The Journey: I held my heart in my hands, then painted it on paper!

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You haven't heard from me much this month. I've spent the month cleaning, organizing and catching up in the doll room. I've also been taking multiple classes on painting in acrylics. 

Acrylics was my bane in college...expensive, working on 3 x 4' foot canvases on students' pennies. Every squeeze of a tube of paint, meant something I had to go without. Our teachers were hardly hands on...pretty much letting us pants-fly with little or no direction, but often with deep scarring criticism, disguised as teaching.

I had started with watercolors a few years back after my last knee failure and eventual replacement. I painted during Covid...explored online classes, experimented  for fun and with no limitations or criticism. I thank you all for the encouragement. 

Acrylic Classes online are great! I was truly encouraged with the color mixing and limited palettes used. The emphasis on value or darks and lights.  I really wanted to paint without black, but concentrate on the wide values of colors dark to light...really a reverse way of thinking from watercolor where you work light to

 dark.

A series of photos altered to show the palette and values in the shades of color.

Changing the photo to black and white, shows the gray scales...Where the darkest shades of a color should be.

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My version...I did this twice, once on canvas and another on gessoed watercolor paper.

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 Here you can see the stay wet palette, which keeps your paints fresh and usable...pretty much no waste this way.

Another scene from a class with Jed Dorsey, photo was drastically altered to increase the contrasts and values of color.

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 selections 4 colors plus white.

This is the comp screen photo altered.    

   

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I really worked this scene quickly and with a bit of abandon...using large brushes on gessoed watercolor paper---loved this working large and inexpensively. 

12x18 watercolor paper gessoed.

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Well, I thought this isn't going to be so bad...learning lots, feeling confident, not wasting, experimenting with colors, values, compositions. Having FUN!

Burying myself in the idea of working/painting.

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Another class for radiant color mixing....

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Cadmium red medium, Magenta, Pthalo Green and Ultramarine blue, Lemon yellow and Cadmium yellow medium. I didn't plan on using them all, and really didn't. But mixing on the palette is a great way to see what you can do.

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Another Altered photo for another class....I increased the values and deepened the colors... I wanted to work on an intense sun source.

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My version: a bit too much fiddling and going to smaller brushes, colors overly intense, I may revisit this study again and take it down a few notches.

photo altered from DIana Shyne's.

The final class an altered photo of Arizona by Diana Shyne....I heightened the colors and deepened the darks...thought this would be a fun and loose experience.

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Watercolor pencils sketch on gessoed watercolor paper. So many planes of light and darks in this subject. I thought I would get a handle on this...also using 12x18 version of a square photo...so added I more mountains, and stretched out the foreground.

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Here's a closeup of the sketch. Feeling confident I got this.

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Another mixing study....Hmmm, not going to get that blue like the screen...but.

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Really planning on using these brushes only.

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After an hour or more...this is where this painting is at. Darks all blocked out, I'll have to come back in for another day.

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Palette when done, I circled the colors I had used...Magenta, Ultramarine blue, Lemon Yellow, White and Pthalo green. The rest are still wet leftovers from the other paintings.

NOW the next day, Today! 

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I have no photo I worked from, basically painted as the instructor was painting, Michelle Gibbs. Lovely English lady---great in speaking with color...I just puttered on...

relaxed, intent, and mindless, maybe that was the issue, mindless. I didn't even have music on.

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New Color Study, a new Pthalo Blue, Quinacridone Magenta, Cadmium Yellow Med and white. I used a lid cover as a palette, since these were NEW colors and I wanted to see what the difference might be with no chance of mixing with other colors.

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Definitely working looser...patterns of light and darks...did not glance at the reference photo (I didn't even have it on screen, was following the blocking of the instructor and then took off on my own.) 

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There are some bits of this painting I really love...even this 'floating' island of trees ...LOL.

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Okay, I quit and decided to clean both palettes and spread the paint on a blank page for collage or a future abstract project. Waste not, want not. Sometimes I hate being a child of Great Depression survivors.

I used a palette knife to scoop up the unused blobs of paint, then a brush to spread it a bit with water..working very quickly. I quickly filled a 12x18 page of watercolor paper with large triangular blocks of colors. I had watered down the blue/teals with white and yellow...the last to go on was some skipping reds applied with a palette knife.

Cadmium red med, basic red, and magenta mixed together and I scraped and spread them, scratching here and there and the mixture landed on top of everything else. 

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I had taped the corners to the table top. I opened the black with thoughts of trees in the woods with a shadows in the snow, maybe a red sun throwing some rose light. Yea, that's what it was.

Black is so heavy and dark and I hadn't used it at all the whole month of classes.  I worked with a huge scruffy brush, and soon my fingers were in the paint, then a palette knife scraped, cut, sliced. I pulled out more red, and added a huge blob of white to counteract that black.  The white smeared then grayed, stirring into the blacks.

I was out of breath, my heart raced, sick to my stomach....I stared at the tabletop.

Scientists and Neurologists say we act 95% of the time out of our subconscious self. Basically whatever your old or immediate experiences are, your habits, and/or your routines; they are the historical guides into your unconscious thought processes and how you deal with your life.

I stuck the brushes and knife into a glass of water  and walked away.

I had painted "Blood in the Snow"...

S Magle

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No, my world isn't just full of insipid landscapes and happy colors.

But, after a whole month of hiding in them, it really hadn't helped.

Apparently this was my subconscious telling me to deal with reality.

Today, January 29, 2026, my journey...

I held my heart in my hands,

then scraped it on paper!

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Sandi 

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Playing with Resists and Different Medias

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You must think all I do is paint, well, maybe 4 times a week for an hour or so...so not that much. It takes me longer to make these posts. Well, the budget just doesn't allow for too many new products, so I decided to test what I have in the house and in my paint stashes as resist products. Some items are over 20 years old...so bear with me and my results.

Charting your own products can be the only way to give a crafter/artist information on what a product actual does with the media/products they use.

On the left side I have my different types of media which are stroked from left to right across all three connected pages, it folds up neatly in my sketchbook.

Across the top are different resist or what I thought could be resist products.

Procedures after scribbling/striping each resist media down the pages. 

 I then painted by mixing the chosen media with enough water to carry the brush across one page and refilling and continuing, left to right.  I chose different colors and sometimes transparent and opaque hues of the same type of paint. Of course water weakens anything, but I needed a fluid one layer wash of as strong as possible color. 

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Looks, like a mess, but let's look at it page by page and in detail.

Page 1

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Across the top are the resist type products,

LtoR

Dawn Soap,

Yellow chalkboard chalk, 

Washable Elmers Clear Glue in twist top bottle

Modge Podge Matte. 

These were all brushed, scribbled or painted down the page in quick strokes.

After painting, the resist surfaces were wiped with a damp cloth...of course this also affects the water colors.

I've circled in pen any interesting or worthy effects.

The colored stripes from Top to bottom are the following media. 

(Gold) Cake Gouache,

(Orange) Tube Gouache, 

(Brown-almost opaque) VanDyke Brown tube watercolor, 

(Lime-Green transparent) tube Watercolor, 

(Quinacradone Crimson-Transparent) Golden tube fluid acrylic, 

(Blue opaque)-Golden tube acrylic, 

(Crimson transparent)-Golden tube acrylic, 

(Green)Artists Loft Acrylic tube paint, 

(Blue) Apple Barrel acrylic craft paint,(Lime transparent) Alcohol marker,(Green )Alcohol Ink dripped into sprayed alcohol solution, 

(Blue) Alcohol Marker, 

(Deep red )Alcohol ink dripped unto sprayed alcohol solution.

The alcohol products were not in contact with the water.

All the products were thinned so they would paint/mark all the way across the page.

BELOW on page 2, the  color stripes are all the same as above on each of the three pages.

I've circled in pen any interesting or worthy effects.

Page 2

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Resist from Left to Right going down the page.

Left to right going down, 

Black Grease Pencil-nice and strong, 

Pebeo Drawing Gum solution, 

Gum Arabic, 

Titanium Zinc white oil stick, 

Scotch Permanent Glue stick, 

White acrylic gesso,

These were all wide stroke applied without any  scribbling except for the grease pencil.  Again everything was wiped off with a damp paper toweling.

Page 3

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Left to Right to bottom, 

Lt. Blue wax Crayon,  

Washable Wax Crayon, 

Pebeo Masking Pen, wiggles and straight (peel off when dry), 

Aleenes Clear Tacky Glue,

Empty space was to be- Winsor Newton masking liquid-second bottle that has dried up on me...and it's 15+$ a bottle so no results, but I won't be buying it again. DANG!), 

Elmer's washable Glue stick in last spot.

The Pebeo products actually worked the best, leaving white paper to show, but had to be peeled off after everything was dried. All the other products worked to some degree with certain types of paints. All columns were lightly wiped with a wet paper towel to wipe away on top of the other resists. the alcohol products did what they were supposed to do without washing off.

 Alcohol inks and markers really penetrate the paper and even the Pebeo products didn't completely protect those surfaces. You can definitely get some interesting textures and mottling though, so if you use these mediums experiment with your own products and by all means, chart them.

Water colors are mostly transparent and water based Gouache are opaque were also weakened or textured with almost all of the products except for chalk and white gesso.

 Gesso is actually a painting ground and simply absorbs the colors of everything, but washing off a bit will expose the textures the gesso strokes or application may show.Interesting textures can be had with stencil or textured gesso surfaces on paper.

The Acrylic products worked pretty well over all the resists, except for again Gesso which absorbed the colors.

Inexpensive Good results for water based paints were: 

Washable Kids Elmer glue stick...great mottling for large surfaces.

Dawn dish soap worked OK, but removing from small areas would be difficult and q-tips would need to be used. Mottling effects can be achieved with this.

Elmers Washable bottle glue with twist tip...works well for lines with even opaque products, smeared gives interesting effects.

Crayons show through pretty much anything, but don't actually resist much. Worth experimenting with.

Scotch Permanent Glue stick, a little bit stronger than the washables, and it won't wash away, so permanent.

Chalk---gave interesting effects with alcohol products, not much with water based.

$$ Pricier Good results for water based paints or alcohol products.

Grease Pencil...shows through everything, won't remove with repeated layers or rubbing off with water, but dissolves with alcohol products. (this is the pencil you peel paper off of to expose the grease stick).

Modge Podge is basically a sealer/but, alcohol soluble..so great for washing off water media surfaces. A thin or thick application or stenciling/stamping would effect water based media and give great effects. Totally ineffective with alcohol products as it will dissolve into mush with them.

Aleene's Clear Tacky Glue. (This is my go to glue for lots of projects) A bit pricier than Elmers, but works well under all water based paints except for opaque craft paint. Even plays well with alcohol products. Test first before using.

$$$ Most Expensive ( of course these have the best results)

$$ Pebeo products provided excellent results....on the higher $ amount but for precise resists, it's great. (note bought and used at the same time as Newtons but doesn't seem to dry up (1 year old product)

$$ Gum Arabic is used in oil painting and as a binder for water colors...so it does give some resistance to watercolors when wiped off with a wet cloth. Mottled textures, stands to reason it may react differently with different types of water colors.

It also affects alcohol, but probably not predictable, but a way of creating unexpected textures!. 

$$$Windsor Newton resist. I do not recommend, because I have two bottles that dried up in less than 2 uses each.

I hope you find this useful, and even better encourage you to try different types of resists with the painting/crafting products you use. 

   Happy RESIST Painting!  

Thanks always for visiting, 

I will try and respond to every comment and answer every question. 

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All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own unless identified, I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions, posts or any products shown.  

 Please do not use photos without linking back to this blog without my permission.  

Thank you for your cooperation, 
Sandi 

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All About Brushes for Watercolor

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Brushes: Goodness do I have brushes, some 30+ years old, some are newish --last 10 years or so.

These are only the brushes I have designated as Art brushes...I have a whole container of 'craft' brushes that are really inexpensive/utilitarian brushes for furniture, stains, glues, modge-podge etc. I do keep them separate.

Since I started taking Mather water color classes...I haven't bought any new brushes, but have been using this and that, most of which are left overs from ceramics, acrylics or craft painting. 

So many of the questions in the classes are about  brushes. Because Mather isn't selling any products (neither am I), I thought I would analyze my brushes and figure out which are the best for MY needs. Just like testing my paints in this post: 

WATERCOLOR TESTS

I thought I would set up my brushes according to styles and test them.

TESTING:

I dipped EVERY brush into clear water, squeezed the bristles and then dipped twice into prepared water color pans, once front and back. 

For this first page of what I call water carriers...I then made a flat stroke of color left to right, lifted, then made a stroke with the edge of the brush, then several side pressed down strokes to show how the brush spreads the colors.  These were all done with just the one dipping into the colors.

The biggest concern for Water colorists, is do synthetics work as well as Natural bristles. Natural bristles in large brushes carry a lot of color and water...they have a softer (slop or slide) type of application.

My Red grouping is Oval mops, I felt I had more control with the synthetic here, but for large areas of water or color...the naturals are great but $$$

The HAKE brushes at the bottom were originally purchased for glaze applications..which they are fabulous for, the bottom one is nearly worn out---I may be purchasing a few of these because of the water carrying ability.

For the Next Pages:

For this and all the pages following, I dipped the brush in water, squeezed, then dipped twice front back in color and did the similar stroke patterns across the page. 

If I had to re-dip the brush...I indicated so. 

Some brands of brushes are named, if I could read the print on the brush. Unnamed brushes were generally purchased in bag sets in craft stores.

Flats are just that---Flat brushes with a sharp edge at the top. My plan here was to show the first stroke as a zigzag---edge/to flat edge, then a line made with the skinny top edge, then blotches made by pressing down on the narrow edge.

I labeled these LONG Flats, but they are just known as Flats, while shorts are known as Chisels, which I don't have many in good condition (I used these a lot in craft painting)

Flats actually give you quite a bit of control for straight lines as well as making C or S shapes, great for shading.

Differences between Natural, Synthetic Taklon and Synthetic generic...you get sharper edges with Synthetics,  but,  there is a kickback on the synthetic brushes. 

Kick back is when the bristles leave the paper with a spring (see above) leaving some extra edges...most visible on the second from the bottom long synthetic.

Your Natural bristles carry a bit more water and have a softer feel to them. Flats actually give you quite a bit of control for straight lines as well as making C or S shapes, great for shading. 

I used only one paint load on all these but one...the no 8 had to be re-dipped, an unnamed synthetic brush probably from a craft assortment.

FILBERTS. I personally love Filbert brushes for florals and round shapes. 

They have been carefully trimmed to be oval and shaped. $$

You can see on the S and zig zag strokes--- it's softer than the flats. Side edges are softer and the blotches are more uniform. It's interesting that the edges are lighter, as the thicker center of the brush held more color.

Down below I made flower petals with one color dipping of each brush...these are all synthetics...Filberts in Natural hairs can be very $$$$

You can see the usage marks on the handles shows how old these brushes are!

Traditional bamboo brushes (general squirrel or other furs) were something I used a lot in Ceramics because they carry so much color and water. 

Control is a matter of learning...I'm used to heavier paints and I will need to practice control with water colors with my bamboos.

These were originally used in Japanese and Chinese watercolor and inks.

The newer Synthetic bamboos were wonderful to use and lots of control and they carried color well.  I purchased these online from Temu, I believe.

Other brushes I did with the same techniques.

First Grouping ANGLE brushes...another brush that can get expensive in natural bristles. I have four different angle brushes in synthetic. Of course they don't carry as much paint as the flats, but the edge handles differently and you can get great line/edges and lines with an angle brush.

The middle grouping of small flats, because they are small, I had to refill the paint on those to make the last blotches.They all carried the paint well, but Taklons seem to carry it the best,.

The Last group are Liners also known as Scripts...very long thin bristles. I thought the synthetics had more precision and held the color well.  I've used these for long lines and grasses. 

ROUNDS...are hairs arranged in a round grouping and not necessarily trimmed at the top. Golly this is what we used as kids. The all purpose brush...honestly you can do a majority of paintings with Rounds and Sharps(next grouping)

Rounds. This is another brush that I have as basically all synthetic. Again I only had to refill the smaller brushes to complete the marks. 

Sharps can make nice crisp ends on your lines and your blotches, great for leaves and flowers. They carry water/color pretty well. 

My biggest gripe about Natural bristle brushes is stray hairs, which is horrible in watercolor because if you leave it to dry---it leaves a mark, if you dig it out-- it leaves a mark. 

A Comment on brands: The Plaid/Folk Art brushes and the Susan Schwee watercolorist brushes were the most expensive in this grouping.

I also had lots of Royal garden brushes which have a special dyed Taklon which simulates pure red sable. They offer fine points, softness and flexibility like natural hair brushes. I wore these out in craft painting as they were my favorites...

Lowe Cornells can be pricy. When you want a really small sharp brush in 1, 0 to 10/0 you end up paying quite a bit. I keep a plastic guard on these brushes. My Royal Garden brush 0 is missing in the photo, I managed to misplace it for the photos. It has the flowers on white background on the handle...these are 20-25 year old brushes and still very usable.

ODDS or Whatevers.

Good quality foam (in paint depts at hardware stores) brushes are great for large paintings. I dipped this in water, squeezed and then painted...interesting. Windsor Newton's Paynes Gay is a fun color and I always have it in my pan next to an umber. 

The second brush is what I call a stiff bristled scruffy *(used and abused) brush. 

Wetted, squeezed and then dipped into side by side colors ...you can get some fun effects with a cruddy beat up brush.

The third line is a sea wool sponge..(try and get an assortment at a paint store/hardware store,) less expensive than a craft or art store. Again emmersed in water, squeezed out, then in paint...

Lastly this is FAN brush for acrylics...but... same process and see what you get...

I really recommend students to test their own brushes with a similar technique. Also how you would like to use them for reference. When you like the 'feel' of a brush---try others in that same brand or style...$$$ doesn't necessarily mean it is the best brand or brush for

how YOU paint. 

MORE About Branding: 

Walmart: Brushes in their assortments will be excellent/good/ and bad(cheap batches of kiddy brushes)  Cost effective its a great place to start. $  By all means buy your children/grandchildren at least decent or student grade brushes and teach them how to care for themn.

Artist's Loft brushes are mid-range $$ good buys, and are considered student grade. Michaels and Amazon carry these.

Bamboo brushes can be pricey. $$$ I've purchased from Art stores, Dick Blick, online and Temu($ cheaper with plastic handles but great bristles) over the years.

Loew-Cornell brushes: Amazon, Walmart, Dick Blick higher end brushes available cheaper in sets, but singles can get pricy. The white Taklons are strong and still flexible. $$$

Susan Schwee...apparently isn't selling brushes anymore...they were great...but she has what I call LADY watercolor books, almost made from patterns. But, she has a great use of color and shading...my motto is you can learn something from anyone.

Princeton/Heritage brushes can be found at Walmart, Dick Blick, and Amazon ...I have a few I think I bought in sets over the years as I have a few of each style in different sizes $-$$

Royal/Langnickel---student grade are pretty much sold in mixed sets by everybody...good buys and come in some great sets of what you might want to start with. $-$$

and many more...

NOW: Since China and importers have eliminated the middle man---Sable and Natural bristle brushes can be purchased directly from the manufacturer, so I may purchase a Sable set in the near future...

PS. I rarely paint with more that 5-6 brushes in a session, sometimes as little as two---it totally depends on how you paint. Some of these will go back into the 'craft' paint bucket and I will keep my favorites for

watercolors. You don't need a million brushes---honest.

 My Mather classes for Seniors 

are so much fun and they are free, 

if you are over 55 and interested, 

HERE is their website.

Thanks always for visiting. 

I will try and respond to every comment and answer every question?

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All opinions and photographs in this blog are my own. I have NOT been paid or reimbursed any way for my opinions, posts, or products shown. Please do not use my photos without linking back to this blog without my permission. 

Thank you for your cooperation.

All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own, I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions, posts or any products shown. Please do not use photos without linking back to this blog without my permission. Thank you for your cooperation, Sandi Magle

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Sandi