How Much Water ?

[sashntash]

Donna –

Cotman is Winsor & Newton’s student grade watercolor paints.

Their “professional” grade paints are called Winsor & Newton’s Artists Watercolors.

Have you looked at any of the free video lessons?

Jerry’s Artarama has a ton of them in all media…. I particularly like the Sterling Edwards videos:

http://www.jerrysartarama.com/art-lessons/free-art-instruction-videos.html

scroll down a little way and on the left you’ll see where you can choose by artist or by medium.

Cheap Joe’s also has a bunch of free videos:

http://www.cheapjoes.com/art-instruction/joes-test-studio.asp

the “Joe” of Cheap Joe’s is a watercolor artist himself.

The free videos on both sites are very helpful !!!

Susan
in beautiful North Carolina
Retired and loving every minute of it !!!
Time to play......

[karenlee]

Generally people just refer to their watercolors as Winsor Newton without distingishing between the WN Cotman line and the WN Artist line. I may be mistaken, but I always assume people are referring to the WN artist line when they say they use Winsor Newton.

[Glade]

I have some Cotman and VanGogh paint (Student grade) as well as Rembrandt and Daniel Smith artist grade. The Cotmans are fine, I have been pleased with them any time I use them.

I found the biggest problem with the lower grade paint like Reeves is that the fillers make it difficult to achieve really dark values, and that some of the hues are not single pigments, so when mixing a colour it would often become dull or muddy.

The paper definitely makes a difference, but so does water. I am often reminded by my teacher, and try to remind myself “they call it WATERCOLOR for a reason”!

I hope this helps, best wishes on your success,

Glade

"Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom." - Albert Einstein

[LynnMac Ontario, Canada]

Good luck, Donna, you’ll get there, just paint and paint. Lots of good advice ^^^. You have the background, your pastels are wonderful, it’s just a shift in thinking, light to dark instead of dark to light, and learning to let the water do a lot of the work for you. I have learned a lot just watching Johannes work, and I understand he is doing a demo in watercolour next weekend.

Cheers, Lynn
www.fineartamerica.com/profiles/lynn-macintyre
"Ring the bells that still can ring, Forget your perfect offering, There is a crack in everything, That's how the light gets in" Leonard Cohen

[Bobar57]

Yes! I second the advice of Virgil and Amy; find a paper you like that is 100% rag. Save your canvas for oil/acrylic painting, and your sanded paper for pastels (it would ruin sable watercolor brushes). I like Arches hot press; other popular brands are Fabriano, Kilimanjaro and Bockingford. Twinrocker makes wonderful handmade watercolor paper; you can get a pack of samples for $10 along with a coupon for a discount off your next order. I seldom see this source mentioned here, and it is a great resource, so here’s a link:
[URL]http://www.twinrocker.com/[/URL]
Happy painting!
-Karen

Karen,I didn’t knew until now of this paper made by Twinrocker,is it really good?
Which other manufacturer will you compare it to, if this apply?

Bob
PS Is really inexpensive compared to other brands.

"Good watercolors are visual poetry;word pictures translated into color images that sing,or sob,as they stir the emotions of the viewer."
-Robert Wade

[LadyMadonna]

Thanks everyone . I am learning a lot from all of you and I will check out the videos as well !!

[FONT=Franklin Gothic Medium]Donna
Critique and Comments always welcomed. It is how I grow into my art with a little help from my friends.

[sashntash]

Donna –

After recommending the Sterling Edwards free videos at Jerry’s Artarama’s site to you

http://www.jerrysartarama.com/art-lessons/free-art-instruction-videos.html

I went and re-watched them myself. I hadn’t watched them in a number of months.

They are as good as I had remembered

I particularly recommend:

Charging vs. Glazing (very helpful)
Barns
Manipulating Your Brush
Clouds
Painting Trees
Rocks
Sunsets

heck… they are all good…. lol

Susan
in beautiful North Carolina
Retired and loving every minute of it !!!
Time to play......

[Afriqueen]

Hi Donna, Windsor and Newton produce 2 ranges – one is called Cotmans and the other is the Artists grade. I use the Cotmans and it’s fine, especially when learning, as there is so much to learn.

Here are some of the things I’ve learned in the last couple of months (I’m also fairly new to watercolor and initially had the same feeling you did, that my paintings were rather muddy and messy looking):

Learn about a colour wheel and what colours mix with what – if you mix colors that are complimentary, such as purple and yellow, you can get a greyish look – though sometimes you want that.

Plan your painting thoroughly – where do you want the darks and where the lights then start with the lightest tones first and work up to the dark. This way you can put successive washes on top of each other (waiting for them to dry in between) and the overall effect is less muddy.

Catherine Gill, in her excellent book Powerful watercolour landscapes, describes these different thicknesses of paint:
thinnest wash – for lightest areas/values – like skim milk
then increasing in strength – 1% milk, 2 % milk, whole milk and then yogurt. I found that a helpful description.

Her book gives great lessons on colour values, composition etc.

Happy painting.

Gill
www.gilld2009.wordpress.com

Painting is silent poetry & poetry is painting with the gift of speech

[callady]

I buy a lot of my WC paints at Michaels Craft Store. They show different grades of paint….student, advanced, professional. There’s definitely a difference. I bought a cheap box of student WC from Reeves. Definitely not good but hey….it’s good for learning how to handle the medium.

I’ve also ordered from online art supply sources. Someday I might decide I can move up to a better grade but for the most part I use Cotman. I think it’s all in the quality of the paper. I usually buy bockingford or arches and have treated myself to 300 lb. arches cold press. Why not try a variety of papers from an online source? I’m very stingy with using the 300 lb. but have been working on a portrait and have found I can scrub off paint easily up to a point. Didn’t know that!

And thanks to Johannes, I heard him say I could use my pastels over a watercolor, since it has a tooth, which I’ve been doing this week, tweaking WCs that are just lacking.

[Bobar57]

PS Is really inexpensive compared to other brands.

My bad,it’s not inexpensive at all.Prices are per sheet,not per 10 pack.Anyway,using a sample wouldn’t hurt.
Donna,much of the watercolor painting has to do with quality paints.I’m not too fond of Cotman,being student grade these contains more filler than pigment,taking away the advantage of vibrant colors not matter if you apply a watery wash or paint almost without water.
Do you live in the US?If you do I highly suggest that you check online stores as Dick Blick,ASW Express,Jerry’s Artarama and Cheap Joe’s Art Supplies.There is a wide variety of professional grade paints,some of them are not that expensive.I use M.Graham,good paint at affordable prices and as a bonus contains honey,this prevent the paint from drying in your palette or the tube.I really like that brand.
Regarding paper,you’re using good paper.There is no problem on that.Check ASW Express,they have a sale on the Fabriano Artistico watercolor paper,the pack of 10 sheets of rough,cold pressed or hot pressed,either traditional white or extra white is 26.95 or 26.99.The sale is until 7/31/11.
I’m stocking.:D

Bob

"Good watercolors are visual poetry;word pictures translated into color images that sing,or sob,as they stir the emotions of the viewer."
-Robert Wade

[Claude J Greengrass]

Karen,I didn’t knew until now of this paper made by Twinrocker,is it really good? Which other manufacturer will you compare it to, if this apply? Bob

I second Karen’s recommendation on Twinrockers, but it’s too expensive for every day use. I like it better than Arches.

It is only on a basis of knowledge that we can become free to compose naturally. -- Bernard Dunstan
blog.jlk.net

[Mayberry]

I’m thinking of trying some Twinrocker paper, 6×8″ feather deckle 5 pack – to try some little paintings and float mount them. It’s on sale at Cheap Joe’s this month, plus free shipping for taking Cheap Joe’s survey. Good time to try it.

Normally I use Fabriano paper, which I like. I’m trying Arches right now, and I’m really liking it.

Afriqueen – I like the milk/yogurt description of paint dilutions. It makes an easy to understand continuum.

I have some Cotman colors on my palette – from the set of 6 Cotmans I started out with. They work fine for me. I’ll probably notice the difference when I replace those colors with artist grade, but I can get rich colors from them. Maybe it takes a bit more paint to get there.

-Cathy

http://catherinedavila-paintings.blogspot.com

[Bobar57]

On another note I want to point that the excellent Chinese painter Guan Weixing uses Cotman paints and Bockingford paper,he work with very thin washes,building up in the process.Figures that you don’t require always the best materials to produce stunning pieces.

Bob

"Good watercolors are visual poetry;word pictures translated into color images that sing,or sob,as they stir the emotions of the viewer."
-Robert Wade

[Neeman]

…
I have just been practising on Canson 140 lb pad of paper.
…

The whole focus of this thread is paint
But……….

Cason is a practice paper
You will not get luminous colors from Cason
It is not sized well

Change your paper to either Fabriano Artistico or Suanders Waterford
140 lbs NOT cold Press

[Lawrence Fox]

Late to conversation….it’s amazing the difference between “student” paper and the better brands.

My paintings took a noticeable quantum leap forward when I switched from Canson et al to the Arches 140lb paper, much more than changing paint or acquiring “better” brushes.

Lawrence Fox Thornhill, ON
“Try not. Do, or do not. There is no 'try.'” -- Yoda
“ I have never failed; I have, however, found ten thousand ways that don’t work”. -- Unknown
See my LinkedIn profile or follow me on Twitter: @TheWizardGuy

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