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Thanks, thats the problem they are both excellent! I have both their books and Anna brushes are winging there way to me for xmas. I suppose it comes down to teaching style… thanks for your replies its always nice to hear other peoples views. I have been on both their sites and they do seem like good value except Anna’s paints cost £120 for her set. Ill have to use what I have for now until I can build up my collection. I do think I prefer Billy’s teaching style
Is it Friday yet????:clap:
What you need to decide is which way you prefer to work, they are basically opposites :wink2: Do you prefer to wet the paper and drop colour in to start with, or do you prefer to start painting with dry paper ?
Billy would encourage you to paint from life, whilst Anna uses photographs.
Billy uses a limited palette and you would learn to mix the colours you need, Anna uses twice as many colours.
With both artists, you don’t have to have their paints and brushes to be able to paint their way. If you look at the colours in your own collection (look at the pigments, not the colour names
) you may find you have some or all of them already or ones that would work just as well.If you’re just starting out, Billy’s paintbox (Sennelier) is very good value for money, since the tubes are 10ml. The only colour I would change is the Alizarin Crimson Lake (PR83) which is fugitive. I’d replace it with PR177 – Anthraquinoid Red, I use Turner’s Watercolour for this, simply because it was cheap to try, and I’ve found it a really good watercolour. I’m now trying a few more of the Turner watercolours, just to see how they perform
Hope this helps some?
I signed up for Anna Masons class in december but I haven’t had a lot of time to do the exercises yet. Some of her videos are of paintings that she has featured in her book with the same title as her school but she also offers new motives and every month she also post a reference image without a tutorial where you can give it a go. It is a nice treat since you get two new updates each month. I hope to be able to paint more when my studies are over. I hope you are happy with what you decided to take
I love Billy Showell and subscribed to her site. I had to cancel due to financial restraints, but I would resubscribe in a second. You get two new videos a month and after 6 months get access to the older videos (I think). She provides the reference photo and line drawing of the painting she’s demonstrating. She mixes all of her colors, so you will learn about that. She says phooey to convention about mixing and will toss in whatever colors she needs to get what she wants. She’s also a fun teacher. I learned a lot from her and admire her immensely. If you look on the Painting & Drawing Channel on YouTube they sometimes post snippets from some of her older DVD’s. They rotate the videos they make available, so you might have to wait for them to come back around.
Personally, Anna Mason’s style isn’t too appealing to me, simply because it seems to take forever. Tiny brushes, large paintings and lots of tiny strokes. She also does primarily wet on dry. I love wet on wet. It’s one of the reasons I love watercolor, watching the paint swoosh onto the paper! She’s amazing though and I do plan to buy her book someday soon.
As for their signature brushes, the brushes Anna Mason uses also aren’t appealing to me. She uses short rounds, which fits her style but not mine. But who knows? Maybe they’re nice to paint with.
I was in love with Billy Showell’s brushes and actually considered buying them (all the way from the UK!). Instead I did some research, after noticing that they looked like Raphael brushes (size, shape, painting/lacquering). I found that the Raphael 8408 is the brush she uses or extremely close to it. It’s called the Extra Pointed Round[/URL] and you can buy it from Dick Blick for a slightly painful price (at least for me). I waited for one of their 20% off deals or something. I love them and think they’re totally worth the investment. I got a 6 and 8 btw, although Billy uses primarily 4 and 6.
Billy’s signature paint is just Sennelier and you can easily find out what her color palette is. Beware that in her videos she does sometimes use fugitive colors, namely Opera Rose and Rose Madder Lake (I think). I haven’t researched the specific pigments Sennelier uses in those colors though, so maybe the Sennelier versions aren’t genuine and are fine.
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