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watercolour tips etc.
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Message
Posted
When washing out brushes in the palm of your hand hold the ferrule , not the handle or your brush will develop a loose ferrule. How do i know that?
Another tip . We all love mixing greens and occasionally some of us finish up with an ocean of the wrong green. Now pthalo blue ., prussian blue and Winsor blue are strong colours and easily overpower the weaker yellows So when mixing a green put in the yellow colour first with the water then carefully add smidgeons of the chosen blue colour testing it out as usual untill it looks right, adding a little more yellow if needed. The alternative is to buy a tube green and add the yellow. sap green plus lemon yellow , delicious green and avoiding the horrific Viridian. Easy peasy sap green or olive green......Syd
Edited
by SydEdward
Posted
You REALLY don't like Viridian, do you Syd? On its own, I agree with you, it's just not useful - but you can also mix it with your yellows, or earth reds/burnt sienna, and get gorgeous greens.
I wonder if you've ever used the green Charles Evans swears by - Hooker's? He likes to mix it - like Viridian, it's vile on its own (as Evans cheerily admits) but it would seem to be the only mixed green he uses. I'm less than keen on it myself, but we all respond to colour in different ways. Entirely with you on cleaning your brushes - and would just add, be gentle with them, too: grinding them into the palm of your hand and screwing the ferrule right down into it is a great way to break hairs and bristles.
I like your sap green mixed with a little Indian Yellow, too, incidentally - very good for the greens of very late summer turning to autumn.
Posted
My favourite greens: sap, olive and hookers. All mixed in varying quantities with: cobalt, ultramarine, lemon yellow and burnt sienna. But I would stress always good quality paint. I was given a tube of lemon yellow recently by an obscure manufacturer and squirted it in my pan. When next I did a painting I just couldn't seem to get a decent colour when mixing it with greens - it was opaque and dull - obviously slow that day but it was some time before I recalled I was using a different make - the tube went into the bin. I had the same problem with light red made by the SAA - this was another tube which soon ended up in the trash. Paint varies so much between manufacturers and once you've found a manufacturer who you get on with stick to him - my tip for the day.
Posted
This is all useful info, thanks for that, I'll certainly use these tips. I tend to go for bright colours, I can't help it. I've mixed quite a few 'muddy' greens in my time, now I know why. On occasion, I've used a green straight out of the tube (can't remember which), and then glazed it with a watery yellow, which produced a healthy colourful green. Clearly I don't know enough about colour mixing, I'll have to watch this space.
Posted
as a watercolorist ,I don.t limit myself to one kind of brush .,,,, today with all the different kinds of hair thats used ,
I often use acrylic , mixed hair , and some times Chinese with wolf hair ,((Excellent for fine work.))
I cant say I like the specialist brushes though ,yet some can be very useful.,,,,,now,.when I look at the Edward Wesson,s old brush roll on line,
I note all the different one,s ,like a rough old brush he may have used for his trees and those rough reeds in his Norfolk ponds .
why struggle when you can get a good result with what ever you use
what do use in your watercolours .
Posted
I have a range of brushes too, mainly rounds but a couple of flats. I have two squirrel mops - I use them mainly for used backgrounds and skies, as they're great for wet in wet effects. After that all of them are synthetic. One of my favourites is a 1" flat - I use it for painting small landscapes.
I also have a few cheap brushes and I use these for jobs such as mixing paint in my palette, and lifting colours - it saves wear and tear on my good brushes.
On the subject of green, Winsor lemon with a tiny dab of perylene green makes a fantastic bright green colour. Otherwise I like to start with sap green, either adding it into yellow or blue.
Kay M
Posted
I have a large collection of brushes in both acrylic and sable but they are all conventional shaped brushes - none of the daft shaped ones promoted by some of the 'celebrity' artists. The other brush I do use and would be totally lost without isn't a brush at all - it's my musty smelly old rag which I use for pushing paint around on the paper, dabbing out etc.- that's in addition to wiping brushes, cleaning palettes, clearing up splashes and I've even been known, in periods of absence of mind, to wipe my nose with it. Old absorbent pyjamas are ideal but do make sure that no one is wearing them first.
Posted
I think we all have fallen for the specialists brushes ,but the £1.50 Chinese calligraphy brush for £20 trimmed down at the sides .
you may think I.m rash, but I may spend a pound .with me little stick of Blackpool rock
turned out nice again ..MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY PAINTING YEAR
TO ALL THE FORUM ..from the painting wrinkly
Edited
by alanowen
Posted
Same to to you Alan - many, many people appreciate your continuing watercolour demo's, and some might even go on Patreon to help pay for them! You never know - be patient....
The only unconventional brush that I use, in historical terms at least because they seem to be commonplace now, is the fan. I keep meaning to buy a swordliner, and indeed I have one earmarked, but as I drop in and out of different media I've not yet had the urge at the right time, as it were. All the rest, the deerfoot stipplers, the 'special' brushes, the combers, I have so far resisted. Of the many very adequate brushes I possess for watercolour, I note that quite a number were given to me by one Alan Owen ....
Edited
by RobertJones
Posted
six Chinese brushes came this morning for a tenner ,and I am surprised that they are very good .. wrapped in Chinese wrapper and from a Chinese shop ....in the uk
I am not sure of the hair ,but it looks similar to sable in colour,,,not like the cheap white hog hair ones sold in that book shop we all know...
I will make use of them I am sure ,,, ..
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