The color wheel is now added under painting tools!
Happy Healthy New Year to everyone!
Color wheel
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Monthly Archives: December 2012
Watercolor paints
I love watercolor painting and the paints themselves. I am not really 100% why but I love looking at a palette of beautiful paint. I guess I am easy to please or an artist! lol
Watercolor paint does come in many options; pan/cakes and tubes which house transparent paint or paint you can see through. Opaque watercolor paint is called Gouache paint or non-transparent. Usually gouache paint has a watered-down acrylic feel in consistency. The white is often used in watercolor for a non-transparent-ness effect.
Now tube watercolors are more concentrated in solubility and mix evenly, plus you do not need much paint to mix a lot of pigment. If a tube dries up on you because it has not been used in a while…..toss it! A dried up tube of watercolor is no longer good to use. So, in that regard buy small tubes vs. the larger size. Now, if you have a palette and like to enter the tube watercolors in the little spaces you can empty a tube of pigment into one of the wells and let it dry directly from the tube. That will not hurt the paint from a fresh tube.
There are half-pan and full pan referring to size, usually half pans are about 1/2 inch square size.
English Winsor and Newton watercolors are pretty much known and come in different grades; student and or professional grade. Which means a student grade has less pure pigment and more fillers, therefore not as bright in hues and values. A professional grade paint will have more pure pigment resulting in brighter colors and better quality with more staining.
German Schmincke watercolors are bright and strong in pigment or hue. Fabulous paints to work with, very rich in color. I think they come in pans and tubes. Italy’s brand Maimeri paints are fabulous in richness and colors housed in tubes.
There are many watercolor paint manufacture, you need to try different brands to figure out what works for you. A cheap dollar set will not have the quality compared to W&N paints for example. The most expensive paints are costly for a reason but will not make you a better watercolorist at the same time. You want a good priced set that offers high quality.
Page of London watercolour sets from England made in the 50’s and 60’s are Fabulous! Most people hunt the sets down for the lithograph printed colorful tins not the paints, but the paints work well and are extremely transparent in nature. I recommend buying yourself a set and experimenting with them.
Painting forms.
When painting break down the shapes and paint them in shapes to start. Look at the tail, paint the shape of the feathers in the common color. Don’t paint all one color and then paint in the feathers. By painting the shapes first you are creating depth and adding texture to forms.
Always draw in the direction of the form.
In the above picture notice how the direction of the lines are being drawn; hill and valley. When working up a hill shape draw in the direction, in the valley your direction of line is in the curve direction. Remember to treat the shapes you are drawing, shading and creating in a similar direction. Crosshatching lines will come later; learn the value scales in every graphite range pencil first before adding other techniques.
Also remember light or highlighted areas will come forward in space and dark values will sink in space. This is a principle just like gravity, the way God designed it and it can’t be changed. B graphite pencils are cool, softer and will go back in space as H graphite pencils are warmer in tones and will come forward in space as well are harder in texture. Use that fact to help set apart objects in your drawings.
Busy time of year.
Merry Christmas and Happy Healthy New Year to everyone. Thank you for the wonder feedback as well.
Updating acrylic painting
Updated version of Rose’s bike. Working on tiny remote details which takes time. Looks Fabulous and preparing for framing.
Be smart
When driving Please do not tex or answer and talk on your phone. You may just be saving your life and someone else by actually driving and playing attention to the road.
Acrylic painting
Remember when working on acrylic paintings the paint dries quickly; use a paint extender to help with slowing the drying time. In comparison acrylic paint dries faster than craft paints. Here the painting still needs fine details, which I will show her how too on Saturday.
Do not forget that acrylic paints can have semi transparent layers so the building process will only add a realistic form to the subject. Just because the paint is somewhat opaque doesn’t mean you can not control the thickness you paint with. Look closely at the object you are painting and look for the under tones using them to help create and reinforce form and shape. depending on how much focus you want on the foreground subject determines how much detail goes into the background. 
Roxanne 