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useful tips for warercolour newbies
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Message
Posted
Here ia a photo of the workbench in my studio. notice the object in the bottom left corner which looks like a painting. Well it is a toilet roll with a sheet of folded kitchen paper wrapped arond it and sellotaped at the join . its for removing excess paint from your brush when painting and it just requires a touch to do so. I find it very useful for W/ C and also when doing a watery acrylic......Syd
Edited
by SydEdward
Posted
Good idea, Syd.
Alan's question is interesting, too - I have separate brushes for oil, watercolour, and acrylic - some of my watercolour brushes were given to me by a party from Wigan, named Alan!
I've also got painting knives, and a solitary colour-shaper. Most of my brushes are in cardboard or metal tubes which held whisky bottles - can't imagine how that happened....
CAN you have too many brushes?
http://www.isleofwightlandscapes.net
http://www.wightpaint.blogspot.co.uk
Posted
Yes brushes galore but they are not the only painting instruments I use. I also use wire wool and also of course credit cards, knives etc. In addition I have some very coarse materials (sacking, sculpted towelling etc) which I paint on when doing acrylics and then I lay the material on the painting surface and press down - the result is some very interesting 'printed' patterns and textures.
As for wiping brushes, I cover the working surface with old towels - especially helpful when doing my acrylic ink abstracts.. Not only do they protect the surface but I also wipe my brushes on them as and when - a bit like Syd's method. Since I use a lot of water, especially when working with acrylic ink , I can blot the edges of the painting surface with the edge of the towel (I paint a lot on mountboard) to avoid the water getting under the surface at the edges as it can cause problems. Did a demo at Blaby Art Society on Thursday showing many of these techniques which seemed to go down well - it certainly makes you think about what you are doing and helps keep you on your toes.
Edited
by MichaelEdwards
Posted
well .they say the right tool for the job .and good workman dose n.t blame his tools .are we wrong in thinking it is taboo to buy, a foliage brush,
or a fan brush ,a doctrine we have been taught ,is not to use these things .yet all the old artists used any means they could to achieve their finish .all those millions of leaves on a tree did he spend hours dotting them in when a foliage brush will do the same job, I personally like a reservor
brush for fine lines ..or a pen,or a stick peg
ok what tools or types of brush do you use ...that you are nor supposed to .. come on come clean be honest .tell us . oh Syd I don,t feel half as guilty with fifty.
Edited
by alanowen
Posted
I've contemplated buying some of these fancy brushes - a sword-liner is tempting me at the moment, and when I get back to painting in watercolour again I might yield to that temptation - but most of my brushes are flats, rounds, filberts, and brights: the usual culprits. And of course riggers.
But - confession time! I do have fan brushes for use with oils and acrylics; I don't have one for watercolour - I've never felt a need for one. I use the fans for scrubbing on paint, because they perform more unpredictably and make a more interesting mark than doing it with anything else. Their drawback of course is that they can produce a recognizable mark that gives away what brush you've used: and I'm not keen on doing that: leave me with my secrets, I don't have many!
I've seen Alan use that reservoir brush in one of his online demonstrations - tempted by that now, too, because riggers often run out of paint at the crucial moment. This prompts the reflection that unusual brushes, and some unusual techniques - like Michael's - are much more prevalent in watercolour than in oil, and possibly acrylic, where the tools tend to be more traditional: the only extras I use for oil apart from the fan brush are three very old painting knives, and a silicone colour-shaper; an odd thing, the last one - most of the time it's of no conceivable use at all, beyond poking holes through dried up paint in tubes; on the whole, it can't do much that the wrong end of a paint brush won't do. And yet every now and then - nothing else works as well, eg to flick into the paint, to smudge it, to apply "accidental" highlights - i.e. those that you don't want to be too precise or regular. It's a pity that (unless anyone knows better) the original manufacturers, Forsline and Starr, went out of business because the wider range of sizes went with them - you can still buy colour shapers, but most of them are small: there was a big trowel-like one that I should have bought when I saw it, because I've not seen it since.
http://www.isleofwightlandscapes.net
http://www.wightpaint.blogspot.co.uk
Posted
Now this is getting quite sad - I felt compelled to count out the implements which I use to apply paint and ink - the results herewith:
96 assorted brushes, 14 palette knives, 7 pipettes, 3 toothbrushes, 17 fineliners, umpteen pencils, a pot full of twigs, assorted straws, a bundle of credit cards cut to different widths, various sponges, rags for smudging, 2 decorators paint pads and various grades of wire wool.
As I said .. sad isn't it?
Posted
why buy a packet of small sea sponges , when an old household washing up sponge will do .? I have quite a few old paper clips boxes (of e bay) ,how I loose them I.ll never know.
and why is there always one sock missing when I wash my socks . I have a large tray with my paints . brushes and water on ,so that I can shift of the kitchen table when I hear the shout coming down stairs .. (shout =wife ) shout was an old building trade word for the boss ,, scouser,s used to call him the growler . a lemon was a guy who was always sucking up to the growler
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