Sadly, Colors of Nature closed down

Dear watercolour people,

sadly, I just found out that  Colors of Nature closed down. The cruelty-free Canadian company that flew under an ethical and environmentally conscious flag, manufactured and offered only vegan-friendly products ranging from watercolours,  and oil paints in artist quality, … over to brushes, glass mullers and more. I feel as though I am writing an obituary and in a way I am. What a plight for our small world of vegan art supplies. Which leaves us with no more natural, eco-friendly oil paints ;and brands that offer non-pencil watercolours halved. I introduced the company on here in 2017. In all my correspondence with Lori Stryker and Mark, they were nothing but accommodating and nice. – I am sorry to see this business go, farewell Colors of Nature.

Source: website

Kaia Natural Watercolor

 

Hello there,

I bring lovely watercolour news (especially to Europeans)! Kaia Natural Watercolor is a cruelty-free company based in the Netherlands, offering all vegan, 100% natural, plastic-free, non-toxic, highly pigmented watercolour of professional artist quality and highest lightfastness. What a mouth full. They come in ten different shades . They are available as single pans or in a set of all ten.

Source: mail contact; website

 

Faber-Castell’s ink and broadpen

The broadpen,Faber-Castell ink and their synthetic brush range are  products newly added to my Faber-Castell list of vegan-friendly products.

  • broadpen: document proof, 0,8mm line width, 12 available shades; lovely for writing – my favourites are turquoise, blue and black
  • synthetic brushes
  • Faber-Castell ink : available in four colours: black, blue, pink and turqoise; the shades blue and pink are erasable; black and turquoise cannot be erased; the ink is not document proof; (the waterproof and lightfast alternative by Faber-Castell are the Graf von Faber-Castell inks)

Here is the list of vegan-friendly products by Faber-Castell:

  • Gelatos
  • Polychromos coloured pencils
  • Albrecht Dürer watercolour pencils
  • regular erasers, kneadable erasers, pencil erasers
  • all Pitt Artist products
  • Pitt Artist pen and brush pen
  • Pitt calligraphy pen
  • Pitt Artist pen metallic
  • Pitt Artist pen sanguine /Rötel Pitt Artist
  • black lead / graphite pencils/Bleistifte
  • graphite aquarelle pencils
  • Art Grip aquarelle pencils
  • Pitt Pastel Pencils
  • jumbo lead pencils
  • mechanical pencils
  • mechanical pencil refills; coloured and lead ones
  • Pastel crayon Polychromos
  • paper wiper Estompe
  • soft pastels
  • oil pastel crayons
  • foldable watercup
  • Charcoal  natural Pitt/ Zeichenkohle
  • sharpener
  • Pitt Monochrome
  • Ecco Pigment
  • Grip lead pencils and mechanical pencils
  • Grip Textmarker & Textliner
  • Multimark Marker
  • Art & Graphic Water Brush
  • Graf von Faber-Castell inks
  • Goldfaber Coloured Pencils
  • Goldfaber Aqua Watercolour Pencils
  • Oil Colours (Creative Studio)
  • Broadpen
  • synthetic brushes
  • Faber-Castell ink

All Faber-Castell coloured pencil ranges are vegan-friendly.

Find Faber-Castell in the compendium.

Source: Mail contact

 

Ecco Pigment – Faber-Castell

I recently stumbled upon Faber-Castell’s Ecco Pigment Pens. My favourite is 0.05 . Just like the Pitt Artist Pens, they are waterproof and have maximum lightfastness.

It is incredible how small you can draw with the 0.05 – that is why I like the pen so much.  In the following pics I have added some coins for size comparison. (coins: 2 Czech Koruna, 20 pence, one dime & one cent)

Culture Hustle – Potions and Powders

Manufacturer: Culture Hustle

Culture Hustle is a cruelty-free company and all its products are vegan-friendly.

Products: 

  • Powders: powder paints; fluorescent, vibrant, you can mix them with water,  acrylic medium or linseed oil
  • Potions : acrylic paints; very opaque, very lightfast, archival, and they are scented

https://culturehustle.com

Source: Mail contact

 

tip-to-tip: water-reservoir brush+watercolour crayons, sticks and co.

Instead of using watercolours in pans, you can use  watercolour pencils, sticks/gelatos and crayons  with a water-reservoir brush or stiffer regular brush, but in the way you would paint with pans.

Tip-to-tip transfer: Brush over your water-soluble crayon/stick etc. (use more strokes to intensify the colour) and then apply it onto the paper. Alternatively draw  with the crayon direcly on the edge of the paper or a separate paper and take the colour with the brush from there.

This way the colour application is much softer than drawing directly on the paper and going over the lines with a brush. You can colour a dainty little drawing or cover a DinA3 and larger paper with beautiful patterns.

If you don’t have a watercolour travel pan set, you can always take your pencils, crayons etc. and a water-reservoir brush pen. There will be no spills, it does not take up too much space and you have double the use out of the pencils. Using them with the brush and also drawing details directly with them.

It is also something different to go over the crayon/pencil with a wet brush than immersing the whole crayon/pencil tip in water, which can damage the lead.

I also went over a Faber Castell Pitt Artist Brush Pen with the water-reservoir brush to take colour and transfer to the paper. After drying the colour is going nowhere, because of the waterproof ink used in the pens.                                                                                                                                      Why would someone do this to an already brush shaped pen tip ? You can cover a bigger area this way than with the small, less flexible brush pen tip; you can gently glaze the paper and if your brush pens are older, you still get good use out of them without having to draw streaky (although I found it can make also nice effects).

Painting on wet paper with the laden brush  helps covering the paper surface quicker.

left side: tip-to-tip transfer, on wet surface; right side: paper-to-brush transfer+wet brush over applied colour

Cruelty-free companies offering vegan-friendly products:

This is a list of  cruelty-free companies and the vegan-friendly products they offer. If you don’t find the company you are looking for in this list, please enter the company name in the search box to see their status. If you still can’t find the specific company you are looking for, please let me know, so that I can contact them.

Cheers,    Anja (Ansho)

Continue reading “Cruelty-free companies offering vegan-friendly products:”

Finetec Perlcolors/ Perlglanzfarben

Manufacturer: Finetec 

Finetec Perlcolors/ Perlglanzfarben

 

http://www.finetec-mica.de/?setlang=en

http://www.coliro.de/index.php?language=EN&refID=999&MODsid=6fa57tafkj1v6ctfipm7pu7i17

Source: Mail Contact

Coliro : „Alle Inhaltsstoffe der Perlglanzfarben sind frei von tierischen Bestandteilen und sind nach Angaben unserer Zulieferer der Inhaltsstoffe vegan und frei von Tierversuchen. Die Farben bestehen nur aus Mica (ein Pigment aus Stein gewonnen), Gummi Arabicum (ein rein pflanzlicher Bestandteil), und winzigen Mengen von Hilfsstoffen, die nach Herstellerangaben vegan sind. Im Herstellprozess selbst werden auch keine tierischen Hilfsmittel verwendet.“

Translation:
Coliro: All materials used in Pearl Colors are free of animal components/derivatives and according to our ingredients suppliers vegan friendly and cruelty free. The colors consist only of mica (pigment made out of stone), Gum Arabic (purely plant based), and small amounts of additives, which are vegan according to the manufacturer. No animal derived
additives are used in the manufacturing process.