Smooth vs Rough

I think we all paint the way we are happy with, and usually follow artists with that same style, while also admiring other artists work also. From a personal perspective, when I first started painting I used a 'not' surface no matter what the subject was, but as time went by, and many 'how- to books and videos, now, dvd's the way I paint developed. I started off with a loose style and then tightened up as I gained more experience and started to want a bit more detail, but I don't over do it. I now have my own style but am aware of the different effects these textured surfaces can give. I use rough and not for sea and landscape, hp for botanicals. I only shade my work when using a sketch book, other than that, my work is done by the usual method of building up colour with the medium I use at the time. Nice thread.

You would be correct in divining - and ta for the plug! - that I like texture in paintings. This is in many ways a deliberate choice - and it derives from the fact that I began painting seriously in oil, moved on to acrylic, and only much, much later to watercolour. I like something I could get hold of - as it were. But I can still be quite tight - you can take texture either way, I think; to the more abstract shapes and forms, or to getting a bit too obsessed with detail. There again, some like detail, some don't. All sorts of things influence your approach - if you use heavy bodied acrylic for example, that will probably move you away from a smoother, more polished technique. If you use a rough watercolour paper, that will lead you to a more textured approach - but did you choose the rough paper because of that effect; or did your choice of paper reflect what was available at the time and so influenced your technique? The post interests me because while I did indeed always choose rough watercolour papers in the past, and am not displeased with SOME of the results I achieved on it, I've come to wonder whether a smoother paper might not be a good idea, as I always have to fight with watercolours and seem to destroy fewer when I'm using a hot pressed paper. And also, as I think I've said elsewhere, I had a couple of Ampersand boards - quite 'thirsty', and also completely smooth: I used one for an oil, the other for an acrylic - I enjoyed painting with the oil on this surface; I thought acrylic would be relatively easy - in fact, I struggled with the surface as I've rarely had to fight with any painting in something like 50 years, and don't like the result I finally got at all because I had to change my usual approach radically in order to make it work: now, that could be a good thing, just to complicate the issue nicely... carry on doing what you've always done, and you'll get the results you've always got, I suppose. Interesting.

I started off using NOT paper for my watercolours but as I got more confident and started doing more flower work I changed to using hot pressed paper for it's beautiful smoothness. Now I'm using coloured pencils, I'm still using hot pressed paper and also Bristol Board which is ultra smooth but I haven't decided yet whether I prefer the paper or the board. I have never tried extra rough. I think David, that for pencil work, hot pressed smooth would get best results for you but of course, we are all different, which is good! A tip I saw recently, which I've found to be excellent, is to draw your work on cartridge paper first and then trace it on to the paper of choice. This saves you damaging the 'good' paper by using an eraser, it works for me anyway.

Drying time doesn't bother me - it's a very good excuse to leave a work on the easel while I take a rest, for one thing.... Mind you, I do have two easels, so that doesn't always quite work. The oil painting I just did would, I think, have taken a good deal longer to dry if I'd used only Titanium White, or T White mixed with Zinc (as it often is). But I used Titanium White free of Zinc, and some Flemish and Cremnitz whites, both lead carbonate and relatively much quicker drying (very hard to buy these two legally, and yes, expensive if you can even get them). Drying time was about a week, just using a little Linseed Oil. The expense - I try not to think too much about that..... Avoid the cadmiums, Zinc, and Titanium mixed with Zinc, and probably avoid genuine Alizarin Crimson, if you want a quicker drying oil: or use alkyd oils - something I've been meaning to try for years, and just haven't. But they say it'll dry in a day or two. The Mars colours and cobalts are quite quick to dry, if that's any help. Getting texture in watercolour does really need two things - a rough paper, and a just-wet brush: I wonder if you've (any of you) used a Hake brush yet?

By the way - if you can find the paintings of Dr Abraham Fisher, you'll find an enormous depth of paint; he paints with knives, and really lays the paint on the support. I did ask him about the cost, and he said he was very popular with his local art shop.. I can well imagine that he is. He's a very good knife painter, and produces jewel-like effects - and sells: and there's the secret. I don't sell enough, or try to nowadays (excuse mode....) to be able to afford to use oil paint like that. One of my mentor's early mentors was the artist Victor Voysey, well-known for using very thin oil paint: his drawing had to be good, and usually was, because he couldn't correct it in paint - I did think one of his seagulls looked a lot more like a turkey, but there we are: I think he agreed.