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Tubes vs Pans
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Message
Posted
Thought I would ask you more experienced members whether you think it more cost effective to buy tubes of watercolour as opposed to pans.
I started off last year buy buying loads of tubes as I hadn't painted for years but found I was wasting a lot by squeezing too much on my palette. I have since bought a small enamel box and empty pans holding 24 half pans and squeezed paint from tubes into these. I have also bought some new colours in half pans. I find I am using much less paint this way.
Would just like to have your take on this.
Margaret
Posted
White Knights watercolour is semi-moist, so easy to work up into a wash - harder pans take more work (and preferably not your best sables).
I tend to buy tubes, because they're more workable, generally - I also squeeze tube paint into pans. I don't think one is necessarily any better than the other, and I don't know that cost is very different either .... I would suggest though that you use the best paint you can get, take a look at the Handprint website to be sure of the quality of the paint you're using, and don't be mean with it: eking it out and painting in thin, undercoloured washes ruins more watercolours than the way in which you buy it.
htt://www.isleofwightlandscapes.net
http://www.wightpaint.blogspot.co.uk
Posted
Thank you Robert and Syd for your sterling advice, I will take a look at the Handprint website. I started off using SAA paint but seem to be graduating to Winsor and Newton. I have been on a big learning curve over the last 12 months and have been pouring over all the books I have purchased, the trouble is everyone has their favourite colours, brushes, way of working etc., but I think I have now found my fav palette. I am drawn to painting flowers.... (my hubby says 'not another flower painting!') but this is what I like doing the most, and I'm practising all the time and really enjoying it. I have found the info on POL great and the comments I get in the gallery are really encouraging.
Posted
Sounds as though it is best to ignore Hubby - Every flowers and your are lovely! By the way I usually use half pans, so I can get the biggest variety of colours in my paint box. But I supplement this with tubes for really dark colours and where it would be difficult to get enough vibrancy scrubbing at the pans.
Posted
I started using my, White Nights, again after having to replace a half pan of cobalt blue to finish a painting, the prices for AQ are alarming, So I use White Night's for every day use.
I hadn't opened the box for almost a year and two of the blues and an earth colour had mouldered a little, but it was soon removed with a little wash over with a brush. Made me think then, would this happen to a painting, over time? Should this product be used for work for sale?
My little studio is in the coolest part of the house and the temp's fluctuate very little.
Posted
I have found that if you have neglected your watercolours for long enough they do tend to crack and harden. A trick that often restores them is to put a few drops, (only a few) of boiling water onto each pan and leave overnight.
Also a fact that may be of concern to you is that, of all the paint manufacturers nowadays, White Nights are the most difficult to discover the names of the pigments they use in their watercolours.
John