Tag Archives: painting materials

BACK IN THE STUDIO

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After 5 months away it’s good to get back in the studio and start painting. As much as I enjoy painting outdoors, I always feel the best work comes when conditions are under control and there is limitless time to consider things

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The first thing I did when I got back to the studio was pull out the last demonstration painting I did at the workshop in Pemberton. At the time I was wrestling with it and hurrying to get it finished. I just wanted to see where it would go with a little more time and less pressure.

I attacked it with a 1″ house painting brush full of gesso , leaving the central core of previously painted watercolor untouched. After the gesso dried, detail was added and blotted back with tissue.

The pigment sits on the surface of the gesso, so can be sprayed and blotted back similar to yupo paper. This produces the subtle effects seen in the detail above. It is an interesting, very controllable way to work and produces unusual results.

INDUSTRIAL STUFF

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If you’re into over the top industrial hardware, then Western Australia sure is the state to visit.

These giant pieces of apparatus look almost organic. It’s hard to imagine someone sitting at a drawing board, under a cold fluorescent light, creating this sort of stuff. It looks so random and chaotic.

I hope you enjoy the photographs. It’s a dangerous business, standing on the roof of a landcruiser pointing a long lens over five strands of barbed wire. I’m sure I was viewed with much suspicion and, in a different country, would have probably been shot on site.

The sketches are done with a 0.4 Black Artline 204 fibre tip, a White uni posca fibre tip, Indigo watercolor and a tea bag

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sketch1
0.4 Black Artline 204 fibre tip, White uni posca fibre tip, Indigo watercolor and a tea bag
sketch2-1
0.4 Black Artline 204 fibre tip,  White uni posca fibre tip, Indigo watercolor, Tissue paper and a glue stick

PAINTING MATERIAL

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Five months traveling and three workshops, without the opportunity to restock, means a fair amount of paint, brushes and paper must be carried. I like to get as much done as possible in the workshops, so we usually complete 2-3 small paintings each day. At that pace the workshops alone will use up around 40 quarter sheets. Fortunately I only use a few colors (Indian Yellow/ Quinacridone Gold, Permanent Alizarin Crimson, Burnt Sienna, French Ultramarine Blue and Phthalo Blue) Half a dozen tubes of each of these plus a handful of other less used colors, Ink, Gesso, Gouache, a pile of brushes and pencils and things soon start to look like a mobile art supply store.

painting materials

Watercolors, Gouache, Acrylics, Gesso, Ink, Lightweight Easel, Folding Palette, Pastel Pencils, Black and White Charcoal Pencils, Derwent Inktense Pencils, One stroke Brushes, Liner Brushes, Hake Brushes, Old Bristle Brushes, Water Container and Towel

arches paper

Fifty sheets of Arches 300gsm cold pressed paper – cut, soaked, flattened and drying on the studio floor.

Paper stored for traveling

Transporting watercolor paper over corrugated dirt roads can have disastrous results. Constant vibrations wear through the top surface of the sheets making them useless. Clamping the paper between two sheets of core board stops them moving against one another.

Finished paintings are clamped in the same way to keep them from damage.

WORKSHOP MATERIALS LIST

For people attending workshops, here is a list of materials I use most of the time and the brands I prefer.

PAINT

  • *Ultramarine Blue (Art Spectrum )
  • *Phthalo Blue ( Art Spectrum )
  • *Alizarin Crimson (W & N or Rowney)
  • Burnt Sienna (Rowney or Art Spectrum )
  • *Indian Yellow ( Rowney is the only real transparent one capable of mixing rich darks)       or
  • *Quinacridone Gold (Windsor & Newton) This is more permanent than Indian Yellow but a little less intense
  • *White Gouache
  • Small container of Gesso

Used less frequently : Cobalt Blue, Indigo, Rose Madder

*These are the most important colours.

INK

  • Burnt Siena pigmant ink (Art Spectrum)
  • Plain dip in pen and nib

BRUSHES

  • 1 inch flat Taklon (One Stroke)
  • 1/4 inch flat Taklon (One Stroke)
  • #2 Taklon liner

Neef are a good brand of taklon brush

  • An old 1/2” bristle house painting brush is also a handy thing to have.
  • 2” or 3” Hake brush or wide soft goat hair brush

OLD TOWEL

Handy for adjusting the amount of water in your brush.

PALETTE

The best palette is one with a fair amount of room for mixing and a slopingside on the paint wells. This allows dirty paint to run to the bottom of thewell keeping the fresh paint reasonably clean. For traveling, a small folding palette is best

PASTELS

A mixture of hard and soft pastels, Schwan Stabillo, or conte, pastel pencils and charcoal pencils.

WATER SPRAY BOTTLE

PAPER

I prefer Arches paper, but also like Saunders rough and Cottman (a cheap, heavily sized paper) for quick water colour sketches and demos