14-Day Beginner Series - Wet Mediums

Hi, I'm Mackenzie Swenson and today in the 14 day beginner series, we are gonna be looking at wet mediums, so what we typically refer to as painting. So the different wet mediums that we kind of cover on this site and that most people who work as painters use would fall under five main categories. So the first one is watercolor. So we've got some material and information that dig a little deeper into that, but basically the pigment there is all water soluble, and so it uses the transparency of water to have the pigment lay almost like stained glass over paper and then you use kind of a layering process to achieve the look that you want. Then we've got ink wash, which is very similar. So ink is also usually water soluble and a lot of times, people use it in a similar way as they use watercolor. You can actually kind of mix ink wash and watercolor, but it tends to be more monochromatic, and so, whereas watercolor oftentimes is very kind of bright and colorful and almost pastel-y at different times, ink washes tend to be a lot more kind of somber and moody and have that kind of an effect. So another medium that is really popular, and I think, it seems like it's getting more popular, but it's gouache, which is also a water soluble medium, but rather than being transparent and using kind of the underlying paper to show through, gouache is opaque. So with gouache, what you wanna do is, you're layering that in a more additive way. You do have to be a little bit careful, because the water can actually reactivate it, even after the gouache has been dried. So with any of these, there's a little bit of a risk in that they are a little bit more susceptible to damage if they're exposed to water, but they're all really fun, pretty easy cleanup and quick dry time with all of them. So one of the things I actually like to do is combine gouache and watercolor, and it's a little bit of a cheat. So I use toned paper, my toned watercolor paper, because I don't really like the super chromatic bright things that happen when you use watercolor on white paper. So it automatically mutes it, makes it a little darker, and then because I don't have those pure whites from white paper, I actually use white gouache in combination with my watercolors to be able to get a full range of values. So then another wet medium that you can use is acrylic paint, and acrylic paint is technically plastic, so it's, I've actually never, I've never really worked with acrylic paints. I mostly work in oils, and so we've got some really fantastic instructors on the site that you can go to if you're interested in working with acrylics. I'm not gonna be heading up those segments, but it's something that I really appreciate, and I've also wanted to look into. One of the things I love about acrylics when I see them is what people can achieve with the body and texture and the different additive mediums in the paint. That's something I've actually really wanted to get into. And then another cool thing is, when working with oil paints, because acrylic is water soluble, you can actually use acrylic gesso and acrylic layers underneath oil paints, as long as you're not putting it on top of the oil paints. You can play around with different ways of doing that. In fact, one of the ways that I use, or one of the sort of techniques that I use to prep panels for oil paintings is to use something called acrylic gel gloss, and then I do add a little bit of an acrylic paint into it, and then I use a palette knife to apply that. I don't know if I brought my palette knife. Aw shoot, well I'll toss a little image of a palette knife up for you guys to look at. But I'll use a palette knife to then apply, and you can see that it's kind of thin in different places, but this is just a basic Masonite board. Then with the, lightly sanded, and then I use that acrylic gel gloss with some, I think this is raw sienna and burnt sienna mixed in to create this tone. And so it's a fun texture to then paint on top of. So then that brings us to oil paint, and oil paint is my favorite medium, so I'm, well it's what I have the most experience in, so I'm just gonna share a little bit with you guys about the basic tools that I use when oil painting. The first and, I don't know, we don't have to start with this, but it's one of my favorites, is a palette. So I've had this palette since I was 15, so probably for about 15 years, and it has gradually become very well worn and kind of grayed out, which is a great surface for putting my paints on, because it creates a very mid-tone, neutral background for me to judge colors against. So the other thing that's nice about this is, it's a little hard to see. Maybe try from over here. But there's an extra little piece of wood on this inner part here, which allows me, when I hold it, for it to be very very well balanced. So the quantity of wood that's here is very similar to the quantity of wood over here. So instead of it being weighted and me constantly having to tip it toward me, it just does its job and I can hold it very easily. And then I have a little, pretty gross, dirty palette cup, but this is where I keep either mineral spirits to clean my brush as I go and thin out the paint, or my medium. So that is one of the essential ingredients for doing oil painting. There's lots of different palettes, but I'm just kind of showing you guys my array of go-to tools. So then we've got my brushes. This is a little kind of sampling of the brushes that I use. I love this little case, ah, 'cause I can fold it up like this and then it's got this little thingy here. I don't usually do this from the front like this so it's a little awkward. But then you can do that, and then it creates a little stand. And then, even if I'm on location, you can just kind of set this to the side. I love this particular series with the rosemary brushes. They're ivory pointed rounds, which are a hogs hair brush. I use these a lot for drawing with paint in my paintings, setting up good proportion and things like that. They're rough, so they actually end up scrubbing the paint around, so I can really move paint around on the canvas. I love the Eclipse Filberts, which are synthetic. They're kind of in between a hogs hair and a sable, I couldn't remember that for a second. And so this is really nice for when I'm applying a full body of paint in that kind of middle layer, and so I really like these guys. And then I always keep, this is kind of debated, people have strong feelings about this, but I do like using a fan brush. I don't like to use it to overly blend things, but it's really helpful for just knocking down brushstrokes that are catching a lot of glare, 'cause I hate when my paintings get really glary. So I use it a lot, just to knock down texture that's catching the light. So that's kinda it for brushes, in terms of what my favorites are. And then we'll look a little bit at some paints. So I have this little container that I've had for years now and I label it Artist Vegetable Oil Based Colors, so that when I fly, it doesn't get confiscated by the airport security people. So so far so good. I've never had any paint things taken away from me, and I know some friends and artists who have, so use that if you want to. But then I'll just kind of show you the brands. I actually have a little board at home, a cork board with pins that I hang up my paints on, so that's why I have all these little clips on the ends, because I'm a nerd and I like to be organized like that. And so I'm not gonna go over all my colors, but the brands that I really like are just, I have a lot of different brands, but my favorites are a brand called Michael Harding. Just really really high quality pigments. Love the specific textures. And then I also like, there's a brand called Sennelier. So I like some of their colors. They have a Naples yellow specifically that I really like. This cobalt blue is beautiful. And then I have a couple of, these are a little bit more expensive, but I have a couple more mid-range professional artist grade oil paints. You gotta be careful for that. Don't get the student grade ones 'cause they just have a bunch of fillers in them and they're not worth it. And so Gamblin is really, a lot of people like Gamblin because they've done a lot of work to make all of their paints the same consistency. So a lot of other companies, the different pigments actually have different molecule pigment sizes, and so some are more gritty, some are really smooth and refined, and if you don't like that variety in the texture of the different colors and different pigments, Gamblin is great for consistency and also making sure that the colors don't go fugitive or fade with time. So they're a great company. They've done a lot of research in just the longevity of paint. So those are kind of my thoughts on specific oil paints, oil paint brands. And then, just a little bit about, one trick that is amazing. There's this thing that a cabinet painter taught me once, which is, there's this stuff you can get at the hardware store called tack cloth, T-A-C-K cloth. It's a dollar. But if you struggle with having dust, this is disgusting because I've used it a lot, but if you get annoyed with dust on your paintings and it's hard to clean it off effectively, swipe across it with this tack cloth. It doesn't leave residue. It is phenomenal. It's like a lint roller for your paintings, but not as harsh as a lint roller. And then just a little bit on surfaces. So we talked about this guy here. I'm gonna just show you, this is one where I used one layer of acrylic gesso and then I also put some of the acrylic gel gloss over the top of that, very lightly toned. This one, I actually used a lead based primer, a few layers of that. You have to be careful with lead, but it just creates a really beautiful buttery surface. And then this is great for studies, so it's just toned watercolor paper with something called PBA sides on it, which seals the paper and allows it to hold oil paint on top. So if you're just playing around with different studies and things, it's a great way to play with the oil paint without wasting a bunch of expensive canvas. And then the last thing I'll show you is my preferred canvas, which is a double primed Belgian linen, portrait grade. So it's, the company I use is called Claessens, and this is their number 13 canvas. So I use this for almost every stretched canvas painting I do, and it's a pretty fine weave, so if you like more grit and texture in your paintings, they have a number 15 that's better for that. But this, at least right now, is my preferred linen canvas. So that kinda wraps up our discussion today on wet mediums, and I hope you found this helpful and get excited to explore different mediums that you might wanna incorporate into your art practice.