WAWE members I would like to know when doing watercolor illustrations,
what are your favorite watercolor products that you like to work with?
What kinds of watercolor pencils, paints, and pads do you think work best?
What poundage of paper do you like to work on? What kinds of inks are good?
Cold or hot press paper? Anything you are willing to share with the rest of us
would be great! I like working on hot press about 120 lbs.
I love using watercolor pencils. Winsor Newton and The French School
are the brands I like best. I really love Peerless watercolor as well.
They travel great. Peerless are my favorite watercolors to carry with me.
Waiting to hear from you all.
10 comments:
Rembrandt (tube and pans)colors and 140-120 lb blocks(no favorite brand) cold press, water soluble graphite, Prisma watercolor pencils and micron pens for outlines and details. Thanks for the Peerless link, I have never seen those. I often use Dr. Martins and I've even used cheap Colorations liquid colors for larger projects on canvas and it hasn't faded in 7 years. It's fab for poured backgrounds and stains without adding fiber grounds.
Such great information Karen. Thanks for sharing that! You are going to love the Peerless watercolors. They are fabulous.
wow! Ive never heard of Peerless watercolours before - they look so fun! I have to get me some of those.
I use W&N colours, Caran D'Ache Pencils, Neocolour wax soluble sticks and I use a wide range of paper surfaces and weights...I love experimenting.
Someone gave me a great tip for applying masking fluid which has saved me a fortune in brushes - use a colour shaper to apply it - it just peels off when its dry and you can be really precise when applying it. x
I've been wanting to try the masking fluid. I've been just too chick to try it. You've sparked my interest again. I going to man up and try it.
Thanks for sharing Maxine.
V
Great topic, Vanessa! I love to hear about artists' tools. I usually use 120lb cold press Arches for everyday, and 300lb hot or cold press for anything I might sell as an original. Higgins inks with nibs, Winsor Newton or other artist tube paints, Schmincke Horadam pan colors (these are new), and WN Sceptre Gold II brushes, size 8 and 12. Some photos here.
This is a very timely topic for me as I'm considering changing some of my materials... I've been using Arches Cold pressed 300lb (I use a lot of water in my backgrounds!) and Derwent coloured pencils. I've only recently started using coloured pencils on top of w/c though and am finding it doesn't work so well on the rough cold pressed paper. So, I'm going to try hot pressed, and maybe splurge on some prismacolour pencils because I really don't like Derwent that much and would prefer a softer pencil.
I use W&N tubes and Kolinsky brushes which I L-O-V-E.
Just curious, does everyone stretch their paper first? I have tried but found it still buckles, so it just seems like a waste of time!
Thanks for all the info!
I typically work on Fabriano 140lb Hot Press watercolor paper, sometimes Arches (hot press and cold press.)
As far as watercolors go I've been trying out Winsor and Newton, but so far not much of a fan of them. A lot of people I've spoken to say they are "the best." But I'm a fan of Yarka St. Petersburg Watercolors. Although I've only been able to find them in pans and if anybody knows if they sell them in tubes that would be awesome and would love to know where I can get some. :D
But for now I guess I'll stick to Grumbacher and Winsor and Newton Cotman Student grade watercolors.
For inking I use Liquitex ink. Transparent Burnt Umber, Transparent Raw Sienna, and Carbon Black.
And progresso woodless colored pencils.
Hi everyone! I'm a big fan of Fabriano paper as well, either 140lb hot press or soft press. I use a pen nib, Brause #066 with FW Acrylic Inks (Sepia or Black). For watercolors, I use mostly W&N tubes, but recently I've started using Sennelier as well, with good results. I also like Prismacolor color pencils.
Kim -- I have tried stretching paper as well, but the paper still buckled. Recently I've been using blocks and do not stretch.
Great tips everyone. I like to use diluted acrylic paint (any artist's quality brand) as if it were watercolour. That's because it dries waterproof and you can layer your washes without it lifting (which true watercolour sometimes does). You can still get some granulation with it. I used to soak heavy watercolour paper in the bath for an hour to pre-stretch it, and that works fairly well, but who's got a bath these days?? so I, too, am looking for a paper I don't have to stretch!
I have a preference for 300gsm rough in either Arches or Saunders. I hate cheap light papers. They are not worth wasting time on.
I don't like stretching paper as I like to get straight into my work. I simply tape it down with masking tape. The tape is great to mask off panels on a sheet to do several discovery pieces, forcing yourself to try different formats. I like the tape as it peels off and leaves a nice white boarder behind.
I prefer W&N but will use any artist quality watercolours. I prefer to work with transparent colours and rarely use masking fluid.
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