My Experience with Schmincke’s HORADAM Super Granulating Watercolor

I recently learned about super granulating watercolour, and was amazed at the things it can do. I enjoy exploring and experimenting with new art supplies (I mean, who doesn’t). In that case, how about we take swatch and paint with Schmincke’s HORADAM super granulating watercolor?

You might be asking, what does super granulating mean and how is it different from other types of watercolors? Let’s dive into it, shall we:

HORADAM watercolor consists of 139 colours in form of pans and tubes; 50 of those are super-granulating colours for spectacular surface effects. Super granulating colors have a specific characteristic in the Horadam range of colors. These colors are the result of combining two or more granulating pigments, leading to super granulation.

Example of how super granulation paints reacts on paper

When put on paper, you start to see layers of different colors that has been used to make the specific color; all depending on the amount of water you used and the layering of colors before it — see example picture above. Let’s have a closer look at how this separation of colors happens on paper.

As you can see below, in comparison, regular granulation creates a smooth sort of textured effect as the pigment settles deep in the paper. Whereas the supergranulation takes a bolder step and combines multiple pigments, separates them and creates a magical separated yet intertwined shades and colors on paper. Let’s take for example the ‘Galaxy Pink 971’ from Schmincke: it does not just create a uniform pinkish granulation but it splits up into a beautiful mix of deep rose and cool gray tone, providing a complex color that would not be possible with a single granulating color.

Showing swatches of regular granulation vs super-granulation of Schmincke’s Galaxy Pink (971)

As you can see from the swatches above, I experimented and put regular granulation of a color similar to Schmincke’s Galaxy Pink next to one another. Just to see the way the pigments dance on paper using variety of techniques, I tried wet-in-wet and tilting/moving technique to see how the medium reacts when exposed to a lot of water. If you would like to see it in action, feel free to check out the video shared below.

I started experimenting with Schmincke’s HORADAM super granulating watercolor when I was away on vacation in Algarve, Portugal in February 2025. The sun, good food and weather were my inspiration. When traveling, I always take my sketchbook, a few colors and brushes with me, just in case to be ready for when inspiration hits. I took the small tubes along with me due to limited luggage space.

One afternoon, after a beautiful morning hike, I found myself grabbing my sketchbook, brushes and paints along with my delicious daily snack (a pastel de nata). When I have my hands on new art supplies, I always create a small swatch of the colors to get familiar with the paint and see how it dances on paper.

Gathering inspiration while on vacation in Portugal

As you might know, Portugal is known for its beautiful & colorful tiles also called Azulejo. After the initial swatching, as an experiment, I used the paints and sketched tile shapes, patterns and colors that I have seen around while walking around Algarve. This was a really nice way to use Schmincke’s watercolors and to try out the intensity of the colors.

Swatching, sketching and painting Portuguese tiles using Schmincke’s Horadam super granulating watercolor

Fast forward, I arrived back to the Netherlands and I had two more boxes of art supplies waiting for me to be unboxed — watch unboxing video here. Since I had more paint tubes & supplies to experiment with, I created an extended swatch of the paints to get a feel for each on fine paper. I was excited to try out the granulation of the colors, so what I did was take one of the paint tubes (deep sea green), create a rectangle on paper using water first and then add the paint (shown on the left side below). As you can see, a turquoise/green/blue color is showing itself blended together. On the right side of the page, I did the exact same but at the end added some grains of salt. It created a beautiful textured structure on paper.

Testing the granulation — left: only water; right: water and salt

I also filled in my new palette with these beautiful colors so this way I can take them along with me when traveling. The list of colors are:

• Glacier black 965
• Tundra green 985
• Forest grey 945
• Shire yellow 931
• Shire green 933
• Glacier green 963
• Glacier turquoise 962
• Tundra blue 984
• Galaxy black 975
• Deep sea green 954
• Volcano red 913
• Volcano orange 912
• Urban yellow 916
• Volcano yellow 911
• Galaxy pink 971
• Tundra violet 983
• Forest green 942
• Forest Olive 941
• Haze black 970
• Haze indigo 968
• Galaxier blue 961

Interested in watching the process of filling in the palette & swatching? Check out the short video here.

Extended swatches of Schmincke’s Horadam super granulating watercolor

Being back home, I realized I really enjoyed watching the sunrise over the Mediterranean Sea. I would wake up extra early to be able to witness this breathtaking view. To be able to recreate the feeling I got when watching this view, I decided to paint it using my new paints and frame up the painting for myself at home.

I painted this piece using the wet-on-wet technique on rough paper size of 26 x 36 cm (300 gsm). I have shared a few pictures of the reference, process and final artwork below. I have made a process video of painting this piece and have tried to explain it in about two minutes in the following video.

Overall, I have to say that I really enjoyed working with this medium and I do see myself using it more for special granular effects in my paintings. It is definitely a special type of watercolor, somehow feeling magical when used due to the super granulation of colors.

Thank you Gerstaecker team for providing the materials and allowing me to explore & experiment with these art supplies. Feel free to reach the blog I wrote for Gerstaecker in Dutch here.

I hope that me sharing my experience with this medium helps you in your journey. If you have any questions, additional tips or just want to say hi, stop by my Instagram page. If you think someone else will benefit from this blog, please feel free to share it with them.

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