Transcripts
1. Class Introduction: Do you want to
learn to paint with watercolors, but you don't
know where to start. If you ever walk down the
aisles of an art supply store, just to leave more confused. In this class, I'll give
you all the details of essential watercolor supplies
so that you're informed and ready to take on
the art supply aisle. I am Kelly Reese. I'm an artist and
designer and I live in the beautiful mountains of
western North Carolina. Today I want to take
a deep dive with you into demystifying
watercolor supplies. I started painting with
watercolors about six years ago, during a time in my
life when I didn't have a lot of money to
buy a bunch of supplies. I remember seeing things. Other people were
painting on Instagram and Youtube and being really confused about
the different types of paint and supplies
they were using. I wanted someone to sit
down and explain it all to me so that I would
know what I should buy. That's what I want
to do in this class. Over the last six years, I've experimented with
so many different types of paint brushes and paper. And I want to share
what I've learned. We'll walk through the
different types of watercolor paint
brushes and paper, and I'll explain
some related terms you might have heard but
didn't fully understand. By the end of this class, you'll have an understanding of some of the most popular types of watercolor supplies and
how and when to use them. You'll also have a better idea of what you want to
try in the future. This class is meant
for beginners and anyone who wants to learn
more about their supplies. You don't actually
have to have any watercolor supplies
to take this class. But if you do have supplies that you want to
learn more about and try get them out and ready to take a look at as we
go through the class. If you're thinking that
this is exactly what you've been looking for,
hit the follow ton. Because I'm going
to be releasing even more beginner
watercolor classes to walk you through
getting started. Let's stay in touch.
You can also join my email list to keep up with everything I'm working
in this class. I'm going to give you
some solid facts. But when it comes to techniques, one of my biggest beliefs as an artist and as a teacher
is that you should take the suggestions
and recommendations that work for you and
throw away the rest. To tell you what I've learned
and what works well for me. And your job is to
figure out what works for you and then go
break the rules. Creativity is about forging
your own path to make something new out
of the inspiration you take from the
world around you. I'm excited to get
started, so let's dive in.
2. Your Project: There are two options
for your class project, depending if you have
supplies or not. If you don't have any watercolor supplies, that's totally okay. As we move through the lessons, I want you to keep a list
of what supplies you think you might want to
try in the future and why. When the class is
over, take a photo or screenshot of your list and upload it to
your class project, along with any other takeaways
you got from the class. If you do have some
watercolor supplies, I want you to grab them and
set them in front of you. As we walk through the
different supplies, look at what you already
have and try it out with me. If you're able to, once
the class is over, take some photos of
your experiments and tell me what you learned
about what you already have. You can also tell me if there's anything else you want
to try in the future. When you're ready to
add your project, go to the Projects and Resources tab and use the Submit
Project button. When you're done adding
to your project, use the green published button. You can see my
example project in the class project
section of that tab. I can't wait to
see what you post. Let's get into the
good stuff now. In the next lesson,
I'll give you an introduction to
watercolor paint.
3. Watercolor Paint Introduction: Many people love watercolors for their versatility and character. But when it comes to
actually choosing paint, there can be an overwhelming
amount of options. Watercolor paint
is manufactured in different forms and there are many different
levels and brands. Let's talk about the three
most common forms of watercolor paint pans,
tubes, and liquids. I'll talk through the basics
of these three forms first, and then we'll get into more
detail of levels and brands. All watercolor paint
is a mixture of pigment or de, plus
binding agents. The exact ingredients vary and depend on the type
of paint being made. Water colors are pigment
based paint in a dry cake. These water colors are loaded
into a small container called a pan and are
activated by adding water. Two water colors are
pigment based paint in a semi liquid paste. These water colors
can be used by mixing a little water in while they're
in their semi wet state. Or they can be allowed to dry in pans and reactivated with water. Liquid water colors are concentrated pigment
or dye based paint in a fully liquid state. These water colors can
be used directly from the bottle or
diluted with water. Liquid watercolors often do not reactivate well
once they've dried. Tubes, pans, and
liquid watercolors are manufactured by
many different brands. They also come in
varying levels of quality and price
depending on their use. There are children's
and craft water colors, student grade water colors, and professional or artist
grade water colors. You'll notice differences
in how they feel to use based on all
of these factors. The quantity and saturation of pigment and quality of
the binder ingredients. Changes between different
levels of paint, as well as from manufacturer
to manufacture. By this I mean that
you'll see a difference between a craft paint and
a professional paint. But also you might notice the difference
between one brand of professional grade paint and another brand of
professional grade paint. Deciding what type
of paint to use is largely personal preference
based on these differences. Before I get into specifics of the differences between
types of paint, I want to talk about a
few watercolor terms that can be useful
to understand. I've mentioned pigment, which
is colored material that is mixed with a binding medium and other additives to create paint. Pigment can be made from either natural or synthetic materials. De is also colored material
used to create paint, but it dissolves
in water and can become part of the surface
it is placed upon. When you use a pigment
based watercolor paint, you could potentially remove
it from your paper if you've accidentally placed it in
an area you didn't want it. But a die based paint will stain the paper and will
not be removable. Light fastness is another
term you might come across. It refers to how much a
paint resists fading. When exposed to
light pigments are more fade resistant or
light fast than dies. Paints with good light fastness
are called non fugitive. While paints with poor
light fastness are called fugitive paints will usually show a light fast
rating on the package. One being best,
four being worst. Permanency is how resistant to fading and stable a
paint is over time. Permanency is similar
to light fastness, and the terms are often
used interchangeably. Some brands like
Windsor and Newton use a permanency scale of double a through rather than
a light fast rating. If you're wondering
about the light fastness or permanency of a paint, the manufacturer's website
will normally show a guide to understanding the labels so you can find the
information you need. Transparency and
opacity refer to how C through paint is
when placed on paper. Transparent paints show the color of the paper
through the paint, while opaque paints do not. Watercolor paints are often
classified as transparent, semi transparent, semi
opaque, or opaque. Some paints will show a
square box on the label with a diagonal line and shading to indicate the
transparency rating. All of these terms can
help you decide which paint to buy depending on
what outcome you want. If you're just practicing and learning things like
light fastness, probably don't matter much. But if you're creating
a piece of artwork that you'd like to give
as a gift or sell, you'll want to make sure
that it won't fade. Now I'll walk through
a few different types of paints that I
have to give you a better idea of some of the differences between
grades and brands. I'm going to demonstrate
each paint by Swatching, ultramarine blue if I have it, or the closest blue if not, We'll get into brushes and paper in more detail in
future lessons. But just for your information, I'll be using a size
six round brush and 140 pound cold press paper.
4. Pan Watercolor Paint: Starting with pans, we have
children's pan watercolors, which contain small
amounts of pigment, so the colors can
be pretty weak. They have a very low price point and the colors will
fade over time. Next, there are
what I would call craft watercolor paints. They have a low price point, and these paints have a
little bit more pigment than kids sets, but not much. They can be good for practicing, but still might be weaker than you need to get the look
that you're going for. They will also fade over time. Student grade watercolor pans are highly pigmented
and very good, but with a medium price point. They often utilize more
commonly available pigments rather than pigments made from
more expensive materials. Depending on the brand, they are definitely good
enough to learn with, and a lot of
professional artists use student grade paints in
their preferred brand. These sets should give
you some information about the paints
on the packaging, but individual light, fast, and permanency ratings
might be found on the individually
wrapped pans inside. This is also where you can find internationally
recognized codes that detail the specific pigments
used to make each color. Professional grade watercolors
are going to be the best, and the price will reflect that. Often they're made
with pigments from genuine stones and other
more natural sources. These paints will have
light fastness, permanency, and pigment information
on the packaging and individually wrapped
pans similar to the student grade paints. Let's do some swatches
to compare these paints. We'll start with the
children's water colors. This blue is not ultramarine, but it's the closest I have.
So we'll start with that. When swatching
paints, I like to get as much paint and water
on the brush as I can, so that I can really
get a feel for how it changes as I
move down the page. If I come down and I'm not having enough
water on the brush, I just add a tiny bit more. Right now, this pigmentation is looking pretty
consistent down the page and it's not as weak
as I expected it to look. But we want to make sure
we let everything dry before we really judge
the final outcome. Next we'll try the craft set. I don't know the exact
colors of these paints. They might have had a label
when I first bought the set, but I don't have
that anymore, so I'm going to use this blue here. It looks the most like
ultramarine to me. Again, I'm going
to try to get as much paint on the
brush as I can. We're going to start
out heavy at the top. You can see already
that this paint has a little bit more saturation of the pigment because it's
a lot heavier at the top. And it fades down as more of the pigment has
settled into the paper. And here we're
getting more water. Next we're going to try a
student grade set from Van Go. This middle blue right
here is the ultramarine. To get all that paint loaded on, I'm adding water and then I'm rolling eye brush
around in the paint, just going to add a
tiny bit more water. Okay, This color is going to be more of our classic
ultramarine color. And you can see that
the pigmentation actually lessens
a whole lot more as we go down the
bottom of the page. Okay, Finally I want to do a fun comparison
because I actually have the Windsor and
Newton man student set and I also have a Windsor and Newton professional set. These are the same brand, but this is the student grade, and this is the
professional grade. We're going to compare
the two. We'll start with the student grade. Okay. This blue on the left is the
ultra marine in this palette between the Van Gogh and the
Windsor and Newton Cotton, we can see a little bit
of a color difference. And it also seems
like there might be just a little bit more pigment
in the Windsor and Newton. Now we're going
to move on to the Windsor and Newton
professional set. So, in this set,
this particular blue is my ultramarine. Okay. Before this is dry, we
can already tell that this professional grade has a lot more pigmentation
than the student grade. I'm going to let this
dry and we'll come back and make some
final observations. Okay, now that all
of our paint is dry, we can go from left
to right and talk about the differences here. We have our children's set, we have our craft set. Both of these are student grade. Then we have one
professional grade. Obviously, these two are
not true ultramarine blue. I don't know exactly what
the color names are, but they're a
little bit similar. Our children's paint is
pretty, even in pigmentation, from more paint to less paint, which can be desirable
as you're practicing. But a lot of people
like to be able to have those tonal
differences as they paint. You can see we have more of that going on with the craft set. Both of these have
less pigmentation than our student and
our professional grade. When we get into the
student grade comparison, both of these looks
pretty similar to me in terms of how
pigmented they are. As we moved down the page, I added a tiny bit of water here, which is why we see
this blooming effect. The color is slightly different, so you want to
take note of that. And then, between the Windsor
and Newton student grade and the professional grade, this is ultramarine and
this is French ultramarine. This is going to
be a little bit of a warmer color versus
a cooler color, but they're very
similar pigments. You can see that there's
a lot more pigment. However, in the
professional grade, we see that it's pooling in the valleys of our
watercolor paper, which we'll talk about paper a little bit more in
a future lesson. But as we move from more
paint to less paint, we got a lot more
of that gradation effect that's really pleasing. And a lot of watercolor artists like to play with that as they have bloom on their
paper overall. This was just a really great
experiment to test out different levels of pan paints and see the differences
for yourself.
5. Tube Watercolor Paint: On to tube paints.
Watercolors don't generally come in tubes for
children's in craft grade, however, there are many brands
of tube watercolors which are considered student grade
and professional grade. The student grade
will have a medium price point and will range in quality from craft store brands to brands like Grumbacher, which has their
Academy Student line, Windsor and Newton, which has
their Cotton Student line. These cotton paints
are the same as we're in the pan palette
in our last lesson. They're just in tube form. Similar to artist grade pans. Artist grade two
watercolors will have deeper pigmentation and
higher quality ingredients, resulting in a higher price two that I have available
are Daniel Smith, core for student and
professional grade, you can usually
find light fastness or permanency and
pigment information on the tube label here with the Daniel Smith and the
Grum Backer Academy, these are both ultramarine blue. You can see that the pigment
is labeled as PB 29. On both Grum Backer Academy has a light fastness
rating of one, as does the Daniel Smith
professional paint. As I mentioned earlier, two paints can be squeezed into empty pans and allowed to
dry to create a pan palette. This can be more cost
effective and it allows you to easily create a
customized color palette. I created a palette for myself with my Grumbacher
Academy tubes. I bought this empty palette, squeeze them into the
pans, and let them dry. This makes them easy to
carry around or travel with, as well as giving me
built in mixing palettes. Let's do a Swatch test
of our tube paints. We're going to test the four tubes that I
showed you earlier, going from student grade to professional grade,
from left to right. I'm going to have my Grumbacher
Academy watercolor paint. Goes a long way,
so you just need a tiny drop to do a Swatch. This is the Windsor
and Newton Cotman. This is an older tube of paint, and you can see that some of
the binder has separated, but I can mix that
in as I'm swatching. Next we'll do the Daniel
Smith professional. And then the core, one thing to note is that this
core color is one that I had and it's manganese blue
rather than ultramarine. Okay, so we'll start with
the Graunbaccher Academy. Again, I'm going to load a
lot of paint on my brush. Next we'll do the Windsor
and Newton Cotman, which is the same
as this paint here. This will be
interesting to see how the pain looks
compared to the tube. Again, the binder had
separate a little bit, so I'm just going
to mix it around a little bit on my plate. I didn't get quite enough water. I'm going to grab a little
more water that might make it separate a little
bit after it's dried. So far it's looking
pretty similar. We'll see how it
looks after it dries. Okay. So those are my
two student tubes. We'll move on to the
Daniel Smith professional. I'll grab a little
bit more water and then finally we're going to test the core manganese blue. One thing to note that you can't really see through
the video is that these two professional
tubes that I tested felt a lot smoother as I was laying them
down on the paper. That could be a
difference in the binder, it could be a difference in the different pigments
that are in there. But that's just one
thing to note that sometimes the feel of the paint as you're painting can make a difference as well. I'm going to let these dry and label them and then we'll
come back and analyze. Okay, as we look through these, remember that the two on
the left are student grade, two on the right are
professional grade. If we look and analyze just
the tube water colors, we can see that the
student grade and the professional grade
look a little bit similar. We can tell that
there's a little bit more pigmentation in both of the professional grades
versus the student grade. These two student
grades, the Winsor and Newton and the
Grumbacher Academy, look very similar to me. We're getting nice
gradation between the top and the bottom
where there's less pigment versus more pigment. The Daniel Smith,
the pigmentation is definitely a lot richer. Next, let's look between the pan water colors and
the tube watercolors. If we ignore the children's
and the craft grade, because we don't really
have a comparison there between the
student grades. These look really similar to me. They should, because
they're the same. Especially the Windsor
and Newton Cotton are the exact same paint. They're just in a
different form. The form is really a matter
of personal preference. Some people like to
have a pan palette with a built in mixing palette. So that they can just close it up and leave if
they're traveling. Some people like tubes
because it's easier to get a very intense color
without mixing in a lot more water when they're already in a half wet state. It really is just a matter
of personal preference. I use all of them
different things. Another issue to
think about is clean up this paint here that
I have on the plate. I could let this dry and I
could continue to use that, but it is a bigger surface area, something that I couldn't
travel with easily. If I had a pant
set, I could close it up and store it
a lot more easily.
6. Liquid Watercolor Paint: Liquid water colors
generally aren't classified into student
and artist grade. The suitability of
liquid water colors for your artwork will largely
depend on the brand and type. For example, eco line
liquid water colors are die based and
not light fast. Aqua drop water colors are
pigment based and light fast. Dr. H Martin's has several
types of liquid water color. Their hydrous water colors, which are my personal favorite,
are made from pigments. And they're light
fast and transparent. However, they also
have their radiant, concentrated water color
and their synchromatic, transparent watercolor
lines which are die based and not light fast, die based, non light fast
liquid watercolors are often meant for
use in things like airbrushing and
graphic arts meant for reproduction rather
than paintings made to last a look at the product description
on the brand website or a store product detail
page will usually tell you if a liquid watercolor
is pigment or die based. You can also look
at the label to see if any pigment
codes are shown, indicating that the
paint is pigment based. This aqua drop shows
the pigment code here. The Dr. ph Martin's
hydras shows it here. Along with the
light fast reading, you'll notice that
they're die based, do not show the same
pigment information. Let's watch these out. To demonstrate the
liquid water colors. I'm going to first start with the pigment based colors and
move into the die based. We'll start with the aqua drop, which is pigment based and
the color is sapphire blue. For liquid water colors, I like to have an equal
number of drops of liquid. I'm going to use
two for each color. Then I add an equal
number of drops of water. Liquid water colors
are extremely intense and you can use them
straight from the bottle, but for me, I find that
it's a waste of paint. And I would rather
dilute them a little because the color stays
pretty much the same. To make sure I stay organized, I'm going to keep the bottle right next to which
well it's in. Next we'll do the Dr.
ph Martin's hydras. This color is ultramarine. I'm glad I'm going
to do two drops of the color and two
drops of water. We'll stick with the Dr. H Martins and move
into the die based. This is the radiant
concentrated water color. The color is true blue. Two drops of color, two drops of water. I think I might have gotten
three there accidentally. It won't make much
of a difference. So next we'll move on to the synchromatic
transparent water color in cerulean blue, 12, two drops of water. Last,
we'll try the eco line. This color is ultramarine, deep. 12, 12 drops of water. We'll start with the aqua drop
with liquid water colors. It's a lot easier to get a
ton of color on the brush. Move on to the Dr.
H Martin's hydras. Now we'll move on to
the die based Dr. ph Martin's radiant,
concentrated Dr. ph Martin's
synchromatic, Transparent and finally the eco line. All right, I'll
let these dry and then we'll come back
and talk about them. Okay, I'm going to
draw the line here to separate between the pigment based and the die based colors. In terms of intensity, there isn't really a big
difference that we're seeing. But again, what we want
to focus on is that these die based colors are
now part of the paper. They can't be removed,
whereas the pigment based might be able to be lifted a little bit
if we make a mistake. You can see that the Dr. ph
Martin's hydras is very, very pigmented and we have a
lot of beautiful gradation. We also have that
in the aqua drop. It's not quite as intense. For me, the eco line is the
lightest out of all of them. That could be the color, well the ultramarine
and ultramarine. These colors are very different and this is a lot lighter. In terms of intensity, we do get very intense
colors with both the Dr. ph Martin's radiant concentrated and the synchromatic
transparent. These die based colors are usually meant to be
pretty intense because they're used in things
like airbrushing between the pigment
based and the die based. I would say that the biggest
way to make a decision for yourself is what you want the end result of
your painting to be. If you want it to be
light, fast and permanent, you want to go with
the pigment based. If that doesn't matter
to you as much, you could try one of these.
7. Watercolor Paint Conclusion: We've walked through details and demonstrations of
several different forms, levels, and brands of paints. We've swatched out different
paints that I have not necessarily to say which ones
are better than the others, but just to see what
the differences are, we can tell that
sometimes between a student grade and a
professional grade, there's a really big difference. Sometimes as in
liquid water colors, there's not a big difference. But it's just about the
outcome of what you want your painting to be ultimately. That's what I want you
to take away from this. I want you to think about what you need your paint
to do for you. And then make your
decisions based on the differences between all
of these types of paints. If there's a brand of paint, you know that I didn't show here, you can still use the aspects I talked about to evaluate
if you want to try it. Is the grade appropriate
to what you're trying to do? Is it light fast? Does that matter to you overall when choosing the paint
you want to work with? Think about your budget and
also your level of practice. Do you want to experiment or
do you want to end up with an archival painting that
will stand the test of time? Ultimately, trying
paint for yourself will be the best way to
decide what you like. But it's often not possible
to try everything, and you really
shouldn't have to. Hopefully, these details
and demonstrations have given you more of
an understanding of what you might want to try. One more note is that you can sometimes find sample
sheets of paint so that you can try colors before committing to buying
a whole tube or set. You can see here
that the price point can be a little high for
higher quality paints. These are the Daniel Smith, but it's something to be aware
of if you're interested. You can see all of the
colors of paint that they offer and
each one will show you the light fastness
as well as the opacity. Now that we've covered
paint, I'll get into the details of brushes
in the next lesson.
8. Brushes for Watercolor: Okay, let's talk about brushes. Brushes can be overwhelming
and confusing at first because there are so
many options and variations. Once you know the basic
differences though, it's easier to understand what you need and
what you want to try. The bristles of brushes for each paint medium have
different qualities. Brushes for watercolor painting
often have soft bristles, with varying levels of
springiness depending on how much control you want
over your brush strokes. Brushes for oil
painting often have thicker and sturdier bristles because the oil paint
is much more dense. Acrylic brushes usually have bristles somewhere in between the soft watercolor brushes
and the sturdy oil brushes. Brushes can be used for multiple
mediums and are usually labeled depending on their
suitability for each medium. The bristles of a
watercolor brush hold a lot of water
as well as paint. When a brush holds more water, you can paint more
strokes without refilling your brush paint. Brush bristles can be made with synthetic or natural fibers
like sable or squirrel hair. You can decide
which you prefer to work with in the store, display, or product
description online. After the medium the
brush is meant for, it will be labeled synthetic or a specific type of
natural material. Brushes also come in
many different shapes. The shape can control the type of mark you make
with your brush, how much water the brush holds, and even the level of control
you have over the paint. There are also long handled
and short handled brushes. Generally, long handled
brushes are designed to allow a looser grasp of
the brush farther back on the handle,
giving you less control. And a looser painting style
short handled brushes are easier to have
more control with and also can be
easier to transport. Brushes are also
made in travel sizes with much shorter or
even removable handles. Most brushes come in
several basic shapes with many variations in shape, size, and name depending
on the manufacturer. Let's walk through some standard brush shapes and the
marks they make. I'm going to
demonstrate today with the Grumbacher Academy
Ultramarine Blue. Now we'll walk through a lot of the common shapes of brushes. Rod are one of the
most commonly used and versatile brushes
for watercolor painting. Many people like to
have a sharp point on their round brushes in order
to achieve very thin lines, as well as thin to thick
strokes, or vice versa. The next shape is
angle or angular. These are for creating
shapes with detailed edges. Angle brushes can be
used in a variety of techniques to create
unique shapes and lines. Flat brushes are good for
creating areas of color, geometric shapes
or straight edges. Silber brushes are great for creating soft and curved edges, as well as interesting shapes. The next brush is
called a dagger shape. It's similar to an angle,
but with more of a curve. These are for creating thick to thin lines and shapes
with organic edges. Wash or mop. Brushes
are used to fill large areas of color quickly
and make broad strokes. Wash brushes are
commonly used to create backgrounds liner or script liner. Brushes are great for
creating very thin lines, detail work, and writing. Obviously, I'm not a
caligraphy specialist, but there are some people who do great work in hand lettering
with these brushes. Quill brushes hold
a large amount of water and have
soft, floppy bristles. They work well for creating organic brush strokes and
applying lots of color at once. Fan brushes can be
used for blending and softening edges and
to create textures. Finally, the dear foot Stipler brush is great
for creating texture. Overall. The takeaway I want you to get from
brushes is that each brush has a different shape and can make different marks. But at the same time,
you can get a lot of the same shapes and marks
from many of these brushes. I would say round is the most commonly used brush
of watercolor artists. But a lot of people use
angular shader daggers and flat brushes in
their regular work, as well as some of the
more specialized brushes. The best thing to do is to get a couple brushes that
are inexpensive. And try them out for yourself. If possible, try out a
couple different shapes of brushes to see what you like
and what you want to create. The price point of watercolor
brushes can vary widely. If you can tell
the bristles will fall out after a few uses. They might not be
worth the money even if it's a
lower price point. But you definitely
don't need to be spending way too
much on brushes. One of my favorites is the
Princeton select line. They're really reasonably priced and they hold
up really well. Now that we've looked at
different brush shapes, let's talk for a minute
about brush sizes. Brush sizes are
measured and labeled differently depending
on the manufacturer. It's not always easy
to gauge the size of the brush or compare brands without seeing the
brushes in person. There can even be slight
differences in sizing between different brush lines
from a single manufacturer. There are no international
standards for brush sizing, which is why there are
so many differences. In general, the
bigger the number, the wider the bristle area
of the brush will be. Round brushes are typically
numbered between Te S 0.24 You can see this one
is a two, this one is a 14. Generally size six is a
great place to start. When it comes to round brushes, it's a very versatile size. Brush sizes marked as
fractions often refer to the width of the bristle area
in inches or millimeters, if they're marked as decimals. You can see this one is
one fourth of an inch, and this one is three
fourths of an inch. Common fractional brush sizes
range from 164 inch to 1 ". Before we move on to paper, I want to give you a couple
basic brush care tips that are really important. One, don't leave your
brush sitting in water. This is the fastest way to
make your brushes deteriorate. Many brushes have a
wooden painted handle and the paint will
crack and chip. If left in water, the
bristles will also not. Thank you for
accidentally leaving them in dirty water overnight. The second tip is about
cleaning your brushes. It's best to clean them
after you're done painting, rather than leaving them
sit for a long time. I build this into my workflow,
so it becomes a habit, Take your brushes
and rinse them under clear water while
very gently rubbing the bristles to
get out any paint lodged farther down
they're clean. Gently reshape the
bristles and let them dry. If you do accidentally
leave brushes for a longer time and they
dry with paint in them, water may be sufficient to
get out the dried paint. Or you can also use a little
mild soap like Castile soap. All right, I'll see you back here to talk about paper
in the next lesson.
9. Watercolor Paper: The final watercolor supply
we'll discuss is paper. Watercolor paper seems like it would be the simplest
supply to choose. However, there are a lot of variations that can be
helpful to understand. Watercolor paper varies
in texture, thickness, and quality depending on the manufacturer and
the price point. There are several
important details to look for when choosing
watercolor paper, because the paper
you choose will have an impact on the end
result of your painting. One of the most
important considerations for choosing watercolor
paper is the weight, which refers to the
thickness of the paper. Heavier weight paper can handle more water
without rippling, while lighter weight paper will ripple with even small
quantities of water. Common weights are 90 pounds
or 210 grams/square meter, 140 pound or 300
grams/square meter, and 300 pounds or 640
grams/square meter. Lighter weight paper is usually less expensive than
heavier weight paper. However, 90 pound paper
is often too flimsy for watercolor painting unless
you use very little water. While 300 pounds paper might
not be worth the extra money unless there
is a significant need for the extra density. 140 pound paper is a great weight for beginners
as well as seasoned artists, since it holds up
to water so well. Watercolor paper is
sometimes labeled as either studio or student
grade, or artist grade. These labels mostly correlate to the specific contents
of the paper, such as a higher or
100% cotton content, and will also be
reflected in the price. Many professional artists use student quality papers depending on the engle of their artwork. The weight and
characteristics of the paper are much more
important than the label. Most watercolor paper has at
least some surface texture. Some artists prefer a rougher, more textured surface, while others prefer
a smoother surface. All watercolor paper
is fairly absorbent. The surface texture of
the paper will affect how the watercolor
pigments pool and dry. The name of each
texture indicates the manufacturing process
used to create the paper. The actual characteristics of texture vary from
brand to brand. Hot press is watercolor paper
with a very smooth surface. Some artists prefer hot
press paper for small, finely detailed
watercolor paintings. Cold press watercolor paper has a slightly textured surface, sometimes referred to as tooth. Cold press paper creates
more tonal differences as pigment granules pool in different levels
of the tooth. Rough press is
watercolor paper with a very textured surface
and a pronounced tooth. This paper creates
more accentuated texture in the final painting, but can make brushwork
more challenging. Another paper sometimes used for watercolor painting
is mixed media. This paper is formulated to take many different types
of wet and dry media. Mixed media paper has a
pretty smooth surface and can be good for combining
watercolor with colored pencil or
other dry media. Mixed media paper can be too smooth for some
watercolor techniques. The specific texture of
paper will vary by brand. Even though both of
these papers are labeled as cold
press for example, you'll definitely notice a
difference in the pattern and exact level of
texture between brands. Fortunately, a lot of paper
is packaged in a way that allows you to see and feel the
texture before you buy it. If you want more or less
texture, you can compare. If you're in a store in person, watercolor paper is packaged
in different forms. Thinking about where and
how you want to use it is the most important factor in choosing which packaging
you want to buy. Papers also come in many
different sizes and can be used in their original size or cut down to meet your needs. A watercolor pad
is a tape stack of watercolor paper with a
front and a back cover. This Fabriano fat pad is the one that I
get the most often. It's 60 sheets of 140
pound cold press paper. And it's a great value I get the nine by 12 inch pad and cut the paper
down as needed. Sketchbooks are similar to pads. They can be spiral or book bound with a
front and back cover. Sketchbooks are great for traveling and keeping
pieces together. Papers are typically left in the book rather than
removing prior to painting. A block is a stack
of watercolor paper kept together on
all sides by glue. It keeps the top piece
flat as you paint. And when the paint is
dry, the top sheet can be carefully sliced off. Watercolor paper can also be
purchased in large sheets, or even rolls measuring
several yards. These types of papers are often higher quality and are
good for larger works. Another type of surface
is called a board. It's watercolor paper. Clay surface, or cotton canvas, adhered to a board and designed for use with water based paints. Now we've covered
the most important aspects of watercolor paper, but I also want to explain some related terms that
you may come across. Acid free refers to paper made with pulp that
has neutral ph. This prevents
yellowing over time. Cotton rag is paper made
from 100% cotton fibers. This paper is high
quality and can handle techniques which scratch
or scrape the paper. Archival refers to paper that is acid free and 100% cotton rag, not containing wood pulp
or artificial brighteners. Archival paper
maintains its color and appearance really
well over time. Paper stretching is a process to prevent buckling
during painting. Watercolor paper can
be soaked in water, then taped down
securely while wet. Then when the paper is dry, it will resist buckling when
watercolor paint is applied. Now we've had all
the most important aspects of watercolor paper, as well as brushes and paint. I'll join you back here
for some final thoughts.
10. Final Thoughts: Thank you so much for
spending time with me today. We've covered the three most common forms of
watercolor paint, as well as talked about
brushes and paper. I hope that you feel more confident the next time you walk into the art aisle or brows
and art supply website. Understanding terms
and lingo can be so helpful when
making decisions. And I hope that you
have a better idea of which types of supplies
you'd like to use The Be sure to post your project in the
Projects and Resources tab. I'm so excited to see what
you've taken away from this. I'd love for you to
leave me a review. And if you have any questions, post those under the
Discussions tab as well. Finally, follow under
my name because I have more introductory
Waterflor classes coming soon and I'd love for
you to be the first to know. You can also check
out my website and subscribe to my newsletter
to stay in the day. I have a wonderful day.
I'll see you next time.
Kelly Reese, Artist & Surface Pattern Designer
