let's talk watercolour

[Stamping Bella]

Hello ladies,
I am addicted to colouring...I love the Gamsol Prismacolor technique... it's my fave.. I use the dove blender and chalk as well for colouring in. Now here is my question.. what do YOU use to watercolour? I own the watercolor wonder (LOVE THEM) crayons but I am interested in using actual watercolor paint but just can't master the shading thang.... Does anyone have tips or tricks? Brand names they enjoy, recipes? You get the ideaR...
would love to hear!

Em

[Jeanne S]

Most of the time I use SU reinkers (a couple drops on the pad lid) and an Aquapainter. Or WW crayons and an Aquapainter.

[Jeanne S]

As for tips....

Paint in layers. Light layer of color. Let dry. A little darker. Let dry. Keep going until you get the desired color. If you want to blend colors dampen your paper (I use an Aquapainter and let your colors blend naturally).

[dini]

I use Derwent Watercolor Pencils and I love them. The colors are rich and they blend very well. You can either color directly on the paper and blend or pick up pigment from the pencil 'lead' with a water brush and paint. Lots of samples in my gallery and on my blog.

[Ally]

I'm with Jeanne, I mostly use reinkers and an aquapainter, you get a wonderful depth of color. If I want a softer look, I use an aquapainter and the classic pads and if I want an opaque color I use an aquapainter and craft ink pads. Boy, do I get my money's worth out of my ink pads, lol. I have lots of other types, h2os, prismacolors and gamsol, watercolor pencils, markers, but I always come back to the inkpads or reinkers, they just look more realistic and you get more shadow, IMO. Take a look at Yvette's gallery, she is the queen of coloring with aquapainter and reinkers and you'll see what I mean.

//www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=1365

[Joan B]

Here's the deal from my perspective. I yearn to be able to watercolor well. I think I need to take a class and someday when I have more time, I will. It sounds easy -- layer, etc. I've tried and it is harder to do well than it looks! However, there is one thing that helps a lot and that is to use real watercolor paper. It floats the colors on top and is just easier to blend and layer.

[Ally]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joan B

Here's the deal from my perspective. I yearn to be able to watercolor well. I think I need to take a class and someday when I have more time, I will. It sounds easy -- layer, etc. I've tried and it is harder to do well than it looks! However, there is one thing that helps a lot and that is to use real watercolor paper. It floats the colors on top and is just easier to blend and layer.

Joan is so right, you will never be happy with your watercoloring unless you use the correct paper, it really does make all the difference.

[McStamper]

I was trying to do some watercoloring yesterday, I don't have many re inkers and I was tired of trying to get color in the lids of my inkpads, they are kinda dry. Yes I will be buying re inkers soon. Anyway I finally thought to pull out my markers. I scribbled a bit of color on my plastic Stamp a ma jig sheet and used it as my pallet. It worked great, I had all the colors I needed and could mix colors together easily.

[dtstampz]

What kind of watercolor paper do you all prefer? Just bought some cold press 140lb, and I'm anxious to try it out. I appreciate reading your tips!

[Faereygirl]

Quote:

Originally Posted by McStamper

I was trying to do some watercoloring yesterday, I don't have many re inkers and I was tired of trying to get color in the lids of my inkpads, they are kinda dry. Yes I will be buying re inkers soon. Anyway I finally thought to pull out my markers. I scribbled a bit of color on my plastic Stamp a ma jig sheet and used it as my pallet. It worked great, I had all the colors I needed and could mix colors together easily.

I like to use markers too....this was the way I was taught to watercolor by my TAC upline.

[jent]

Debra,

To answer your question I bought the Canson 140# cold press, after Trudee (one of my fav's) recommended it.

[klgnyc]

I can't figure out how to use the watercolor crayons properly. Any tips?

[dtstampz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jent

Debra,

To answer your question I bought the Canson 140# cold press, after Trudee (one of my fav's) recommended it.

Oh, good--That's what I just bought yesterday! And I love Trudee's work.
Thanks for the reply!

[NancyK.]

I use the reinkers, crayons as well as a tray of WC paints (picked up at Michaels). Start with the markers/pads/reinkers first before you start buying more expensiive WC paints. You'll be surprised how much you can do with these first. As for paper, get the best you can afford. SU has great WC paper, Fabriano is excellent if you can afford it. What I do is get a less expensive pad at Michaels (140 lb) for practicing my projects, then I use a more expensive paper for the final project. I prefer the smoother paper rather than the rougher, but paper is extremely important, regular card stock just does not cut it.
I've worked with Stamp Zia's colorwashes and they are very easy to use - check out my gallery for some samples. Art Impressions sells a watercolor dvd, as well as paper tutorials that are just wonderful - definately worth the money. Also check out watercolorpainting.com for some tutorials.
As with anything - don't afraid to try, try and try. Yes, you will throw out your first attempts, but with a little practice you will improve.

[Cathy H]

If you like to watercolor, you would probably love the twinkkling h2o's. I really like them a lot. I like to use them with the waterbrush.
A relatively inexpensive paper that I have found is parchment paper. It makes a nice alternative to watercolor paper and is great as long as you don't overwork the area. Just my 2 cents worth.

[Kiko]

EllenH has a great watercoloring tutorial on her blog this week. It's the entry for April 5th.

www.simpledreams.com

[MooLa679]

subscribing, I was trying my wc crayons today with mixed results.

[Mom0fgirls]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kiko

EllenH has a great watercoloring tutorial on her blog this week. It's the entry for April 5th.

www.simpledreams.com

I was going to suggest this too. Ellen does wonderful work and is very generous about sharing on her Blog.

[stephgiles]

Okay maybe it is just me but I cannnot get the Aquapens ( SU brand) to work properly. All I can get is them peeing all over the page. The water is constantly dripping everywhere, I have tried exchanging them with the same results. What am I doing wrong???????
Please help the aquapen-challenged.

Thanks

[Stamping Bella]

don't even get me started on Ellen H... she is one of the MOST PHENOMENAL and talented women out there! Her blog is amazing.. teaches so much! On top of that she has a wonderful store where you know that everything has been tried and tested and the best quality!
Cheers to Ellen!
Luv ya
Em

[Stamping Bella]

oops.. if you haven't seen her blog or purchased from her, you have to go take a peeky! www.ellenhutson.typepad.com

Em

[Gina K. Designs]

Emily,
I have been super hooked on the peerless watercolors these days. I love them cause the are in a little booklet and you can carry them with you so easily. You could stamp up and bunch of bellas, throw the peerless watercolors and an aquapainter in your bags and you can paint anywhere.
They're a lot of fun.
Gina K.

[NYstamper]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GinaK

Emily,
I have been super hooked on the peerless watercolors these days. I love them cause the are in a little booklet and you can carry them with you so easily. You could stamp up and bunch of bellas, throw the peerless watercolors and an aquapainter in your bags and you can paint anywhere.
They're a lot of fun.
Gina K.

Ditto on these! I ordered these and they are so awesome! As far as the aqua painter leaking, I know I have to remember not to squeeze it sometimes, and I also don't put a lot of water in mine. Maybe fill it a quarter of the way. It seems to work better for me.

[Carol Lee]

I use a cheap kid's watercolor set and the $1.99 watercolor paper from Michael's. I think it works out good. I have a couple of cards in my gallery that I did this way.

[cajor]

A different "water"-color medium to try:

The other day I spied my oil pastels in my stamping room and wondered whether they would work with a solvent (Gamsol, etc.) like colored pencils do. I scribbled a few of the colors onto freezer paper to make a palette and used an environmentally-friendly solvent (can't remember the name, but it smells like oranges), and it worked perfectly! The oil pastels blended great!

You can also get water-soluble oil pastels and use the same "scribbling-on- freezer-paper" technique with your Aqua Pen!

Amy J. in Wisconsin

[glenda s]

After using the SU Aquapainters for a couple of years, I recently switched to using a round brush (#4 or #3) which I really like and feel I have more control of the water.

Glenda

[Silvergirl]

Quote:

Originally Posted by klgnyc

I can't figure out how to use the watercolor crayons properly. Any tips?

I don't know if anyone addressed your question about watercolor crayons. I really love using them; they're perfect for a soft color vs. the re-inker (which I also love).

I was taught to use an aquapainter brush and pull color off the color from the bottom of the crayon. Depending on the area to be filled, I can load up my brush with a little or a lot of pigment. I also make sure the brush tip is saturated all the way through by brushing it across scratch paper first... to avoid any flubs.

I hope this helps.
Lisa

[kittie747]

I have become so much more successful and pleased with my watercoloring since I gave up aquapens and turned to regular watercolor brushes. I like smaller round brushes. I have the crayons and like them lots but find my passion lies in reinkers in the lid of my inkpads. The next best hint is to use good watercolor paper. I buy SU and also the brand mentioned below that Trudee recommended. One of the main reasons to use good paper, especially if you make mistakes like me, is that you can turn good paper over and use the other side. Most cheap paper cannot be used on both sides. Well it can but it isn't really any different than using WW cardstock. I hope this helps.

[Joan B]

I prefer the 140 lb cold press. I've tried others but always come back to this.

[fawall]

I love using my Derwent pencils too - they have some beautiful colors. I use anything, though - ink, wcrayons, markers...

I love the links - thanks to all who shared them. I'm always looking to improve my skills...

[Stamping Bella]

oooh Gina.. I have the peerless and forgot about them! I LOVE THEM!!! the only thing is that the colors on the paper aren't the true colors so I have to make a 'swatch' kid and attach to the colors so I know what's what! They are very hard to come by so if people see them on Gina's website.. THEY ROCK!
Thanks for reminding me!
Em

[tesschap]

Great tips here. Thank you. I haven't mastered water color shading yet!

[trudee]

Thanks for your kind words

Debbie Olson also did a couple tutorials:
one on the Peerless: http://debbiedesigns.typepad.com/mus...ing_old_s.html

and here about "floating color":
http://debbiedesigns.typepad.com/mus...ng_color_.html

[marylizka]

Oh what great ideas! I too have the peerless watercolors, bought them after a class I took! They are also great for coloring black and white photos, they turn out really nice. I will have to try the reinkers have not tried that technique yet. Thanks!

[SkyesMom]

Hey Em, I would love to come up and teach you how to watercolor.

[wiggynine]

Quote:

Originally Posted by klgnyc

I can't figure out how to use the watercolor crayons properly. Any tips?

I dug out my watercolor crayons last night to color in a stamped image for an upcoming swap. I'm not sure I like it. I think the colors come out a bit more vibrant than what I'm used to with watercolor pencils.

I colored in the image with the crayons, then went over the color with a wet brush - oh, and I used watercolor paper. I tried going back to do some shading, but it just made the whole think look darker.

I think I need more practice.

Linda

[wiggynine]

After reading the comments here and checking out some recommended links, I fiddled with my sunflower image and crayons again to finish my card. The whole highlighting/shading thing is pretty tricky I think.

Anyway, here's a link to my little project:

http:////www.splitcoaststampers.com/...0&ppuser=96504

Linda

[Joan B]

I've been practicing watercoloring of sorts the Art Impressions Way. I have the DVD and the stamps. They advocate a system of stamping by coloring in the markers onto the stamp, stamping on watercoloring paper and using a wet brush to move the color a bit. it works! I just made a cute pitcher of flowers. Now I have to figure out what to do with it so I can turn it into a card.

I obviously need to practice this technique but I think it has a lot of promise. I've tried it myself before and the key is to use watercolor paper and markers.

[Tammys1977]

Quote:

Originally Posted by stephgiles

Okay maybe it is just me but I cannnot get the Aquapens ( SU brand) to work properly. All I can get is them peeing all over the page. The water is constantly dripping everywhere, I have tried exchanging them with the same results. What am I doing wrong???????
Please help the aquapen-challenged.

Thanks

It's not just you!!! I have the same problem with my SU aquapainters. I have found that I can only have about three drops of water in mine to work properly. Any more and it just ruins whatever I'm working on. When I tried them a couple years ago at my demo's house, I didn't have that problem and they were full of water. What gives? I'm not squeezing them!

I guess I'm also Aquapainter Challenged...

Anyone have any tips...

[SilverDragoness]

I rather like my aquapainters. I've found that if I squeeze and wet the tip and then use my pant leg or stampin scrub to soak up some of the excess water I get a decent amount of water without too much. I have quite a few and some of them work better than others thats for sure. I don't really know the exact reason why. Another option would be to use a normal watercolor brush with one of the nifty containers where you squish down on the top and it just puts a little well of water on the top. I'm not sure where you get them though.