How To Use Watercolor Paint Set

Information technology's a simple question… Right ?

And the respond probably seems obvious to more experienced watercolor artists.

I remember when I was learning about watercolor painting, I wasn't sure how other artists used tubes of paint. I found it quite mysterious how to handle paint in this form. And the more I thought almost it the more puzzled I became.

I wanted to know the best way to use watercolor paint from tubes.

With a little experience, inquiry, and testing I became more comfy using pigment from tubes, and today I even so buy all my pigment in this format ! I think this is the best way to use your watercolors.

The bottom line ?

Using tubes is a question of personal choice. It takes some time, trial and mistake to find the technique which works all-time with your workflow.

Merely in full general there are a few basic methods :

• 1

  ​ You can apply fresh paint directly from the tube by squeezing out some paint onto a mixing surface, and then mix with water.

• 2

  ​ Alternatively you lot clasp out some paint into a mixing palette and permit it dry out between painting sessions.

• iii

  ​ Or you lot can make your own watercolor pans and set upwardly a personalized watercolor palette.

​Annotation: As you've probably found out, watercolor paint tin be bought in different formats. The most common are tubes and pans . Pans are the modest 'cakes' of dried pigment that tin be purchased individually or in box sets of color palettes. ​

​Each individual artist has his own habits, but from what I could discover from other artists workflow and my own personal feel these are the 3 most widespread means of using tubes.

Want to know which method is best for you ?

Below I'll go into more item about these 3 methods, plus a few tips and tricks to help you utilize watercolors in this course.

Hither's what I've learned about using watercolor from tubes:

1. Using fresh watercolor from the tube

Some people ever utilise fresh moist paint directly from the tube. This is a very easy and fast way to mix colors because the paint is already moist. In this format it is also easier to mix a large amount of paint if you're painting on a big surface.

Color from tubes is fully pigmented and saturated. Your paint doesn't get brighter. So it'due south easy to go a strong concentration of paint.

Using fresh paint from the tube every time you pigment has the advantage of starting with clean fresh colors each time. Some artists like to take fresh pure colors when they beginning a new painting. They don't desire their colors to be stained with other pigments, so this method of working suits them well.

Starting afresh in this mode also means that your mixing surface is clean and free from grit, so you don't get foreign bodies floating effectually in your watercolor washes!

Here's how this technique tends to work:

How to mix watercolor paint from tubes

• ​Yous start with a make clean mixing surface. This can be a mixing palette, or fifty-fifty just a dinner plate. A lot of artists apply a butcher tray. (When choosing a mixing surface you lot should look for something impermeable such as plastic, ceramic or enamel, with a very white surface so you tin accurately encounter the colour of the mixture you're making).
• ​Squeeze out a dot of the color yous want to use onto your mixing tray or into the wells of your palette. If y'all're using a mixing surface exit plenty of infinite betwixt dots to avoid color contagion. Most artists put their dots around the edge of the mixing area. This mode you get out room in the center for mixing puddles of paint. (To prevent color contagion the bodily mixing takes place in a carve up area on your tray).
• ​Load a castor with make clean water and press it against the mixing area to create a puddle of water.
• ​Dab your moist brush onto a dot of pigment to pick upwards some paint.
• ​Gently mix the paint into the water puddle until the mix is smooth.
• ​Rinse your brush then repeat these steps to create additional puddles for mixing.
• ​Make clean off the mixing palette when the painting is finished.

A few tips:

When y'all start a new painting, brainstorm with just a few colors. Quite oftentimes every bit you progress with a subject, you might change ideas and make up one's mind to use a different color design. My advice is to squeeze out only the colors you lot need to avoid wasting pigment.

In the beginning you lot may be tempted to dab a dirty brush into your pure paint dots. It takes a bit of discipline to keep yous mixing habits make clean and avoid contaminating your pure pigments, simply with experience your technique becomes more intuitive.

How to open up watercolor tubes

"Just open the cap" I hear y'all say !

This might seem obvious but sometimes opening new or onetime tubes of paint tin cause problems.

With new tubes it'due south quite common to see a sudden gush of paint when you take off the cap for the first time. Used tubes don't seem to encounter the aforementioned problem.

Merely be careful when opening new tubes. Endeavour not to put force per unit area on the tubes by squeezing them, and possibly open up them over the well of your palette so you don't lose whatsoever contents.

When yous open used tubes, sometimes you can get flakes of ​dried paint fall out. Try to avoid the flakes falling on your clean paper or in your mixing palette.

Old tubes are another gluey problem. Oftentimes if yous leave them for a while the pigment dries and the cap becomes difficult to remove. The solution to this is to warm the cap in some way. Leaving paints "cap downwardly" in some warm water usually helps.

If you encounter this problem often, you might consider dipping the inside of your cap in some glycerin or even dearest before putting the cap back on. (Glycerin is used in paint formulas to assist keep them soft).

2. Squeezing tubes into a mixing palette

With this approach you let the paints dry out out in a mixing palette when not in use. Y'all demand to reactivate the pigment with a small amount of water each time you utilize them.

A mixing palette is different to a simple mixing surface like a butcher tray or a ceramic dish. A mixing palette has two distinct parts:

Paint wells for squeezing out your pure paint.

A mixing area for mixing your paint puddles.

In that location are a lot of different formats of mixing palettes and over fourth dimension y'all'll find ane which you prefer. (After a lot of testing I found ane of the all-time types is an Eldajon palette - you can find them at a skilful price on Amazon ​).

The advantage I have institute with this method is that there is very little wasted pigment. Reconstituting the stale paints with water is very easy, and there is no loss of paint saturation ( At least that's the case with the brand of paints that I use - see my recommendations  ).

Clean upward time is also reduced !

Here's how people tend to work with palettes:

• ​Squeeze out dots of raw tube pigment into the palette wells. Only earlier painting you can add a few drops of h2o into each well. This makes the actual colors easier to see than the dried paint, and prevents pigment from developing a skin during your painting session. No need to mix the paint in the wells, just leave the dot of concentrated paint for when yous want to mix a higher saturated color.
• ​Information technology'south a skilful idea to arrange your palette past group paints into color families. This helps you locate hues more easily during the painting procedure. I usually practice this in the club of the color spectrum.
• ​Creating puddles of mixed colour is done in the same fashion as described higher up. The paint wells on most palettes are quite close together, so keeping your castor clean when picking up paint is of import, and endeavour not to splash color into adjacent wells.

A few tips:

When mixing colors, bring out a bit more paint than you think yous need. In that location's zero as frustrating as running out of a color mix and having to mix the exact aforementioned colour twice.

Paint will dry out in the palette when not in use. To reactivate the watercolors just add some clean h2o to the wells before each new session. A lot of artists use a spray canteen to pre-wet their paint.

If your paint wells do become color contaminated or muddy, then just place the wells nether a period of warm running water. The surface layer of muddy colour volition dissolve leaving fresh pigment underneath.

1 of the issues with this method is the risk of grit or particle contamination between painting sessions. Depending on the blazon of palette used, I find it useful to cover the palette until my next painting. This can be as simple as an upturned dinner plate, or aluminium foil. Whatever you detect does the job well.

Depending on how long you leave your mixing palette betwixt each new painting, it might be advisable to put them in the refrigerator for storage, to prevent mold and evaporation.

I just wanted to add a quick annotation nigh the term "palette" . In watercolor painting this term tends to refer to a few dissimilar things. This got me quite dislocated in the beginning but there'south an of import distinction.

Showtime y'all accept a mixing palette . This is the surface on which you mix your paint. In that location are loads of different types but they commonly accept paint wells for holding the pure pigment, and a mixing expanse for blending paints together.

Then you have palette boxes or tins. Some of these are empty tins with wells for storing paint from tubes. Others are boxes containing pan paints, and can exist empty or fix-filled.

Just to brand things a fleck more confusing, watercolor artists will often talk about their "palette" when discussing their palette colors . This simply refers to the range of colors they utilize.

Bewildered even so ? … Don't worry, you'll become used to it !

​Watercolor palette with lid​

Some artists prefer to go along their fresh tube paints continuously wet.

They utilise a "moisture palette" choice to keep them moist.

This method combines the advantages of working with fresh paint plus the power to create a personalized color palette. It eliminates the trouble of dissolving paint at the outset of each session, making mixing quick and like shooting fish in a barrel.

You can discover special wet palette boxes with folding or snap on lids to accommodate your tube paints ( meet the reviews for this leakproof palette on Amazon ). They take the advantage of existence watertight and transportable.

They accept a lid that prevents overnight evaporation and works as an effective dust cover.

The drawback is that wet paint can become mouldy if left too long. Keeping them in the fridge will help !

3. How to make watercolor pans

Tubes of watercolor can be used to make your own watercolor pans.

Yous can of form purchase paint already in pans (sometimes called cakes), simply I prefer to fill empty pans with my favorite paint colors.

This is really piece of cake to do (In fact it'southward a piece of cake… distressing, couldn't resist that !)

All you demand is an empty palette box and some empty pans.

Pans come up in two sizes: bigger full pans and small one-half pans. Personally I prefer the full pans, just because it's easier to get the whole of my brush into the large pan when picking up paint.

Well-nigh palette boxes will fit both full and one-half pans.

I call back this option is great ! Firstly it let'southward me set upward a personalized colour palette, (prepare-made box sets always include colors you don't want). Also you can layout the colors the fashion you want. This is good for your workflow because you have an established order fixed in your listen. I too recall information technology'southward more than toll effective than buying ready-made pans. I can fill up a pan and continue them topped upwards 3 or 4 times with tube of paint. For me, the price divergence between a pan and a tube makes the tube a more economical choice. Storage is piece of cake. When you're finished yous just close the lid, which also keeps the pigment free from dust.

Here's how to brand your own pans and setup a palette:

• ​Decide which colors you want to put in your palette.
• ​Label the pans with the color proper noun, make and pigment number using a waterproof pen. This is handy for when you lot desire to refill a pan afterward on.
• ​Before opening, milkshake or massage the paint tube, especially if they are former. Sometimes the binder (usually glue standard arabic) can dissever from the paint when stored for long periods.
• ​Begin by squeezing some pigment into the corners of the pan. Fill the pan about half way then stir the paint with a toothpick or an unfolded paperclip. This stirring seems to consolidate the paint and remove any trapped air, which avoids cracks in the paint when drying.
• ​Leave the pan to dry. Don't comprehend the pans, leave them to dry in a well air identify.
• ​Once dry, fill the residuum of the pan and stir once again. I don't fill the pans right up to the height. This is useful because you can add a few drops of water to your pan to reactivate them earlier painting. Also this helps prevent the paint sticking to the lid of the palette box when I close it.
• ​The procedure of filling in ii stages seems to avoid the paint smashing and falling out of the pan. The amount of evaporation and great varies depending on the make of paint, just the Daniel Smith paints that I utilise dry beautifully. If you practice find your pigment falling out, endeavour adding a drib of glycerin to the bottom of a pan to stick it back in.
• ​Organize your pans according to color families equally you would with an open palette. This is just proficient habit and helps your workflow making information technology like shooting fish in a barrel to locate hues.
• ​To reactivated the pigment add together a few drops of clear water with a brush or a spray bottle.

​
Using tubes to brand pans makes no divergence to the quality of your watercolors. Manufacturers use the aforementioned formulas to brand the pans and their Tubes of paint. Tubes just have more liquid binders and fillers which evaporate when you leave them to dry.

How to recover dried watercolor paint tubes

Exercise you have some old watercolor tubes that have stale out over time ? Are they completely useless ?

There doesn't really seem to be an death date for watercolors paints. I've heard of artists leaving tubes for several years and all the same being able to use them!

Stale up paint tubes tin be reconstituted by removing the paint from tube and adding gum standard arabic or even a little water.

Cut open up the tube, and so crush or chop the contents into small parts. Put the dried pigment into a container with a lilliputian mucilage arabic and leave to rest a while. Stir the paint and add more gum arabic until y'all recover a shine mixture.

The whole process needs a lot of patience, but it can be washed !

​Using watercolor direct from the tube for spot color

Finally, for painting particular, or spot colors, I simply work straight from the tube. Unscrew the cap, wet the castor with but plenty water to lubricate the pure pigment, then pick upwards some paint direct out of the tube.

This is usually when I'm using a color that I don't proceed in my 24-hour interval to solar day palette, or for occasionally applying opaque colors such as Chinese White.

Comparison betwixt watercolor tubes and pans

One of the advantages with tubes is you tin can first with a limited palette - buy a few tubes at a time and add to your collection as you evolve.

The choice between tubes or pans is more a thing of personal workflow. I find myself using both, merely I always buy tubes first, and make my own pans as I need them.

Whether you purchase your paints in tubes or as pans will non bear on the quality of your piece of work. The pigment is the same.  Tubes are more pricey but in my experience they are more economical compared to buying prepare filled pans.

How To Use Watercolor Paint Set,

Source: https://www.watercoloraffair.com/beginners-guide-how-to-use-watercolor-paint-tubes/

Posted by: mccarthyabothent.blogspot.com

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