Watercolor Painting; Practice On A New Surface

Hello Everyone;
In the past, I have tried any number of different surfaces to paint my watercolors on.  I tried boards, paper, watercolor ground just to name a few.  I keep searching for that perfect support that will allow my work to shine, but also make it easy for my customers to display their purchase.  Traditional supports for watercolors is paper.  With paper, your painting needs to be matted, then framed behind glass to protect it.  Watercolor canvas is nice, because you just have to seal it, then frame without glass.  The problem with watercolor canvas is that the paint does not absorb anywhere.  It stays on top of the canvas.  The colors are bright, but it is very difficult to make the work look good (in my opinion).  Ideally, you would have something in between paper and canvas.  A support that absorbs paint and water similar to high end watercolor paper, but the colors still remain close to the surface for brilliance.  I am not sure yet if I have found that surface, but this Aquabord made by Ampersand is trying to fill that need.  Pictured here is a 5" X 7" piece of aquabord I am practicing different elements on.  It has some resemblance to cold press watercolor paper, but just a little.  This surface takes some getting used to, but so far, I like the way my work is looking.  You can find it anywhere online that sells fine art supplies, but I have found that Blick seems to have the best prices.  This is a 3 pack I paid approx $7.50 for US dollars.  Aquabord comes in many popular sizes and best of all, they have a 1" 1/2" cradle.  That means you can seal your work and your customers do not have to spend additional money on framing, just hang as is.  I do not know yet if I am going all in on this product, but I do know I will be doing much more experimenting.  So far, this definitely has possibilities.  Let me know if you have ever painted on this surface and what you found.  Have a blessed day everyone.

Watercolor Painting; Sketchbook Work

Hello Everyone;
Here is another page from my sketchbook I have been working on.  I have been battling a bout of food poisoning and have not really had much energy.  It is so nice that sketching in watercolors does not require a lot of physical energy.  If you can hold your brush and a thought, you're in business.  If you noticed, I have been practicing people a lot more then in the past.  Most of you probably remember my post on my desires to start to do story telling with my paintings.  For me, it begins and ends with painting convincing figures.  Once again, I have no desires to make them photo realistic, but I do want them to be painterly and believable.  As I sketch these figures, my mind starts to wander about what types of situations these people are in.  Where are they going?  What are their intentions and so forth.  I am not sure, but once I get good enough and consistent enough with figures in my paintings, I believe I will add them to most of my future works.  I have always been drawn to art work with people in them and I think many people may feel the same as I do.  Like believe that paintings are not just about the aesthetic beauty of the piece, but of combination of the beauty coupled with the story of the painting as well.

Watercolor Painting Supplies; High End Student Grade Paint

If your thinking about trying watercolor painting, but you don't want to spend a ton of money not knowing if you will even like it, then I have a solution for you.  Winsor & Newton is a paint manufacturing company based in England.  They have been around from the late 1700's or early 1800's.  I keep forgetting which one. Winsor & Newton artist grade paints are among the best made world wide and rather pricey as well.  Their student grade however, are really good paints at a very affordable price.  The set pictured is their twelve half pan set.  You can get it at Hobby Lobby for about $29.00 - $34.00 U.S.  Then there is the 40% coupon that makes these paints really affordable.  I suggest the half pans over tube paints for beginners for a few reasons.  First off, they are really convenient.  They come in this little box made of very strong plastic and have mixing areas right in the lid eliminating the need to buy a separate pallet.  It comes with a small travel brush that stores in the box itself.  Just buy a watercolor sketch book and get a few paper towels, some water and your painting.  You can store them anywhere, clean up is almost instant and they travel very well due to the small size.  Another benefit to half pans is that there is no wasted paint.  The pans are made to withstand non use for periods of time and there are no tubes to try and squeeze the last drop from.  For a total of maybe $40.00, you can start painting in watercolors and find out if this is a medium you want to continue learning about or one you want to move on from.

Watercolor Painting Supplies; My New Favorite Brushes

Anyone that is into some sort of art or crafts can tell you the same thing.  We are obsessed with our supplies.  We are constantly looking for that perfect supply that will make everything we do better and quicker.  Most of the time we are just wasting our money.  In this case however, I really have found my new favorite watercolor brush.  Kolinsky Sable is supposed to be the best for watercolor painting.  They are extremely expensive and the hairs are very soft, which, I really do not like.  I prefer a spring in the brush.  All natural hair brushes for watercolor painting are very soft, Sable, Goat hair Squirrel hair and so forth.  These brushes I found at Dick Blick.  The are a new invention from The Princeton Brush Company.  They are called Aqua Elite and are a synthetic Kolinsky Sable blend.  They hold a lot of water and paint and have a nice spring to them holding their shape very well.  I bought two brushes a few weeks ago to try them out and fell in love with them.  Yesterday I bought the rest for my collection.  They have many more types and sizes of brushes in the Aqua Elite line, but these are the brushes I use for all of my work.  You never need every brush or every tube of paint to do your work, just pick out what you prefer and have at it.  The most expensive brush was the mottler on the far left, it was $24.00 US.  That is really inexpensive for such a good quality brush.  Try them out and see what you think, just remember, never buy everything unless your sure.  Start with one or two brushes you use a lot and see if you like them.  You can always add to your collection as you go.