Rob’s Waterco☺ler

I recently unearthed my Winsor Newton handheld watercolor sketchbox and started falling in love with it all over again.  I have been through several fits of getting the colors I like to use for “Field Sketching” and this is the current result:

Cadmium Yellow                     Scarlet Red             French UltraMarine
Transparent Yellow                Alizirin Crimson    Winsor Blue red Shade

Permanent Green                    Raw Sienna              Raw Umber
Winsor Green Blue Shade    Burnt Sienna           Indigo

And I really like  to have my Escoda travel kolinsky sable brushes size 10, 6 and 2.

Below is a picture of the set up along with a color study using Burnt Sienna as the interest color in the middle and seeing how the other colors react to it.  Notice Transparent Yellow is completely eaten up by it and the difference between how the two blues react.  Note: CR stands for Cadmium Red but is really Scarlet as I have been trying to get away from the Cadmium’s of late.  The dollar bill is for size reference.  No you cannot have it

I have been out of pocket for a few days while in Currituck, North Carolina.  This is becoming a very regular trip for me and I absolutely love stopping by Jerry’s Artarama, my favorite art supply store each time.  Unfortunately I got no artwork done while there,  but check out a sample of my art supply haul.  That should last me a few weeks

Tomorrow I plan to paint in Old Town Manassas as part of the PAINT! Manassas pre-events.  Now that the rain is gone I can make some productive use of the week while I have the time off.

Rob

Well it has been a long spring break.  I did not get near enough artwork done, however, I did get my house and yard in North Carolina cleaned up

 Here is a rough sketch using my pencils for my “Fishing on a River” project.  Hopefully I will get started again on the large detailed layout sketch tomorrow and finish it by the end of the week.

Rob

Well on my way down to North Carolina Yesterday I stopped at my favorite Virginia Beach Art Store, Jerry’s Art Arama.  While there I picked up a set of Derwent Inktense Pencils and gave them a try lat night.  Here is the result:

I also got a nice wood box to put them in for only $9.99! on a closeout.

When I get more time and am not on dial-up, I will give them a proper review.  Lets just say for right now that the pencils are REALLY intriguing.

Rob

This is the start of a new project for a very large and detailed painting of boys (…maybe throw in a tomboy…) fishing on a river.  I have not decided yet if it will be oil or watercolor, or both.  Most likely I will do a watercolor sketch first and then try a finished oil painting.  I plan to take a while to do the final work and will do many sketches and reference drawings along the way.

The boys above are my first of many done in 6H, 2H and HB graphite in my large raffine drawing book.  The Lana paper used in this book is delicious to draw on.

I have a general shoreline picked out.  There will be boys on both sides of an inlet and I plan to add a good deal of nature into the painting.  I am using reference photos for the rough drawings.  After the references are done, and I have a final picture laid out, I will put the photos away and try to paint this from the heart and soul.  Should be interesting and aid in getting an impressionist painting.  I have not done a painting like this since 1980 something.

Rob

I started this acrylic painting today from this I did a few weeks ago. 

Now I do not like painting with acrylics.  I have constant troubles with them.  The paint dries too quickly and look like plastic.  Being a type “AA” person however, I just can’t let it rest.  Michele, an associate artist and friend, suggested I try using acrylic medium instead of water so I bought a bottle and gave it a whirl.  Guess this is the kinda stuff you miss out on when you don’t go to a four year art college   Like everything else in life, you figure it all out sooner or later.  I just wish I had figured out about the medium sooner because it works great.  Plastic look: solved.  Paint drying too quickly: not-solved.

So my bad left brain (the engineering side) figured out that somebody ought to solve the drying out problem.  Unfortunately, it was not me or I would be making lots of bank deposits for inventing this cool palette and slow-drying Liquitex medium:  They should be married

Made by Masterson, this thing works great.  I paid like $5 for this thing! The directions and prep time to use is a minus.  The average male artist will simply wet the sponge, slap the special paper on and then wonder why the paint dried out in less than an hour.  After that he will read the directions, boil the paper (in the microwave of course), and then reach success.  Don’t ask how I know this.  All you ladies out there should not have a problem with this.  Guy’s: READ THE DIRECTIONS.

 So, the paint has stayed wet all day.  The medium is acting like liquin does for oil paint, which I work with quite well.  We might get a successful (first) acrylic painting out of this yet.

Rob

This is an 18 x 24 watercolor using my new Maimeri Artist Watercolor tube ‘try-out’ set.  The colors used are Ultramarine Blue Light , Dragon’s Blood and Permanent Yellow Lemon.  The painting was done wet-in-wet for the most part using some masking to preserve the white areas on the fish.

The paint comes out of the tube in a nice creamy texture.  It is very easy to work with and thins down with water easily.  Mixing the paint is also easy and predictable.  The colors are extremely transparent and lift easily.

I had a some strong feelings about each color:

The Ultramarine Blue is a joy to work with.  It does not granulate as much as the Lukas or Winsor Newton Ultramarine and is consistent.  It did dry a bit paler than I would like.

The Dragon’s Blood was a bit of a disappointment.  With a name like that I expected a more intense red.  It is fairly similar to the Lukas English red, but much more transparent.  When mixed with the Ultramarine Blue, it makes a nice rich and warm purple hue black.

The Yellow Lemon was the color I like the most.  Exceptionally transparent and vivid.  Not overpowering at all.  It mixed well with the Dragon’s Blood to produce the nice transparent orange for the fish.   I will be using this color again!

So end result is a another nice fish painting to add to the stack

Here is th post that started this wonderful evaluation tonight. 

Rob

I got this 6 tube Maimeri Watercolor try-out set for $9.99 around Christmas from Jerry’s Artarama.  I thought I was going to be travelling tomorrow, and now I am not.  Any question about what I am going to do tonight!  This is going to be big, wet and messy!

Rob

This morning I went to a Northern Virginia Artist League (NOVAL) ‘paint-in’ at a member’s studio in Fairfax, VA.  There is so much synergy when you get artists together is a small place to paint.  This studio is in the basement with some very nice light coming in from a french door in the rear.

To the right is my painting.  Completed in about 2 hours using my LUKAS 1862 pan watercolors (which BTW, I cannot say enough good things about).  I added gum arabic to the water and used it straight up in a few areas of the alizarin crimson for brilliance.  I am very happy with the painting and got a lot of really good advice concerning how to make the Iris stand out against the background.

Thanks Lorrie for the use of your studio and all the NOVAL artists who provided inspiration and encouragement.

Rob

I thought I would review and share my opinion on how well several key watercolor supplies performed for me.  Please refer to the reference photo above.

Starting with brushes (all are Kolinsky) from top to bottom are:

• Escoda size 8 pocket brush
• Loew Cornell Size 5
• Cheap Joe’s Legend siz 6
• Winsor Newton travel brush size 0

First I will point out that the actual size is only relevant as a scale in the same manufacture.  Size 6 in Escoda does not match size 6 in Winsor Newton for example.  Now for my opinion.  All are great brushes.  The Escoda is my first choice.  The brush is easily transported in my pocket and ready at any time.  The shaping of the bristles is masterful and allows me to get bold washes and very fine lines with a size 8 brush.  It has also proven very durable.  The Loew Cornell’s are economical and perform well, however they doe not hold up well and need to be replaced much more frequently.  As you can see from the picture, the end is shot.  It is a good wash brush at this point, but not suited for detail work.  I have the whole set of the Cheap Joe’s Legend brushes.  The quality of the shaping varied between the set.  About half of them did very well and a year later still hold their own.  The size 12 and 10 in the set seem to lose bristles frequently, but it has not affected their performance.  Lastly the Winsor Newton that came with my travel set, top left in the picture, has been a disappointment compared to the Escoda pocket brush.  It does not hold a point or paint as well as the others. 

The clear winner is the Escoda.  I paid about $20 for the size 8 and will absolutely replace it when I manage to wear it out.

The two pan sets I have are the Winsor Newton Artist travel set and the Lukas 24 Large Artist Pan set.  I like both of these two sets quite well and also like the quality and performance of the paint.  Here are a few differences:

• The Lukas set is very heavy.  If held for about two hours straight your arm WILL get tired.  I like the large pans and most of the weight is in the paint, not the box.  The enameled surface is great for mixing and cleans easily.  The rest of the box is made rather cheaply.
• The Winsor Newton set is very light.  There is a nice fold out rubber like loop to put your thumb through.  It did not make my thumb numb or sore like some other palettes do.  There are two plastic trays for mixing and they are set up logically, however they stain easily so once you use a staining pigment, it will never be white again if that matters to you.  The only two down sides are the “leather like” case that came with the set was of poor workmanship and pretty much started falling apart the second I opened the package.  Second, Winsor Newton pans are likely the hardest substance known to the art community.  Going back and forth between the semi-moist Lukas and peanut brittle crisp Winsor Newton can be frustrating.  I personally prefer the semi-moist.

That’s it.  The painting I am working on tonight is not ready for prime time so thought I would get this off my chest.

Rob