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I was thinking of buying some stuff to water color with? Was wondering what is best to buy? Crayons, Pencils, Copics? I am a stamping up product person but I love the look of watercoloring? Any suggestions on how to use it as well? I will be a first timer. thanks
Crayons crayons crayons! lol!
I love my watercolor crayons! They are so wonderful!! Very versatile too!
You can wet down a stamp with a little water, and color directly on it with a crayon, you can use brushes to pick up color from your crayon and paint that way...(to color in an image, etc)...second to my crayons are the watercolors you get in the trays, I like to use them to do color washes. If I had to choose just one I would go for the crayons though! HTH!!
__________________ "God designed the human machine to run on Himself. HE Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn..." C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
If you've got them, just use your SU markers. Scribble some onto a piece of plastic, or or scrap acetate, pick up the color with a paintbrush dampened with water, or an waterbrush. Just make sure you use watercolor paper for the best results. Once you get started you'll be hooked, lol. Reinkers work really well for this too.
I love the way reinkers look. You can use a waterbrush or a blender pen (or both!) with them for some fabulous looks. But you'll want to use watercolor paper to get the best results. Have fun!
I use watercolor pens (Le Plume) and also Tim Holtz Distress Inks. The Distress inks works the best in my opinion because it is very water soluble and blendable. Not sure what paper you use, but if you can use Canson watercolor paper. They are a little pricey but they take watercolor inks very nicely. HTH!
You can also try watercolours that come in a tube. Those tiny tubes last for a long, long, looooooooong time. The colours come out really vibrant. I bought a starter set of (Winsor & Newton Cotman) watercolour tubes for 40% off at Michaels a few years ago and that's what I use most of the time. I also have some watercolour pencils, but don't use those as much, just 'cause I'm not as familiar with them.
I use Caran D'Ache watercolor pencils, and they work really well. They're especially nice because they won't bleed at all. But I must admit I've been eying the watercolor crayons. I just might have to get some......
__________________
~Rebekah~ My mind works like lightning - one brilliant 'FLASH' and it's gone!
I am very much a beginner, but I love using the Koh-i-noor pencils, OMS & blending stumps (it's not really watercoloring since the pencils are wax based). The video on stamptv.com is wonderful. All of the products are available at Gina K Designs.
__________________ Carol
Have faith in God . . . . Mark 11:22
I really like the Stampin Up water color crayons. I have a the tube water colors, Twinkling H20s, pencils and reinkers but my favorite and I think the most versatile is the crayons.
I use the Stampin' Up! inks/markers with an Aquapainter (also from SU!), you can manipulate the colour as much as you like for dark/light effects. I also always stamp my images with StazOn ink (to avoid running you don't want to stamp your images with water based ink) and SU! watercolour paper or Very Vanilla if I'm not going to be working the colours too much - VV is more fragile where you can really "play" with the watercolour paper.
If you've got them, just use your SU markers. Scribble some onto a piece of plastic, or or scrap acetate, pick up the color with a paintbrush dampened with water, or an waterbrush. Just make sure you use watercolor paper for the best results. Once you get started you'll be hooked, lol. Reinkers work really well for this too.
Ditto that! That is exactly how I always used to do it.
I must agree that I do love the watercolor crayons as they are just softer and give a great look but I also love really soft types of watercolor pencils.
To the original poster - did you know that you can squeeze your SU inkpad to get a little smudge/puddle of ink on the inside of the lid? You can use that to watercolor, and I also often add 1-2 drops of reinker in that color. I like to use that instead of a "palette" because then when you close up the inkpad, the reinker ink stays wet inside the inkpad, and you can use it again, even if it's months later! If you use a palette, if you don't use that ink, it will dry up. I use both my Aquapainters and Blender Pens with this technique.
But if it's true watercolor you want, use SU's *awesome* watercolor paper, and your Aquapainter! When I'm using blender pens or a fairly dry Aquapainter, Shimmery White cardstock is a great choice. Are you familiar with the reinker spread technique used with Fifth Avenue Floral stamp set? It's AMAZING!! Patty Bennett has an awesome tutorial (and a video!) on her blog. You do emboss the flower before you start, and you need Shimmery White cardstock for best results:
I did this at a Stamp Camp and my stampers just LOVED the results - no two flowers are the same!
Oh, and I'm also a huge fan of the SU Watercolor Crayons, but not so much of the Watercolor pencils - only because the pencils don't come in enough colors, and the Watercolor Crayons come in all 48 SU colors (plus neutrals).
Hope this helps!
__________________ ~ Susan - Celebrating 19 years as an SU demo! Grammy to Anna 15, Elizabeth 14, Nora 12, Abigail 12, Kendall 10 , Isaac 10, Evan 7, and Hudson 3 with me in my avatar Proud to be SCS Fan Club Member since the beginning!
Thanks for all the replies I appreciate it. All the suggestions are helpful too. I do have the markers still don't get how to do the aqua painter with it. Any suggestions would be nice?
To use the markers for watercoloring, you can scribble on some plastic - you can even use a stamp case! Or a piece of acetate, or the inside of the lid of an SU inkpad (which would preserve the marker ink for another time). Then just pick up the color with your Aquapainter and watercolor away!
There's another method using SU markers and Aquapainters to get more of a colored-in look like Copic markers - look at this tutorial that an SU demo did a couple years ago:
__________________ ~ Susan - Celebrating 19 years as an SU demo! Grammy to Anna 15, Elizabeth 14, Nora 12, Abigail 12, Kendall 10 , Isaac 10, Evan 7, and Hudson 3 with me in my avatar Proud to be SCS Fan Club Member since the beginning!
Also, if you don't have an Aquapainter, just use a good quality watercolor brush and water - I actually like this better because you have more control over the amount of water used.
As far as the water-color crayons, go, they are fine if you like pretty light water coloring - if you want vibrant color at all, I think it's hard to achieve with the crayons.
Thank you, you people are so helpful. I was wanting the look of copics i guess. So I will check out the su demo person. I like vibrant colors as well. Any more suggestons on this to get vibrant colors?
The more concentrated your pigment is, the darker your color will be. I use a variety of things to watercolor with:
--Derwent pencils (either lifting pigment from the pencil end with a waterbrush, or coloring on watercolor paper then blending)
--reinkers mixed with Shimmerz - love that little bit of sparkle...
--LePlume markers (scribbled on a plastic surface, lifting the pigment with a waterbrush)
--Twinkling H20s or other pearlescent watercolors
..............or a combination of any of the above. I do have watercolor crayons, but I use them the least...maybe because I have a smaller set and the colors are brighter than my normal palette.
I have a watercolour palette by Yarka. The paints stay moist unlike other pans of watercolour paint. It is also very inexpensive. I can't remember how many colours - perhaps 12 or so and it cost me 8.00$ canadian.
I've attached a booklet I did for my watercolor classes - it has generic info. Nothing about Copics, but it does cover most watercolor areas/questions. HTH
what is the best to use for watercoloring?
