Basic Tips (technique):
How Much paint:
When you first start out you will use alot of paint! I guarantee it! Not because you are bad in any way..just because thats how it will be. You wont realise how much paint you will use, how much to put on your brush or on your palette..and chances are you will over estimate.
When you watch Mr Ross, if you do or have, he has a HUGE amount of paint on his palette...i heard somewhere that they film a few episodes all at once and that palette and paint lasts him several episodes...could be true.....
even so..you dont need half that much paint..and in fact it would be a waste!
For most paintings i tend to squirt out a blob of paint about the size of a 50 pence piece round...or maybe an inch diameter. And even then, dependent on the painting subject some or alot of that paint will be unused. Obviously for a snow scene you will use alot more titanium white. With this technique, certainly for skies and suchlike a little paint goes a long long way! The only time we load the brush with alot of paint is to create bushes and trees, highlights and suchlike.
On your brush, again you wont use as much paint as you think you might. For skies and water and background work, then the very tip of your brush is all that needs to have paint on it. Your not after the same amount of paint on your brush as you would use for, say, painting a wall, or glossing a door!
on, for instance, a 2 inch brush....pull some paint out onto your palette then tap the very tip of the brush into it. Pushing slightly upwards with each tap..this will load the very tips of the bristles with paint....you will only see about a cm of the end of the brushes bristles covered with paint. They wont be clogged with paint and stuck together! They will be loose and evenly coated! thats enough paint!
The only time we load our brushes to a thick, chisel edge of paint is for highlighting or creating waterfalls, or creating trees and bushes. In which case you load the brush with paint until the bristles themselves clog together and become pointed! You use alot more paint to create bushes and highlights than you do for skies and water effects.
So all in all a standard tube of paint should last you a good dozen or more paintings, unless its one of the most commonly used colours..Titanium White, Sap Green, Midnight Black, van Dyke brown...you might well find yourself using these colours far quicker than say Indian Yellow and Pthalo Green. Some paints will last a long time...other tubes you will use quickly.
What Size Canvas:
This is your choice. And it really is! I tend to use a 16*20 inch canvas. That size suits me just fine..its not too big but its just big enough for the brushes to work comfortably and give me plenty of room for details...remember the larger your canvas the further away you will need to stand for the painting to "work"! So spend some time thinking of where the finished piece might well be placed!
Mr Ross always used an 18*24 inch canvas. And that size can look daunting when you first start painting...all that white staring back at you.
Of course sometimes you mask off areas of your canvas to work. To create ovals for example. For this i like to use White Fablon. Its a sticky back vinyl designed for covering furniture and work surfaces. Its got a good enough glue on it to easily stick to your canvas but is thin enough for a good craft knife to easily trim out a shape!
The primary goal of any canvas is to suit your painting style. For the wet on wet technique you need a Double primed, pre stretched canvas! You can try art board type canvas but i find that the liquid mediums just soak right into it and end up dry almost instantly!
I use Reeves canvas' alot! they are a fine balance between quality and price. Windsor and Newton create some good canvas' as well...look for a medium grain to your canvas if you have choice!
How thin is THIN Paint:
To create fine branches and grasses we use a Script Liner brush, and very thin paint. The thinner the paint the better it will work on your painting. When thinning paint you are looking for it to be about as runny as ink! Try this: thin the paint down then tilt your palette..if the paint will easily dribble down your palette your probably thin enough....
This is the primary reason people cannot make paint flow to paint branches with this technique..the paint is simply too thick!
Thinning Paint for HighLights:
The Golden rule of the Wet on Wet technique! A thin paint will stick to a Thick paint! Much of the time we paint with pure paint, no thinner or liquid mediums added to it. So the majority of the canvas is covered by "thick" paint. To highlight we need to make the paint thinner so that it will stick to the thicker paint already on the canvas!
To do so, dip the very tip of your brush in either Liquid White or Liquid Clear, or even a very small amount of thinners, then carry on mixing your colours.....
when you highlight your just touching the canvas...the paint on the canvas will take what paint it needs off the brush....if you push too hard or too many times you will create "mud". In other words you will start to mix the paint underneath your brush with that on your brush and your highlights wont work at all! Just "touch" the canvas lightly with your highlight colour. If its thin enough it will stick..if it isnt then add a little more liquid white or whatever medium you used to thin the paint. You also need to load your brush with quite a bit of paint to highlight effectively...so dont be afraid to really load the bristles with your highlight colours.
Basic Tips (technique)