My workspace
"Art is the only way to run away without leaving home."
– Twyla Tharp
A glimpse of my meagre workspace. Making the most of my small room 😊 and small table!
The Work Table
I started off this journey, the present one, from 14th of April and today is 30th of May. More than a month! I started with my older stuffs but have added on a few items newly.
The Colors
I already had camlin 12 shades watercolor tubes and 6 shades camel poster colors and another 12 shades faber castle poster colors.
Some of them dried and some still active. In the poster colour, I just added some water and they were good to go.
I also had 24 shades Camlin King watercolor pencils.
Recently bought Camel watercolor cakes 24 shades. I didn't want to spend much and I wanted a 24 shades set. So went for this. Got it under 200 along with oil pastels, 12 shades color pencils, crayons and glitter... A combo deal. Camel Painting Kit for students, of course. But like I said I didn't want to spend much on colours now.
I wouldn't recommend this. They are very light but as a roundabout wet the pan cakes with 3 to 4 drops of water and keep aside for a few minutes. The cakes will loosen up and we will get a good paste of paint to go.
That was better 😊.
As a beginner, my mantra is to make the best use of everything I have. Don't want to waste and neither spent too much now!
And also bought BRUSTRO Artists Gouache Colour Set of 24 Colours X 12ML Tubes but that's for Gouache painting!
The Brushes
Had bought quite a set of brushes during my classes.
A few Flat brushes and round brushes.
I have a few sizes of pony hair brushes. All student's quality.
And student's quality flats and rounds with synthetic hairs.
Again, I have been exploring watercolor painting just recently and came to know the importance of brushes... The points one must note when choosing a brush. And I realised artist's quality brushes are best and had been browsing online but all were either so costly or unavailable. Finally, resorted to buy a Set of 13 Artist Quality Round Brushes #0 to #24
And, I am quite happy with the purchase. I have taken out only #0, #6 and #16 number brushes!
On wetting the brushes I got a good pointed tip and all have good spring.
There are some brush pens and brush markers available that can be used instead of brushes. But I haven't explored them as of now.
The Papers
I had only normal drawing books and realised they don't do well with watercolors especially wet painting. So, doing a little research, I came to know that there are specific papers for watercolor painting as well. Best one is 100 percent cotton with at least 300 gsm weight. That too was very difficult to get. So costly. Had to compromise a little on the percentage of cotton. When you wet the paper, it expands and on drying it compresses. You need the paper to be able to absorb and hold enough water without bulking up and producing a wavy kind of texture. The paper itself becomes wavy! There are ways to stretch paper and make things work but too much time consuming activity! Don't compromise on paper if you can, would be my recommendation!
That's all I could find in A4 size. I would have liked a sketchbook and white papers. But this also works.
Planning on buying BRUSTRO Artist 100% Cotton Watercolour Pad Cold Pressed 300 GSM A4-12 Sheets
later.
The Palette
I had a small palette with 7 compartments. Better to have a bigger palette with a minimum of 12 wells, that's what I feel or we will have to keep cleaning them to use new colours.
Kind of wastage of colours if you keep removing the colours from palette and it hurts my heart. So, went ahead and browsed for a bigger one... And found something that I feel is really good.
I bought Eascan Art Color Palette with 20 colour compartments and 5 mixing compartments which can be closed (Model CP08; Size: 200mm X 95 mm, Open Size: 200mm X 200mm). That's one more thing that prompted me to go for this. It came as a pack of two.
I bought a pack of 2... Second one because I thought I will use a separate one for Gouache.
The Cleaning
Typically one glass of water is what we always used for cleaning our brushes. I used to have two glasses one for rinsing off the colour and second for clean water. But recently have started using three... One for warm colours and another for cool colours. Because when warm colours and cool colours mix we get black and the water becomes so muddy that there is a chance that could spoil our project. So, just to avoid that risk and also for the better durability of the brushes I use two separate water for different types of colours and third one to load the brush with clean water.
On my research on watercolor painting, I have found that many... Most... use 2 bottles. It's kind of a standard, I guess!
I use some old used plastic dabbas for my waters. And a couple of tissue papers for blotting of excess water or paint from the brushes... Drying the brush etc...
Then a couple of HB pencils, sharpner, erasers... Normal ones that I bet all will be having!
Well, that's my work space... My getaway... My paradise!
"The life of an artist is a continuous journey, the path long and never ending."
– Justin Beckett
Happy painting to me! 👍
🙏
30.05.2021
P.S.: I apologise if any of the links take you to a different product. Like, for example, even though I had bought it may be 2 to 3 weeks back, the link Eascan Art Color Palette will take you to a different model!
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