Watercolour mediums

[Kili]

I do watercolour painting (sometimes) and was wondering what people's opinions of the different types of watercolour 'paints' that you can get are.

I've used paint tubes, but I always find with these that I can't get the colour consistency thin enough and I almost always produce more paint than I can actually use in a painting (espeaically when they are small - given the flat I live in, I find working on smaller pieces to be more convenient than large paintings because large paintings are more likely to get damaged due to lack of storage space when they are done, and having to work around them when they are drying, etc. (With large paintings, I'd also have to buy more robust 'canvases' too, which are more expensive to buy.)

I've tried pans, and although they are better, I find that they get contaminated more easily when I change colours. I don't have the problem with consistency and can control it better, but the contamination of colours still irks me somewhat.

I've tried pencils and they are better for detailing, but I find that I get more tired easily using them so I decided to try brush pens. I've not tried them yet, as they just arrived today, but I was wondering how other folks got on with them.

(I must say that one of the biggest reasons why I took up watercolours was the beautiful background paintings that you get in traditional animated films and shows and it's something I miss in the modern CGI animations.)

[Chipster-roo]

I'm afraid I'm not really familiar with this, so I can't really provide any advice

I would be interested in seeing some of your art, however, if you wish to post it

[MeadowRabbit]

In recent years I've been using the tubes. Paint tubes do like drying up on me, though, due to infrequent use.  I agree it can be tricky to get the consistency right and some of my use of watercolours begins to look more like acrylics. Type of canvas/paper/board used does of course affect this too, some seeing to reject watercolour altogether.

I used to have one of those palettes we also used at school with the hard little squares of watercolour (so technical, aren't I) which was pretty useless for getting much colour from, so I wouldn't go back to those. I haven't tried watercolour brush pens yet. I have some watercolour pencils and I keep forgetting to try them out. For now it seems I will be sticking to the tubes. 

[JeepSwensonFan1980]

I've thought of dabbling in watercolour, even got a set of tubes from Aldi many moons ago, just never got around to using them, but I do use acrylics for my backgrounds.

When I had $ky, there was a painting programme from the saa on painting techniques, and it was mostly watercolours, on a channel called information. Not sure if it is still broadcasting.

[singhcr]

I haven't worked with watercolors directly but I have used cel-vinyl paint for animation cels and gouache for the backgrounds and I can tell you two things I have learned:

1. For paint you get what you pay for.
2. When painting on paper the paper does make a difference.

I found that the higher quality, thicker watercolor papers with more tooth/roughness to them did help my strokes become more uniform, and the paper didn't warp either. The Strathmore 400 series are good, and not super expensive.

For paints, I use the Holbein series for gouache which is probably closer to acrylic than watercolor. If they make watercolor I would try that, or another good brand like Windsor and Newton.

To slow down drying, make sure the tubes are tightly capped and you can use a stay wet palette to preserve your mixed/diluted paints longer. Take a tray, line it with damp paper towel or sponges, and place a piece of bakers' or parchment paper on top of that which becomes your palette surface. Cover the tray and add more water every few hours to keep it moist.

When mixing paint just dip the brush into it, a tiny bit of water each time is enough because even an eye dropper can make the paint too watery right away (at least for gouache). Distilled water here is best. Better paints thin nicely without losing vibrancy and mix better without looking muddy.