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New to water colour please help
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Message
Posted
As the title says I'm new to watercoloring. I have bought a pan watercolors and tubes.
online I read you can put the tubes into empty pans and let them dry then use in your pallet. I bought empty pans and put my tubes in. Its been 2 days now and they are not dry.
Was it wrong the suggestion that tube watercolors dry?
If its correct how long do they take to dry?
Is there a way to speed up the drying?
Posted
Not sure why you would buy empty pans ! . Try a hairdryer it will not harm the paints. You can use tubes to top up or restock an empty pan. But usually use one or the other. Pans are good for out door working or anywhere really. Personally i dont use tubes but many people do , but a bit daffy to buy an empty paint box and fill it with a tube.
Anyhow try the hair dryer or just leave open for a few more days they will eventually dry.
Edited
by SylviaEvans
Posted
I can quite understand why you bought empty pans, so don't let us get distracted by that..... the tube colours, squeezed into your pans, won't dry as hard as pan paints; some will dry out more than others, but many of them will stay moist. They're perfectly usable in either condition: for those that dry out, just add water and work the paint up into liquid state with an old brush (it's best not to scrub away at them with your favourite paint=brush, because that'll wear down even a synthetic one: you've not been painting long, or hardly at all yet, so you won't have an old brush: use a cheap one instead: certainly not your sables, if you have them. Got an old stencilling brush, maybe? That would do).
All you need do for the paints that have stayed moist is add less water than you'd need to bring your dried out paints back to life, and mix the paint and water in a well in your paintbox, or a purpose-bought palette (or even an old plate, plastic or china). It doesn't make any difference to the quality of the colour whether the paint has dried or not in the pan, except that really dry paint requires a bit more water to make it flow.
Real pan paints are convenient to carry around when you go out into the field, but I don't find them any more so than tube paints squeezed into the pans; and because they're (usually) harder (there are some watercolour brands which offer semi-moist pan colours, just to complicate matters) they take a bit more faffing about with water and brush: or spray bottle - give them a spray, let the water soak in: that'll soften them for use too. I don't normally use pan colours, but the difference between them isn't important. Just be careful not to slide your paint-box with liquid paint in it into your pocket, because even if the lid is tight, it'll still leak.
Posted
My post crossed with Sylvia's last one - I don't think your shop assistant was seized by evil ulterior motives, it was quite sensible advice in my opinion, though Sylvia's a more experienced watercolourist than I am: I've painted for half a century now, but only fairly recently with w/colour.
She's right that you don't need that many paints when you learn how to mix colours - you can produce just about anything from around 7 colours, your options are increased if you have a dozen. More than that and you can confuse yourself - but just looking at my own w/colour paintbox, I've got a bit of Chinese white; a touch of Titanium white; Light Red; Burnt Sienna; Cadmium Red; Permanent Rose/ Quinacridone violet; yellow ochre; raw sienna; Cadmium Yellow; Naples Yellow; Lemon Yellow; Viridian or Pthalo Green; Ultramarine; Cobalt Blue; Pthalo Blue; Burnt Umber; Raw Umber; Payne's grey; and somewhere or other, a bit of black, although the little devil seems to be hiding somewhere at the moment. Now, it would be extremely unusual for me to use all of those in one painting, I might not use more than three or four of them, but I like to have them to hand. I don't buy pans anymore, so I'll squeeze tubes into the pans, and renew as needed. It's a perfectly sound method - don't worry about it!
Posted
It may just depend on the type of paints you bought. If they are honey-based, they are known for not drying and may not do so for a very long time. On the other hand, some paints turn themselves into rocks. If they are just staying tacky, I would say that's a perfect consistency as it will take less time to re-wet them when you need them, compared to when they are bone dry and you have to wait a while before you can use them.
Kay M
Posted
A lot of good advice here regarding the number of colours. For many years I used a cheap Reeves 12 pan set, but it had all the most used colours in it...you can still buy them for about a fiver. Many of the pictures painted with these still look ok. When I retired I decided to upgrade to Cotman watercolours and bought a 45 colour half-pen set, these were much better, but after about a year ten of the half pans were empty or nearly so. The other 35 colours were barely touched. As it was close to Christmas I laid heavy hints around for a Cotman 12 colour FULL pan set (with the colours I used most). My son (who doesn't paint) bought me another 45 half-pan set, because he thought it better value. No big deal, but about a year later I had another set of paints with the same 10 colours used up, and the other 35 almost as new. So, if ever I needed proof that you don't need masses of colours I have TWO old paint boxes to prove it. And this despite the fact that colour mixing is the weakest part of my game...although I'm working on it. (I've used a 'suck it and see' method)
I don't let anybody buy me art materials now (sadly). Currently I'm using a Cotman 12 full pan set, and they are being used up evenly.
I wish I had Robert's list when I started. Just got to get the colour mixing improved now.
Posted
I am a self-taught disabled artist who would like to share my passion for watercolour painting. I would like to ask for your patience when contacting me. I am dyslexic and take a range of heavy duty pain medication daily. This can make me forgetful (you may notice this more when watching my videos) I am slow to answer any messages I receive. But, I will do my best to reply. I look forward to sharing ideas along with my painting. I all so have 20 videos on watercolour painting on my Facebook page, just search for Watercolour my Way Gary Crosby. I am thinking of doing some more videos if there are enough people interested. Gary
Posted
My painting materials would make any artists among you scream in agony. I have two small tins of 13 colours each ( a couple never used) I buy from The Works at £4 and a box full of mixed watercolour and acrylic tubes of little renown. ( I've never used oil paints since I was ten) My pallets are plastic and cost £1 and I have a couple of decent brushes and the rest are like a miniature chimney sweep's outfit. My water dish for home use has an alligator living in it somewhere and kitchen roll is my best friend. Ocasionally I paint acrylic with daft things like twigs and plastic forks and much of the time on small stuff with kids quality poster brushes. I have pastels, watertcolour brushes ( a Pride and Prejudice mug full of them that my daughter bought me to drink from) and a decent quality tin of 24 Derwent Graphite drawing pencils all to give the impression I know what I'm doing, and have trained my grandkids to give me vouchers at Christmas rather then buy unwanted Vincent Van Gogh super duper paint sets. I use the vouchers mainly on sketch books which I tear through at a great rate and 300 gsm watercolour paper. I am constantly in trouble for acrylic white paint on trousers and cardigans and offer this tip: Never leave accrylic on your fingers and rub your eyes from tiredness. I did and spent a sleepless night looking like Count Dracula followed by an early morning visit to A&E (which is thankfully conveniently near) and three painful days till the pain finally gave up. Be warned.
Happy painting..and don't buy expensive anything till you know what you're doing..if ever. 😆
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