Paint On My Canvas

Watercolor painting belongs to what is referred to as the water media. This kind of art media refers to any paintings that use water as a solvent painting.

For those interested to try out this painting art, there are basic information that one must have a grasp of.

One must have basic knowledge about paints, brushes, papers, brush control and basic techniques.

But for now, the urgent things to know are paints and brushes which would be outlined here.

The Paints. A set of paints usually comprises of colorants, binder, additives, and solvent paints.

The colorants are usually un-organic or organic compounds mixed with water soluble substances that produce the pigments. In order to hold or bind these pigments in a form of a suspension that would fix into the surface, the binder is needed.

Also, the paint may be too dark or too sticky that a solvent paint may be applied to dilute the paint for easy application and hasten drying which in watercolor painting is usually water.

Then to change the durability or gluey to a desired mixture, the additives provide the solution.

The Brushes. There are three main parts of the brush which consists of the hairs or synthetic fibers bundled together called the tuft, the metal bundle that holds the tuft which provides shape, support and protection between the wood handle and the tuft, called the ferrule, and the handle.

In choosing the right brush for watercolor painting, take note of the softness and the density of the brush. It is suggested to use soft brushes with denser tufts because these paints are typically less thick and less gluey than oils or acrylic paints.

Likewise, the best watercolor paint brushes are those which are made from animal hairs of squirrels, mongoose and are sable.

Brushes made from hairs of our animals such as pigs or horses may be used but only for coarse watercolor art works. Nonetheless, technology has allowed many artists to make use of synthetic brushes made of nylon to hold water in the same way as animal brushes do with more strength, texture, durability and affordability.

There are also different forms of brushes such as the rounds, the fans, the flats, the filbert, the mops and the rigger. For general purposes, the rounds are the best picks since these produce as many shapes and lines both narrow and thin.

The flats are best for making wash effects but do make sure you choose those with perfect straight edges.

The fans are basically sort of flat brushes with the fan shape which are best for making textures like irregular lines. The filberts are hybrid of the rounds and the flats which are used for shaped strokes. The mops are excellent for wash and wet painting since these can hold much paint.

The Paper or Surface. The paper has many attributes and among a few are the color, the furnish, the finish, the size, the permanence and the weight. The furnish of the paper generally refers to the content or the material make-up of the paper.

The most common of course are made of cellulose taken from plants such as cotton and those from wood pulp extractions which can be machined extracted or handmade.

The finish of the papers is usually grouped into hot pressed, cold pressed and rough. Cold pressed papers are those dried with the use of absorbent blankets made of felt and have great versatility. The hot pressed papers are those which originally were processed through the cold pressed process but passed to calendaring or heating to give it a un absorbent quality which allows the paint to remain as bright and was colorful in the surface of the paper.

The rough papers are lofting dried papers which are generally of wove texture which make those best for textured paintings with watercolor. The colors of paper are pure white to be yellowish.

Watercolor painting would be great by learning how to make use of the right paint, the right brush and the right paper for a particular watercolor work.

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Watercolor painting is not only interesting but also challenging for it requires great skill and knowledge of the quality of water to understand how water and color form an art.

Mixing color and water may look simple, but it is not; for techniques in watercolor painting are typical only to this medium.

Oil and acrylic paints for instance have the quality of being able to stay exactly where these are applied unlike water which is complex and active that one must have a good understanding of the how water behaves and how to control it. Also, watercolor paints have less hiding capacities that a wrong stroke cannot just be easily covered by another stroke. The paper as well unlike the canvass is too delicate as make mistakes often irreversible.

Though brushes provide the traditional medium to apply the paints, modern experimental paintings have made use of other media such as scrapers, sponges, sprayers, and even sticks.

Most of these media also work in various ways depending on the watercolor technique one uses. Among the common techniques are the glazes, the dry brush, the washes, and the wet and wet. The glaze technique is done by applying a layer of paint or water with the outer layer in a more diluted color to allow the inner layer color to be visible.

In this technique, it is suggested that one makes use of a round brush. With the surface of the paper, one paints, it with the first layer of paint which is highly diluted to loosen up the surface of the paper. When the first layer is dry, a second layer of paint is applied thereby refining the first color and eliminating irregularities and an artist can apply as many as 100 glazes to illuminate colors.

The dry brush technique requires great precision and control which is predominant in most botanical paintings. An undiluted paint is taken up with the use of a small moistened brush.

The paint is then applied to the paper surface by crisscrossing or hatching brushstrokes with the intention to mix the color paints trough a precise touch on the surface. Often, after dry brush watercolors are applied, the surface is varnished to enhance it.

The wash is a technique which makes use of diluted paint wipe out individual strokes and form a unified stroke which is often used in landscape paintings where one has for its background the horizon in blue wash.

In making the wash stroke, make every stroke even and horizontal and each overlaps the stroke above to get excess paints and wick it with a moist brush or a paper towel.

To make graduated from wash strokes, dilute the paint after every stroke to make a dark to light finish. Lastly, there is also the wet and wet technique or the application of paint over a previously painted area.

Among the effects of the applications are the back runs in which the addition of paint in a paint area causes the surrounding areas which are denser with water or paint to creep to it. The salt texture is one where the sprinkled salt tends to produce the impression of snowflake.

There are many more techniques to learn about watercolor painting depending on ones skill and control.

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Acrylic painting would be much easier of one knows of the basic knowledge on choosing the right kind, shape and size of the brush, knowing the characteristics of acrylic paints and how to apply and control the application of these paints.

The Brushes. The important thing to remember though is that most oil painting brushes can also be used for acrylic paintings.

With modernization though, numerous brushes emerged in the markets which are typically for acrylic painting and most of these now come in the form of un-toxic brushes.

The trend nowadays is to use painting brushes made of nylon which is more durable than its natural fiber made counterparts. These brushes are not the ordinary nylon but those are made of filaments that provide for coarser though smoother strokes than ordinary nylon and natural hair brushes.

Acrylic brushes also come in different shapes to serve different purposes. Among the common ones are the rounds, the fan, the short flats and the long flats, and the rigger. The rounds are perfect for detailed painting as these brushes produce thin strokes and lines.

The short or long flats are used depending on the length of the strokes. The fan brushes are perfect for blending colors and textures such as leaf clusters and furs. For long straight strokes, use the long flat and use the short flat for short strokes.

Then for very fine lines, the riggers, commonly a watercolor painting brush, also serve the same function. For a start up acrylic painting brush set, it is suggested to get a 1/8 inch round brush, 1/8, 3/8, and ¾ inch long and short flat, 1 inch hog bristle fan brush, 3/8 and ¾ filbert brush, and a no.1 or no.2 nylon rigger.

The Paints. It is important to note that aside from being versatile, acrylics are fast drying that one most remember to squeeze out only enough.

Also, make sure to work quick and precise especially when blending colors as acrylics easily dry and one might not achieve the color blend in time before the paint dries up.

Also, wash effect is irreversible in acrylic as in comparison to watercolor wash which can be over painted aggressively. Blend acrylics with water or white in order to achieve the opaque effect.

For making glazes, be sure to make thin layers than heavy layers to distinguish it from a glossy surface. Since acrylic paints are relatively thick, it may be used to hold collages without putting in glue.

Water is a good solvent but there are now, called a flow improver medium which basically retains the color strength yet increases the color flow.

Caring for your brush tools. One must have the habit of wiping or cleaning the brushes to avoid damaging it as when paint dries on it without being removed. Always have paper towel or moist cloth or a jar of water to wipe off the paint on the brush.

The use of masking fluid maybe hard if not impossible to remove, as such, to avoid damaging the brush, better dip the brush in a washing up liquid.

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Acrylic painting and the use of acrylic paints have a number of advantages and disadvantages. As for its advantages, water is its solvent paint which means that it can be diluted with use of water and also makes cleaning very easy.

Acrylic paints dry fast also that store keeping is not at a problem as in comparison to oil paints which take months to dry. Another is that, color from the point of application to its dried up stage is almost the same and one can expect the same image as applied.

On the negative side, however, its ability to dry fast is an obstacle for blending. The brushes too are to be handled with optimum care by not allowing acrylic paints to dry on it though most dried up paints can be removed by water.

Special palette used to avoid paints drying out too fast are quite expensive also. Also, excessive squeezed out paints would be useless as these turn rocks so better squeeze just enough.

The texture and finish of an acrylic painting though can be modified to suit what a painter wants to achieve by modifying the surface or by making changes in the paint medium itself in order to show characteristics of solidity, suppleness, consistency and many others.

The mediums used in painting with acrylics are relatively greater than those of the oil and watercolor painting. In fact, unlike oil and watercolor, acrylics have the distinct feature to bond with a variety of surfaces or these surfaces may be altered or primed to prepare it for a painting job with the use of acrylics.

Unlike oil paintings as well, acrylics may be used to make thick layers at a short span of time without necessarily destroying the previous layer through several mediums and additives.

It is thus important to get the best mediums and additives for acrylic painting and some of these are the enhancer, impostor gel, interference medium, gel retarded, primer, glaze and many others.

An enhancer basically is added in order to prevent thickness and enhance the flow of acrylic paints, especially for works that require great consistency and smooth finish.

On the other hand, the technique used gel is added to the paint in order to produce a thick color which can either be on matt or gloss texture.

The interference medium or the pearly luster medium have almost similar effect of making shimmering surfaces or a metallic effect.

A gel retarded performs the most important task in acrylic painting which is to a slowdown a bit the drying of the paint and which also has the effect of increasing the transparency.

The primer produces both black and matt white surface in order to seal an un-primed canvas. The glaze is effective in making skin tones and producing translucent effect.

For the painting surface, the canvas is a perfect choice although other painting surfaces may be used such as papers, boards, and many others.

To prepare the painting surface, do make sure to coat the canvas with an acrylic primer or a primer before painting.

Choose acrylic over oil-based primer and if a primer is not available, a latex emulsion will suffice. A white base is the most ideal since it keeps the other paints colors.

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Fabric painting is definitely one of the interesting things to do for persons who enjoy fashion and especially clothing.

This painting art though is not the same with dyed fabrics and the outcomes are totally different as well.

It became a new trend in the clothing line primarily because it is more convenient to use than the dyes as it does not require too heating or steaming.

In fact, most fabric paints only require ironing to keep it bonded permanently on the fabric. Fabric paints containing non-toxic substances as tested and certified are definitely safe to use even for children.

Unlike dyes, fabric paints have a variety of effects that they may be metallic, opaline, opaque or transparent which likewise create a distinct texture only fabric paints can produce.

In order to achieve the fabric paint result that one wants, here is some of the basic fabric painting techniques commonly applied.

Dark background fabric painting

One of the main concerns of many with respect to painting in fabric is how to cover up the color of dark fabrics for most of the fabric paints are translucent.

It is advised that one must pick up opaque fabric paint when painting on dark surfaces.

The Alcohol and Salt Effect

The alcohol effect is done by dropping alcohol on the fabric paint in order to produce spots that are light on the inside and dark on the edges.

The salt effect on the other hand is done by sprinkling salt on a moist painted fabric causing the salt to absorb the water in surrounding areas and leased pale sweep spots.

The Closing or Fence Painting

It is a technique produced in a stretched silk outlined with design and painting the spaces inside the design with paint with the use of a line drawing material called the water-based resists. The water-based resists outline can be removed through dry clean.

Silk Fabric Painting

Silks are generally very smooth and downy that it is hard for ordinary fabric paints to penetrate on it permanently.

As such, special silk fabric paints are needed to produce paints on silk. After application of silk paint, it must be heated and ironed to make the painting permanent.

Sun painting

This technique is best for transparent fabrics which are usually done by placing items such as cu-outs from aluminum foils, feathers, leaves and other on a moist painted fabric and allowing it to dry.

The exposed areas of the fabric to the sun would suck those wet paints underneath the covered areas which eventually cause the covered area to look paler.

Lastly, one must remember the basic rule that fabric painting requires ironing not steaming. Although heating is required to keep the fabric paints permanent, it is important to know that heating refers to ironing when one speaks of fabric paints.

Steaming on the other hand is referred to when one speaks of fabric dyes. Ironing on fabric paint is done by ironing on the back and not directly on the paint.

It is advisable to set the setting of the iron to cotton and set it for 3- 4 minutes of ironing.

Some manufacturers have special instructions on how to iron and how to wash items with fabric paints. Then it is also advisable to use a cover to protect your iron board from an untoward transfer of the paint to the ironing board.

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