! I'll do my best to not go mad and find myself in need of buying them, but gosh.... those dried pans were sooooo shiiiiiiiny.
Also, that whole naming/pigment thing not being on the tubes seems like a weird and unhelpful choice. Wonder why they went down that road.
I have no idea why they chose that naming and labeling convention, it's really not instinctive or easy to figure out. They are good paints, but if you have other good brands available, you don't really -need- these. They did dry shiny, I wonder if it's the glycerin in the formula..?
that cyan blue is so dark its almost a light ultramarine colour, thanks for the review
I love Old Holland. Nice review
I'm really excited for the intro set coming to me from Jackson s to Cali,USA. I'm sure they are beautiful and after finding my favorite paint, Mission Gold 24 pure pigment set, I wonder how they stack up. I also recently purchased a 48 Kuretaki Gansai Tambi and the Gem shimmer set of 6. Sadie saves the Day said that Old Holland watercolors remind her of Gansai. Do you feel any similarities? I decided to choose additional colors after getting a feel for the intro set. Nice landscape colors surely and I'm planning a landscape palette anyway so great news. Thanks for the review and if these are somewhat like Gansai Tambi I know that I will likely love them!
That little box is so cute ahah! Well, except for the labeling inconvenience, they seem to be pretty good paints!
Nice printer triad ;) Glad you tried them out in a new vid. Too bad your yellow was warm though. You should do a 3 color challenge with them? :) What a gorgeous painting. These paints are quite nice :)
Actually, old holland is on if the few (old smincke and some rest of a former w+n) professional watercolor my art store has! So I can get the full range, and i have the printer primarys, because my dad gifted them to me! But they are actually too expensive for me, and I rather order on Jacksons!
But I agree, that primary blue is just.... perfect Aaaaaa
Tho I have experienced a weird thing about their formula, which seems to vary between paints, the magenta actually dried to a gummy consistency that can easily get pulled out the paint well, while the blue didn’t and is still like stuck bubblegum to glue.... and I get a lot of backgruns with them, might be because I use canson XL tho!
Overall love my three little tubes, already sad they are running out ~~
If you use paints like that...use good paper...:) It makes all the difference...or make the backruns work for you? Maybe try Canson Montval 300gsm it is still not too expensive (in Europe) but reacts better (in my opinion) then XL. The problem of the consistency I don't know about. My paints stay semi sticky, but not like bubble gum. Big plus...they rewet like crazy and a tiny bit goes a long way. They are crazy pigmented...and expensive. Have fun with them. They will last you a long time.
I’m really curious about this paints. Great job, as usual, Eve :-)
Great video. Thank you! How did you like glazing and layering with these paints? Cuz I just saw Sadie Saves the Day's video on them and Old Holland paints remind her of Gansai and don't glaze at all according to her. Did you have a similar experience? I'm asking because in this video you mentioned that "lake" colors in Old Holland are good for glazing (if I understand you correctly). Thanks in advance 💐
Great review!!
Thank you! :)
Great review! I've never tried them before. Any sellers within Canada that sell Old Holland watercolours?
the dutch are known to make really vibrant colors,rembrandt is one of them,from the talens company, old holland too, only thing I hate - while being dutch,duhh- is the prices they ask wich dont come cheap,though quality wise,it certainly pays to check out starter kit options. if you like really vivid browns do check those out as they have a big selection of those.
ps if you look at the old masters from the netherlands their strong points are using mainly darks and neutrals, wich is why current strong selling points from dutch brand is selling really rich vibrant darks. you dont see much color in the netherlands like you do in france or greece,so our palette exists for big part out of muted earthy colors, you can ask any dutch artist,they all carry a big veriaty of muted colors for dutch landscape,unless they paint botanicals as well,lol.
I'm crazy about browns - they're a whole world unto themselves. Hues from Greenish Umber, thru yellow, and right over to orange & red. Only deep, muted, and moody!
On Jane Blundell's earth tone page, you have to hover your mouse to find out what a colour is. I notice that many of the ones I like turn out to be Old Holland.
www.janeblundellart.com/earth-watercolour-swatches.html
Those browns and greens are so beautiful in you painting. Old Holland is too expensive though.
Heh, good brand watercolor are already hard to comeby in my area, so I have to prob to find where I can get it online. Hence why I decided to look into Holbein since their prices match up with what I can get in the US due to my location.
Nice review, and the final piece looks wonderful!
As for myself, I've got mixed feelings about Old Holland. They do have very strong and brilliant colours, but they also have quality issues more often than not. Their binder tends to separate from the pigment in the tubes, so that one often gets a gooey mess pouring out when one opens the cap. Other than that, I noticed a really nasty smell. I gave back the first set of tubes I bought from Old Holland because of both issues.
However, I decided to give that brand another chance by buying some half pans - they only offer half pans - but I was disappointed, yet again. Some colours rewetted brilliantly, whereas others stayed hard as rocks, with not a chance of getting any pigment off. Those were mainly earth colours, but I'd bet their Viridian might behave similarly.
The boss at my favourite art supplies store told me that he was considering taking Old Holland off their list of watercolour paints because of all the complaints he often gets about them.
The company specialises in oil colours, that are supposed to be some of the best worldwide. They seem to apply the same production steps to their watercolours, without caring whether that might be appropriate for that particular medium.
As I said, I cannot decide whether I like them or not. They are wonderful to paint with, and their pigment load is truly amazing WHEN they work. But their smell, and the inconsitent quality paired with a hefty price don't make them very attractive. And their stubbornly antiquated attitude concerning the lack of pigment information on tubes seems quite ridiculous, too.
The separation of pigment and binder is not uncommon. I have a few mineral paints from Daniel Smith who do the same. Think it has something to do with the heavyness of the pigment? I know what paints react like that, so I use a toothpick to stir things up in the tube, before I use them or put them in pans. The other issues I haven't experienced yet...fortunately. Maybe contact Old Holland directly if you have complaints/issues? With a bit of luck you get an answer and new paint? Good luck!
Thanks for your reply and thoughts. I've been experimenting with more than 16 watercolour brands (yes, more than sixteen - here's a link to my review chart leochi.deviantart.com/art/All-tested-watercolour-brands-in-one-grouping-355273699) and Old Holland has been the worst by far. I would expect more from such a high priced watercolour.
The separation of binder and pigments occurs when the tubes stay on the shelf for too long, and this might be one reason why it happens with the Old Holland more than with others. They're so expensive they probably don't get bought that often.
Tbh, I don't like buying "new" tubes and having to fret with toothpicks and gooey substances. But what bugged me even more was the rock hard half pan. The replacement pan was exactly the same. Even cheap student grade pans from Cotman rewetted fairly easily compared to the OH - things like that make me wonder about quality control.
And why not declare the pigments used on their tube leaflets? It's become standard to print that information on the packaging, but OH still don't seem to care about customer service enough.
Woah, I like that you gave a review within this review, and this information is really interesting! You said initially you noticed a bad smell with the first batch, was there a crazy smell with the dried half pans? I guess I'd also be willing to give a pass on the binder separation, just because I've also had other paints do that, but it's really irritating when a paint won't re-wet well, and I'm pretty confused about why they chose their naming/labeling... well, it's not really a scheme so much as a lack of scheme.
Quality/consistency issues that you mentioned are what concern me most, because if these are small-batch handmade artisanal watercolors then I let a lot of that slide... But company machined colors need to be consistent and reliable, no exceptions. What were some of the inconsistencies you noticed? I'm curious. You already mentioned the rewetting (especially with earth colors which, okay, sure, that makes sense....) but were there other inconsistencies?
By the way, your chart link doesn't work.
Thank you for your kind words! No, I fortunately haven't noticed any bad smell with the OH pans.
As for inconsistencies, the a.m. is about all I noticed. I haven't worked with those colours as much as with my other watercolours (mainly Schmincke, Holbein, W&N as my go-to paints) to give an even more in-depth review.
I'll list some of the things I noticed in the following. The colours I own are all in pans, I don't have any tubes, and those pans are pretty old. I bought them a couple of years ago, so the company might have changed their formula in the meantime. My experience with the rock hard pans dates from last year, though:
Colours from my collection, that don't rewet well, are the following:
green earth, raw umber, golden green, blue grey, viridian green deep, raw sienna, manganese blue, cobalt blue
Some of the colours dry up with a kind of glossy sheen that I find unpleasant. Those are:
Scheveningen yellow light, bright violet, dioxazene mauve, gamboge light extra, naples yellow reddish extra, magenta, blue grey, green earth, cadmium yellow lemon, brilliant pink, turqoise blue deep, raw umber, sepia extra, Italian brown pink lake, golden green
To end on a positive note - here are the colours that are really beautiful, strong and and brilliant (without sheen). I'd probably rebuy them if I ever used them up:
alizarin crimson lake extra (BEAUTIFUL!!!), indigo extra (more on the phthalo blue side), rose doré, blue lake, cadmium red light, Indian yellow orange lake, French ultramarine light extra
I have heard of this brand; but, can't get it locally. I checked Amazon and there are a few 6 ml tubes available; but, not any sets. How far would I go to get a set? Maybe 6 miles. That's how far the nearest town is; but, it is smaller than the city where I live, so I don't think I would be able to find Old Holland paints there.
When dried in the pans, did the watercolour shrink at all?
I can't believe that cyan/phthalo blue really has any white in it!
When i hear 'Scheveningen', I think of the oil painter David Dunlop.
I've never heard of him, why are the two linked? :D
Watch him on UA-cam (or PBS). He will likely mention it as being part of his palette.
Old Holland is the best brand FTW
Nice to see they have staunch supporters :)