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Does paint go "off" in the tube?
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Message
Posted
Syd,
As a Mac user I just had to try an ipad and see whether I could fathom your issues. I have to say, after some lengthy head scratching...I can't. The website does seem to be incompatible with ipads.
Sorry
The best I could offer you is that if you PM me your password I can log in as you and delete them for you. Not ideal and it takes an element of trust but I give you my word that there'll be no funny business.
D
Posted
Splosh, this is the old old story, I should think every artist has the same problem, I know that I do. This applies to all brands and all mediums of all sizes, the manufacturers are blind or deaf, or stupid perhaps...just give us artist's bigger caps and make them square so we can at least get a spanner on them, arthritis sufferers like myself have a nightmare, anything but round.
Why don't these companies listen?, what is wrong with them?...oh I know.. 'we've always made them like this, it's traditional', poppycock, time for a change.
Posted
Ipad use - Syd, if you email Dawn, she would probably be able to do this for you; or David's plan is another answer maybe - although I wonder if the system would accept logging in from another email address.
Splosh/Alan - infuriating, isn't it? Daler Rowney acrylics and Georgian oils, and Chromacolour acrylics, DO offer large caps that I can easily use: the snag with them is that they can break off: the paint dries hard on the thread of the tube, the large head of the cap isn't always strong enough to withstand the - what's the word, torque? And orf it comes, leaving you with an open tube but no means of re-sealing it. I have tried putting cling-film over the top, but that doesn't work for long. (I have a painkiller for arthritis which comes in pots with child-proof lids - I have the devil's own job opening these things: it's ridiculous when you consider this drug is prescribed for arthritic pain, and arthritics can't open the flaming pot).
So - back to the point, then! We want large caps. Watercolour tubes are just hopeless if you have arthritic fingers (mine aren't badly affected, fortunately, but it's still a struggle because my shoulders and neck are, and I've put the latter out by struggling with a paint tube). Oil paint and acrylics present problems, unless you always remember to clean the thread when you put the cap back on: and how many of us remember to do that? Because I know I'm likely to have a problem, though, I keep an assortment of cotton buds to hand: if I see the thread is getting claggy, I use them to wipe it off before putting the cap back on, moistened with water for the acrylics or oil or solvent for the oils. It's a fiddly process, but it has saved much pain in the neck and loss of temper.
Edited
by RobertJones
Posted
hi everyone .I have been using the hake brush for a couple of paintings and I found the student cottman paints very difficult to control ,Ron Ranson who died in February stated he used these paints in his early books
,but he changed to an artist quality and was provided with some artists makes by blicks when doing demos for them for you tube , I have been trying out the Ken Bromleys own make
the ultramarine is ok for colour and can be used mixed with other artist colour ok ,, his alizarine is very staining and will stain your palette .his light red is fine to use ,and off course we all like to try cadmium yellow as the price has leapt in winsor and newton ,it is fine at a pinch and I can get along with it,,, but it is weak compared with WxN or D R ,,the burnt umber seemed to dirty other colours when mixed (could contain a touch of lamp black,, I don't know).raw sienna was ok and passable .,,but I will use a few of his colours in my palette ,thanks for you ear just to say i always use tubes and place my palette in a plastic clear zip bag between paintings
and they don't dry up .also i notice the daler rowney umber dries hard quickly yet wets up quicker that W xN when they both are dry
<div>alan</div>
Edited
by alanowen
Posted
I didn't know Ron Ranson had died - he was a good age, but even so, that's saddening.
Cadmium Yellow is now extremely expensive in all media - I've almost run out of it in oil, and the price made me come over all peculiar: but - what can you do? It has opacity and strength that nothing else can offer.
Anyway, you're fairly happy then with the Ken Bromley watercolours on the whole? The Burnt Umber is still cheap from all manufacturers, fortunately, so I'll use the best I can get. Cotman colours - I've used their Cad Yellow Hue, but frankly I couldn't get on with it at all; it seemed almost greasy, and to get the intensity of genuine Cad Yellow (well, you can't!) you'd have to use three times more than the W & N artists' quality, or Daler-Rowney's. I wouldn't use a student quality Alizarin - certainly not if it used the genuine Alizarin pigment, because it would, most reliably, fade if exposed to light.
I'm now going to look online for a reasonably priced, good quality Cadmium Yellow in oil: I have the fan to hand for when I faint, if someone could just catch me on the way down.....
http://www.isleofwightlandscapes.net
http://www.wightpaint.blogspot.co.uk
Posted
I am also saddened to hear of Ron's death, I know that he was in his 90's and was still actively painting in the States where he made his home after leaving the Wye Valley, probably in the late 80's early 90's.
I had the pleasure of meeting him at a demo that he gave to our art club, probably '88, and as it was myself that had booked him he gave me the signed finished piece which I still have. His enthusiasm was incredible, a larger than life character who took up painting fairly late in life, but with his undoubted marketing skills he simplified the 'mystery' of watercolour to appeal to the mass market and was very successful at doing so using the hake brush as his main weapon of attack so to speak.
Love it or loath it, the 'hake' will live on...
Posted
Interesting recollection - I never met him, but wish I had. And I use the hake, not necessarily the Ron Ranson version: he refined it a bit, but I'm not sure there was anything very distinctive about it - apologies to his angry shade if there was, but I've got 4 hakes in various sizes, I've seen a R-R one, and the only difference I could see was Ron's name on the handle. But I digress..... I enjoy using the hake: there's a knack to it, and if you don't master that you'll never be able to paint satisfactorily with it (not getting it too wet is the key) - but as Ron demonstrated, it will do almost anything you could want.
Don't despair if you just can't get on with it for painting, though - because it's also great for wetting paper prior to stretching, cleaning out your claggy paint-box, dusting, cleaning a painting prior to varnishing, even for varnishing the painting itself I imagine: I've never used mine for that, though. I was sceptical about it when I first bought my set, but I wouldn't be without them now.
Ron made many videos, and wrote several books and articles - they're well worth looking out for. And on YouTube, Steve Cronin, the man with the dirtiest paint-box in the known universe, makes excellent use of the hake: he cuts the end off the handle, whereas I like to use it by holding the handle quite near the end that Steve lops off, but there are many ways to use it (I must have a look at Alan Owen's demos with it on YouTube: I've seen one, and want to watch the others: much better than television....).
And finally - the hake is still amazingly cheap: not just reasonably priced, not just inexpensive, but cheap: for a brush with which you can paint a whole watercolour, really needing almost nothing else, you'd be hard pushed to find anything that offers such good value. Worth buying a set of three or four, persevering with them, and remembering that it works best on damp paper when the brush itself isn't far off dry: dip it in the water, squeeze out the excess, then into the paint and onto the paper: if it dries out, just dampen the tips of the hair: it's a wonderful tool, though so many people swear they just can't get the hang of it - I suspect they give up too easily and much too soon.
http://www.isleofwightlandscapes.net
http://www.wightpaint.blogspot.co.uk
Posted
Sorry to butt - in for a moment, gentlemen.
This is what I did when I found my gouache had hardened in the tube. Have done the same with watercolour in the past. Far too expensive to waste.
I close the little flaps when finished. There seems to be no difference in the quality of coverage when applied to the paper.
I close the little flaps when finished. There seems to be no difference in the quality of coverage when applied to the paper.
Posted
Yes, if the paint is soluble, just slit the tubes and revive the paint with water and a stiff brush (not one of your best sables). You can't do this with acrylics, obviously, but you can with watercolour and gouache, and you can also get into seized up tubes of oil, provided they're not lead-based - once a tin of lead paint has begun to harden, there's not much you can do with it - if it's not gone too far you can add oil, but it'll probably form ugly clumps: tins are not the best containers for lead paint: tubes, which you can't get, and cartons, which you still can, are much better.
http://www.isleofwightlandscapes.net
http://www.wightpaint.blogspot.co.uk