Watercolor question

larue · 03-14-2009

I would love to get a nice set of watercolors. What/Where do you recommend?
Thanks a lot.

LisaDRHC · 03-14-2009

I love my WaterColor Wonder Crayons from Stampin' Up! I've had the complete set since they came out and have yet to use up a color. The only color hard to make is a true red, so I use the Riding Hood Red re-inker to water color with. HTH.

Tracy-Stamper · 03-14-2009

I love to use my SU! Classic ink pads and reinkers!

tchk · 03-14-2009

I have Derwent and really like them. I bought those based on a tutorial at Firecracker Designs by Pamela where she evaluated different brands of WC pencils. You can go directly to the tutorial HERE. HTH

debbiemom23cs · 03-14-2009

I love my Watercolor Wonder Crayons, also. But I use my reinkers and the aquapainter the most. I just open up my SU ink pad and drop a few drops into the lid and use it as a palette. I normally don't even wipe it off but leave it there for the next time.

HTH

Scrapjanny · 03-14-2009

Well, I went the inexpensive route. I have the Faber-Castell watercolor crayons designed for children. I paid about $3.00 for them, and they work beautifully. I bought 2 more packs for my children, but they have no interest in them.

More for Mom. I use them mostly for backgrounds. I learned a wonderful technique at a stamp show I attended a few years ago, and I still use it.

As for wc pencils, I bought the F-C brand again. Those work great too, and they were only $5.00!

I also have Twinkling H2Os, which are absolutely lovely, and they last a very long time.

kiddielitter · 03-14-2009

I love my Watercolor Wonder crayons too. They are portable (I have the original big set) easy to use and clean up. I like to use them with water and a small watercolor paintbrush.

fionna51 · 03-14-2009

larue...are you looking for tube watercolors and need to know brands? Or are you interested in watercoloring from pencils or crayons?

I do all three. Both watercolor pencils and watercolor crayons can be used to color images and both work great. You can color the paper directly or you can lift the color from the tip of the pencil or crayon with an aquapainter and brush it on the paper. You can also use the crayons to color the stamp itself, mist it and then stamp. Gives great effect.

I use my tube watercolors for painting original paintings. (Watercolor pencils can be used for the same thing.) Tube watercolors can also be used to color in images. The problem with them? PRICE! $3 to $15 per tube. And you need lots of different brushes. But I have them so occasionally I use them LOL!

Pixinator · 03-14-2009

I love the SU Watercolor crayons and blender pens or the reinkers and Aqua painters. Even "I" can feel artistic!

KathiR · 03-14-2009

I use Derwent & General Watercolor pencils most often.

I really like Pentel's ColorBrush watercolor pens. They're really juicy, so I use them on 120 lb. watercolor paper. I use them with a palette to mix colors too.

I also love my Twinkling Waters.

buggainok · 03-14-2009

Check these out for a wonderful bargain on pearlized watercolors. Similar to Twinkling H2'Os but so much cheaper. Only $5.95 for a set of 21 beautiful colors:

http://www.shopatron.com/product/par...15.13667.0.0.0

sharron246 · 03-14-2009

I don't know if you lot call them Felt-tips, but they are the cheap pens we buy kids to colour with that have loads of colours and an ink pad inside if you can call a small rolled tube that.

If you colour onto the the clear pack they come in it sort of pools the ink, then use a waterbrush, aqua one, or a fine paint brush., which has been dipped and made damp.

Dip it into the the bit you coloured on the pack and the colour is sucked up, it gives a fantastic pastel paint to do fairys or flowers.

It's very delicate as they don't put mush pigment into the kids pens....
You can also pull the inside ink tube out and draw with that on the clear pack but wear gloves as it's messy, but waste not want not.

After all the kids can use crayons or pencils instead.

Just been reminded by DD buy some White Carnations cut ends of stakes add them into a vase with one of the felt tip pen insides. Yes it goes in the water.....
And watch your flowers change colour....

larue · 03-15-2009

Thank you so much for all of the great ideas. I will look at HL tomorrow to see what they have. Sale day on Artist colors. Yea.

stargirl · 03-18-2009

I use SU! re inkers, the actual Distress Ink pads, or any marker. The ones that don't blend well, I just scribble on a non-porous surface and pick up the color that way. I add sparkle with Niji wc paints. Remember, the most important part of watercoloring is the paper. No matter what color medium you use, if you aren't using wc paper, you won't get very good results.

Jennifer R · 03-18-2009

I'm a fan of Peerless water colour papers. They are very richly coloured and so portable (they come as sheets in a book).

I use them with my water pen.

I also have a set of water colour pencils (Fabre Castell) which are fine but I prefer the Peerless water colour papers.

ozarkstamper · 03-18-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scrapjanny

Well, I went the inexpensive route. I have the Faber-Castell watercolor crayons designed for children. I paid about $3.00 for them, and they work beautifully.

What a bargain! Wish I'd known before investing in higher priced WC crayons. But for anyone interested in a comparison: I have a 24-pack of Lyra aquacrayons and the earthtone set of SU watercolor crayons. I think they are perhaps made by the same company in Germany. They seem to be equal in quality, just different colors. I use the watercolor brush that you put water in the handle (maybe the Niji brand, not sure) and pull the color from the bottom of the crayons to preserve the pointed tips for coloring. Works beautifully!

stricklandpm · 03-18-2009

I find the SU Aquapainters are way too wet, the tips feather very quickly and they are not good at all for small areas. IMHO a variety of brushes work much better. And as someone else said, the kind of paper you use is important - otherwise it pills or gets soggy and your colors feather. Not the look you want. You will get the most consistent results with watercolor paper.

lynnscrapn4fun · 03-20-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by debbiemom23cs

I love my Watercolor Wonder Crayons, also. But I use my reinkers and the aquapainter the most. I just open up my SU ink pad and drop a few drops into the lid and use it as a palette. I normally don't even wipe it off but leave it there for the next time.
HTH

I do the same thing, I have never had a problem.

Suzy_H · 03-20-2009

I too love using reinkers. I just taught a SU watercolor class using reinkers - they are sheer and easy to use, yet very vibrant. Here is an example:
http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/ga...&ppuser=102658

stamphappy1650 · 03-20-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jennifer R

I'm a fan of Peerless water colour papers. They are very richly coloured and so portable (they come as sheets in a book).

Peerless papers are my favorite watercolor mediuim. I have pots, crayons, and pencils, but I use peerless papers the most.

I bought a bunch of empty paint cups and put little squares of peerless paper in each cup. I put a white paper label on the cover of each cup and painted a swash of color so I could see what was in each cup. I also printed some labels with the color name and put those on the sides of the pots.

when I watercolor, I just pop open the top, spritz with a litle water, and paint with a paint brush. When I'm finished I jsut let them dry a litte and close the top.

I store the whole set in a little flat plastic box.

Peerless papers are so saturated with color that I'll never have to buy another set - ever!

larue · 03-21-2009

Oh, what a neat idea. I have some of those and hardly ever use them. I am definitely going to try this.

Gina K. Designs · 03-21-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by stamphappy1650

Peerless papers are my favorite watercolor mediuim. I have pots, crayons, and pencils, but I use peerless papers the most.

I bought a bunch of empty paint cups and put little squares of peerless paper in each cup. I put a white paper label on the cover of each cup and painted a swash of color so I could see what was in each cup. I also printed some labels with the color name and put those on the sides of the pots.

when I watercolor, I just pop open the top, spritz with a litle water, and paint with a paint brush. When I'm finished I jsut let them dry a litte and close the top.

I store the whole set in a little flat plastic box.

Peerless papers are so saturated with color that I'll never have to buy another set - ever!

I agree! The Peerless Manufacturing Facility is about 2 minutes from my house and I have been there to see it. It's really cool.

I love these as well. Jessica Fick, our education director made this really cool little travel palette with them by punching little squares out and sticking them on to a piece of chipboard. That and a water brush and she can watercolor on the go.

They are so versatile!

Here's the basic set and it's a great set to get started with:

Then, they make as add-on set that has 40 other colors!

MSBetsyZ · 03-21-2009

I've seen these (the Peerless wc's) and been tempted. They just look so darn cool, lol!

TriboHearts · 03-21-2009

subscribing

Cynamom · 03-21-2009

I like my Peerless, I just think there's a learning curve, but nothing huge. They seem to last FOREVER.

blondie090277 · 03-21-2009

I use SU re-inkers dripped right into the lids of my inkpads, Tombow markers and occasionally the watercolour wonder crayons. By far my fav is the re-inkers. I also use an aquapen from H2O (the green one). I have found that the SU ones do not have fine enough tips for small areas and tend to use those for larger backrounds. Just use what you have, play around and have fun. If you are working with watercolouring of any sort then always use watercolour paper (I use Strathmore 140lb coldpress from Michaels). It makes the biggest difference in your work and will allow you to blend until the cows come home

HolleyTX · 09-25-2009

My favorites are the Derwent Inktense brand pencils. I have used a bunch of brands but find these the easiest to color with and blend together.

Now for SOLID type stamps, I LOVE to use the watercolor crayons on them. Color the crayon directly on the solid stamp and then spritz with water. Wait a second or two then stamp! WONDERFUL. This technique is for large solid stamps that don't have a lot of detail.

For detail images, I stamp in waterproof ink and then color them in.

See many samples here:
http://holleybarnhartsblog.blogspot.com/

StampinQBee · 09-29-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gina K. Designs

I agree! The Peerless Manufacturing Facility is about 2 minutes from my house and I have been there to see it. It's really cool.

I love these as well. Jessica Fick, our education director made this really cool little travel palette with them by punching little squares out and sticking them on to a piece of chipboard. That and a water brush and she can watercolor on the go.

They are so versatile!

Here's the basic set and it's a great set to get started with:

Then, they make as add-on set that has 40 other colors!

Hmmm. this is grea to know, will have to look for themnext time in the store..can they be ordered online?

StampinQBee · 09-29-2009

speaking of liquid coloring..I bought three little jars of the Shimmerz about 4 months ago, made sure they were kept in a cool, dry dark place and they have dried up. For paying $4 a piece I didn't think they would do that..do you add water to reliquify them again or are they no longer any good?