Forum Topic: Creativestem Forum - Traditional Mediums

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Watercolor Paints

Last post 07 Oct 2008 by

notaspretty

Page 1 of 1

cogwurx

My wife is a watercolorist and has been using cheapy watercolors for the last several years. Recently, I've been itching to purchase a better set of watercolors for her, but I'm my experience is more in oils than watercolors. Any one have any suggestions?

I'm hesitant to go the Windsor & Newton route and I'm sort of leaning towards Shin Han watercolors. Any one have any experience with Shin Han watercolors?

I'm looking for watercolors that have deep, rich colors and are good with underpainting techniques.

Reply 11 Jan 2008

wickedmartin

cogwurx said:

I'm hesitant to go the Windsor & Newton route and I'm sort of leaning towards Shin Han watercolors. Any one have any experience with Shin Han watercolors?

Never used their watercolours, but I personally think their markers kick ass! I was a little hesitant since their stuff seemed too cheap compared to letraset or copic. Hopefully, they keep their quality up for the watercolours as well.
----
"Through the rise and fall of worlds one greater mind previals,
conjuring new creations as it watches the old ones fail."

Quote 11 Jan 2008

meredith

this would be interesting for me to learn also.

i just use plain ol' cheap $2-3 walmart/kmart water colours. they seem to work fine for me, it would be interesting though to try out "better quality" ones.

Though.. i have always been interested in trying out those water colours in the tubes.. Are those any different than the flat hard discs of watercolor?

Quote 12 Jan 2008

carly

Meredith have you ever tried gouache? It might be an interesting avenue for you....personal favourite of mine too.

Quote 12 Jan 2008

meredith

carly said:

Meredith have you ever tried gouache? It might be an interesting avenue for you....personal favourite of mine too.

Hey Carly, No i haven't actually. I just looked up what gouache was, It does sound interesting. Sounds like i would save a lot of time and ruined over-watered paper, trying to get deeper/intense colours.. Does it run cheap? Cheap is good :]

Does it blend well? Is the texture similar to acrylic?

Quote 12 Jan 2008

carly

I'm not really sure about the cheapness of it, I guess with everything you can get brands which are cheaper than others. I am guessing it might cost a couple of dollars for a small tube. They come in heaps of different colours but of course you can blend just fine if you want to.

Given the size of the tubes it comes in it would probably be a lot more expensive to use than acrylic if you are painting larger areas, but it's great for smaller things that require more detail. You might personally find it useful for adding detailing in your work with it, rather than painting the whole thing.

The regular consistency is more like a smooth paste and takes a bit of practice to get the ratio of paste to water correct. This makes it opaque on your paper, or otherwise can be watered down as much as you want to achieve a consistency more like water-colour paints.

I like it because it can come out smooth as a pen line and be used in very tiny detail. I think it made me a lot more disciplined in my way of painting and attention to detail. Perhaps for this reason it might be more preferred by designers rather than traditional artists. After you get the hang of using it it feels quite versatile.

Well that's my opinion anyway, you may want to do more research on it as I mostly only used it while I was in college and never really became any type of expert!

Anyway, I'd recommend getting yourself a couple tubes and see how you like it.

Quote 12 Jan 2008

cogwurx

I never liked using gouache in my design classes. I could never get the consistency right, so I gave up on them and stuck with oils. :-]

Quote 13 Jan 2008

meredith

I stumbled across an arts and crafts store yesterday by accident. I just did a quick run around because I am broke right now, and its the type of place i could spend wayyyy to much money in. It was like a little dream world of every art supply i could imagine! I was sad i couldn't get anything :[

On my run through i found the gouache isle (located on the opposite side of the water colours) and it appears i can get a tube for as little as $3 usd. So when i have some extra money i will budget for a couple of primary colours and a couple of smaller brushes.. and play around with them. I have some blank canvases lying around the house that are begging to be painted on.

I opened one of the tubes (a dark green), and it actually looked kind of oily, mixed with the green, but i imagine it is less oily when mixed up and water is added. I am looking forward to experimenting with these.

Quote 14 Jan 2008

cogwurx

I don't think the wife is going to go for gouache, but I'm thinking of giving the Shin Han watercolors a go and hope that they are as good as they claim. :-]

Quote 15 Jan 2008

cogwurx

Well, I was able to get the Shin Han watercolors for my wife and I have to say that I'm really impressed with them. Very high quality. A little paint goes a long way and the colors are just vivid! So if you are looking into getting some quality watercolor paints, check out the Shin Han brand.

Quote 05 Mar 2008

notaspretty

Water colors are fun, but I am partial to inks, mainly because they are usually less expensive.

My favorite is FW Acrylic Ink. It dries crazy fast but the colors are to die for (Flame Red. mmm. yummy. You just can't find a red like that these days). Also Dr. Ph. Martins has great colors and they pull sweet blends after drying, but they fade fast. I only use Dr.Ph. if I plan to scan the work in after completion and discard the original (after a year the original will look like crap).

oh, and I have used gouache in the past. And as far as I can tell they behave exactly like watercolor except that they are opaque from the tube. Mix with white or another color to keep it's opaqueness (is that a word? *shrug. You get the idea) Once you add water it gets transparent and behaves like the water color. Gouache is great for illustration because it can hold a flat constant color (no brush stroke) over a large surface area. Then Illustrator came out and gouache went the way of zinka and zubas.
----
Doug Forbes
NotAsPretty.com

Quote 07 Oct 2008

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