I’ve been playing with art supplies for about two decades now. Somehow have not heard of Peerless until recently. I was a bit dubious at first. Watercolor in sheets? Really? Would that even work? What quality would the color be? How long could a dry sheet possibly last?
Oh boy, am I glad I decided to try these out. I tend to cut a bit off of the sheet, dissolve in water, and use the resulting liquid. A tiny square truly produces enough liquid to go far. Want a light wash? More water. Need an intense pop of color? Less water. Want super high contrast on a small area? Lift the color directly off of the card with a water brush, which results in easy ombré. And shading? Easy. Let it dry between layers, keep adding light layers in smaller spaces until you reach full saturation and boom, instant shadow.
The best part for me is, I like to use water media for base layers to make color pencil work much faster, easier, and more vibrant. Underpainting, I suppose. Some watercolors that use binders cause issues. Certain binders are slick after dry and it’s hard to get the color pencil (or worse, pastel) to stick. Since Peerless are dye based with apparently no binder required, this problem is officially solved. The dye infiltrates the paper and once dry, pastel pencils and wax based pencils still have some paper tooth to hold on to. Basically it’s like using blank paper in terms of texture, but with my underpainting intact. It’s perfect for multimedia.
It works on my double-sided pages without bleeding through the other side. It works on smooth paper. It works on rough paper. It works with other water media, no problem. Mix in some glittery or metallic watercolor? Result: awesome.
Additionally, it’s actually rather budget friendly. They’re super portable as well. The range includes grays useful for toning down some colors, super vivid blues, hot and cool reds, warm yellows, warm and cool greens, even a neon pink (geranium!). Because it’s super easy to change your color through water and mixing, it’s enough to provide multiple options for almost endless colors. I’ve never had an easier time color shifting in my life.
Ordered mine through the mail as that was the only way I could get my paws on them. They were securely packaged in waterproof plastic inside the box—super important as I live in Louisiana and it gets quite wet here at times. They were quick to ship my order out, provided not one but two tracking emails (sent another one to let me know it made it to my local postal truck), and included a couple of free extras in my box. They even included a creativity prompt card and a sticker. Their email was even written creatively, which I for one enjoy.
In short—great work peerless! I look forward to seeing any new products y’all invent and to using your reliable products for years to come. I’ll be spreading the word to my friends as well.