Watercolors

In my rush to resume my painting I remember little lesson from art classes way back when, that less is better and keep it simple in term of design and subject matter.

Well I have failed big time!

When I looked at my paints and brushes which I thought I stored properly they where no longer of use, especially my favorite sable # 12 brush. The paint tubes were all hard and dried up. I thought I would get lucky by the way I stored them, what do you expect after some 30 some odd years. I was hoping for some luck which I didn't get.

So where do I start, well most of the art stores I use to use, (the local art stores) are all gone, they are now replaced by big chain stores which barely function as a art store.

The choices on the internet are like a mega virtual catalouges , they have their positives and there shortcomings also. To me it was also harder to find specific information of some of the newer items that have come into play and how to apply or to properly use them.

Search after search was tedious and frustrating ie "Gatorboards" (was looking for a step by step beginning to end process on how to use, never found it just had to guess at some of the steps). Sometimes the little things add up to big things that can reduce the frustration level. The frustration level rose due to lack of information in a information over saturated environment that just talked in circles.

With the access of the internet, blogs and Video access, information saturation is over whelming but doe not answer the real questions that I find important in making certain decisions. Seems to me they suppose you already know the answer to which you seek and just add more confusion to the problem.

Being out of the loop for so many years and trying to realign my needs to some of the changes was very over whelming.

Brushes, I was taught to use a round #12, round #6 and a script liner, now there are all types of brushes, sables to synthetics, rounds to flats to specialty brushes and I suckered in and bought quite a few of them only to resort back to my round #12, round #6 and the script liner.

You see they were right simple is better!

One of the biggest changes for me was the variety of papers out there or maybe I was narrowly focused on what I was trying to paint back then and never realized that there was this variety out there when I first started out.

Since it has been a while since I have painted I haven't had the experience to make a reasonable judgment on which flavor I like yet.

I founds some deals but now I know why they were deals, poor quality which made the paintings being painted harder than they were.

Maybe others have a better insight but as of now I am not impressed with some of what I have used as of now.

It seems that the day of the local art store is gone also, yes you have your chain stores but they don't give you the selection or diversity as the old brick and mortal stores use to. Plus the standard store clerk just don't have the knowledge base to answer questions.

Yes I know this all seems so trivial, but I like things that are simple and with less hassles, don't believe me just look at the different paint manufactures and all the different variations in colors, wow! I remember just being allowed to use four colors and mix to get the desired effect. I also remember that "black" as a color was a no no!. Now you find many artist that have it on their palate.

Well I have gone on to long, it helps to vent a little, maybe I am not the only one out there that gets confused with all the different items in the proverbial candy store of the internet.

If some of you have some suggestion or actual experience in the selection of brushes and all the different paper manufacturers out there give me a shout because I sure don't have the answers.

Thanks for listening ( what I really mean is reading).

Richard