Getting Started with Watercolours
Posted 7 years agoThis is written over on my personal page, but it seemed a good fit for this group as well. I know there hasn't been a post here in a long time, but I promise I'm not gonna just let it die. There aren't a huge amount of tutorials on traditional art around, but whenever I find a good one I'll see about adding it. If you know of any, feel free to let me know!
In the meantime, here's a post I wrote about the materials I'd recommend using if you wanted to get started learning to paint with watercolours. It was written as a note directed to someone specific, so the wording might seem a bit strange, but the information is all there.
"I'll give you a quick breakdown on what I use, and he can take a look at it and see if it interests him. I'll be honest, the startup costs will be a bit high if you've got nothing already, but then again a good digital tablet ain't cheap either so I suppose that's just life, heh. Once you get your good base of supplies, it's pretty cheap to keep going.
I'm actually a watercolour painter. I use a variety of different brands of paint, I can recommend "Winsor and Newton" brand, or "Holbein" brand. Though honestly if he's just getting started, this is one area you can cheap out on. Walmart brand watercolour paints might not be as vivid or go as far, but they're super cheap and function more or less the same, so great for a started to see if they like using them.
You'll need a few decent watercolour brushes. You won't want to cheap out here, and quality brushes can be a little pricey, but the good news is you only need two or three for the vast majority if your work. I use these: http://www.dickblick.com/products/s.....elvet-brushes/
The "Round 10", "Round 4" and "Oval wash, size 3/4" are what I use, and that'll be all you ever need for pretty much every scenario. There are lots of good brands of watercolour brush though, so you guys may want to read around and research, you don't have to just use what I do. Whatever you do, must make sure you get actual watercolour brushes. If you're looking at a brush or a pack of brushes and it claims it can be used for "Oil, Acrylic and Watercolour", don't even touch it. You need a very soft brush that can hold a lot of water for watercolour, and you need stiff brushes for oil and acrylic, so they're lying basically, hah. Make sure to get brushes specifically suited to watercolour. If you're looking at something and you're not sure, feel free to run it by me first and I'll let you know if it looks suitable!
Finally, you'll need some paper. This is one area you absolutely cannot cheap out on. As long as a brush is made with watercolours in mind, you can get by with a pretty cheap brush, and any cheap watercolour paint will do for a stater, but the paper has to be good quality. Cheap paper simply doesn't work the same way good paper does.
I use "Fabriano Artistico" hot press watercolour paper. I've also used "Arches" watercolour paper. Both are very good, but Fabriano is a bit cheaper so I've been running with that lately. The "hot press" I mentioned is a measure of how smooth the paper surface is. From smoothest to roughest there's Hot press, Cold press, and Rough paper. Smoother paper can give a smoother look which I personally like, but it also makes the painting a bit harder to work with as wet paint will dry faster giving you less time to work. I'd recommend he starts with "cold" press paper and gets used to that before deciding if he wants to try the other kinds.
I personally buy large 22 x 30 inch sheets of watercolour paper 40 at a time and cut out individual painting sized pieces from that, but I do this for a living so it makes sense for me to buy in bulk. For someone getting started, I'd recommend something like this: http://www.dickblick.com/products/f.....rcolor-blocks/
A watercolour "block". This is basically a pad of paper, but all of it's edges are glued together which keeps the paper held down, which is handy because loose watercolour paper can buckle a bit if you don't stretch it out first. With a block, that's pretty much taken care of for you. I'd go with the 9 x 12 inch size, that's around what I paint at, but he can adjust that up or down depending on what he wants.
So, you're looking at at a pad of paper- on the site I linked you, around 22 bucks for for the 9 x 12 size.
The three brushes I mentioned will run you around 40
And some paint- let's say something like this: http://www.dickblick.com/products/r.....tercolor-sets/
Oh, I just remembered you'll also need a palette! Something like this: http://www.dickblick.com/products/r.....color-palette/ seems to be 3 dollars. Basically any white, plastic palette with small areas for your paint and large, flat areas for mixing.
As for lining? Any ol' black pen will do. I've used a "sharpie pen" for some time, but if you want artist quality, Micron pens are good and not too expensive. If he wants to do the lines first and the paint over them, just make sure whatever it is is waterproof- but I find that tends to fade the outline a bit so I like to ink after painting. In this case, any old black pen will do. I personally prefer felt tip pens, but he can use whatever he finds comfy.
So, that's a quick rundown on what I use and what it'll cost to get started. You're looking at less than 100 bucks, which is about the best you could hope for starting out with digital too, so hopefully that's not too scary. If you've got any other questions, feel free to send 'em my way!"
In the meantime, here's a post I wrote about the materials I'd recommend using if you wanted to get started learning to paint with watercolours. It was written as a note directed to someone specific, so the wording might seem a bit strange, but the information is all there.
"I'll give you a quick breakdown on what I use, and he can take a look at it and see if it interests him. I'll be honest, the startup costs will be a bit high if you've got nothing already, but then again a good digital tablet ain't cheap either so I suppose that's just life, heh. Once you get your good base of supplies, it's pretty cheap to keep going.
I'm actually a watercolour painter. I use a variety of different brands of paint, I can recommend "Winsor and Newton" brand, or "Holbein" brand. Though honestly if he's just getting started, this is one area you can cheap out on. Walmart brand watercolour paints might not be as vivid or go as far, but they're super cheap and function more or less the same, so great for a started to see if they like using them.
You'll need a few decent watercolour brushes. You won't want to cheap out here, and quality brushes can be a little pricey, but the good news is you only need two or three for the vast majority if your work. I use these: http://www.dickblick.com/products/s.....elvet-brushes/
The "Round 10", "Round 4" and "Oval wash, size 3/4" are what I use, and that'll be all you ever need for pretty much every scenario. There are lots of good brands of watercolour brush though, so you guys may want to read around and research, you don't have to just use what I do. Whatever you do, must make sure you get actual watercolour brushes. If you're looking at a brush or a pack of brushes and it claims it can be used for "Oil, Acrylic and Watercolour", don't even touch it. You need a very soft brush that can hold a lot of water for watercolour, and you need stiff brushes for oil and acrylic, so they're lying basically, hah. Make sure to get brushes specifically suited to watercolour. If you're looking at something and you're not sure, feel free to run it by me first and I'll let you know if it looks suitable!
Finally, you'll need some paper. This is one area you absolutely cannot cheap out on. As long as a brush is made with watercolours in mind, you can get by with a pretty cheap brush, and any cheap watercolour paint will do for a stater, but the paper has to be good quality. Cheap paper simply doesn't work the same way good paper does.
I use "Fabriano Artistico" hot press watercolour paper. I've also used "Arches" watercolour paper. Both are very good, but Fabriano is a bit cheaper so I've been running with that lately. The "hot press" I mentioned is a measure of how smooth the paper surface is. From smoothest to roughest there's Hot press, Cold press, and Rough paper. Smoother paper can give a smoother look which I personally like, but it also makes the painting a bit harder to work with as wet paint will dry faster giving you less time to work. I'd recommend he starts with "cold" press paper and gets used to that before deciding if he wants to try the other kinds.
I personally buy large 22 x 30 inch sheets of watercolour paper 40 at a time and cut out individual painting sized pieces from that, but I do this for a living so it makes sense for me to buy in bulk. For someone getting started, I'd recommend something like this: http://www.dickblick.com/products/f.....rcolor-blocks/
A watercolour "block". This is basically a pad of paper, but all of it's edges are glued together which keeps the paper held down, which is handy because loose watercolour paper can buckle a bit if you don't stretch it out first. With a block, that's pretty much taken care of for you. I'd go with the 9 x 12 inch size, that's around what I paint at, but he can adjust that up or down depending on what he wants.
So, you're looking at at a pad of paper- on the site I linked you, around 22 bucks for for the 9 x 12 size.
The three brushes I mentioned will run you around 40
And some paint- let's say something like this: http://www.dickblick.com/products/r.....tercolor-sets/
Oh, I just remembered you'll also need a palette! Something like this: http://www.dickblick.com/products/r.....color-palette/ seems to be 3 dollars. Basically any white, plastic palette with small areas for your paint and large, flat areas for mixing.
As for lining? Any ol' black pen will do. I've used a "sharpie pen" for some time, but if you want artist quality, Micron pens are good and not too expensive. If he wants to do the lines first and the paint over them, just make sure whatever it is is waterproof- but I find that tends to fade the outline a bit so I like to ink after painting. In this case, any old black pen will do. I personally prefer felt tip pens, but he can use whatever he finds comfy.
So, that's a quick rundown on what I use and what it'll cost to get started. You're looking at less than 100 bucks, which is about the best you could hope for starting out with digital too, so hopefully that's not too scary. If you've got any other questions, feel free to send 'em my way!"
Know any great traditionally drawn pictures?
Posted 10 years agoAs well as hosting tutorials and examples here, we could also use the favourites section to showcase examples of particularly well done traditional art here on FA. If you ever see something drawn exceptionally well using traditional mediums, feel free to note a link to it here so we can help spread it around a little bit more! Having a gallery of sorts featuring tons of great traditionally drawn art via favourites would be pretty darn sweet.