From the article: Top 100 Painting Tips for Artists
What is the best painting tip you've ever come across? What tip do you wish you'd know when you first started painting? Help other painters on their creative journey by sharing your favorite painting tips here. Share Your Painting Tip
Make a Brush for Painting Fur
- I took a brush and cut into it with hair thinning shears. It is easier to paint fur with this brush.
- —wasshrunk
Creating Transfers on Black
- I do a lot of acrylic paintings with black backgrounds. Graphite paper for transferring images or text works great on a light surface, but isn't usually visible on black. Solution? Take your template (image or text on paper) and using a soft pencil (6B works best, but any will do) scribble the entire back of the paper (behind the image). Now lay it in place and go ahead and trace, the pencil on the back will transfer your design to the painting and will show up perfectly on black. Use this method in place of graphite paper when transferring onto a dark surface.
- —Guest Wendy
Clean Colors.
- To assure more brilliant colors, clean your brushes, water containers and palette frequently. This way old colors don't get mixed in with newer colors. This avoid mud and you get cleaner, more brilliant colors. This is especially true with watercolors.
- —Guest Anne
Tips for Soft Pastels
- Work your kneaded rubber to a point to lift up small areas or clean up edges. Keep blending to a minimum so as not to overwork your pastels.
- —Guest Verna Warwick
Kneadable Eraser
- I have a very tight budget for supplies and when I wanted an eraser that would work for pastels, $6 for a kneadable one seemed really exhorbitant so I passed. Then I was in the childrens section of the craft store and saw Silly Putty for $1. LIGHT BULB!!! It can pick up one layer or many, it lasts for ages, it comes with its own container, it can be shaped to pick up a tiny mark or a whole area. It doesnt leave any stains or grease marks, and it actually restores the tooth of the paper if an area has been overfilled with pastel. Its the BEST and cheapest, kneadable eraser EVER!
- —PeeperPeep
Canvas Protection from Stretchers
- I stretch my own canvas, I put a coat of rabbit size glue on my stretcher bars to help keep the canvas protected from the acid in the wood. I let the glue dry completely. I use copper tacks to tack the canvas to the bars. Copper doesn't rust and there is less damage to the cloth if it is needed to be re-stretched for some reason.
- —Guest Ramona F. L.
Removing a Seized Tube Cap
- Hold the cap under boiling water for a few seconds. This will make the cap expand enough to free up.
- —Guest Paul Smith
Pull Water Out of Watercolor Brush
- Take a paper towel (or clean, squeezed-out sponge) and touch the hairs of your brush right where they go into the ferrule for a couple seconds or so. This way you can draw water out of your brush, while leaving most of the color in it. This thick paint will be more controllable, will keep its shape better when painted into that wet area.
- —Billpol
Glass Chopping Board as a Palette
- I have tried several different type of palette, yet found that a toughened glass chopping board from my local super market works a treat. Both with oils and acrylic as it can be washed in the dishwasher after taking off any excess.
- —maaad
Intensifying Colour
- Blue underpainted with solid dry orange will give you a much brighter and concentrated colour.
- —lesleypenn
No Need for Stay-Wet Palettes
- I use an old,medium sized enamel baking tray (square size that fits 20 cookies to bake) and I fill it up with tap water. I use a flat- round enamel plate as a palette that fits perfectly to float on the baking tray, with minimal movements which then makes it easier for me to mix my colours. The idea is because it is enamel, the water stays cool and it even delays drying time of colours on the palette. I don't even have to spray moisture on the unused paint. Try looking up your kitchen for old and unused tools and you'll be surprised with what you can use.
- —Guest Maya
Spraying Pastel Painting with Fixative
- If you're going to spray your pastel with fixative, never spray it all once when the artwork is finished. This will darken the work significantly over time. Spray Fixative should be applied in layers as you're working on the painting.
- —Guest Helpful
Left-Over Paint for Collage
- When finished painting, turn that palette over and squash in onto a clean piece of paper. When dried, it cuts up nicely for collage.
- —Guest lisa
Storing Unused Acrylic Color
- The medicine containers also can be used for storing unused acrylic color. Only make sure you peel of the label and yes, dab the color dot on the lid to identify what color is inside.
- —Guest MeeraB
Cleaning Oil Palette
- I simply scrape off the soft oil paint gobs and rub the palette down with paper towels to leave a uniform tone. The rubbed paint is so thin that it dries overnight. The paint layers gradually build up. The low chroma hue varies from gray to brown to green, and the value is similar to that of a wood palette. If the layer gets slightly gouged during scraping, it doesn't really matter. I rarely have to use mineral spirits to remove hardened gobs.
- —Guest SFitch9459
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