 Painting Tips
OK........now let's get down to
some watercolor/paint tips to get you started and that will hopefully help make for a fun and enjoyable
painting experience:
The #1
tip anyone can give is: Do not skimp when purchasing art material.
Purchase the best quality tools/supplies that your budget will allow. Although there are
exceptions to this.....your results will only be as good as the quality of
material used. If you try to cut costs on brushes, paper and pigment,
you probably won't see the best results you might otherwise have achieved had
you purchased better quality supplies.
If forced to
purchase less than the best, then my suggestion is to spend the better part of
your money on top quality paper and definitely pigments.
Paints
I do not
recommend student grade paints as they are not pure and often are made up of
dyes and fillers. My recommendation to anyone would be Winsor & Newton
Artist Grade pigments but there are other less expensive artist grade paints on
the market. I'm just an old W&N fan. An alternative might be DaVince.
As to whether
tube or pan, that choice is up to you. Tubes are easier to work with when
needing large mixes of paint mixed. Pans are great for packing up and
carrying.
Brushes
You don't have to
spend big bucks on your brushes. There are a lot of synthetic brushes out
on the market that are a joy to use. Synthetic blends (synthetic plus
squirrel or sable) are the next best thing to go with. Personally, I
prefer the synthetics and synthetic blends over the naturals like Kolinsky.
The natural hair brushes do not prove to have the same "spring" I have come to
rely on when painting. I like having an extremely sharp point and find
natural brushes don't always give me that. They don't spring back into
shape readily as do the synthetics. A good choice would be W&N Sceptre
Gold II brushes or ProArte Prolene Plus.
Although not listed below under
starter supplies, I absolutely love using a slanted flat. For those, I
normally get Loew Cornell Comfort Grips in sizes 1/4", 3/8", and 1/2".
And for lifting or scrubbing paint off the paper, I recommend an old bristle
flat.
Paper
If you can find "Bockingford" paper, that's an inexpensive but good quality paper. Most will recommend
you stay clear of Cotman but that's a personal choice and I know several who
love it for the techniques they use. Strathmore makes decent paper and is
a cross between Cotman and your Artist grades like Arches.
*Arches has always been and continues
to be my all time favorite. It's really not much more than Bockingford and
I'd rather spend a few more pennies knowing I'll have a better chance of
achieving my best results.
As a
suggested starter list of supplies:
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Mix more
paint than what you think you'll need. You can always re-wet left over at
a later time but can be a true pain causing unnecessary frustration if not
enough is mixed when you need it.
For
large washes, have your color mixes ready before you start to
paint.
Porcelain or ceramic surfaces make for a fantastic palette
for mixing watercolors. No staining and very little beading of
paint/water, if any. And it's easy cleaning. You can find expensive
porcelain palettes right down to individual 2" round shallow dishes from most
major art suppliers. But you are not limited to purchasing specialized
dishes for painting. Go to a yard sale and see what you can find.
Any shallow porcelain or ceramic dish will work just fine.
Allow
your pigments to mix on paper rather than on the palette. OK to mingle or
slightly mix multiple colors on the palette but allowing your pigments to mix or
blend together on paper results in some beautiful variations you can't get when
mixed on palette.
Don't
fiddle or mess about too much when mixing ....... regardless of where you decide
to mix more than one color together (paper or palette). You will undoubtedly end up with mud
or a lifeless color.
Paint
oodles of doodles (or cameos as I call them). They can be relaxing AND
fun.
Keep a
scrap piece of paper handy (same type and brand as you're actually going to paint on)
to test your pigment wetness, value, color, etc. This will save you a few
unnecessary boo boos on your actual painting surface.
To keep
your paint from going wild or causing a back-run / blossom when painting wet in
wet, make sure the pigment/water on your brush is a bit dryer than what's on
paper. Dab your brush onto a tissue, if necessary, to get rid of excess
moisture.
Collect
simple objects like coffee stirring sticks and cut-up credit cards.
Objects like this are great
for bruising
and scraping techniques. You don't have to run out and buy anything
special. I do find a double ended stylus to be a big plus in my collection
of tools. I can achieve super fine lines as in leaf and petal veins using
the stylus.
Water
pot - any container will work but as a suggestion, save your plastic Folgers coffee can. The larger holds a lot of
water saving trips for clean water and has that molded handle for easy grip.
Or keep two of the smaller cans.......one for clean water and one for cleaning
your brush. Keep their lids to cover when not painting to keep your family
cat from thinking it's feline kool-aid.
Please Note:
If you have cats, I highly recommend you also cover your palette or paint
dishes. I made the mistake of not doing so and had cat paw prints all over
my desk and laptop where she was trying to get at my water. Thank goodness
I didn't have my prized painting-in-progress out to be walked across.
Get to
know your tools. Play with your brushes to see what they can do......what
different type marks each are capable of making holding it in various ways.
Play with various collected items like your cut up credit cards and sticks.
These are just two examples.
Study
your pigments when mixing to learn how they behave in water and with other
pigments. Some pigments go through a chemical reaction when put together.
One such example is Light Red and French Ultramarine Blue.
Know
your pigment characteristics. Are they staining or do they lift off the
paper easily. Do they granulate (some pigments have natural minerals that
separate while drying giving you a granulated appearance.) Take note if
transparent or opaque.
Make
and maintain color charts. This can be fun with the proper attitude and
definitely a great resource to have on hand. This includes pigment charts,
value charts,
and color wheel charts.
Get a feel
for paint consistencies trying out different amounts of water. Learning
to properly use various consistencies at any given time comes with practice,
trial and error.
Although you can mix any green with blues and yellows,
Sap Green is a nice base
color for all your work. You can add yellows and blues to this color as
well.
Keep
notes so you can fall back on them to help in remembering what you did with a
particular work session or painting passage you really liked. Keep notes
of where you feel you went wrong and possible reasons.
Sponge-on-Stick.
This is something I came up with tearing household sponges into small pieces
and using Loew Cornell's SpongIt Sticks to attach it to. I tore off
both foam tips on a double ended SpongIt stick and attached a piece of
household sponge to one end. I used a small knife to make a hole or
score into a "wet" sponge. Using my nails, I picked and pulled
off tiny bits of sponge to give it some texturing.
*By cutting into
a wet sponge, the stick appears to hold the sponge in place better. You
can always wrap fishing line or wire to hold the sponge in place if you find it
moves around or slips off. Not sure I'd recommend gluing it in place as
the glue might not hold up to repeated wetting.
The other end
provides a scraping tool - two tools in one.
Keep checking
back occasionally as I hope to
continue adding tips that might be of interest.
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