Jan Herring My mom has had the most influence in my art. She taught workshops all over the Southwest and had summer workshops in Cloudcroft NM every summer for years. My summer job was to sell the art supplies and teach a drawing class before her painting classes started in the morning. Most of her career was painting in oil, but later she took up watercolor after taking a class from Charles Reid. She wrote two books. One was on composition and the other figures and portraits. She also had several articles in magazines. Her rules of composition are not that different from other sources but hers have been ingrained in my brain. Here are just a few.
Her books are still available on Amazon, etc. I started a Jan Herring Facebook page so people looking for her art have a site. People contact me all the time telling me they have one of her paintings and they usually let me post it.
Above are one of Jan's watercolors of Mexico and a color study.
Pat Molina taught me how to flatten a painting. Take old towels with no 3-d design.
Wet your painting on the back with a spray bottle and then using a squeezed-out sponge, spread the moisture evenly. Then on the front spritz water lightly. (Pat only does the back.) Then place it on a hard surface between the two towels. Lay a gator board or a piece of plexiglass on top and weight it evenly. I use gallon jugs that are filled with water. Let it sit overnight. Sometimes, painting a coat of gesso on the back with balance the moisture that was absorbed and help flatten it.
Sandra Carlton taught me the art of reusing the lids from water bottles to hold small amounts of masking fluid or ink.
She also gave me a hand rest made of a paint stick stirrer. So handy.
Lonnie Swanson suggested I try Daniel Smith's Iridescent Gold watercolor ground.
Marsha Reeves swears by the Daniel Smith white watercolor ground. I have not tried it but she makes corrections with it and says it takes the paint just like the original paper.
Betty Jameson did a demo for our Waterloo several years ago and showed us how to get texture and pattern using very wet paint, covering it with plastic and letting it dry.
I cut Styrofoam meat trays into shapes and carve into them and use them for printing patterns. Below is a nest using plastic wrap to get some of the pattern.
Example 2
Martha Ruth shared this about sealing watercolors painted on Yupo, gesso, aquaboard or clayboard.
https://ampersandart.com/aquabord.php
"Seal finished watercolors or gouache with several light coats of spray varnish (or fixative), being careful to spray outdoors during warmer months or in a well ventilated and heated area during colder times of the year. We recommend the Krylon® UV Archival varnishes. These spray varnishes offer advanced non-yellowing protection against fading, dirt, moisture and discoloration. For additional protection against scratches during transport and also ultraviolet light, follow the application of Krylon® spray varnish with Golden® Polymer UVLS varnish. 1- 4 coats brushed-on provides a very durable archival finish and is also removable for conservation purposes."
Nicholas Simmons workshop, we learned to use clear packing tape to define the edge of your picture plane. Up until then, he used masking tape and sealed the edges with a tiny border of masking fluid. By leaving a white border of a couple of inches, you get the effect of a mat.
Some artists like the white border. Always make sure the paper is completely dry before removing tape. If it has been on there for very long and doesn't seem to want to let go, I use my hairdryer to heat it up slightly and that seems to help loosen its grip without tearing.
Nickolas also taught us to throw paint around and he used a projector to enlarge his images. He liked to paint with black, which many watercolor artists avoid.
The most interesting technique he used was using liquid acrylic paint like watercolor. He would paint an area with acrylic, but before it would dry, he would spray it with water to wash out the not quite dry part leaving all sorts of organic texture with a hard line around some of the design. Really, with him, anything goes. Below is a close up of some kale that my daughter did in Simmon's class. You can see how some of the acrylic that began to dry is darker.
Example 3
Judi Betts. I didn't take her class, but one thing she said about a painting I entered in the show was that I needed to exaggerate. My painting was a garden nursery and she was taking about the handles of the wagons. I took her advice and painted it again making the pulls on the wagon thicker and with more variation.
Mark Mehaffey Sponge rollers. He used cheap sponge rollers to apply gouache over his patterned Yupo designs to bring out an image. I had never really used much gouache, but I really liked the flatness of the gouache against watercolor and by using a sponge roller, the layer of gouache had no brush marks. I did this painting using a roller over a painting I didn't much like. I love the way it turned out.
Mark also impressed on us the importance of simplifying our designs down to a minimal amount of shapes. We did mini value sketches and various color variations. Here are some of his abstract examples followed by some of my iris studies.
Mary Anne Beckwith This painter loves strong color. Using a spray bottle and Halloween webbing stretched across Yupo, she got some really unusual patterns. The paint she used is made in New York by Robert Doak. It is so intense that you must water it down. It also says to shake often. I found that putting bb's in the bottles and in other liquid watercolors like Dr. Ph. Martin's Hydrus watercolors helps keep them homogenized, kind of like the marbles in nail polish or spray paint. I found that some of the earth colors tend to clump up if not used fairly soon.
Above are Mary Ann’s example and the paints Mary Anne used along with the Paint Easy that she added to help with the ease of spraying to avoid clogging and the work she did using fake spider webbing.
Lian Quan Zhen Sticking to the primary colors to get a full scale of colors was amazing. He premixed his tube watercolors to a strong mid tone in small containers. After drawing with pencil, he then spritzed water on the paper and splattered the primary colors into it letting them blend. Then he went it and found the image and used the same primary colors to finish the detail.
The Texas/grape painting I did for a wine label and used his technique, protecting the Texas image with a stencil.
I liked premixing watercolors so much, that I started premixing watercolors and putting them in jars. I found "cosmetic glass jars" on Amazon. 12 2oz jars for $15. I make mine a little stronger than he did.
Alexis Lavine. I took a three-day workshop from her when we were in St. Croix one winter.
She has the loveliest control of the watercolor medium. Her colors are always beautiful. During the workshop, she pulled "the beginners away" to teach them about the color wheel. Of course, I thought I knew the color wheel but decided to sit in anyway. It was an eye-opening lesson. Learning the difference between warm blue and a cool blue...or a warm red and a cool red, etc. Also, all the beautiful greys you can mix.
I would encourage you to do this at home on a large scale.
I also learned in Alex L workshop, that once you watercolor over pencil lines, they do not erase.
An example of Alexis's beautiful colors.
My thoughts...yours to take or leave.
Catching the judge’s eyes.
All these teachers that judge shows must get really sick of seeing the same subjects depicted over and over again. If you can come up with a new vision for a familiar subject, that catches the judge’s eye, you may be a winner.
Signatures. They should be unobtrusive unless you are Picasso. I much prefer a signature that is in cursive (unless the motif is very geometric) and not one that is necessarily in the right- or left-hand corner. I would say it usually is the lower part, but try to make it part of your painting so it doesn't distract from your work. Don't sign in red if that is the only red in the painting. In watercolor, I prefer to use pencil just in case I need to move the location of the signature and I usually don't sign it until it is in the mat. Many famous painters didn't sign their work on the front. Whistler used a little butterfly design and Georgia O'Keeffe didn't sign hers. If you want to date your work, put it somewhere other than the front. Many shows are picky about how old the painting is and if you decide to work on it a little more at some point, the date will not even be accurate.
Prints....
Up to this point, the only prints of my work have been on posters. I figure I paint fast enough that I can do another painting of the same image and it will probably be a better version. I personally would much rather own an original and figure most patrons feel the same. Not to say I never would.
I keep the original line drawings to most of my paintings and use a light box to transfer parts or all of an image for a new version. If I need it smaller or bigger, I either project it onto a new surface or photograph it and print out the line drawing the size I need. I have one fan that likes my work but always wants a small version....like a full sheet down to an 8x10. I just take the image of the original and shrink it down with the computer, then use my light box. She seems to always find a place for an 8x10 or smaller.
Frames
Most of my frames are simple with at least a 2 1/2" mat, equal on all sides. If it is a full sheet, I like a 3" mat. Some compositions really benefit from a colored liner but usually it is just white or off white. 8 ply mats are my favorite but are super pricey, so if I want the depth of an 8" I order two 4 ply mats with one being just 1/8th of an inch bigger. I get almost all my frames from American Frame, but I have been known to find great frames at Goodwill or thrift stores. Judi Betts always used the same mat and standard frames and always painted in the same format, half sheets or full sheets. That way reusing frames was simple and cost effective. But it can also be boring. I have been painting over the last month on 8x20 sized paper because I want to enter the Austin Art Boards this year. Their size requirements changed from 6x24 so the more rectangular size is much easier to design.I can get 3 paintings out of a sheet, leaving a one-inch surround for framing.
I was recently in a friend's family home in El Paso and they have a fabulous art collection including Tom Lea, Ben Konis, Russell Waterhouse and many well-known Southwest artists. They must have 25 paintings. But, most of them are rectangular, horizontal and basically the same size. When hanging a wall with art, I would much prefer to have some variation in size and shape, though I'm sure I could hang their collection in my house somehow.
Saving Paintings from the trash bin
Cropping
This goes along with framing and composition. I am never afraid to crop a painting down that is not working. I use an old mat cut into two L shapes to help me decide. Sometimes there are several good mini paintings in a full sheet. Recently, I worked on a still life much longer than I normally wood. I was experimenting with creasing the paper with a wooden smooth-edged tool pressing it into the paper to see if the watercolor would seep into the creases. It really didn't work like I hoped. Even though there were lots of areas in the painting I loved, it just didn't work. I eventually just cropped it down to a 13x13 that featured just the paper Mache vase.
Gesso
Several coats of gesso over a watercolor can give you a fresh and interesting surface. I like Jerry's as it is flat. I noticed some brands look a little more plastic to me. Below is a painting I did over several coats of gesso.
Photographing your work
After I think I am getting close to finishing a piece, I take pictures of it using my iPhone. Looking at it in a tiny version helps me spot mistakes. I also like to record my paintings this way so I have a good photo after I frame something.
Storing your work
In 2015 I decided I would try to paint 1,000 watercolors. I completed 400 and probably most were not that great. I worked in all sizes but mostly small. To keep track, I numbered them on the back and then put them in different sized notebooks with plastic sleeves. Now as I go back through them, I keep the ones I still like and those I don't like, I either paint on the back or toss them. Coming up with 1000 ideas would be impossible for me so I repeated motifs that I liked painting and tried various techniques, color schemes, and general experiments.
By putting my work in binders in plastic sleeves, the work stays clean and is easily accessible without taking up too much room. When I need matted things for a show, I go through the binders, which are labeled, nests, landscapes, people, etc. and pull a variety to mat or frame.
Tools
I couldn't paint without a script liner or rigger brush. They come in different sizes but generally, I use a #1, whose bristles or hairs are about an inch long. Instead of drawing with a pencil, try practicing with one of these brushes and you will improve your painting skills and control of your brush. Work looks more "painterly". It not only produces a very tiny line when you paint with just the point, but you can drag it on its side and get a wide swath. Plus, by varying the pressure on the brush, your lines have an almost infinite variety. I also use flat brushes and round brushes. If I am painting large, a good watercolor round that has a fine tip, holds lots of paint and can also produce fine lines to washes.
Paper
I like to experiment with all kinds of watercolor paper. Hot press which has almost no texture to rough that has the most. Most workshops have us using cold press 140 lb. 300 lb is a joy to use but absorbs more paint than 140 so if you use the same amount of pigment, your painting on 300 might not have as much color when dry.
Personally, I sometimes tape the edges to control the specific size of a painting, but I don't tape it down because I like the flexibility of tilting and rolling the paint around by lifting edges. Nick Simmons liked to buy paper in rolls, so he could paint any size he wanted. At the beginning of my year of 1000 paintings, I used a roll to paint two paintings that were 2ft by 4 ft for my daughter who has a business in Peru. She just hung them unframed in her office. I had to tape them to a glass door in order to paint that large.
Stretching paper
To stretch paper, soak it thoroughly in the bath tub or other big or large container. Tape it to a board with old fashioned gummed tape all the way around and let it dry. As it dries out it becomes as tight as a drum. You sacrifice the taped area but just adjust for that or you could just mat over it. I have used this technique when I absolutely cannot get a painting to flatten out. Personally, I don't like to work on stretched paper. You can also buy pads of watercolor paper that are stuck together on the edges and then after your painting is dry, carefully separate the paper from the pad. You are limited in working on one painting at a time, but these can be great for painting on the go.
Yupo
I am not a fan of Yupo but it does make great stencils. Mehaffey used it very creatively and my hat is off to anyone mastering the use of Yupo.
Paint
The brand is usually not that important to me, but I use a good quality paint, not student grade.
I use a plastic palette with a cover and keep it in the refrigerator with a flat sponge. Sta-Wet sponges come in a set of 3 in different sizes and you can just cut them to fit your mixing area when you are storing your palette. Don't let your paint dry out. You can't get good, rich color from dried out paint. It is too much work.
If you do have a big chunk of old paint that you want to try to save, put it in a small jar and cover it with water leaving it for several days to absorb the moisture. At this point, you can pour off the water or mix it up and use it diluted for washes, etc.
If you get in the habit of testing each dip in the paint on a scrap piece of watercolor paper, it will save you some headaches.
Masking and textures
Lots of options here
Momentum
It is important to paint as much as possible. When I miss a couple of weeks, I find myself trying to remember how? By having a pile of drawings that I have worked from before, I can get back into the swing of things quickly.
Entering shows
Catching the judge’s eye.
Jurors that judge shows must get really sick of seeing the same subjects depicted over and over again. If you can come up with a new vision for a familiar subject that catches the judge’s eye, you may have a winner. Whenever I think I have a new idea, I just check Pinterest and usually find that there are many artists that already have done it and probably much better than I ever could.
For sure, one must master the medium, plan a pleasing composition, and know the subject well in respect to execution. But most of all, jurors are looking for a creative spark.
Websites that list opportunities to enter
CaFE www.callforentry.org
OnlineJuriedShows.com
Entrythingy.com
You can also just google the organization that you are interested in. Maybe follow them on their Facebook page and you will know when there is a call for art.
Austin Art Boards austinartboards.org (Free to enter)
This size was 6x24....a little hard to design but was chosen for a bill board winner 2016
Honorable mention 2017 6x24
This year the size is 8x20. A nicer size. I plan to enter one of these.
- Design your motif so you don't have a bull's eye in the middle.
- Avoid strong diagonals pointing to the corner that drag your eye out of the painting.
- Show more than half of your subject.
- Repeat a color in at least 3 of the 4 quarters.
- She did not like subjects that were over life size. (I do break this rule.)
Her books are still available on Amazon, etc. I started a Jan Herring Facebook page so people looking for her art have a site. People contact me all the time telling me they have one of her paintings and they usually let me post it.
Above are one of Jan's watercolors of Mexico and a color study.
Pat Molina taught me how to flatten a painting. Take old towels with no 3-d design.
Wet your painting on the back with a spray bottle and then using a squeezed-out sponge, spread the moisture evenly. Then on the front spritz water lightly. (Pat only does the back.) Then place it on a hard surface between the two towels. Lay a gator board or a piece of plexiglass on top and weight it evenly. I use gallon jugs that are filled with water. Let it sit overnight. Sometimes, painting a coat of gesso on the back with balance the moisture that was absorbed and help flatten it.
Sandra Carlton taught me the art of reusing the lids from water bottles to hold small amounts of masking fluid or ink.
She also gave me a hand rest made of a paint stick stirrer. So handy.
Lonnie Swanson suggested I try Daniel Smith's Iridescent Gold watercolor ground.
Marsha Reeves swears by the Daniel Smith white watercolor ground. I have not tried it but she makes corrections with it and says it takes the paint just like the original paper.
Betty Jameson did a demo for our Waterloo several years ago and showed us how to get texture and pattern using very wet paint, covering it with plastic and letting it dry.
I cut Styrofoam meat trays into shapes and carve into them and use them for printing patterns. Below is a nest using plastic wrap to get some of the pattern.
Example 2
Martha Ruth shared this about sealing watercolors painted on Yupo, gesso, aquaboard or clayboard.
https://ampersandart.com/aquabord.php
"Seal finished watercolors or gouache with several light coats of spray varnish (or fixative), being careful to spray outdoors during warmer months or in a well ventilated and heated area during colder times of the year. We recommend the Krylon® UV Archival varnishes. These spray varnishes offer advanced non-yellowing protection against fading, dirt, moisture and discoloration. For additional protection against scratches during transport and also ultraviolet light, follow the application of Krylon® spray varnish with Golden® Polymer UVLS varnish. 1- 4 coats brushed-on provides a very durable archival finish and is also removable for conservation purposes."
Nicholas Simmons workshop, we learned to use clear packing tape to define the edge of your picture plane. Up until then, he used masking tape and sealed the edges with a tiny border of masking fluid. By leaving a white border of a couple of inches, you get the effect of a mat.
Some artists like the white border. Always make sure the paper is completely dry before removing tape. If it has been on there for very long and doesn't seem to want to let go, I use my hairdryer to heat it up slightly and that seems to help loosen its grip without tearing.
Nickolas also taught us to throw paint around and he used a projector to enlarge his images. He liked to paint with black, which many watercolor artists avoid.
The most interesting technique he used was using liquid acrylic paint like watercolor. He would paint an area with acrylic, but before it would dry, he would spray it with water to wash out the not quite dry part leaving all sorts of organic texture with a hard line around some of the design. Really, with him, anything goes. Below is a close up of some kale that my daughter did in Simmon's class. You can see how some of the acrylic that began to dry is darker.
Example 3
Judi Betts. I didn't take her class, but one thing she said about a painting I entered in the show was that I needed to exaggerate. My painting was a garden nursery and she was taking about the handles of the wagons. I took her advice and painted it again making the pulls on the wagon thicker and with more variation.
Mark Mehaffey Sponge rollers. He used cheap sponge rollers to apply gouache over his patterned Yupo designs to bring out an image. I had never really used much gouache, but I really liked the flatness of the gouache against watercolor and by using a sponge roller, the layer of gouache had no brush marks. I did this painting using a roller over a painting I didn't much like. I love the way it turned out.
Mark also impressed on us the importance of simplifying our designs down to a minimal amount of shapes. We did mini value sketches and various color variations. Here are some of his abstract examples followed by some of my iris studies.
Mary Anne Beckwith This painter loves strong color. Using a spray bottle and Halloween webbing stretched across Yupo, she got some really unusual patterns. The paint she used is made in New York by Robert Doak. It is so intense that you must water it down. It also says to shake often. I found that putting bb's in the bottles and in other liquid watercolors like Dr. Ph. Martin's Hydrus watercolors helps keep them homogenized, kind of like the marbles in nail polish or spray paint. I found that some of the earth colors tend to clump up if not used fairly soon.
Above are Mary Ann’s example and the paints Mary Anne used along with the Paint Easy that she added to help with the ease of spraying to avoid clogging and the work she did using fake spider webbing.
Lian Quan Zhen Sticking to the primary colors to get a full scale of colors was amazing. He premixed his tube watercolors to a strong mid tone in small containers. After drawing with pencil, he then spritzed water on the paper and splattered the primary colors into it letting them blend. Then he went it and found the image and used the same primary colors to finish the detail.
The Texas/grape painting I did for a wine label and used his technique, protecting the Texas image with a stencil.
I liked premixing watercolors so much, that I started premixing watercolors and putting them in jars. I found "cosmetic glass jars" on Amazon. 12 2oz jars for $15. I make mine a little stronger than he did.
Alexis Lavine. I took a three-day workshop from her when we were in St. Croix one winter.
She has the loveliest control of the watercolor medium. Her colors are always beautiful. During the workshop, she pulled "the beginners away" to teach them about the color wheel. Of course, I thought I knew the color wheel but decided to sit in anyway. It was an eye-opening lesson. Learning the difference between warm blue and a cool blue...or a warm red and a cool red, etc. Also, all the beautiful greys you can mix.
I would encourage you to do this at home on a large scale.
I also learned in Alex L workshop, that once you watercolor over pencil lines, they do not erase.
An example of Alexis's beautiful colors.
My thoughts...yours to take or leave.
Catching the judge’s eyes.
All these teachers that judge shows must get really sick of seeing the same subjects depicted over and over again. If you can come up with a new vision for a familiar subject, that catches the judge’s eye, you may be a winner.
Signatures. They should be unobtrusive unless you are Picasso. I much prefer a signature that is in cursive (unless the motif is very geometric) and not one that is necessarily in the right- or left-hand corner. I would say it usually is the lower part, but try to make it part of your painting so it doesn't distract from your work. Don't sign in red if that is the only red in the painting. In watercolor, I prefer to use pencil just in case I need to move the location of the signature and I usually don't sign it until it is in the mat. Many famous painters didn't sign their work on the front. Whistler used a little butterfly design and Georgia O'Keeffe didn't sign hers. If you want to date your work, put it somewhere other than the front. Many shows are picky about how old the painting is and if you decide to work on it a little more at some point, the date will not even be accurate.
Prints....
Up to this point, the only prints of my work have been on posters. I figure I paint fast enough that I can do another painting of the same image and it will probably be a better version. I personally would much rather own an original and figure most patrons feel the same. Not to say I never would.
I keep the original line drawings to most of my paintings and use a light box to transfer parts or all of an image for a new version. If I need it smaller or bigger, I either project it onto a new surface or photograph it and print out the line drawing the size I need. I have one fan that likes my work but always wants a small version....like a full sheet down to an 8x10. I just take the image of the original and shrink it down with the computer, then use my light box. She seems to always find a place for an 8x10 or smaller.
Frames
Most of my frames are simple with at least a 2 1/2" mat, equal on all sides. If it is a full sheet, I like a 3" mat. Some compositions really benefit from a colored liner but usually it is just white or off white. 8 ply mats are my favorite but are super pricey, so if I want the depth of an 8" I order two 4 ply mats with one being just 1/8th of an inch bigger. I get almost all my frames from American Frame, but I have been known to find great frames at Goodwill or thrift stores. Judi Betts always used the same mat and standard frames and always painted in the same format, half sheets or full sheets. That way reusing frames was simple and cost effective. But it can also be boring. I have been painting over the last month on 8x20 sized paper because I want to enter the Austin Art Boards this year. Their size requirements changed from 6x24 so the more rectangular size is much easier to design.I can get 3 paintings out of a sheet, leaving a one-inch surround for framing.
I was recently in a friend's family home in El Paso and they have a fabulous art collection including Tom Lea, Ben Konis, Russell Waterhouse and many well-known Southwest artists. They must have 25 paintings. But, most of them are rectangular, horizontal and basically the same size. When hanging a wall with art, I would much prefer to have some variation in size and shape, though I'm sure I could hang their collection in my house somehow.
Saving Paintings from the trash bin
Cropping
This goes along with framing and composition. I am never afraid to crop a painting down that is not working. I use an old mat cut into two L shapes to help me decide. Sometimes there are several good mini paintings in a full sheet. Recently, I worked on a still life much longer than I normally wood. I was experimenting with creasing the paper with a wooden smooth-edged tool pressing it into the paper to see if the watercolor would seep into the creases. It really didn't work like I hoped. Even though there were lots of areas in the painting I loved, it just didn't work. I eventually just cropped it down to a 13x13 that featured just the paper Mache vase.
Gesso
Several coats of gesso over a watercolor can give you a fresh and interesting surface. I like Jerry's as it is flat. I noticed some brands look a little more plastic to me. Below is a painting I did over several coats of gesso.
Photographing your work
After I think I am getting close to finishing a piece, I take pictures of it using my iPhone. Looking at it in a tiny version helps me spot mistakes. I also like to record my paintings this way so I have a good photo after I frame something.
Storing your work
In 2015 I decided I would try to paint 1,000 watercolors. I completed 400 and probably most were not that great. I worked in all sizes but mostly small. To keep track, I numbered them on the back and then put them in different sized notebooks with plastic sleeves. Now as I go back through them, I keep the ones I still like and those I don't like, I either paint on the back or toss them. Coming up with 1000 ideas would be impossible for me so I repeated motifs that I liked painting and tried various techniques, color schemes, and general experiments.
By putting my work in binders in plastic sleeves, the work stays clean and is easily accessible without taking up too much room. When I need matted things for a show, I go through the binders, which are labeled, nests, landscapes, people, etc. and pull a variety to mat or frame.
Tools
I couldn't paint without a script liner or rigger brush. They come in different sizes but generally, I use a #1, whose bristles or hairs are about an inch long. Instead of drawing with a pencil, try practicing with one of these brushes and you will improve your painting skills and control of your brush. Work looks more "painterly". It not only produces a very tiny line when you paint with just the point, but you can drag it on its side and get a wide swath. Plus, by varying the pressure on the brush, your lines have an almost infinite variety. I also use flat brushes and round brushes. If I am painting large, a good watercolor round that has a fine tip, holds lots of paint and can also produce fine lines to washes.
Paper
I like to experiment with all kinds of watercolor paper. Hot press which has almost no texture to rough that has the most. Most workshops have us using cold press 140 lb. 300 lb is a joy to use but absorbs more paint than 140 so if you use the same amount of pigment, your painting on 300 might not have as much color when dry.
Personally, I sometimes tape the edges to control the specific size of a painting, but I don't tape it down because I like the flexibility of tilting and rolling the paint around by lifting edges. Nick Simmons liked to buy paper in rolls, so he could paint any size he wanted. At the beginning of my year of 1000 paintings, I used a roll to paint two paintings that were 2ft by 4 ft for my daughter who has a business in Peru. She just hung them unframed in her office. I had to tape them to a glass door in order to paint that large.
Stretching paper
To stretch paper, soak it thoroughly in the bath tub or other big or large container. Tape it to a board with old fashioned gummed tape all the way around and let it dry. As it dries out it becomes as tight as a drum. You sacrifice the taped area but just adjust for that or you could just mat over it. I have used this technique when I absolutely cannot get a painting to flatten out. Personally, I don't like to work on stretched paper. You can also buy pads of watercolor paper that are stuck together on the edges and then after your painting is dry, carefully separate the paper from the pad. You are limited in working on one painting at a time, but these can be great for painting on the go.
Yupo
I am not a fan of Yupo but it does make great stencils. Mehaffey used it very creatively and my hat is off to anyone mastering the use of Yupo.
Paint
The brand is usually not that important to me, but I use a good quality paint, not student grade.
I use a plastic palette with a cover and keep it in the refrigerator with a flat sponge. Sta-Wet sponges come in a set of 3 in different sizes and you can just cut them to fit your mixing area when you are storing your palette. Don't let your paint dry out. You can't get good, rich color from dried out paint. It is too much work.
If you do have a big chunk of old paint that you want to try to save, put it in a small jar and cover it with water leaving it for several days to absorb the moisture. At this point, you can pour off the water or mix it up and use it diluted for washes, etc.
If you get in the habit of testing each dip in the paint on a scrap piece of watercolor paper, it will save you some headaches.
Masking and textures
Lots of options here
- Permanent masking fluid by Winsor Newton is applied with a brush and can clean up easily with soap and water. It does not completely block out paint, but it does protect somewhat. I like to use it on a color that is already dry to protect it when I cover the paper with a wash.
- Masking fluid or Frisket. This is a rubbery liquid that will ruin a good brush. It is seals out paint and when rubbed off leaves very harsh lines. Make sure your paper and your masking fluid are dry before trying to remove. I use a wooden tool for applying masking fluid.
- Masking tape. This comes in all widths from 1/8th of an inch to 3 inches. The smaller widths are available at art supply stores. If I want to cut a shape out of masking tape, I first tape it to wax paper or the shiny side of freezer paper to make it easier to cut.
- Freezer paper Great for protecting large areas. You can iron it on to smooth paper and it peels off easily.
- Rubber Cement can be used for areas that are not too detailed. Again, make sure all is dry before removing.
- Stencils are great for pattern. Make your own or look around for lace, plastic patterned items.
- Gesso is great for getting texture and covering a failed painting completely. It now comes in clear, white, grey, black and one company makes it in lots of other colors. You can just tint with watercolor if another color is desired.
Momentum
It is important to paint as much as possible. When I miss a couple of weeks, I find myself trying to remember how? By having a pile of drawings that I have worked from before, I can get back into the swing of things quickly.
Entering shows
Catching the judge’s eye.
Jurors that judge shows must get really sick of seeing the same subjects depicted over and over again. If you can come up with a new vision for a familiar subject that catches the judge’s eye, you may have a winner. Whenever I think I have a new idea, I just check Pinterest and usually find that there are many artists that already have done it and probably much better than I ever could.
For sure, one must master the medium, plan a pleasing composition, and know the subject well in respect to execution. But most of all, jurors are looking for a creative spark.
Websites that list opportunities to enter
CaFE www.callforentry.org
OnlineJuriedShows.com
Entrythingy.com
You can also just google the organization that you are interested in. Maybe follow them on their Facebook page and you will know when there is a call for art.
Austin Art Boards austinartboards.org (Free to enter)
This size was 6x24....a little hard to design but was chosen for a bill board winner 2016
Honorable mention 2017 6x24
This year the size is 8x20. A nicer size. I plan to enter one of these.