That was fantastic. You really covered all the basics. If you ever do another one you may want to add how to do final accents with a pastel pencil if you don’t have gauche. Also in one of your tutorials you used a knife like thing to scratch the paper. That was really cool. Thanks so much for all the tutorials you do. You rock!
Thank you Lora! Really pleased you found this helpful! I forgot about the pastels! Thank you also for remembering about the knife scratching the surface of the paper! It has been a while since I used that technique, but it creates texture and light! Thank you again !! 😊
Hi Karen, thank you soooo much to share you talent to everybody. Thank you for your selfless dedication. You know you make the world more colorful. Thanks
I love your tricks. Nobody share their secrets but a great teacher like you do. You are awesome! I love the magic that you do with your plastic card, that is really unique.
I always like very much your tutorials and what I appreciate more is your sweet voice. Thanks for sharing your knowled. Sorry for my English not so good. Bye
thankyou so much for your free advice and lessons, I'm learning so much. I love your work because this is the style I'm interested in. It is what has drawn me to watercolour. Tks
I started many years ago with not much money probably using all the wrong supples. Now at 72 , I can use the right stuff ! What a difference! Thanks I love the tips and inspiration❤
that,s a fantastic way to show these wonderful technics which I now know and will be definitely using but I think I,ll just have to get a new head and thank you
some suggestions for beginners materials in Europe/Poland: - for paper there are a lot of options. The most affordable/convenient ones are probably A5 sized watercolor sketchbooks, most of them are 30% cotton 250 gsm - more then enough for practice, and decent for actual paintings too. You do need to tape the edges before painting though, but I use the cheapest commercial masking tape for that. Personally I prefer more heavy A3 sized paper, and it can be found cheaper (by area) than the sketchbooks, but it's not as easily accessible, and for practice you'd probably want to cut smaller sizes. - for brushes, I surprisingly found the cheap (about $3) sets of goat-hair brushes decent for practice. There are sets of 5-15 brushes, most of them will be at most acceptable, but in each set I've bought so far I fount at least one brush I really like. Another great budget option are Renesans brushes - they don't hold so much water, but they keep the shape excellently, allowing for very thin lines even with bigger brushes. I'd also recommend getting one hake brush - they're expensive, but there are great painting techniques for them - for the paints itself I really like Renesans paints. Not the cheapest (about $2 per half-pan), but there's a lot of colors and most of them are single-pigment ones. But if you're on the budget focus first on paper and second on brushes. I've painted a lot with studio-grade phoenix watercolor set, and even though nearly all of the colors are mixes of 2-3 pigments it's still good enough.
Thank you for the most helpful video I until now have found here on YOU TUBE. I have tried through the years a lot of bad papers named " for watercolor" because of budget. Until I saw that a good paper is the clou for a painting for other persons eyes too. Sounders Waterford is my paper CP or CP-rough 300 gms . Also other brands will do , but they are well known I think. But one day I found a pad among my overloaded "office" that I did not know that was in my "stock" at all ! I gave it a go immediately and I must say the quality for me wa astonishing good! As I understand from the frontside its name is MAGNANI 1404 , with ITALIA used as a part of the brand-name. It is a pad glued on four sides, 20 sheets , 300 g/m2 23 x 31 cm and 100% Cotton. Grain fin and natural white. For me ( as an amateur) i it was more than splendid, I have to say that my english could be better, I can not find the right word . Anyway , just to tell you of it, Karen Rice , if you do not know this brand before, and since you asked us to do so. I have to tell that I live in the south of Norway , I know that my local supplier never have stocked this brand of watercolor-paper.
I have a question about the Brusho. So far I've focused on acquiring water color pigments, decent brushes and good paper, and as I think you have said, it can be expensive, so haven't felt like I can afford to spend much on these some other mediums, like the Brusho, that you have used in some of your tutorials. I looked on Amazon and there are various sets, with lots of color choices, mostly more than I want to spend and I don't know how much use I'd get out of some of the colors. Long way around, my question is, if I was going to get just two or three colors, which ones do you think would be most useful
I'd like to learn how to paint rainbows (rainbow bridge cards) with a blue sky background and dog silhouettes. Also how do you clean and store your brushes so they keep their shape?
You can dab your masking tape on jeans or a towel to help keep it from sticking too much and tearing your paper. I've gotten some really great pallettes from the thrift store. I usually check there first when I need that type of supply.
That was the best beginner tutorial I have watched so far.....and I have watched alot. Thank you so much for making it very user friendly and informative.
I enjoy my Black Velvet brushes. The fact that they are not 100 percent synthetic, being a true squirrel hair mix is what makes them exceptional.Thanks for your great videos. It helps me loosen up because I’ve been a realist painter for too long.
Recently I'm finding a few videos like this which I wish I had watched 3 years ago! I'm at a stage in my watercolour journey where I seem to be going bsck to basics, but occasionally I try some challenging projects that either work or they don't. The main this is that I enjoy the painting process and get messy with it sometimes...
I have woodless watercolor pencils and I use a plastic pencil sharpener with bottom removed to drop the shavings into the mixing tray. Then just add water with brush to activate. This is a handy way to have a lot of colors ready to go.
Bee watercolor paper is a great alternative to Arches or other pricy 100% cotton paper. The only set back is that it comes in smaller sheets. I don't think they have larger sheets. But it's great paper.
Really liked the video. For a water container, I'm using those 3 or 4 part plastic containers you can buy olives or appetizers in. I snagged a few before the pandemic closed down the serve yourself portion of the store. Hopefully we'll all be accessing more again sometime.
Hi Karen: Just came across this older video, and so glad I did. I saved it so I could write down and practice all your tips and techniques, because I just can’t remember everything. Really excited to get started. If you haven’t done so already, maybe you could show some techniques for beach scenes with waves and sand down the road. Thank you. 💜😎🇺🇸
Thank you so much Joanne and for the suggestions, much appreciated! I have a couple of beach scene tutorials, check out my seascape playlist here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-S4eszNalo4c.html
Thank you Karen for this very helpful vidéo. About paper.. it's possible to buy large sheets of (Arches) paper and to cut it. It' cheaper. (It's what i do). I will try all of your vidéo. Thank you again Karen (from France). 💐
Thank you so much, really pleased you found this tutorial helpful. Great suggestion about cutting up larger sheets, especially Arches, which is quite expensive but a beautiful paper. Thank you for sharing 😊
Fantastic artist and really an amazing teacher/instructor. Your instruction videos are the best. Every stroke of paint the wetness of the paper and the paint is explained that is such a key for learning and is missed by most instructional videos.
You can use wax candle on a light wash, then paint a darker wash on top. IIt will resist the wax and leave the lighter shade showing beneath. Hope that;'s helpful 😊
This is an amazingly helpful tutorial! Thank you for reviewing so many different fun techniques. You asked us to share the brands of paper that we use. I live in Vermont, in the US. I started painting in November 2020, using printer paper and a child's set of 8 watercolors. It was hard! My family gave me "real" stuff, and a door opened! Here in Vermont our local art supply store carries Strathmore paper, 12 9 by 12 sheets for $12. It's pricey, so my "big" paintings are half-sheets, and many of my paintings are quarter sheets.
Thank you so much for sharing Kit! Really useful for viewers to read. It is hard starting out and does make so much of a difference when you use better materials. I always say to my students, have the good stuff on your Christmas and birthday list! They are so worth it! Strathmore is a lovely paper... thank you again for sharing 😊
I too use the Strathmore 500 watercolor paper which is 100% cotton with either cold or hot pressed. It comes as the full sheets like you buy but I use the precuts available through Amazon as we have no local art shops in my rural area of upstate NY. I also use the Strathmore 500 Mixed Media sketch books which are also 100% cotton, have cold pressed surface texture and very reasonably priced compared to other artist papers. They do have stetchbooks specifically labeled for watercolor in the 500 line but I find those too expensive considering I am happy with the mixed media ones, just make sure it is Strathmore 500 as the 400 line of papers are good but not 100% cotton. I read a comparison from one of the art supply companies on the various artist watercolor papers and the Strathmore 500 has a bit of hold on the surface (I apologize forgetting the proper term for the artist paper treatments) as opposed to other papers that more quickly absorb pigments. I love this feature as newbie in particular who likes to make frequent pigment changes to obtain my desired color and textures. I have a set of Cotman (student) watercolors by Winsor & Newton that I have in my travel bag and have added many professional artist paints (more concentrated vibrant pigments) by Daniel Smith that I use here at home. The other “student” designated watercolors that receive great reviews are the Van Gogh sets and I may yet pick up one for plein air use when my Cotman set runs low.
Really wonderful tutorial! I love D.S. And Schmincke paints, but yes must collect a little at a time as the price point is higher than student grade. I started with cit an and highly recommend for beginners. Yes the better quality the paper the better the results. Also learning some color theory about what makes mud versus clean color mixing. Took me forever to learn and still I mess up from time to time😜
Arches is always my first choice but it is expensive, but worth it. I’m always on the lookout for good deals. Thanks Karen for another very informative video 😊
I love Arches, but I agree it is expensive. Great idea to be on the lookout for deals! I do this all of the time! So pleased you found the video helpful! Thanks Sarah 😄
@@KarenRiceArt I'm a complete novice and not a natural artist. Can't draw to save my life but I've always had the desire to learn. Now I have the opportunity and some days I'm gritting my teeth in frustration but your video helped enormously. What I would like to know is what are the best paint brushes to use. Thanks
Paper is *the* number one thing you need to invest in, even as a beginner. I've used artist-grade papers from day 1 since setting off on my watercolour journey. I started off with Arches and later added Artistico to my paper lineup. But a few years ago I had a very bad experience with Arches. I got a bad batch of their sheets, all of which had terribly degraded sizing. All of the paintings I attempted to do on them were ruined. The paper wasn't even good enough to use for sketching. I got a few sheets of Artistico at the same time from the same supplier. Some of the sheets had the same problem as the Arches sheets did. I switched to Waterford after that, and have had no problems with it. I'm also using Hahnemeule Collection now. It's a dream to work with. I like it even better than Waterford. I picked up some WN Pro last summer, but have yet to do much with it. I also use Fluid 100 at times, which is OK for its price point. I've tried Stonehenge Aqua as well, but I'm not crazy about it. It doesn't take masking fluid well, and tape tears it easily.
Very helpful information about paper. I will take a look at the Hahnemeule Collection. I love trying out different papers, but always go back to Saunders Waterford 😊
The one thing I tell my students, that can improve their work, because it will give them more time, is better paper. You are right the cheaper paper is great to start with as it does tend to dry quicker. Buying better paper is not a false economy, treat yourself, and remember with better paper you can use the back as well. I recommend 300gsm Cold Pressed watercolour paper 100% cotton A4 or bigger. Happy painting 🎨
Looks like you have got a hoarding problem with all the palettes. LOL. I'm guilty of that as well. just bought a Sistema plastic box with 2 sections for the water. works very well and has a lid for traveling. love watching your videos and they have given me the freedom to try everything. Credit cards I love. Sticks and skewers too. Not all my paintings work but, if I do many paintings at a time a few will work. I'm using my guillotine as well to crop the paintings and of course having a lot of fun. I love my white nights paint in tubes. It reconstitutes easily. Thank you for all the techniques shown
Thank you so much for your comment Olive, this hoarding is a problem! I have more hidden palettes as well! Just think there are worse things than buying art materials! So pleased you like the credit card and twigs! Great idea about using the guillotine! Sometimes you find a little gem amongst the larger pieces! Really pleased you like the tutorial! 😊
Hi Jenny thank you for your question, I don’t stretch 300 g paper. I use watercolour paper on block, it helps warping and buckling when I’m using wet on wet techniques. If you want to stretch your paper make sure that you used gummed tape and not framing tape. Hope this was helpful :-)
Thank you very much for this tutorial. I have a question about what board/surface you tape your paper on to paint. It would be great if you could share that information. Thanks!
You are amazing. I am a beginner and quite overwhelmed but your class really helped. I loved all of the different ideas you shared. Thank you for sharing your talent.
What a wonderful tutorial, thank you so much, love the beginner videos. Could you possible mention how to keep watercolors damp between painting. I may go two or three days between paintings. Use a butchers pan to mix and paint from.
Thank you William, really pleased you like the beginner videos. I spray my watercolours with water about an hour before I start painting. Hope this will help 😊
Really enjoyed your video. You covered so many basic things. I am new to watercolors. Have wanted to learn for years and said this is the year I am going to do it. Can't tell you how excited I am to use the techniques you have shown, especially the stick. So simple, but perfect for some details. I have seen others use sketchbooks and never thought I would, but I bought one and love using it to sketch and paint in. It helps show me my progress. Have watched a few of your videos and looking forward to others . Thanks again!
I use White Knights St Petersburgh paints pan set which are really creamy and am currently trying the Saunders Waterford paper. I do want to try the Hahnemuhle paper as had some of their sample sheets to try and the Cornwall paper was nice. I also have sheets of Arches but these need to be stretched so they don't buckle. Great tutorial again thanks Karen.
Have you tried watercolor ground? I hear it can be used for lots of things, like rescuing a painting, fixing mistakes, and you can even put it on wood and paint watercolors on the wood. Daniel Smith makes it.
Yes I have Shari, I don't use if very often though... that is why I did not mention in the video, but it is great stuff and as you say good at rescuing etc...I have also made a video about watercolour ground, check it out here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-TLB5hew9OCs.html Hope you enjoy it :)
Thank you for sharing this with us 🤗 I started with cheap school watercolors and when I got some practice, I got sennelier and van gogh and I love them 😃 and I agree, papet is fragile and beeds extra care.. Love it! Have a great day! 💗🤗💗🎨🖌️
Fabriano Grana Grossa rough) is an absolutely phenomenal paper. I've tried Saunders Waterford not, Arches, Hahnemuhle, and some others. All of them have a really noticeable drying shift. I always find myself going back to ad more layers. But with the Fabriano, colors just dry so nice and vibrant! There's actually very little drying shift. What you see when it's wet is pretty much what you get :) Also the spraying works really well on this paper, and the scratching with a card. But the downside is that fabriano will curl up a bit after I remove it from the pad. But I can always iron it, or go for 640gsm.
Thank you so much for your comment and for sharing your experience with Fabriano paper! I have just ordered the 640gsm, on your advice, so I am looking forward to using it! You are right about the drying shift! Can be very frustrating, so hoping the Fabriano will hold up! Thank you also for sharing the tip about ironing, it really works well! 😊
Hi Emma, great question, here is a link to latex free masking fluid: www.jacksonsart.com/search/?q=latex%2Bfree%2Bmasking%2Bfluid&___store=jacksonsart_en&acc=51ef186e18dc00c2d31982567235c559
What a fantastic video! It reminded me of all those tricks, tips and techniques and makes me want to revisit them. Still I have an issue with the salt when I use it to get those beautiful effects it does. The issue happens when I want to get the paper rid from the salt... the most part is going away as I gently rub / scrub/ brush it but there are always bits of salt that wouldn't leave and stay then there. Is this normal? How to entirely remove it from the painting? Waiting for your answer, I wish you all the best from Belgium.
Thanks Cecile... I have published a video all about salt... hopefully you will find it helpful :ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-VrqTwMREUUU.html
