Wednesday, April 28, 2004
Painting Part Deux
I was reading through my painting lessons of yesterday and discovered that I had forgotten a very important thing! BRUSHES!
[line]
[image]islandArtist_412927874.jpg[/image][line]
You can't paint anything without a brush. For watercolors you need a certain kind of brush- one with a short handle that is designed for watercolor (short handled brushes are for sitting to paint and long handles are for standing to paint- at an easel). I use only one kind of brush- which is my own personal preference- the style of brush is a [url=http://www.currys.com/brushimage/brushes2500.jpg]ROUND[/url] I have a few different sizes ranging form 4 to 8. I also have a large one inch [url=http://www.currys.com/brushimage/brushes202.jpg]BRIGHT[/url] that I use for washes. As for natural hair or synthetic... my favorite brushes are all made of tacklon, even though everyone raves about sable. In the past I had an extensive collection of [url=http://www.currys.com/brushimage/goathair.jpg]Chinese bamboo brushes[/url] - they are inexpensive and keep a fine point really well. They come in goat hair and sable hair, Sable is more expensive. When shopping for brushes think of it as an investment- these supplies will give you years of loyal service if taken care of properly. Now after you have invested some money in a brush or two, you will want to know how to take care of it. FIRST rule is NEVER and when I say NEVER I mean NEVER leave your brush in water, not even for a minute. The water will deteriorate the hair in your brush and can also cause the glue holding the hair to break down thus letting the hair out of your brush- very BAD. Also if you leave a nice pointy brush in a cup of water the tip will become bent and that really sucks when you are trying to paint- beleive me, I've done it. Roll your brushes in a place mat to prevent the ends from getting bent or crimped, this will permanently destroy a good brush. Yes, i've done this too. My daughter even bit the end of a brush once and crimped it at a 90 degree angle. Nothing i could do would get it back to normal. After every painting session make sure to clean your brushes very well, rinse them under cold water until no more paint comes out- then wash them some more. Some paint pigments stain the bristles but this doesn't effect the brush in any way. That's about all i have to share on that subject... Let me know if you have any questions or if I forgot something obvious. Now, GET PAINTING!! artfully yours, ~jen
| Blogged By islandarts at 4:08 p.m.
