Newsletter August, 2003

Color of the Month

Titanium White - The workhorse of oil paints. For the majority of painters, you will use more titanium white than any other color on your palette. However, you should never use it by itself. Pure white by itself, will create a hole in your painting that will draw attention away from the painting as a whole. Think about it, if you use pure white as an object - how are you going to highlight it? What is a lighter value? Titanium is very opaque. It can be used to cover mistakes. But mostly it is used to mix into other colors to lighten the value. Buy the larger size - you will definitely need it.

Tool of the Month

Quilter's Pencil - Go shopping in the notions section of your arts and crafts store, or fabric shop. There are easy to erase, no residue pencils sold there. They come in gray, white and yellow. Use these instead of your basic No. 2 graphites and your life will be easier. They handle just like your familiar pencils without the problems. They erase cleanly. They do not smudge. The light colors show up on dark under paintings. They do not dirty paint applied over them. They are quite inexpensive. What a great addition to your supplies.

Take care of Your Brushes and they will take care of you.

You've much invested in your brushes. Not only did you probably pay a pretty penny for them, you rely on them as you main tool in creating your paintings. Although the better brushes are more expensive, with proper care they will last a long time and give you the best results.

How many brushes do you really need? Of course this varies with your style and how you paint, but a general rule of thumb is two of each. Why two? By using one for your darks and one for the lights, you can keep your colors from getting muddy during your paint session.

When painting, try this: wipe out paint with a rag instead of cleaning with solvent between colors. This keeps your bristles from getting too wet and your paint from getting too thin. Having a 'dark' brush and a 'light' brush makes this do-able.

Then after your session, wipe your brushes as clean as possible before you start using thinner. Have a piece of metal screening on the bottom of your solvent container. This will give you some extra 'scrubbing' action to remove the paint with the least amount of effort. Don't try to get all of the paint out in one try. Swish and wipe, swish and wipe until no more paint comes off. Now wash your brush with a mild soap. A gentle, inexpensive baby shampoo works well. At this point you are just getting the thinner out of the brush. Most natural brushes are basically hair, so take care of them as you would you own hair. Rinse the soap out well, then add some conditioner. Work in into the brush, rinse and use your fingers to reshape the brush. Lay it flat on a paper towel or rag and let air dry. If you dry them standing bristle up, water will set within the ferrule and can ruin a brush.

If you do have a misshapen brush, you can try reshaping it with hair gel and letting it set that way for a couple of days before rinsing it out. Sometimes this will reset the memory of the bristles and revive a favorite brush. If it is just one stray hair sticking out, you can trim it off, but be careful of giving a brush too much of a haircut, you could destroy it quickly that way.

Don't give up on a brush that has lost its shape, use these for scrubbing on paint or to achieve fun effects for grass or leaves or spots of whimsy.

Remember, if you take good care of your brushes, they will take good care of you.

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