My Favourite Brushes, Tools & Surfaces
For my Silver Lizard of Helelot I used Schmincke brand liquid masking fluid
Hi folks!
This is going to be a very in depth post about my favourite tools that I use daily for my painting. The most frequent question I seem to get is regarding what brushes I use, then it's what pigment and THEN after that, what surfaces I paint on.
Surfaces
I tried for years to stretch paper (usually 300gsm which I think is 140lb) but the way I paint, it just didn't stand up to it, always buckled and didn't like being wet and rewet all the time. I tried an illustration board after all the failures with paper and I used to prefer 'Strathmore 500 wet media' board, but I have not been able to find it for years and I'm not sure if they even still do it. They have a mixed media board now, but I've not tried it. This is what the picture on the board used to look like:
Strathmore Illustration board
The only trouble with Strathmore board is that it was expensive, but it was possible to paint on both sides, so if you totally screwed up the painting you were doing, you could turn it over and start again, so that saved throwing away a piece of board! But alas, this is not available anymore and I now use Daler Rowney's 'Langton Prestige' watercolour board which has Hot Press, NOT and Rough options.
Langton Prestige Illustration Board
Cold press is my favourite, it’s actually pretty smooth and the hot press can get a bit sensitive to my methods and ends up bleeding a little which is not something it used to do, they must have changed the method they make it I suppose.
You are not able to paint on both sides of this board (well, you could probably paint on the back with acrylic, but definitely not with watercolour!). It is expensive using board rather than paper, but I rarely chuck it out due to mistakes as I try to make all of those in the prep stages before transferring a drawing to the board.
I do sometimes use paper, but the really heavy stuff (that I don't have to stretch!), which comes in at around 600gsm. Unfortunately I often don't get through it fast enough and didn't learn until relatively recently that watercolour paper actually goes off! A frustrating thing when often it pays to buy in bulk rather than one offs. Fortunately the board seems to last quite well compared to paper. But for paper that doesn't stand up to watercolour after it's gone off, it will handle acrylic no problem.
Palette
I used to use portable palettes years ago, you know the ones, with the pigment pans on the one side and the palette on the other. The problem was the plastic palettes tended to get stained by some of the pigments, so I since moved to ceramic palettes which are brilliant!
Pigments
Glorious colour! I think if you are looking to produce artwork that stands the test of time (and light, within reason of course), then the professional pigments are worth spending on, plus, at least at the sizes I usually paint in (usually smaller than A4, most of the time) a tube of paint goes a LONG way and lasts a very long time. I prefer to use tubes of paint rather than in pans, but occasionally I'll grab some handmade paints (that I often find on Etsy) which usually come in a pan.
Brands I love to use:
Daniel Smith
I have used DS for years now but when I was new to them I bought their 'dot sheet' which was several sheets of paper with small samples of the paint on it to try it out. This is SO useful, and despite it being a cost, it does mean that you are not likely to buy a pigment you don't like. I have bought paints in the past (I'm looking at you potters pink) which I subsequently never used as it was so poor and didn't provide me with enough pigment which was frustrating. I can't even remember what brand I bought potters pink from!
DS have a series of paints named 'genuine' - like 'Amethyst genuine' or 'Serpentine Genuine' - which claim to have real ground semi precious stones in them, but I did read an article a while back which said it was VERY minimal the actual amount of gemstone in them, but I still love them!
Schmincke
These guys make some really fantastic pigments, their 'super granulation' offerings are great, as some of you might have noticed, I do love a granulating pigment to get all those textures going! Schmincke also do dot cards so you can try them out before you spend on a tube.
Holbein
These guys make fantastic dense pigmented paint, Mineral Violet being my favourite that I have from them. The amount of colour you get from these is pretty hard to beat.
Winsor & Newton
I only have a couple of tubes of W&N, but had to give them a mention as they are of course excellent, but I just tend to be drawn to the others before I go looking at these guys!
Sennelier
I used to use Sennelier soft pastels years ago when I used to do pet portraits and recently tried their watercolour too, it’s very nice! Only have one tube though so I haven’t been able to really test it fully.
Occasionally I’ll use hand made pigments I find on Etsy. This one is called Agnes.
Brushes
Without a doubt my favourite brush makers are Rosemary & Co. A good few years ago now I stopped using sable brushes and switched to synthetic and they last SOOO much longer than sable (which is good for the sable!). I am not getting anything for sharing their brushes, this is just what I love to use and want to share.
My favourite brush series they do now are the Golden watercolour brushes. Specifically 366 ‘Xtra point’ and 344 Designer. Both have very defined points but can also hold a lot of pigment and it’s possible to do quite sloppy washes with them (if the brush is big enough) while still having a tiny enough point to do details. Just right for me! They do last a decent amount of time and I just keep all my old brushes for non painting jobs (sculpture) or if I need to be unkind to a brush occasionally to get the effect I want!
Before I went synthetic I also got my other favourites from Rosemary & Co which is the ‘Smooshing’ brush. I still have the original ones I bought which are made with badger hair. They are REALLY great and show no sign of wear despite being used consistently for years now. I use them to soften edges and sometimes to apply paint when I want a really soft effect. The synthetic ones are also really good, but they have a slightly different feel and the brush head is a little longer than with the badger hair.
Liquid Masking Fluid
This is not something I’ve managed to use successfully until last year and I think part of it is thanks to Schmincke’s amazing masking fluid. I can’t recommend enough. Make sure the paper or board is absolutely bone dry before trying to remove it…
I started with the white version of this and then found myself in a bit of a pickle trying to see where I’d painted on the white paper! So I got myself the blue one too which makes it a LOT easier!
I also rather love the name it has on the bottle ‘Rubbelkrepp’, so good.
Masking Tape
It took me AGES to find tape that wouldn’t tear the surface of my board and I have now got two that I use, one of which can sometimes pull the paper, but it’s still very gentle.
Scotch tape make a purple masking tape which is ‘Delicate Surface’, which I really recommend, it’s pretty good at sticking, but not so much that I damage the paper/board.
Tesa is the other brand that is pink and it is called ‘Precision Sensitive’. It doesn’t stick quite as aggressively so water and pigment has leaked past it when I’ve used it to surround a painting.
Pencils
I’m a huge fan of mechanical pencils, and the really big ones you can find like this LYRA one here are great for avoiding getting stuck in the details and doing lovely scruffy scribbles. It’s heavy too which I really like.
