It is strange for a synthetic to have gum or lose bristles… :confused:

to answer ur question: I wish they had told me to make my own ultramarine and iron oxide colors from pigment powder !!! It saves money and u can paint like a millionaire !

…don’t leave masking fluid on for more than a few days and remove with a crepe eraser.

Jan

The most important thing I know now and not way back when is about fugitive pigments, but they didnt know it then , so they are forgiven…the next most important(probably) is color theory , I was mainly a value painter and still mostly am, but understanding color relationships is becoming helpful

There is a watercolor handbook, has links to a lot of past discussions listed by topic. ( we do discuss gum arabic in new brushes repeatedly here, but don’t see that specifically in the handbook )
https://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=310721

This 7 week class regarding the basic techniques, 7 different lessons, 7 homework threads too.
https://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showpost.php?p=20718856&postcount=4

It is strange for a synthetic to have gum or lose bristles… :confused:

since they are synthetic squirrels, perhaps it’s a mop brush (the most common brush to use squirrel hair), i been told that it’s normal for mop brush to lose bristles, especially when new.

1. You can’t re-wet.

For me, just don’t try to re-wet dried up blobs of paint. If you squeeze out some tube-paint, paint with some of it, don’t use it up, then let it sit overnight until your next painting session, it might dry out. If this has happened, then, do NOT just try to just swab at it a bit in hopes that it will be useful. The dried up blob of paint will NOT act the same as freshly squeezed tube paint even if you THINK you’ve re-wet it adequately. Rather, to get that dried up blob back to adequate consistency, you must really go the whole nine yards with mixing and stirring and adding water (or glycerine) at the right times, before it will be as easy and pleasurable to paint with, as would a new worm just squeezed out of the tube. This has been a consistent problem for me, and I’ll bet it is for many other beginner painters, too, that I can’t get yesterday’s paint blob to be half as vibrant or half as much dark value on today’s paper. So, unless you are a master of re-wetting, squeeze anew every day! And don’t even buy factory-made pan paint! Or, my new solution to this problem, get an airtight palette container such as the Mijello brand’s “Fusion,” which folds closed with a gasket seal kind of like Tupperware. It has been a game-changer for me.

well to be fair, this isnt a problem that most watercolor artist has… so it’s not something would be told to someone who is new to watercolor, it’s more like something that the artist have to discover themselves since it’s more related to an artist preference then a problem with watercolor..

in fact most people are going to tell new watercolor artist the opposite as it’s ability to re-wetting is one of the best reason to use watercolor.

however, if you use gouache.. then you’ll going to be told not to re-wet even if it can be re-wet, it’s not ideal to do so.

sometimes, it’s just part of the journey to discover what works for you, for example, everyone told me sable brush is the best… I brought it, use it but later I discover squirrel mop brush which i fall in love right away and i never touch my sable brush again.

…Now I am wonder what else I am missing. So what do you wish someone had told you when you first started out that would have made your progress better and increased your enthusiasm for painting.

I is/has been my experience that the vast majority of painters only want to learn how to render the scene before them. Paint a tree that looks like a tree with brown bark and green leaves. IIRC, it took about 6 weekly classes with a local watercolour teacher, for me to realize that there was more to painting that just making a good copy of a photograph of another artist’s painting. Les’ class was about technique and drawing skills. Nothing wrong with that to start with, but one needs to go beyond rendering skills.

Next up is composition and design. You can find hundreds of web pages of the 7 or so elements and the 8 or so principles of art/painting/design/composition. I know, as at one time I had over 200 bookmarks of these subjects. What you cannot find is many (any?) articles on how and when to apply the principles.

“Mastering Composition – techniques and principles to dramatically improve your painting” by Ian Roberts does provide an incomplete framework and outline process whereby you can use these elements and apply the principles. Good news: you don’t need to purchase his book to get this information. I reviewed his book on WC here and you get get the essence of his framework there.

It is incomplete in not providing framework/process for mode/lighting/colour and most importantly emotion, which is where you need to explore after/while you are digesting design and composition. What is the essence of the scene before me? What can I leave out? What must I include? How do I feel about this scene? …and dozens of other questions one needs to ask oneself before the brush hits the paper.

If someone had told me about composition and Ian’s 5 picture planes, I could have save 2 1/2 years of hard, somewhat fruitless work to find that, IMOSHO, gold mine of information. The emotional ‘picture plane’ was easy for me to posit once I started to have an understanding of design and composition.

…and there is one final notion that I still have trouble with: The student must be prepared to receive the masters lesson. I have forgotten the number of times I have discarded a book (the master’s lesson) as useless only to find some years later (the student) that there some hidden gems when I had a chance to re-read one of these books.

as they say in automobile advertising: YMMV
Enjoy your journey.