Tuesday's Tips and Techniques for Watercolor Painting

Blow Dry Your Watercolors 

Impatiently waiting to get onto the next step of your watercolor painting?

You can use a hair dryer to blow dry your watercolor painting.

If you're not waiting for the paint to react on it's own or with other colors to create a cool effect then yes it is okay to use a blow dryer to dry the paint and water.

Tuesday's Tips and Techniques for Watercolor Painting

Crossing Planes

Adding an object that crosses from one plane over top of another will add depth to your painting.  

The tall grasses crossover the pond, this helps to add depth.
The tree on the left, crosses over the middle ground and background adding even more depth and interest to the painting.

This is a simple trick to add depth to your watercolor painting.

Plus the tree relates to last week's tip, its branches extend beyond the top and side of the painting.

Tuesday's Tips and Techniques for Watercolor Painting

Label Your Watercolor Palette

It is an excellent idea to label the side of your watercolor palette with the names of the colors you have in your palette.

Use an Ultra Thin Sharpie for handwriting the color names or use a label maker.

If you have the name there you can easily glance at it to see which yellow or which blue you are using. Or if you have used it up and have thrown away the tube, you will have the name there so you know which color you need to re-order.

Here's an extra tip: Use a damp Mr. Clean Eraser to clean off the old name before writing the new name or re-writing a faded or worn off name.

Tuesday's Tips and Techniques for Watercolor Painting

Paint Your Own Cards

February is a month where I could go broke buying birthday cards. Whether you're an artist or just someone who dabbles in watercolor from time to time, you too can paint your own greeting cards.

You can buy a box of blank greeting cards, I've been using the Strathmore Cards. They come in boxes of 10, 20 and 100 and include an envelope with a pretty deckled edge.

I purchased a box of 100 cards with envelopes from Cheap Joe's Art Stuff online. That way I always have them handy, ready whenever I need one.

Sometimes I paint a bunch of cards ahead of time, leaving the inside blank so it can be used for any occasion as I need it. Or if I realize I need to drop a card in the mail that day, I can quickly paint one up and send it off.

Tuesday's Tips and Techniques for Watercolor Painting

The Wash Brush

My all time favorite and coveted watercolor wash brush is the Winsor & Newton Series 965 Wash Brush - 1 1/2". The bristles are a blend of natural hair and synthetic fibers. It holds a lush amount of paint and water. Perfect for creating gorgeous skies!

Glides across the watercolor paper, twisting and turning helping me to create wonderful paintings. I can and have done entire watercolors with this brush. I have three!

It's simply fantastic!

Snowstorm, Not Here

Snowflake 10 Pendant

by Rita Squier

I created this pendant from a print made from Snowflake 10 my original watercolor ACEO art card, a Scrabble tile, some resin & a bail. My pendants were so fun to make and people love them as soon as they see them. I sold 4 today on Etsy ... yay!

Okay ... the east coast got this HUGE major snowstorm ... we got very lucky. We didn't even see one flake of snow. No snow here in upstate NY and I believe they predicted we would get about 6-8 inches of snow. It would have been nice to receive a fresh covering of maybe 2 inches, but right now with all we need to get done, no snow is fine by me.

Tuesday's Tips and Techniques for Watercolor Painting

Blow Drying Your Watercolors

Yes, you can use a regular hand held hair blow dryer for drying your watercolor paintings. The key is not use the blow dryer until the watercolor paint and water have finished doing their job of mixing, mingling and blending. You can speed the drying process by using a blow dryer on your wet watercolors. Make sure the watercolor paint is not drippy wet, otherwise you will run the risk of blowing the color across the page to areas where you don't want it to be.

Blow drying your watercolor paintings can speed the drying process so you can go onto the next step. You definitely want your watercolor to be completely dry if your next step involves a hard edge or a fine line.

Tuesday's Tips and Techniques for Watercolor Painting

Don't be Stingy with Your Water

This is a great tip. Make sure you use a large water container to rinse out your brushes. Often times I see people trying to paint an 11 x 15 inch (1/4 sheet) watercolor painting and they use a tiny cup of water to clean their brushes. Think big! The bigger your water container, the longer the water will stay clean and the fresher your colors will be. Guess what, dirty water will transfer to your painting.

Make sure you have a container that will hold at least one quart or one liter of water. I like to paint using at least two water containers and sometimes three. You don't need a fancy water container. Think green, recycle. Wash and reuse a food container. I have a bunch of organic yogurt containers which I bring to my classes to give to students who bring in a teeny tiny cup.

Shown here is exactly what is on my painting table this morning. One Tupperware container which was forgotten at my house after a party. I still do not know who it originally belonged to, but it makes a great water container for painting. One lingonberry container (fabulous swedish berries) and one quart sized organic yogurt container.

I always keep one filled with clean clear water, perfect for blending away and softening an edge or wetting the paper. The other two end up with different stages of dirty water. As you paint, if the water becomes real dirty, change it. Dump it out and start with fresh. You don't want to be able to paint color on your paper with your water because most of the time it is an ugly grey-ish brown.

Tuesday's Tips and Techniques for Watercolor Painting

Pen and Ink and Watercolor

When drawing with pen and coloring with watercolor it is important to use a waterproof, bleed-proof, india ink pen. I like to use Faber Castell's Artist Pitt Pen. I draw the image first, wait a few minutes for the ink to completely dry and then paint in the colors. Another key is to use transparent watercolors. If you use opaque colors chances are you will cover up the ink lines.

1. Draw first with india ink.

2. Paint with transparent watercolors.

Simple as that and makes a cute little painting. Don't worry about filling in every inch of paper with the paint because that adds to the character of watercolor and ink.

Tuesday's Tips & Techniques for Watercolor Painting

Paint Storage, Save a Buck

Ever since going to college for art I have stored my supplies in fishing tackle boxes. Now you can buy all sorts of various boxes made for storing art supplies. But if you want to save a buck, go to the fishing section of the department store. Check out the variety of fishing tackle boxes they have there. I guarantee you will find better and cheaper art supply storage items there. I store my tubes of watercolor paint in a two sided somewhat clear fishing tackle box. On one side I toss in all my warm colors and on the other side, I store all my cool colors. It has little divider sections that are movable and removable. Pretty cool huh?

Tuesday's Tips & Techniques for Watercolor Painting

Staining Colors & Lifting Dried Colors

Here is a simply way to figure out which colors in your palette are staining colors and which colors are easy to lift. Why is this something you may want to know ahead of time? If you are doing a painting and you make a mistake and you have a created this handy little chart you will know if you should go through the troubles of trying to lift the color out. Some colors do stain the paper and no matter how much time you spend lifting the color, it will not come out. Some colors will lift easily and you will be back to the white of the paper.

For this chart, I created about a 2 inch long swash of each color in my palette. I allowed the paint to completely dry. Then using an old brush and clean water, I scrubbed a small spot on each swatch. One color swash at a time, scrub with the old brush and clean water, blot with a clean dry tissue occasionally. This process can be repeated over and over on each individual color.

You will notice some colors have lifted out completely allowing the white of the paper to show again. Other colors are staining and no matter how many times you repeat the process, the color has sunk into and stained the paper.

Butterflies

Butterfly in Green Blue

by Artist Rita Squier

Simplicity in itself can be an art form. The warming weather has me thinking towards spring time ... flowers, butterflies, birds.

This butterfly watercolor painting is available in my

Etsy Shop: http://squier.etsy.com

A Little Escape to the ACEO Seaside

Seaside I

by Artist Rita Squier

Wouldn't you just love an escape to the seaside right about now? I know I certainly would.

Not only is this an original watercolor painting but it is also considered an Art Card often times called an ACEO or an ATC.

ACEO stands for Art Cards, Editions or Originals. ATC stands for Artist Trading Card. The only requirement for them is the size which is 2.5" x 3.5", the same size as baseball trading cards. They were created for artists to trade amongst each other. Art lovers wanted them too and if they are bought and sold they are considered ACEOs. They are created in pretty much any medium.

All of my ACEOs are original watercolor paintings. This one and more are available in my Etsy Shop: http://squier.etsy.com

Just a warning ... once you buy one, you will want more! It is a great way to purchase a little piece of affordable art and start a collection.

Tuesday's Tips & Techniques for Watercolor Painting

Layering the Colors in Your Palette

Layering colors is another way to create even more colors with the existing colors in your palette. You can expand the number of colors you have simply by layering them. Layering works best with transparent watercolors. You will have to really water down opaques colors for this process. To layer color, you paint over top of an already dry color. You can use the same color to deepen the color or you can use a different color to create a new color. You can't easily mix a layered color. The bottom color will glow through the top transparent color, this also creates a bit of depth to the color.

I created this chart on a quarter sheet of watercolor paper (11 x 15"). I counted the number of colors, in this palette there are 10. I drew 10 evenly spaced single lines in pencil, leaving some extra space at the bottom of the paper. Then I left a bit of space on the left and drew 10 evenly spaced vertical lines in pencil.

Using a 1/2 inch flat brush and following the pencil line with one edge of the brush, I painted a long straight horizontal line of each clean color. I allowed this to completely dry. Then I repeated the same process with each clean color painting vertical lines overlapping the already dried lines of colors. When this is dry, use an india ink pen or pencil and label each color on the ends. At the intersections of each color you will be able to see the variety of new colors you can create simply by layering the colors in your palette.

Tuesday's Tips & Techniques for Watercolor Painting

Choosing Colors

Choosing colors for your watercolor palette can be fun for some and frustrating for others.  Keep it simple.  A warm and a cool of each of the primary colors, plus 2 neutrals and 2 hard to mix colors green and purple.

For my classes, I suggest starting out with 10 colors: 

Warm Red - Crimson Lake

Cool Red - Primary Red Magenta

Warm Yellow - Indian Yellow

Cool Yellow - Permanent Yellow Lemon

Warm Blue - Ultramarine Blue Deep

Cool Blue - Primary Blue Cyan

Two Neutrals - Burnt Sienna & Payne's Grey

Purple - Permanent Violet Bluish

Green - Permanent Green Deep

The brand of paint I use for my classes is MaimeriBlu, an Italian superior artist quality paint.  Most of the colors are transparent.  Two are semi-transparent and also sedimentary, burnt sienna and ultramarine blue deep.  Different brands may have slightly different names for colors.  Plus colors with the same name may appear and act differently in the various brands.

Tuesday's Tips & Techniques for Watercolor Painting

Got a Color You Don't Want in Your Palette?

I paint in watercolor.  I like to squeeze tube paint into a palette and let it dry.  I label the side with the name of the color and the lip with a T for Transparent, S for Semi-Transparent and an O for Opaque (but I try not to use opaque colors).  I use a Sharpie marker.  If you make a mistake or replace one color with a new color, simply swab it with a bit of nail polish remover.  Let it dry and then you can relabel it.

But have you ever put a color in your palette that you don't want there anymore?  Or perhaps you have used almost all of it up, and you want to put fresh color in there or a different brand in that spot?  Maimeri Blu used to have a gorgeous Sap Green.  But then they couldn't get quality pigment any longer for the color, so they discontinued it.  I have been trying other brands of Sap Green and so far no luck in finding a replacement.  So, now I have Sap Green in the slot where I do not want it.  What to do? 

1.  Wet the edges with clean water on a brush, scrub around the edges just a little.

2.  Use a palette knife and work it under all around the edge on all sides.

3.  Work the palette knife under the base and grip the wad of paint with your thumb.

4.  Using your fingers, pull the lump of paint out of the palette square.

5.  Voila ... the square is now empty, the paint has been removed.

6.  Swash a wet paint brush around, scrubbing a bit to loosen up any remaining bits.

7.  Wipe out with a damp sea sponge.

8.  Now you have a clean empty square to fill with fresh paint.

9.  I place the paint I have removed in my scrap palette, a simple butcher's tray.

Waste not want not! :)

Tuesdays Tips & Techniques for Watercolor Painting

Chart the Colors in Your Palette

Whether you have one palette or several like me, it is a good idea to make yourself a chart of all your colors.  You can do this if you have colors dried in a palette or even if you use your colors fresh from the tube.  Count up all the colors you have and create a grid on a sheet of watercolor paper.  I drew my grid in pencil with more boxes than colors I have, because in the future I will most likely try more colors.  What size you make your grid is up to you.  My chart has 2 inch squares on Arches cold pressed watercolor paper 15" x 19".  I painted one swash for each color and then labeled each square with the name of the color written with an india ink pen.  At the top of the page, I wrote Transparent Maimeri Blu Watercolors unless otherwise noted.  WN = Winsor & Newton, H = Holbein, O = Opaque, S = Semi-Transparent.  I tried to group my colors together, first row reds, second row yellows, then blue, green, purples and neutrals.  

A color chart shows you the array of colors in your palette(s) at a glance.  It can be very helpful in choosing the colors for your next painting.  Sometimes a color appears differently dried on the palette than dried on paper.  You can also check your chart to see the full name of the color and the brand when it comes time to order more.

Tuesday's Tips & Techniques for Watercolor Painting

Watercolor Brushes

Sometimes choosing watercolor brushes can be a difficult task, especially when you are new or fairly new to watercolor.  I teach watercolor painting classes and I have done quite a bit of research on various brushes, I have tested a lot of brushes.  I have purchased more brushes than I care to admit.  Not only are there different brands, there are different sizes, shapes, elements, etc.  

For those who are new to painting and are looking for a decent economical choice, I would highly recommend Princeton Brush Set (shown in photo 1), made up of white taklon bristles (a synthetic).  It has brushes size 2, 8, 12 rounds and 1/2" flat, plus a 3/4" one stroke.  They are inexpensive and work very well.  A step up and my favorites for watercolor class is the Winsor Newton Septre Gold Series (shown in photo 2), which are a synthetic and sable blend.  This includes from left to right WN Series 965 1 1/2" wash brush, WN Series 680 3/4" one stroke brush (this one has synthetic bristles), WN Septre Gold 6, 10, 2, 4 round brushes, all make up a perfect set of brushes for watercolor painting.  They hold a good deal of paint and water, have great "snap".  I don't think there is a better wash brush than the WN Series 965 1 1/2" wash brush, it also has the synthetic sable blend, it is worth every penny.

My absolute all time favorite brushes that never leave my studio, for fear of loosing them are my Winsor Newton Series 7 Sable brushes (black handled brushes in photo 3).  The Winsor Newton Series 7 Sable brushes are coveted brushes by watercolor painters around the world.  They hold the most amount of water and paint and are simply delightful to paint with.  Photo 3 shows the brushes I personally use most often.  I do have another larger container that holds a lot of my other brushes, which will remain a secret for now.  

As your painting skill improves ... spoil yourself with better brushes!  

Tuesday's Tips & Techniques for Watercolor Painting

One of the things I would like to add to my blog this year is an occasional post on watercolor tips and techniques.  I would like it to be a weekly thing, but we will see what happens, I am going to shoot for Tips on Tuesdays!  Here we go ... 

Watercolor Paint

One of the most important things when learning to paint with watercolor or improving your watercolors is the use of quality paint.  If you're not using quality artist grade paints, you may not get the range in value in your painting.  You also may not be able to get nice rich dark colors.  Artist grade paints will have more pigment and less filler.  Student grade paints will have more fillers and they may not have as good a quality of pigment in them.  Student grade paint should be left to students of high school age or earlier.  If you really want to learn to paint watercolors, start with artist grade paints.  

My current favorite paint is Maimeri Blu Watercolors.  I teach watercolor painting classes for beginner and advanced adult students.  The colors I recommend for my classes are pictured in #1 of the photo shown, there are 10 colors total.  I prefer to squeeze the tubes of color into a Tom Lynch palette and I allow them to dry before I use them.  This method saves on paint and is more economical than using the paint fresh from the tube.  Photo #2 shows my class palette, plus 3 extra colors.  Photo #3 are my Zoltan Szabo palettes, I had taken a bunch of his workshops, which I absolutely loved.  The two palettes on the right in that photo show the colors he recommended in his workshop and the one palette on the left is my test palette for new colors.  These are great palettes for traveling.  Photo #4 is my small travel Hommee palette, great for taking along on an adventure or a hike.  Photo #5 is my very first palette and it is filled with Winsor Newton paints and more earth tone colors.  When I first started to paint with John Alderdice, he recommended the colors shown and the Winsor Newton Artist paints.  He always said to use the best quality available.  Which would remind me of my college days and the saying "garbage in, garbage out".  Photo #6 shows my scrap palette.  I have taken a butcher's tray and placed the colors I have removed from my other palettes around the edge of this tray.  I remove colors from time to time from my regular palettes if they get too low or if I decide I would like to switch a color for a new one.  No need to waste the paint!  Sometimes I will squeeze just a little bit of a new test color onto this palette.

I highly recommend Maimeri Blu watercolor paints, they are Italian.  They set up well in a palette and they refresh easily with the swipe of a wet brush.  They have excellent lightfastness, so far I haven't had a single MaimeriBlu watercolor painting fadeand I have been using the paint since 1998.  The second brand I would recommend are the Winsor Newton Artist Grade watercolor paints from England.  You can't go wrong with such a well known brand.  However, the Winsor Newton paints set up harder in the palette, I find it best to add a few drops of clean water to the tops of the colors in the palette before painting to get them to soften up a bit.  I am testing another brand of paint, I purchased only one tube so far of M. Graham watercolors which are made in the United States and so far, so good ... I really like it.  The M. Graham prices are similar to the Maimeri Blu paints and on some of the colors, the price is better.

Artist grade paint gives you rich deep gorgeous colors.  If you think it is too expensive, start out with fewer colors.  A limited palette of colors is a great way to really learn your palette.  Buy the best you can afford, you're worth it!

Watercolor Houses

 I have done a bunch of commissioned house portrait paintings in watercolor and the majority of the time they are to be gifts.  I love it when someone asks "Will you paint a picture of .... it will be a gift for ..." and of course I say yes.  I paint the painting and I am so happy and delighted when it is completed and I would love to show it off, but I can't.  I have to wait.  I would never want to spoil someone's surprise gift by accident.  Here is a painting I did several months ago.  It was a Christmas gift and now I can finally show it off.  

If you're interested in having a watercolor painting of your home, former home, vacation home or would like to have one painted as a gift for someone else, please contact me for more information.  I would be delighted to create a one of a kind present that would be cherished for years to come!

You can view other homes and buildings I have painted on my website: http://rasquier.com and there are also a couple of listing in my Etsy shop (http://squier.etsy.com) for commissioned house portraits.