Friday, June 4, 2010

Thoughts on painting

Not too much to add here. Just a few random thoughts from recent experiences.

I've started to use Windex to thin my paints. This works surprisingly well. I use the clear, "natural", eco friendly kind. I'm not sure what the regular, blue kind would do the colors so I'm not even going to try and find out. Anyway, I find that it makes paints flow from the brush better than water. The paint literally goes where you want it to go. Nice. Only problem is that it appears as though the mixture encourages the paint to flow right up into the brush's fuller. Not so good. Gotta clean the brush extra regularly.

I finally managed to get my hands on a couple of the new GW washes. I'm liking them better than the old inks. Not as shiny and they flow better. They do seem to be a little too subtle on just one coat. It looks like washing will need to be done in layers.

I like the idea of painting outside. After being stuck inside all day at work, I really don't want to sit at the old workbench and paint while the remainder of day is busy being beautiful. There are a lot of problems with that though. I have to pack everything up for the expedition. I will forget something important. You would think the sun would be great for painting. No. It is either too bright or not bright enough, usually in turns. The combo of wind and sunlight also dries your paints crazy fast. Ah well, enjoy it anyway.

1 comment:

  1. A tip from a Railroad Model Craftsman: keep a "to-go kit" packed for those sunny days. Just enough stuff in it for some work. The idea came from a guy who had one packed up (tacklebox, I think) for road trips with modelling stuff.

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