I've been painting with watercolors since I was about twelve years old, and drawing from the time I could hold a pencil, and I've tried a LOT of different things. Some that I loved and some that I didn't. This page is about the materials, supplies, and techniques I use to create my paintings right now, things that help me feel inspired when I'm feeling unmotivated, artists that I admire and those who have particularly influenced me, favorite art books, and for all those unduly curious souls out there a few little quirks about how I paint too.
Materials and Supplies
For Watercolor Paintings
Favorite paint: Winsor and Newton Artists' Water Colour is my favorite brand. They're easy to find, fairly reasonably priced, but most important they are clean colors that maintain their bold, intense, saturated, juicy, gorgeousness.
Favorite pigments: Ooh this is a tough one. I love color so I have a lot, but the ones with a star* are some of the ones I use with nearly every painting:
Burnt Sienna*
Brown Madder
Opera Rose*
Raw Sienna*
New Gamboge*
Pthalo Red*
Cobalt Blue*
Pthalo Blue
Quinacridone Gold
Quinacridone Magenta
French Ultramarine
Aureolin
Cadmium Red Light
Rose Madder
Permanent Rose
Sepia
Favorite support: Arches 140 lb. cold pressed watercolor paper (bright white) cannot be beat in my opinion. At least for the way I like to paint. :)
Favorite stretching method: Wet your paper on both sides, center it on your Gatorbord (foam core board), and staple. Let it dry flat overnight. A ripply paper is no fun to work on, I always, ALWAYS stretch my paper before I paint.
Favorite brushes: Robert Simmons white sable rounds sizes 18, 10, 8 and 6. They're synthetic, but they're very snappy, hold a good deal of water and a sharp point, and very affordable.
Favorite palette: I use a Tom Lynch porcelain one with a large mixing area and 19 wells for colors. I like the porcelain because it doesn't stain and I like how my brush feels all swishy when I mix the colors (yes, I am aware that swishiness is a totally invalid reason to like a palette, I warned you about the quirks remember?).
For Acrylic Paintings
Favorite Paint: Golden brand acrylics. These are pretty heavy body, similar to an oil paint in feel (or so I've heard having never painted with oils myself), and very high quality. I also use a retardent while I paint to help slow the drying time down a little. I aim to have that wet in to wet look and this helps a lot with that.
Favorite Pigments: Pretty similar to the ones I use in watercolor. Although the more I paint with acrylics the more this list is changing.
Permanent Rose
Cadmium Red Light
Cadmium Yellow Light
French Ultramarine
Cobalt Blue
Burnt Sienna
Burnt Umber
Titanium White
Favorite Support: I love stretched canvas the best so far. Canvas panels are next, and then masonite boards.
Favorite Brushes: Brights, about a half inch in size for my small daily paintings. I try to always use the biggest brush I can so I can have nice painterly brush strokes.
For Colored Pencil Work
Favorite Pencils: Prismacolor Premier. Widely available in the U.S. and they have a smooth, buttery feel that I haven't found with any other kind of pencil.
Favorite Colors: Well. . . All 138 of them I guess. I don't really look at the names I just pick the one that feels right for what I need next. Not very helpful I know. Sorry!
Favorite Support: Any smooth drawing paper works nice. I really like Bristol and Rising Stonehenge (my favorite of the two). I also recently started working on sanded paper and pastelbord and LOVE it. Seriously, I think I'm in love. :)
Favorite Art Books
I'm pretty much entirely self taught. Most of what I apply in my paintings today has come from the study of artist's I admire and endless practice. There is no substitute for putting in the time painting. You just can't develop a feel for the brush in your hand and on the paper, how much water to use, timing, etc. without a LOT of practice. These books really helped me study other artist's techniques.
Watercolor:
Painting Watercolor Portraits That Glow by Jan Kunz. This is one of the best books out there for painting portraits. Jan is really able to explain how to paint in a way that is easy to understand. It's not filled with loads of terminology and painting terms, it's a very common sense approach. I read this book and practiced the exercises she had and finally started to understand how to paint with watercolors.
Favorite Art Books
I'm pretty much entirely self taught. Most of what I apply in my paintings today has come from the study of artist's I admire and endless practice. There is no substitute for putting in the time painting. You just can't develop a feel for the brush in your hand and on the paper, how much water to use, timing, etc. without a LOT of practice. These books really helped me study other artist's techniques.
Watercolor:
Painting Watercolor Portraits That Glow by Jan Kunz. This is one of the best books out there for painting portraits. Jan is really able to explain how to paint in a way that is easy to understand. It's not filled with loads of terminology and painting terms, it's a very common sense approach. I read this book and practiced the exercises she had and finally started to understand how to paint with watercolors.
More Coming Soon!
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