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If you like to paint really wet, as I do, all 140 lb paper will buckle unless it is stretched by being immersed in water for several minutes and then taped to plywood with butcher tape. I won't even tell you how to do that, because I have recently found one brand of paper which does not require stretching. It will buckle when wet, but as soon as it dries, it will be perfectly flat again. This miracle paper is being manufactured by the British company Winsor Newton. I do not recommend any other Winsor Newton products, though, because I consider them overpriced, but their 140 lb paper simply outranks every other paper by a mile and the price compares favorably with the French d'Arches which had been my favorite previously.
Winsor Newton paper is 100% cotton. When wet, it gains 1" in length per sheet. If taped to plywood in that stretched state, it will rip the butcher tape while drying. I tried it several times. It always tears. That is why I started painting on it without stretching it. I have done several full sheet pictures, all painted quite wet. I did not even bother using masking tape to hold them on the board. I just laid the paper on an arborite table. After drying, all pictures lay perfectly flat.
I always buy full 32x40" sheets of watercolor paper. I plan to cut them without waste. If you want an easy size to start with, quarter sheets are pretty good.
If you ruin one side of a sheet, just turn it over and paint on the other, unless you paint soaking wet as I often do. In that case the color goes right through.
If you just want to try out brushes, newsprint is similar to rice paper in behavior. I have also used recycled brown envelopes from government offices. I use oodles of them to practice brushing techniques, especially to get ready for rice paper painting.
Brush tips should not rest against anything. Either let brushes hang or stand upside down or be rolled up in a placemat. Never let them stand tip down. Do not press on the brush while loading colors or while cleaning it. Just slosh it in water or under a faucet to clean it. Use a mild hand or liquid soap once in a while.
When buying a round brush, wet it and see if it comes to a point. Even the thickest brush will come to a fine point unless it is a bunny brush. I only buy the ones which come to a fine point. Instead of a bunny brush, I use make-up brushes which I was able to buy for a song once, but I can do without them altogether. Chinese rice paper brushes are the best bargain. They do not last as long as the very expensive western bristle brushes. After several years of use, the bristles will start to break. Synthetic brushes now come in quite satisfactory quality. They do not hold as much water as the most expensive brushes, but they will otherwise behave quite well.
I also love flat brushes with sharp edges for certain techniques. Those are the ones on which I spent the most money. The Chinese flat brushes are too soft for some techniques.
Don't bother with small brushes. With watercolor, the point of a large brush will draw just as fine a line as a fine brush, but with a big brush you have better control and you don't run out of paint as quickly.
I also have a set of three house painting bristle brushes which I use to apply washes over large areas, 1", 2", and 3".
Winsor Newton are overpriced and not as transparent as they should be. I have never been able to figure out the lightfastness on them either. The other English brands available here are not worth buying. I can't even remember their names.
The best deal for my money are Grumbacher. Don't buy a set if you can get the tubes individually. Always check the lightfastness. Number 1 is supposed to last 100 years if kept in ideal lighting conditions, no direct sunlight and no fluorescent lighting. Don't buy specific secondary colors. They can be mixed from primary colors. of them can be mixed You can mix your own. Look for the lightfastness.
I have some old paintings which are totally ruined because some of the colors have faded. All that remains is the earth colors like browns. They are the most stable and will outlast all others.
Some watercolorists only paint with the three primary colors, but I like to produce a deep black. For that I use some charcoal-based color. I have even used actual charcoal. It is water-soluble, but use it sparingly, in fact, very sparingly.
Blue
The blue in sets of colors is almost invariably ultramarine, a color that I wouldn't color that I wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole. It is a color which does not occur in nature. It is also very coarse and does not mix with other colors, but will always stick out of a picture. The same is true for Payne's grey. It is simply a mixture of charcoal and ultramarine and acts accordingly.
In prairie skies, these two Grumbacher colors dominate: indigo for storms and cerulean for calm. Indigo is the most explosive of any Grumbacher watercolor. Some other brands of indigo are not true indigo but greenish instead.
Cerulean blue is not transparent. I substitute thalo blue with loads of water to get almost the same color.
A mountain sky displays mainly royal or cobalt blue.
Red
Only two shades of red are needed. Cadmium red will make rose if diluted.
I use Thalo crimson instead of alizarin crimson. It has lightfastness 1, and no one can tell the difference in the hue. Diluted they both produce pink.
Yellow
There are 3 basic yellows, lemon yellow, cadmium yellow, and ochre. Actually, lemon yellow is a light cadmium yellow. I use all three colors, because they cannot be obtained by mixing. I can do without the ochre which is not transparent and which tends toward the browns which I stay away from. That is personal preference, though.
Browns
I don't buy these, because they lack transparency. If you do buy them, choose the ones made from clays. Burned umber and burned sienna have the warm reddish colors of fired clay. Raw umber and raw sienna are more yellowish. Raw sienna looks like a dark ochre.
These watercolor pencil crayons are ideal for signing picures. Wet the area you want to sign and pick a color which is found in the picture.
The yellowish Winsor Newton masking fluid is the most expensive and the worst on the market. The yellowish color often stains the paper after memoval. Unless you take the fluid off soon after application or if you have had the bottle for a while, you won't be able to remove the frisket at all.
If you use a brush to apply the masking fluid, coat the brush in soap first, so the masking will wash out easily. I only use cheap brushes which I throw out when they get ruined. Keep the bottle closed tightly and stored upside down to keep the top from getting gummed up.
Do not stir or shake the fluid. Gently turn the bottle upside down to get an even color before using.
Other containers which I have used as palettes are white plastic fridge egg trays, white microwave muffin bakers, white plastic ice cube trays.
Email: traute@writeme.com
