Experimental Water Media Exhibit- NAWS 2014

White watercolor pencils- are they worth using?

My watercolor pencil students know that I recommend General's Kimberly brand as a good artist grade watercolor pencil. The basic 12 pencil set has been a staple of my workshops for quite some time now. The colors in the set lend themselves to the Sedona landscape quite nicely. I purchase sets in bulk, and my latest shipment came with a substitution of the "straw" color with white. I have always derided white as being a worthless pencil, especially in a small set.
Now, I am usually not one to complain, but I figured that if no one spoke up, the company would never know. I searched them out on line, and sent them an email explaining my opinion, and position regarding white pencils.
I received a response very quickly, urging me to call a specific person at the company. I called, and talked for some time with the very friendly customer service rep, and fully explained my concerns and needs.
In just 2 short days I received a package with replacement straw pencils along with a few extra items.
I really appreciate this fast and friendly response to my inquiry. I will continue to use, and recommend General's Kimberly pencils to my students and colleagues. I find them very comparable to brands costing twice as much.            
My question to you is, have you found any use for white watercolor pencils? They are not opaque. If you need to tint something, just add some water to dilute the color.
Maybe I'm missing something here.

A couple of recent pieces, using General's Kimberly Watercolor Pencils. Enjoy!

Few things get me to work like a deadline. Our local watercolor societies annual "spring exhibition" is fast approaching. This piece was started just about a week before the deadline. 
I went for a hike in Sedona, looking specifically for a tree that I remembered from a few years ago. It was on the "Soldier's Pass" trail, so I called my good friend, and avid photographer Brent Jones, and we went out in search of my tree. I recall on my earlier visit, my tour guide friend told the tale of how this was one of the trees that were the inspiration for the evil apple trees in "the Wizard of Oz".

Well, for some reason, as cool and interesting as it is, it just didn't inspire me for my painting, so we continued on, looking for "It".

The Soldier's Pass trail is a big loop, and towards the end, I finally found THE TREE!

This was exactly the sort of thing I was looking for. I had taken pictures of about a dozen different trees up to this point, but I had the feeling that this was my subject. Unfortunately, the sun was now below the mountains, and I was left with a flat light. Since I had a very limited time to complete this piece, I decided against coming back another day, as this was Sunday, and it's back to work for me on Monday morning.

So, to start this project, I first decide what sort of technique to use for the best results, as "there is more than 1 way to skin a cat". I really enjoyed working with Jeanne Hyland's wet on wet style, and I thought I would capture her technique and pass it along as best I could.

I started by drawing my image onto a 16" X 20" piece of Arches 140 lb. cold press with a Derwent Imperial Purple watercolor pencil.

The paper is laid on a sheet of Masonite, then corrugated plastic, upon that, a wet shammy cloth .This will insure that the piece remains wet during the entire process.
Saturate the paper on both sides until it will no longer absorb water, this will take several coats, over 1/2 hour or so.

Now it's time to add some color, I start with Daniel Smith quinacridone gold, and sienna. Really splashing it on.

Then I throw in some quin purple in the shadows. Next, I wipe off excess color that has bled out of the edges using a paper towel.

Next I begin bringing in the values with a very thick "Lukas" Van Dyke brown, using a #10 round brush. 

As the paper goes from soggy to damp, it becomes much more workable, so I get more details, using the Van Dyke brown, and neutral tint.

I begin using a damp 1/4 flat shader to lift some color out, creating highlights.

All the time adding details, such as branches, bark texture and such. Once I have my image nailed, I grab a stipple brush and pounce in the needles, and some background foliage using verde green, sap green, Van Dyke brown, and permanent blue.

I go back in once again to the bark, toning down the warmth of the exterior areas, and to deepen some shadows, giving a little more depth and dimension to it, using neutral tint and quin purple.

Well, that's it! I am still waiting to find out if this piece makes it into the show. It should be a good one, as we have some incredibly talented people in our group, and we're bringing in Robbie Laird as our juror. You can see some of her work here www.robbielaird.com


Thanks for reading, and as always, I welcome comments, and feel free to submit any work that you'd like! And keep PAINTING!
Art

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone is doing well, and continuing on with 

your watercolor work.

2013 was a great year for me, as I took an Honorable Mention in NAWS spring show, with my painting of "The Candlestick" from Antelope Canyon, in Northern Arizona. Then to my great surprise, and thrill, I was awarded Best Of Show in the NAWS fall experimental show!

 

Here I am, receiving my Best of Show from juror, Ann Coe.

Now, finally, after much ado, the Sedona Pines has completed our new activities building, and it is gorgeous, with big sails outside for shade, and wonderful landscaping. Inside we have a sink, a bathroom, plenty of tables, and everything we need to have great classes in any weather, all year long. 

I look forward to seeing many of you again this year, and I hope to see some progress in your work.

Art

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!