Painting Methods & Materials

[phickey]

Is this a good paint to use?

Daler-Rowney FW Acrylic Water-Resistant Artists Ink - BLICK art materials

[CultExciter]

Is this a good paint to use?

Daler-Rowney FW Acrylic Water-Resistant Artists Ink - BLICK art materials

That's a good liquid acrylic. It's much more opaque than Doc Ph. Martin's.

[Kev]

Is this a good paint to use?

Daler-Rowney FW Acrylic Water-Resistant Artists Ink - BLICK art materials

Yep-that's what I like.

[ThaliaCamille]

Damn, wish stuff over here was that cheap. Same thing is double the price, and getting it from the US costs the same again in postage.

[phickey]

Sweet, I guess I'll order the set and see how i like it.

[Kev]

Pro tip- when you use the FW blue or green, and a drop of water for every drop of ink you use. And you don't need a lot, I end up using about 3 drops of black for an 8x10 with lines and shading; the colors, maybe one drop.

[phickey]

What do you use to draw lines? I know its preference , but just want to see what everyone else likes.

[Kev]

I started doing lines with regular .08 Pigma pens, then #1 Pigma brush pens, and now a mix of brush pens and #1 rounds. Some guys like nib and ink (Mario Desa has a crazy collection of nibs)

[truejew]

I gave up on speedballs (nibs) I like using faber castell and copic multiliners. arches 400lb cold press and a niji waterbrush are my secret weapons.

It took me about 4 years to figure all this out. just barely started painting cool stuff. I will post a koi I did a couple days ago.

[phickey]

Is dick blick a good place to order from? Anywhere cheaper?

[Jomester]

i use ph martins , arches i have been giving a go with nibs and ink, coming out kinda toy. but nothing comes easy in this world.

[missStark]

I mostly use Dr ph martins, I really like how smooth they dry. I have found I have hard blending the black though so I just use a tube black that also stays workable longer. I find the tube black is kind of dull after going over it with color so at the very end i will go over all the black again with the ph martins but keep the nice gradient from the first black. (I should probably just work on figuring out how to blend the ph martins black better) as for lining I used to use a fine lining brush and liquid acrylics and then I switched to nibs and now I just use pigma micron pens. I also used to use liquid acrylics a lot but not so much anymore.

[phickey]

Wanting to place the order, but not sure I have everything I'll need to start. I'd hate to order and then find out I don't have what I need and have to place another order, if someone could help that'd be cool.

[scott]

Get what ever colours you want I like the FW's best so far, a few brushes I like winsor and newton artist's I have series 7's but like the artist brushes better and there cheaper! Water colour blocks are a good place to start when it comes to paper, some indian ink, sharpie's, dip pen to tidy shit up and finer detail, and a bottle of single malt

Wanting to place the order, but not sure I have everything I'll need to start. I'd hate to order and then find out I don't have what I need and have to place another order, if someone could help that'd be cool.

[missStark]

Wanting to place the order, but not sure I have everything I'll need to start. I'd hate to order and then find out I don't have what I need and have to place another order, if someone could help that'd be cool.

Check for an art store in your area. You won't have to worry about placing multiple orders if you forget something and if you have any questions about any of the product, the employees should be able to help you out (hopefully). You will save on shipping too.

[Chelsea Shoneck]

Don't forget a palette. It's easy to forget the simplest stuff :b

(The kind with the super tiny cups is what I like best since as Kev said, you hardly use more than a couple drops per color.)

[phickey]

The only art store close is like Michaels or Hobby Lobby, which are overpriced. I'm having a hard time choose brushes and what to line with, I want to try nibs, but don't know where to start looking.

[Kev]

Don't forget a palette. It's easy to forget the simplest stuff :b

(The kind with the super tiny cups is what I like best since as Kev said, you hardly use more than a couple drops per color.)

I use the caps of the Almond Milk I drink- works great!

[missStark]

Don't forget a palette. It's easy to forget the simplest stuff :b

(The kind with the super tiny cups is what I like best since as Kev said, you hardly use more than a couple drops per color.)

I like those circular plastic ones that you can pick up for about $1. I have a bunch of those and I think they are great for mixing colors and they are really easy to clean. I used to use individual caps but it was just so much more work cleaning all of them. You can pick those up at Michael's for cheap, but everything else at that store is kind of overpriced crap.

[missStark]

The only art store close is like Michaels or Hobby Lobby, which are overpriced. I'm having a hard time choose brushes and what to line with, I want to try nibs, but don't know where to start looking.

Check if there is an utrecht store anywhere near you or you can just order from them. I don't really like dick blick and Utrecht usually has good sales going on. They also sell 12 packs of Dr. ph martins (i think they are about $65 which is decent). They have a good paper selection and all kinds of pens and brush pens as well.

[Kev]

You're also going to need a pencil for sketching. Here's some info on that:

[JJGooding]

I've just started using watercolors recently and I'm having a difficult time getting my shading transitions smooth. I'm using Speedball acrylics for shading/black. I'm also using some cheap brushes mixed in with Robert Simmons white sables on Canson 140lb cold press. So far the shadings been streaky or cloudy looking. Also if I'm painting something with a ton of black, like a panther, it looks streaky. Does this come with practice or do I have something going on in my materials list?

[mike d tattoos]

I've been using PH martins for the majority of my paintings. The problems is I mostly like to paint Japanese imagery and the PH Martins are way too vibrant. I'll start with the outline and black shading, be perfectly happy until I lay that first color and it shines like a rainbow. That being said if you dont mind super vibrant color PH Martins are incredibly easy to work with and settle very evenly. However I recently started using FW Acrylics and I'm Much happier with the look. It's a bit more opaque, Doesnt blend as easy as watercolor and once it dries its no longer workable but the subtle colors are what I've been trying to achieve for years its a way more "traditional" look I guess. Plus they are lightfast where PH Martins are not.

As far as Brushes go I've used tons and settled on Sable being maybe favorite. Alot of guys will tell you it doesnt matter but I can tell the difference.

The Arches blocks are what I use about 90% of the time and I've been pretty happy with them. Cant tell much of a difference between that and the big loose sheets.

josh- i hear you on the vibrant colors of dr martins. they do have, i believe, about 4-5 different sets of colors tho. pretty wide range. maybe one of the other sets would have more of what you're looking for. only problem i hvae with them is they are pretty hard to find locally. and it's hard to tell what color pallet has what colors in a catalog or online. i've only been using them for about 2 years now myself tho. so i'm sure there's a lot more to figure out even with the sets i do have

[CloudCityTattoo]

I'm fairly new to painting, 2 years or so, and I can tell the difference in paper. I use arches cold press, usually 140lb, and I can tell the difference whether its on the block or a sheet cut down to whatever size. I personally like the full sheets better. But again, maybe it's because of the materials I use, maybe they just work better on that kind of paper. I use tube watercolors and gauche, sometimes FWs and the Dr. martins concentrate watercolor.

I've been starting to get into lining stuff with brushes now, instead of sharpies, it is much more difficult than I imagined, but more satisfying....

- - - Updated - - -

Is it easier to brush line on illustration board, does anyone have any opinions/preferences? I've heard lately from a few people, it's easier to line on that with a brush, because it's not as coarse...

[Brock Varty]

I've just started using watercolors recently and I'm having a difficult time getting my shading transitions smooth. I'm using Speedball acrylics for shading/black. I'm also using some cheap brushes mixed in with Robert Simmons white sables on Canson 140lb cold press. So far the shadings been streaky or cloudy looking. Also if I'm painting something with a ton of black, like a panther, it looks streaky. Does this come with practice or do I have something going on in my materials list?

It doesn't matter what you do...that Canson 140lb cold press paper never works. I don't know a single person that paints flash that can use that shit. Try Arches....if you buy from a chain store, it can be spendy. Thats why I usually print a Michael's coupon off and use that. You get like 40% off.

I bet if you try some Arches paper it will start shaping up a bit better. Also, try different brushes every now and then. I am certainly not a good painter but I do know that if you experiment you can always find something that probably works better.

As I hear people say, "There is no wrong way to watercolor, as long as it looks good, who gives a fuck?"