Watercolors or Pen & Ink anyone?

[feministxtian]

Anyone here do any watercolor painting? I'm just getting back into it after a 30-some year hiatus. Would love to talk techniques, instructional books/videos. I'm thinking about taking a continuing ed class at UNLV this summer. 

[laPapessaGiovanna]

Tagging @Curious cos I'm sure she would love to talk about pens, inks and everything colors.

I too have started with watercolours quite recently. There are many good video tutorials on YouTube. Personally I loved the ones  of Stan Miller.

https://www.youtube.com/user/Stanleylestermiller

Here's the first one of his lessons. Very valuable imho

 

[Curious]

Thanks for the tag!   I thought that name sounded familiar and when I clicked, sure enough, I'm already subscribed to him.

Your watercolor and my watercolor are completely different since you do the actual drawing as well.  I'm not quite to that point yet, but I'm always willing to talk artsy stuff (and coloring) with anyone that I can trap into staying still long enough

[SamuraiKatz]

I paint with acrylic and watercolor. I also use colored pencils, gel pens and stencils. I have a couple of painting books by Donna Dewberry as well as other painting and drawing books.

And I have a collection of coloring books to round things out. :-)

[feministxtian]

COOL!!! I was into coloring books, colored pencils but the itch just got to where it HAD to be scratched. My hubby bought me a watercolor starter kit for Christmas, then he went completely looney tunes...I have an amazing bunch of brushes, a table, a storage cabinet, storage bins. Either fortunately or unfortunately, we live 5 minutes from a Dick Blick store...fortunately, because it's easy to get supplies, unfortunately because I can run through an entire paycheck there. 

What kind of subjects do you all like to paint? Still life, landscapes, abstracts, fantasy? 

[SamuraiKatz]

COOL!!! I was into coloring books, colored pencils but the itch just got to where it HAD to be scratched. My hubby bought me a watercolor starter kit for Christmas, then he went completely looney tunes...I have an amazing bunch of brushes, a table, a storage cabinet, storage bins. Either fortunately or unfortunately, we live 5 minutes from a Dick Blick store...fortunately, because it's easy to get supplies, unfortunately because I can run through an entire paycheck there. 
What kind of subjects do you all like to paint? Still life, landscapes, abstracts, fantasy? 

Your hubby is a sweetie!

You live near a Dick Blick! You are so lucky! I started painting again after a long hiatus after my dad passed.

[SamuraiKatz]

COOL!!! I was into coloring books, colored pencils but the itch just got to where it HAD to be scratched. My hubby bought me a watercolor starter kit for Christmas, then he went completely looney tunes...I have an amazing bunch of brushes, a table, a storage cabinet, storage bins. Either fortunately or unfortunately, we live 5 minutes from a Dick Blick store...fortunately, because it's easy to get supplies, unfortunately because I can run through an entire paycheck there. 
What kind of subjects do you all like to paint? Still life, landscapes, abstracts, fantasy? 

I like abstracts and creating paintings using stencils. My Donna Dewberry attempts are a little shaky. :-) More practice needed.

[feministxtian]

here's how far I am from Dick Blick. The blue dot is where I live...

[SamuraiKatz]

here's how far I am from Dick Blick. The blue dot is where I live...

I live about five hours south of the Dick Blick in Kansas City. You are so lucky!

[SportsgalAnnie]

I love watercolor! 

For pens I use sharpie. I suspect any alcohol based ink pen would work as well. 

For watercolors, I just get the store brand palates at a craft store. 

Niji has an amazing pearlescent one. 

Brushes:  get a separate set just for watercolor. 

Must have: water paintbrush, it saves a lot of water/time.  I use it for activating the colors. Just a few drops will do it! 

[PumaLover]

I saw your post on one of the Duggars threads and am glad to see you started your own thread! I also just got back into painting after taking a break for years.

I used to sell my paintings and photography at a salon and got burned out doing art for money. So I just started doing it for fun, for myself. I usually do animals and landscapes/waterscapes. I have some very very fine tipped permanent markers that I use for detailing, like whiskers or lines on fish fins.

I recently got into community rock painting since I can make little masterpieces and not be a hoarder like I am with my other art. (I have a hard time parting with some of my work!) But the rocks are fun and I can give them away and make people smile. Here's one of my favorites I've done recently. I have some turtles that I'm
Hoping to finish tonight.

[feministxtian]

@PumaLover that's gorgeous! I'm still in the "looks like a kindergartener did it" phase. I'm planning to take classes thru continuing ed at UNLV this summer. I have one painting that I'm sort of stuck on. It's supposed to be a castle and well, I'm stuck on what to do with it right now so it'll sit until I'm inspired. I've done a couple landscape sort of paintings, the mountains here in the desert are quite spectacular. My current one is a space fantasy inspired one.  I really do suck at it, but I like it. 

@SportsgalAnnie I have a great water brush too. It's about 1 1/2 inches wide, great for big washes. 

@SamuraiKatz Blick has a great website and those prices are usually cheaper than the store. I have the loyalty card so I can get the web prices at the store https://www.dickblick.com/ I ordered a drawing table from the website for hubby, it was under 100 bucks and delivered in about 5 days. Right now I'm glad my car isn't running right...I have money burning a hole in my wallet and could blow a bundle at Blick. 

[SamuraiKatz]

[mention=24510]PumaLover[/mention] that's gorgeous! I'm still in the "looks like a kindergartener did it" phase. I'm planning to take classes thru continuing ed at UNLV this summer. I have one painting that I'm sort of stuck on. It's supposed to be a castle and well, I'm stuck on what to do with it right now so it'll sit until I'm inspired. I've done a couple landscape sort of paintings, the mountains here in the desert are quite spectacular. My current one is a space fantasy inspired one.  I really do suck at it, but I like it. 
[mention=19365]SportsgalAnnie[/mention] I have a great water brush too. It's about 1 1/2 inches wide, great for big washes. 
[mention=11380]SamuraiKatz[/mention] Blick has a great website and those prices are usually cheaper than the store. I have the loyalty card so I can get the web prices at the store https://www.dickblick.com/ I ordered a drawing table from the website for hubby, it was under 100 bucks and delivered in about 5 days. Right now I'm glad my car isn't running right...I have money burning a hole in my wallet and could blow a bundle at Blick. 

I could spend a lot if I ever let loose. :-)

You are just starting out again. Be kind to yourself.

I found a lot of neat watercolor techniques when I started painting again. My favorites are salt water color and splatter using an old toothbrush. Salt is particularly cool because I never knew how they would turn out.

I've also had good results using sponge painting. By changing colors..clouds, tree tops and fields of flowers can be found on my paper.

Favorite supplies:

Watercolor: Reeves both dry and tubes
Acrylics: Liquitex
Markers: Bic Mark Its fine and untra fine
Pens: Micron and Sakura
Pencils: Prismacolor
Brushes: No preference
Paper: Fredrix Canvas Paper and Strathmore Drawing/Watercolor Paper

[feministxtian]

I'm going to check out the youtube videos on watercolor techniques. I need to try to learn more techniques. 

[SamuraiKatz]

I'm going to check out the youtube videos on watercolor techniques. I need to try to learn more techniques. 

I think that is a great idea. I need to take a coupke of pictures of my projects and share them.

[SuperNova]

@SamuraiKatz You and I have similar taste in supplies. Liquitex is my go-to acrylic as well as Microns for drawing. I love superfine detail. For colored pencils, have you ever tried Faber Castell polychromos? 

[feministxtian]

22 minutes ago, SamuraiKatz said:

On 2/13/2018 at 8:04 PM, feministxtian said:

I'm going to check out the youtube videos on watercolor techniques. I need to try to learn more techniques. 

I think that is a great idea. I need to take a coupke of pictures of my projects and share them.

There's NO WAY I'll share any of mine...they all look like shit. You all are so talented! 

[SamuraiKatz]

There's NO WAY I'll share any of mine...they all look like shit. You all are so talented! 

Not talented. Just happy to create. :-)

[mention=11380]SamuraiKatz[/mention] You and I have similar taste in supplies. Liquitex is my go-to acrylic as well as Microns for drawing. I love superfine detail. For colored pencils, have you ever tried Faber Castell polychromos? 

I have not tried Faber-Castel. I hope to afford a set some day. I would really love to have a set of Derwent Inktense water color pencils. :-)

[Alisamer]

So I know this is old, but is anyone still painting? I'm working on finishing the travel journal I started back in September for a trip my sisters and I went on. I did the first several pages while on the trip, but got way behind really quickly. Luckily I took thousands of photos so I have plenty of reference material! 

I may come back and post a photo of a page or two this evening.

[Alisamer]

Ok double post, but here’s a bit from my travel journal! I just finished the full page one, it might not even be dry. Please excuse my atrocious handwriting. I always feel like the pencil sketch looks better than the pen and ink  

[Alisamer]

Sorry for posting again but I finally finished the travel journal! 

And I am super proud of this one drawing in particular.