Wet on wet

Last month the Northern Arizona Watercolor Society (NAWS) had a special guest demonstration by Jeanne Hyland, who showed us a great technique on keeping your paper wet and workable all day, even in Arizona. I was enthusiastic to try it out, and this was my first attempt.

It's quite a change from my usual technique, as the entire surface is literally soaking wet. Details are not as easy to bring out.

This is 9" X 12" on Strathmore 160 lb. cold press.

from the Red River Watercolor Society

Watercolour brushes – 10 things which will damage them

I am often giving my students advice about what to do and not to do with their watercolour brushes so I thought I would see if I could create a list of 10 things which will damage a watercolour (watercolor) brush. It took a bit of thinking but here is my list which you may find helpful with the care of your brushes.

Do not leave watercolour brushes sitting in your water container!

What will damage watercolour brushes

1. Leaving them sitting in your watercolour container while you paint or worse still all day. This will force the hairs of your watercolour brushes out of shape and also make the wood of your handle swell which could result in it loosening the ferrule (the metal bit that connects the brush hairs to the handle)with the result that the hairs can fall out or the wood could rot.
2. Letting the paint dry on your brushes. The paint builds up down low near the ferrule which can be very hard to remove. Will cause the point on the brush to be lost.
3. Storing wet brushes point up – this allows the water to settle in the ferrule causing the wood of your handle to swell which could result in it loosening the ferrule as in point 1 above.
4. Storing wet brushes with the point bent. The brush will dry in this odd shape losing its point. Depending on the brush this may fix by itself when you rewet the brush but sometimes it just stays in this wrong shape. One thing that you can do, which sometimes fixes even this problem however, is to dip the hairs of the brush in very hot water and then reestablish the point with your fingertips and let the brush dry while laying it flat – I have had success with this technique with squirrel hair brushes but may not help with others – try at own risk!
5. Using them for acrylic or worse still oil painting. Just don’t do this. If you want to use your watercolour brushes for acrylic or oil painting then set some aside just for that. Once you use your brushes for oil or acrylic painting they will begin to lose their point. Any oil or turpentine residue on the brush will make it behave differently then you later try to use it with watercolour.
6. Using your good watercolour brush for apply art masking liquid or frisket. This is probably the quickest way to ruin a good watercolour brush. Once the liquid latex in the masking fluid dries on your brush it is gone. Even if you use the right technique when using masking fluid in time the brush will still finally pick up the odd bit of latex which will ruin it. Save your old brushes or buy some cheap ones and use them for masking.
7. Storing wet brushes in a sealed container. The fibers of your brush will go mouldy if you store them wet without adequate ventilation. It will also keep the wood of the handle inside the ferrule damp which can lead to rod and a loose ferulle and cracked paint on the brush handle.
8. Don’t use a good watercolour brush for scrubbing out color. Just makes good sense, the scrubbing will break down the hairs and in time your brush will thin out. If you want them to last longer then don’t use them for this purpose.
9. Using paint that is too dry. I find this especially when students try to paint with cheap paints that dry really hard. The extra rubbing you have to do to get color out of your dry paint will wear the brush down faster than normal. If my paints have been left to dry without a lid on my pallet for a few days (which rarely happens now days) I just give each paint well a little spray with my water spray bottle and leave them for about 15 minutes, this will make it much easier to lift out paint after that.
10. Trying to put the round plastic protector back on that sometimes comes with a brush. Just don’t try it! The protector that came with the brush was probably put on by a machine and if you try to do the same yourself you will most likely end up with hairs pushed out of shape permanently. I just throw the protector away once I get my new brush home.

So there you have my list of the 10 things which will damage watercolour brushes. No doubt there are others but the above are the main ones I have come across. Once you get a really nice watercolour brush it is well worth your while taking the extra effort to look after it as it should keep in good shape for many years.  A good brush will help you paint your watercolours while a bad or damaged brush will hinder you.

Happy painting!

Watercolors in Sedona

Welcome to

 Watercolors in Sedona

I am Art Gecko, award winning artist, watercolor instructor, and juried member of the

 Northern Arizona Watercolor Society.

This blog is created for anyone interested in watercolor techniques, or sharing their own 

experiences with watercolors.

I am located in beautiful Sedona Arizona, at the Sedona Pines Resort, where i teach 

workshops in watercolors, watercolor pencils, oil pastels, and more.

Today, I want to start by showing a few of my pieces.

"The Candlestick"

 

"Cathedral Rock"

"Dragonfly,wood and stone"

"Montezuma's Castle"