More Art Supplies

Over the past couple of weeks, I purchased some better art supplies.  The brushes I had weren't all that great, the paper was kind of lousy when using it for painting with watercolors, and I quickly realized that I could use a few different sizes of drawing boards.

I had been doing my sketching and painting on a table which wasn't ideal.  Sometimes I kept the paper loose so I could turn it and angle it but then it seemed to buckle and warp more.  Other times I taped the paper down to the table which helped with the buckling and warping but I lost some control in positioning the paper just right.  There are advantages and disadvantages to each method but I decided to purchase a couple of pieces of acrylic to use as drawing boards. This way I can still mount loose sheets of paper for sketching or painting while still allowing full control over positioning and angling the paper as needed.

I purchased two 16" x 20" pieces of 1/4" thick acrylic to use as drawing boards.  I kept one at the 16" x 20" size but cut the other piece in half to make two 10" x 16" pieces.  After cutting the one piece into two pieces, I then used my belt sander to slightly round-over all the sharp edges and pointy corners.  Then I used a fine sandpaper by hand to smooth out these edges and corners.  Before sanding, these edges and corners were so sharp that they could easily slice open a finger or a hand.

I was previously using some Canfield XL cold pressed watercolor paper but I definitely did not like the way that behaved with watercolors.  After some quick research I found that the problem is that this paper isn't 100% cotton.  It has wood pulp and probably some other fillers in it.  For watercolors, you really need 100% cotton so I purchased a small 5" x 7" block of Academy 100% cold pressed paper.  

This paper is a good heavyweight paper at 300gsm/140 lbs.  In the future, after some significant practice and for pieces I might frame, I think I'll purchase some 100% cotton Hahnemuhle Rag.  I could possibly switch to even heavier paper at 640gsm.  One step at a time though.  We'll see how I get along with this better Academy paper.

Also, this Academy paper I purchased is a "block" of paper.  Rather than being glued/bound only on one edge like a typical pad, it is glued/bound together on all four edges to help keep the paper from buckling too much when wetting it with watercolors.  That plastic white knife in the photo below is used to separate the top sheet from the block after the painting dries.  There is one small section at the top of the block of paper that isn't glued allowing you to slip the knife in there to separate the paper from the block.  

In the photo below, I angled the paper in reference to the light so you could see the texture of this cold pressed paper.  This particular paper has a nice random medium texture.  I don't care for lined or grid-like textures so I was looking for a nice random texture like is seen on this paper. 

Incidentally, the arrow printed on the cover of this block of paper indicates the spot to insert the knife to begin to separate the top sheet from the block of paper.

The brushes I was using weren't all that great for watercolors.  They didn't hold enough water, they really were too small, they were too firm, and they were, generally speaking, not ideal for watercolor painting.  I decided to purchase a few Princeton Aqua Elite round brushes.  I got a travel set that includes a #4, #6, #8 and a #10.  I also purchased a larger round #12 Princeton Aqua Elite brush.  I did a little bit of painting with these new brushes and they are far better than what I had been using previously.  Because of the shaped point of the tip of eack of these round brushes, you can still make lines that are surprisingly fine simply by using less pressure and only the tip of the brush.

Below is a closeup photo of the points on the tips of these brushes.  These Aqua Elite round brushes have a nice point on them, they hold a lot of water, and they are the right firmness for watercolor painting...

Pictured below are all five of the new Princeton Aqua Elite round brushes next to each other making it easier to see the various sizes.  If I like these brushes, I'll add more Aqua Elite brushes to this set...  more sizes, more shapes.

I haven't done any painting or sketching this week.  It has been a wasted week with a couple of medical appointments.  I can still only get away with doing one thing a day without having to throw extra medications at my health so I haven't been getting much accomplished.  I hope to sit down with the new art supplies in the coming days though.