Cool stuff you’ve discovered and Tips and Tricks

[SarahSpangles Yorkshire]

A couple of tips if you like to paint in a watercolour journal.

Narrow washi tape (the type sold for bullet journals and scrap books) used as a border protects the other pages from paint runs, plus your paper ‘cockles’ less with this reinforcement.  The rolls are small enough to carry in your pencil case and you can choose a soothing colour!  When you are ready to remove it, lift the free end but don’t pull it straight upwards as this can lift the surface.  Pull it at right angles to the direction it was applied, holding it almost horizontally.

If you have any watercolour tubes/pans that you’ve realised are fugitive pigments, consider using them in your sketchbook.  Examples would be Alizarin Crimson PR83 and Rose Madder Genuine.  They’re often wonderful to work with and the only downside is having to ‘learn’ a different pigment for your lightfast paintings.

 

 

[K12144]

janinep7 wrote:

Here’s another one… I feel like “Helpful Hints from Heloise” for anyone who is old enough to remember that. Since paper towels are more valuable than gold these days, I didn’t want to burn up so many while I’m painting… and I do seem to go through quite a few. I was looking for an alternative and here is what I’ve come up with. I took a small, rectangular shaped food storage container, just one of the cheapo plastic ones, then folded up an old ratty cotton dish towel so that it fits inside. I just dab off the extra water from my brush on that. At the end of the day, I take it out and hang it up to dry. Good as new on the next day. When it gets really gross, I can run it through the washer and voila! Start all over again. No paper towels wasted. No trees sacrificed. Such a great idea, I will keep this one going even after the COVID quarantine.

 

Yup… I started using old rags for this.  I don’t care if they get stained… they’re also the ones I use for cleaning, the ones I use because I don’t care if they get so gross I have to toss them (ratty-old-clothing rags… being rags saves them from getting to the trash can quite as fast).

[FONT=Book Antiqua]--Kat

[edmund ronald]

I noticed that some colors eg yellow are easier to use if you go via a paper fragment used as a  palette rather than from the paint source ir real palette.

 

Edmund

My virtual sketchbook, one a day https://www.instagram.com/edmundronald/

[AnneHW]

A lot of artists say, either side of watercolor paper is fine. Personally, I like to use the “back” side where the identification markings aren’t raised, and it hasn’t made any difference in my paintings.

[txomsy]

I think I haven’t seen this mentioned. I carry a Talens Art Creation sketchbook, 140 gsm / 90lbs for sketching on the go. Have not really had any problem with it yet, but just in case, I often use a plastic envelope (from a discount shop) to protect pages while watercoloring.

The trick is cutting out the envelope’s closing lid (which had a velcro button to close), and removing the glued velcro off the opposite side and clean the remaining glue.

The sketchbook is A6 size, so when I’m going to paint, I insert the page under the one I am about to use inside the envelope. That way the page (and every other behind) gets protected from any water, and the envelope provides some additional support and a background frame for the page to be drawn, which may be used for taping or whatever.

 

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