HINTS & TIPS

AN INFORMATION BANK WHICH YOU CAN ACCESS TO FIND THE ANSWERS TO SOME OF THE MANY  QUESTIONS THAT CROP UP REPEATEDLY. HERE YOU WILL DISCOVER A VARIETY OF METHODS AND TECHNIQUES TO IMPROVE YOUR ENJOYMENT OF WATERCOLOUR

QUESTION: I use the 140 lbs paper that my teacher recommends but on larger paintings I find it dries unevenly. Is it crucial to stretch paper of this weight?

DON’S ANSWER: Although it is in common use - mostly for reasons of cost - paper of this weight is really only suitable for small paintings or sketching unless you go to the trouble of stretching it. Personally, I avoid the irksome task of stretching paper by simply using thicker paper - say a minimum of 200 lbs and preferably 260 or 300 lbs. Although more expensive, thicker paper is more enjoyable to use because it holds the moisture better and longer, dries more consistently and is more durable. Add to that the fact that it does not require stretching plus the bonus that if your initial efforts are not satisfactory, you can use the other side of the paper. The chances are you will paint better on thick paper so it makes a wise investment.

QUESTION: I tape my paper all round with masking tape yet it still cockles when I wet the paper. Why is this?

DON’S ANSWER: Only tape the paper all round the edge if you stretch it first, otherwise you are constraining the expansion of the wet paper at the edges and the inevitable result is that the paper has no where to go. It is far better to use clips at each corner so that you can release them enough to allow the paper to be pulled flat now and again and then replace the clips.

QUESTION: I find it difficult to load my brushes consistently - either there is too much or too little water which affects how the colours come out - how can I overcome this problem?

DON’S ANSWER: My way is to rinse the brush thoroughly when you change to a new colour or when you first start painting, immersing the bristles completely in clean water, then remove the excess moisture on a piece of kitchen roll. Before loading the brush with paint, dip just the lower part of the bristles into the water so it is not dripping wet but nicely moist - this helps to retain a nice shape on the bristles. When the brush is loaded with colour, pull it back and forth across the palette to shape the bristles. It never hurts to test your colour on a spare piece of  watercolour paper before applying it to the painting.

QUESTION: I arrange my colours around the edge of a round palette just like Don but they tend to dry out. Will this affect the quality of my paintings if I use this stale paint?

DON’S ANSWER: If you only put tiny blobs of paint on your palette they may dry out a little too much and they will also make it quite hard to load your brush properly. So use generous blobs of paint about 3 cms across and top them up when necessary. I find that the paint remain useable for weeks although you may wish to spruce them up under a trickling tap now and again.

QUESTION
I wetted the sky area down to about half way down my distant mountains and then painted the sky wet-in wet and allowed it to dry. Then I painted the mountains wet-on-dry and found that I had a light mark running through them where the sky had been damped. Is this the fault of the paper?

DON’S ANSWER
The good news is that the paper is not to blame so you didn’t waste your money. The bad news is that the fault lies with your technique. The reason for this effect is that you have damped the paper down to a random point on the paper which coincides with the middle of your mountains and then painted the sky above it. Now, even if your painted sky area does  not reach right down to the bottom edge, there will always be a change in the appearance of the paper at that point. It is rather like a puddle of water left on a kitchen floor - even when dry there is  often a mark left behind. Could this be due to impurities in the water?

There are two simple ways to avoid this problem. You can either damp the whole of the paper in which case the offending change in appearance is lost under the mount or you can damp the paper down to somewhere around the horizon line. By this I mean not the mountain tops or half way up them but at a convenient spot at the  base of the mountains where the effect will not show. If your colour diffuses near the horizon which is beneficial because it increases the effect of distance, there is unlikely to be a problem because  trees, rocks, hedges etc. will probably mask the area. I usually stop the sky colour well short of the mountain tops and let it blend gently down the paper - even over the mountains as long as it is not too dark. Any excessive colour can still be lifted off before the paint dries. Even now, you may still salvage your efforts by damping the paper all over with clean water, allowing it to soak in for a  while then carefully teasing out the offending marks with a hog bristle brush. Then you can overpaint again as required.