Watercolor Paint
Winsor & Newton Cotman 45 Half Pan Set Review: Months at the Folding Table
A retired art teacher's long-term notes on the 45 half pan studio set, from how the paint rewets to where the small pans start to show.
A retired art teacher on why the same 45 half pan box goes on the table every Thursday night, and what it does on the paper that a craft store set does not.
A retired art teacher's long-term notes on the 45 half pan studio set, from how the paint rewets to where the small pans start to show.
A retired art teacher compares the set she uses every morning with the budget half pan set she bought for her class bin.
After 31 years teaching art and three years painting with the same 45 half pan set every morning, here is where student grade paint stops being a compromise and starts being the smarter buy.
A retired art teacher on why the same 45 half pan box goes on the table every Thursday night, and what it does on the paper that a craft store set does not.
Green is the color that goes wrong most quietly. A retired art teacher's five step method for mixing garden greens that stay clear instead of turning to olive sludge.
Three years, one case, several hundred Thursday classes. What this set does beautifully on the paper, where it goes flat, and who should spend their money somewhere else.
Eight years, one block a month, and a folding table under a north window. What the paper actually does when a wash is soaking wet, and where it still lets me down.
A retired art teacher compares the Arches cold press block with a spiral watercolor pad, with attention to what happens when a wash gets truly wet.
Marjorie Pell, a retired art teacher in Frederick, Maryland, on what a good cold press block actually does to a wash, a bloom, a lifted cloud and a hard edge.
Marjorie Pell painted on student pads for years and blamed her brushes for every curled edge. Here is the one change that ended the buckling, and what it actually does to a wash.
Lifting color and keeping a sheet flat turn out to be the same skill. Five steps I walk my Thursday class through, plus the paper I use so the flat part is settled before I mix a single color.
Eight years, roughly one block a month, and a plain answer about who should spend the money and who should not.
Eight goat hair rounds, eighteen months of morning sessions, and an honest look at which sizes hold their point and which go soft first.
A retired art teacher compares the goat hair rounds she uses every morning with the Nicpro sets her students bring to class.
A retired art teacher on why a handful of round brushes, not a drawer of shapes, carries a watercolor from the first wash to the last stem.
A retired art teacher on the set of eight rounds that ended up in her everyday cup, and what it does on the paper.
A retired art teacher on loading the belly, reading the sheen, and why the streaky sky is almost never the brush's fault.
Eighteen months, five mornings a week, and six beginners who press too hard. What the TRANSON goat hair rounds actually do to a wash, and the three things the listing never says.
A retired art teacher puts an 18-well plastic palette through a year of morning sessions, a Thursday beginner class, and one cat, and answers the only question that matters: does the lid actually keep tube paint workable?
One keeps your paint soft for a week. One gives you a flat metal panel to mix on. A retired art teacher picks apart the trade.
A retired art teacher on what 18 wells, two mixing areas and a lid that actually clasps shut do for the paint you already squeezed out.
A retired art teacher on the small problem she solved after a cat walked through a wet painting, and what a year of mornings with a lidded palette actually changed on the paper.
A retired art teacher's plain-spoken routine for keeping squeezed paint soft between sessions, without misting it into mud or letting it crack into chips.
A retired art teacher who has painted out of the same eighteen-well tray every morning for a year on what the lid really does, what stains it forever, and who should walk past it.
Four years of park benches, waiting rooms and one flooded treeline later, here is what a medium water brush actually does to a wash.
Four years with one, an afternoon with the other, and the four things that decide whether a water brush helps you or fights you.
A retired art teacher's plain list of what one brush with water in the handle actually does for a kit you carry.
Marjorie Pell, a retired art teacher, on the water brush that lives in her zip pouch and what it actually does on the paper.
A retired art teacher on what a water brush actually does on the paper: the squeeze, the wipe, the forty-five second window, and the ninety second cleanup.
Four years of a water brush living in a car door pocket. What it does well, what it cannot do, and the two things I wish someone had told me in year one.
A retired art teacher's long-term notes on the 45 half pan studio set, from how the paint rewets to where the small pans start to show.
Three years, one case, several hundred Thursday classes. What this set does beautifully on the paper, where it goes flat, and who should spend their money somewhere else.
Eight years, one block a month, and a folding table under a north window. What the paper actually does when a wash is soaking wet, and where it still lets me down.
Eight years, roughly one block a month, and a plain answer about who should spend the money and who should not.
Eight goat hair rounds, eighteen months of morning sessions, and an honest look at which sizes hold their point and which go soft first.
Eighteen months, five mornings a week, and six beginners who press too hard. What the TRANSON goat hair rounds actually do to a wash, and the three things the listing never says.
A retired art teacher puts an 18-well plastic palette through a year of morning sessions, a Thursday beginner class, and one cat, and answers the only question that matters: does the lid actually keep tube paint workable?
A retired art teacher who has painted out of the same eighteen-well tray every morning for a year on what the lid really does, what stains it forever, and who should walk past it.
Four years of park benches, waiting rooms and one flooded treeline later, here is what a medium water brush actually does to a wash.
Four years of a water brush living in a car door pocket. What it does well, what it cannot do, and the two things I wish someone had told me in year one.