I use watercolors, Krita, & pixel art/animation to paint flora & fauna & fanart. Self-taught & still learning; no AI, no NFT, & no ads. New post on Tuesdays.
It absolutely breaks my heart that more people haven’t heard of cartoonist Nie Jun. His watercolor comics are beautiful. His use of greens stops me in my tracks page after page after page. He paints insects with as much love & attention as people. I spent this whole week finishing all my other work at the last minute because I wanted to paint so much of his!
He is the perfect author to continue my #WatercolorBooks series. I will be talking about watercolor comics & picture books & their illustrators from both an artists’ perspective as well as that of a preschool teacher, where applicable.
The Breathtaking Books
My Beijing: Four Stories of Everyday Wonder is the loveliest comic I have ever read. The stories focus around a child named Yu’er, her grandfather, & the people in their small neighborhood. It is marketed towards 7-10 year old readers, but I’m in my 30s & enjoyed every page. Really, it is a book for everyone- although some of the storytelling devices may be a bit confusing for children younger than 7. All of my paintings were from this book.
I ran out of time to do anything beyond reading Seekers of the Aweto. Two brothers seek (can you guess? … No, what an odd guess! ) Aweto, aka little plant spirits that can be used for medicine. The first book was amazing! Nie Jun’s love of insects has been cranked up to 11, his mythical creatures are a sight to behold, & his landscapes are dazzling! This comic series is great for anyone ages 12 & older. The second Aweto book came out this year & my library has not gotten it yet. I am very excited to read it!
This is Yu-er’s grandfather, a true insect aficionado.
The Lovely Lianhuanhua
One of Nie Jun’s earliest inspirations was Lianhuanhua – old Chinese sequential art. Lianhuanhua was the precursor to modern Manhua – modern Chinese comics. It is a very interesting form of art worth checking out, if you're interested! While I have been calling Nie Jun an illustrator for clarity’s sake, he calls himself a Manhuajia, or ‘humorous cartoonist.’ Does the word ‘manhua’ sound familiar? It eventually made its way from China to Japan, when it became the word ‘manga’ we all know & love today.
Spoiler alert: cats are awesome.
Would you like to know more about a specific picture book or comic book illustrator? Let me know on Mastodon or Ko-Fi!
Hi folks! It's your friendly neighborhood Karin here!Now is an auspicious time to review my review policy.All reviews are my own unpaid & unsolicited opinions.~KW
Isabella Kung Knows All About Cats
Isabella Kung is an author & illustrator whose watercolor art has lived rent-free in my mind since the first time I read No Snowball. In an interview with CanvasRebel, Kung said, “Children are amazing and it is an absolute honor to delight and entertain them, to teach and show them our world, to empathize and tell them they are not alone…” This is exactly how I feel about reading with children. She is the perfect author to begin my #WatercolorBooks series. I will be talking about watercolor comics & picture books & their illustrators from both an aspiring artists’ perspective as well as that of an experienced preschool teacher, where applicable.
Watercolor cats are a weakness of mine
Kung is the Author/Illustrator of No Fuzzball! & its sequel No Snowball! She captures a wide array of the emotions – & the narcissism – of cats in these two picture books. No Fuzzball features bright illustrations focused around one adorable black cat, the eponymous Fuzzball. Fuzzball is an unreliable narrator, written in such a way as to be age appropriate for preschoolers. As a super fan of dialogic reading, I love this book. Talking about whether or not a character’s words match their actions has always led to very interesting talks with my students! In the sequel, No Snowball! the family adopts a new kitten. How will Fuzzball handle it? The answer is so sweet – not to mention so amusingly cat-like! – that this has become one of my standby books for children having trouble with the idea of becoming a ‘big sibling’.
I might have gotten distracted from writing this article by painting cats.
Kung is also the illustrator of Lesléa Newman’s A B C Cats & 1 2 3 Cats, which required her to illustrate over 120 cats. These books are wonderful! The illustrations are gorgeous. There is a rhythm to Newman’s rhyming that makes it extra fun to read, which is good because this seems like the type of book kids are going to want to hear over & over & over again.
Kung is a prolific illustrator whose work has won many awards & honorable mentions. This is one of my favorite of Kung’s illustrations, & here is a video of her painting it. Also deserving of mention is that her book titles both have punctuation, putting them in exalted ranks along with classics like Thud! & Guards! Guards!
What an adorable ball of demonic rage!
Would you like to know more about Isabella Kung? Is there a picture book or comic book illustrator you want me to talk about? Let me know on Mastodon or Ko-Fi!
I have quite a few hobbies I engage in regularly. I do both traditional & digital art. I also cook, bake, sew, embroider, read, write, garden, watch movies, play video games, listen to music… That’s a dozen hobbies. This presents a bit of a challenge.
Why Can’t I Have 0 Hobbies & 12 Space?
It can be hard to find the space in your schedule & in your actual physical space for your hobbies. My apartment is tiny, I am not the only person who lives here, & my time is a finite resource. I have had to develop strategies to help fit all my hobbies into my life, since restoring a vintage TARDIS is not one of my hobbies.
Strategy 1: The Buddy System
It’s a classic for a reason. Happily, lots of hobbies pair up well. I can paint while I bake, write while my paint dries, & listen to books or music while doing just about anything. Which of your hobbies can be buddied up? Which ones need to stand alone?
I baked a cake while painting this nightingale.
Strategy 2: Figure Out If It Needs Scheduling, Then Do It- Or Don’t
Sewing a simple garment or household item takes my entire work table, plus my ironing board set up nearby, as well as several days’ worth of my free time. Obviously I need to schedule that in advance. Things like gardening & cooking need to happen regularly. Listening to audiobooks or painting can happen at any time. Which of your hobbies need scheduling, & which can you jump into right away?
A moment of appreciation for my local libraries' audiobook selection.
Strategy 3: Know When to Rest
Mind your spoons. Sometimes you need to take a break & abandon all but your lowest-energy hobbies. Sometimes you need to enjoy the oldest hobby of all – taking a nap!
Or sitting & enjoying your tiny garden.
Variety Is A Blessing & A Curse
Having too many hobbies can be overwhelming. How many is too many? That largely depends on what hobbies you have, how much time you want to dedicate to them, how much time you have to spend… Some might say having a dozen hobbies is too many, but it suits me just fine. Of course, sometimes they distract from one another. Say, for example, you were supposed to write an article on watercolor illustrators & then, to pluck a for-instance out of the air, you got distracted reading the books they illustrated instead. And what if you followed this up by re-reading as much of Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur as you could get your hands on? Well then, dear reader, if you had a dozen different hobbies then you too could pivot to an article about one of those other hobbies, or even an article about how to balance many different hobbies at once…
HEY WAIT A MINUTE!
See you next week for an article about watercolor illustrations! Maybe. I just got the notification from my library that my hold copy of Yukon Ho! has arrived…
Is there a picture book or comic book illustrator you want me to talk about? Let me know on Mastodon or Ko-Fi!
AuGHOST is a ghost-themed art challenge for the month of August. There is a different art prompt for each day. AuGHOST is billed as a “all-skills, all-inclusive, no-pressure art-event” & that’s exactly what it was! Draw one ghost, draw all the ghosts, make it a scribble or a fine oil painting- anything goes. If you’ve been haunting this blog long, you know how much I love art challenges. It probably won’t surprise you to find out I did all 31 Days of #AuGHOST!
Let Me Introduce You To My Boo
Here are 31 pictures & 2 animations featuring the best little ghostie in town: Milly!
This video does not feature descriptive audio. A thread where each picture & animation in the video is posted with alt text can be found here
Last Time I Did All 31 Days of an Art Challenge…
…I made many grave mistakes. In an effort to push myself to expand my skills, I put so many restrictions in place that I got in my own way. I learned an important lesson that changed my approach to these challenges. This month was much more fun than MerMay because of that difference in approach.
What I Did Differently This Time
I focused on challenges, not rules. Instead of saying I couldn’t use certain media or colors, I challenged myself to incorporate something new. This led to my using cardboard from cereal boxes & embroidery thread scraps. It resurrected my love of upcycled materials, which I had not worked with much since I stopped making collages a lifetime ago. I also challenged myself to create a new character like I did for #HippySheepFest, only more in-depth since I would have 31 days instead of 4. I think we can all agree this worked, as in my totally logical & objective opinion Milly is the greatest ghostie who ever was.
Eat your heart out, Casper!
How Changing Things Changed Things
All these changes were for the better. I think it probably helps that I like painting ghosts more than people. It helped me see that I’ve grown, not just in terms of artistic ability but also mindset. I’m still getting used to gouache & am a bit inconsistent with transparency levels, but most of the time I would sit down to paint a prompt with an idea in my head & end up with pretty much what I imagined on the paper. More importantly, to my mind, is the change in mindset. I am always very critical of my work. (If I waited to share only the paintings I loved, I would share maybe one a month.) I am still very critical, but in a better way. Now instead of oh, that’s terrible I’m more likely to think oh, that’s the wrong color or the wrong proportion or something else that’s much more constructive. All in all, these changes have definitely made a positive impact!
It’s The Magnificent Milly Announcement We’ve Been Waiting For!
I have spent the month of AuGHOST being absolutely amazed to see that other people love Milly as much as I do! I am finally doing it- opening a TeeSpring store! This is your chance to have your favorite Milly on mugs, notebooks, & even stickers, in case you want to put Milly on something that isn’t a mug or a notebook!
This week’s blog is written by KWL’s very first guest blogger! This is my favorite pizza #recipe, from my favorite pizza chef. Introducing the sweet pepper to my red onion, the mutant turtle to my samurai rabbit, self-certified Pizza Expert: Wolfe3D!
Certified Pizza Expert
Wolfe3D, developer of free PICO-8 awesomeness & frequent contributor to PICO-View!
Pronouns: He/him
Profession: Visual Effects Artist/Teacher
Hobbies: Music, cooking, retro gaming
Where to find me:Reddit, Discord, BBS, or Mastodon.
I’m working on a free Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fan game called Shredder’s Prevenge for Pico-8, which should work on your phone or computer. It’s a great way to learn coding and have fun! I hope to make games based on original ideas some day, but for now this is a way to build experience and learn the tools and systems I need to make those games. It’s a side-scrolling beat-em-up like most TMNT games, but with a few unique touches including an interactive arcade and a vs. mode.
One of the things I love the most about PICO-8 is the community. Whether it be in the subreddit, the Discords, or on Mastodon, everyone involved in the PICO-8 scene tends to be friendly, welcoming to newcomers, and generous with their knowledge and skills. Thanks to all of you for helping me to learn, and to teach.
To Pizza!
This recipe makes 4 pizzas’ worth of dough. If you get this dough going on a Sunday night you won't have to worry about dinner until next Friday! You can bake it on a cookie sheet, we used a 12 inch round pizza pan.
Ingredients:
* 4 cups AP flour
* 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
* 4 tablespoons of sugar
* 1 teaspoon of salt
* ⅓ teaspoons of baking soda
* 1 cup of warm water
* 2-3 cups of room temperature or cold water
* Olive oil
* Semolina flour
* Low moisture mozzarella OR sharp cheddar & Monterey jack cheese
* Pizza toppings
Step 1: Add yeast to warm water and allow 4-5 minutes to activate.
Step 2: Set aside 1 cup of flour. It will be used in step 5.
Step 3: Combine the other dry ingredients, and a drizzle of olive oil in a large bowl.
Step 4: Add warm, yeasty water to the bowl and combine. Add cold water until flour is absorbed and a sticky dough forms.
Step 5: Add 4th cup of flour to bowl and mix until flour is absorbed and dough can be touched without sticking to your hands.
Step 6: Form dough into a ball, cover with cloth and allow to rise.
Step 7: After the dough has risen (approximately 1 hour), cut into 4 separate pieces and place each into a greased bowl
Step 8: Cover any dough you want to store with plastic wrap and put into the refrigerator at least overnight. Allow at least 3-4 hours of rising time if you want to eat it today.
Step 9: Preheat oven to 475°F (246°c)
Step 10: Grease the baking pan and liberally sprinkle semolina flour.
Step 11: Stretch dough carefully into a disc and place on a baking sheet.
Step 12: Add sauces, cheeses, toppings, etc.
Step 13: Focus topping placement towards the center of the pizza; toppings will drift towards the crust as it bakes. We like chicken or veggie sausage with mushroom, onions, or peppers.
Step 14: Bake at 475 for 10 to 15 minutes or until the cheese is melted and beginning to brown.
Step 15: Add spices and extras such as parmesan cheese, red pepper flakes, oregano, or garlic salt.
Step 16: Slice, serve, and enjoy!
Hope you like the pizza, folks. Stay radical!
-Wolfe3D
We’ll be back to our regularly scheduled art blog next week. If you want more awesome food ideas, click #recipe, included there are several non-pizza foods you can make with pizza dough. If you make any of these recipes, share pics with me!
See you next week.
If you want to paint en plein air (fancy art term for outside) you will need to consider the weather as well as a number of other factors. Let’s begin at the beginning.
A Super Beginner’s Guide to Painting Skillfully Outside
Painting outside is more different from painting inside than you may realize. What you bring to paint, what you bring for yourself, where you go, how you sit… Everything has to be thought out in advance. Start with figuring out what you want to bring with you & then do a test run at home. I tried out my potential art kit while sitting on my tiny porch. This helped me realize I had completely forgotten a waterproof pen & water for me to drink.
The following lists are just suggestions – I don’t carry everything on them, & sometimes I pack extra things. I don’t have a car, so generally if it won’t fit in a backpack, it doesn’t go in my kit. Luckily enough there are several parks with chairs & tables nearby, so I can skip carrying in my own furniture!
Kit For Painting
Paper
Waterproof pen(s)
Brushes: sizes 2,6, & one from 99¢ store.
Jar with a tight-fit top for water
Cloth to wipe your brushes on – a tshirt rag or old athletic wristband is reusable
Paper towel – there’s nothing like it for dabbing at watercolors – tuck it in your wristband or under your paint while you’re working so it’s less likely to blow away
Easel or Clipboard or Table (or plan on working with a sketchbook in your lap, like I do)
Small DIY travel palette. This has black & white gouache & will someday have 3 primary watercolors in it, but I need to buy more tube paint for that.
Paints, of course! I used a watercolor paintbox for the test. I will bring watercolor markers when I’m not working right on my porch, as they take up less space & use less water. I got lazy here & grabbed the paint that was already out.
Things to Think About
If you get impatient, like me, bring enough paper so you can work on multiple paintings at once. That way you can switch between them, leaving ample time for each painting to dry before you continue. I generally have 4 rectangles of paper taped into my sketchbook, so I can keep it open & just rotate to a new painting.
If you are pressed for time, consider painting at home & save the excursion for another day. Remember, if you try to pack up wet paintings they will be ruined by the time you get home! I walked home carrying an open sketchbook once because I ran out of time. It wasn’t the end of the world, but it was quite annoying.
Another option to consider is using a “wet panel carrier”. It is a small briefcase-like box that (can you guess?) carries wet paintings. You can probably buy one, but you could also DIY one. You could even kick back, relax for a couple weeks until I make one, & then read my future blog post about it! (I’ll add a link here when I write it)
Kit For Humaning
Seating of some kind (even if you work standing up, you’ll probably want to sit at some point!)
Water
If you like to listen to something while you work, wear your most stable headphones! This is not the time for ill-fitting earbuds you are constantly adjusting.
Snacks
Sunscreen
Bug spray
Lightweight jacket
Umbrella or wide-brimmed hat
Backpack (or a reusable shopping bag, whatever you’ve got) to carry it all
Camera – the one on your phone will do just fine!
Obviously this is not an exhaustive list. It's going to change not only person-to-person, but day-to-day. Water is the most important thing here. Your paints will dry faster outside & so will you! Make sure you bring plenty of water to drink, even if it isn’t hot.
One More Thing To Think About
Be prepared to carry everything you need in & back out again. This is a literal ‘take only pictures, leave only footprints’ scenario. Many articles that I have read advise using ‘found water’ & ‘found objects’, but only do this if the location you picked specifically allows it! Also be aware of what might be in that ‘found water’. How might various pollutants affect your paints & brushes? This is always a concern, but especially after massive flooding or near construction sites.
What’s Next?
OK, we’ve got our painting kit together with our water & sun protection. Now what? How do we actually paint outside? We’ll cover that in a future article. When? I don’t know. Southern California is getting hit by a tropical storm, we’re about to go into another heat wave, & we literally had an earthquake as I edited this paragraph. This #EnPleinAir series will continue in a few weeks.
Next Tuesday’s Karin Wanderer Learns will be my 30th article! It’s going to be about Pizza & the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. (My 20th article had my favorite vegan cake recipe.) I never intended to make KWL into a baking blog every 10 weeks, but I’m happy it’s turning out this way. See you then!
It’s probably not very surprising that “water” is an essential part of “watercolors”, especially if you’ve read my last 3 articles! In this case the high amount of water in the air is affecting everything, so the problems & the solutions are all slightly different than what we’ve seen before.
The best humidity to work in for most paints, not just watercolors, is in the 40-60% range. Painting in high humidity – at or above 70% – is going to affect every aspect of your watercolor experience. This is true even before you start mixing paints.
Before You Paint
Museums tend to keep the humidity between 50-60% in order to protect the paintings hanging there. This is too dry for mold or mildew to grow, without being so dry that the paper or paint are damaged. If you can work inside near a dehumidifier, make sure it is running well before you start painting.
If you have been storing paint supplies in areas over 70% humidity, or near cold surfaces where condensation builds up (e.g. windows, water pipes, etc.), check all your supplies for mold & mildew before you start painting. Once watercolor supplies have gone moldy, they cannot be used. They will spread the mold to every pan, brush, & painting they touch. Any mold can mess with pigments. Some molds are dangerous to your health. There is no way to dry out your supplies enough to kill every single spore, so each time you add water to start painting you will just be re-invigorating the mold. I’m so sorry. If you see/smell mold, it’s over.
If your paper is not moldy, but has been stored in a humid area, test the paper’s sizing before you start. “Sizing” in this case means the treatment the paper has received so that it absorbs the paint properly without dulling the colors.
Properly-sized fire
Have you ever tried painting on printer paper & the colors end up washed-out or uneven? The paper wasn’t sized, & too much pigment ended up inside the paper instead of on top of it.
Poorly-sized fire
Sizing can be made of gelatin, starch, or a number of other ingredients that all degrade over time, especially in humid environments. Paper that has lost its sizing can still be used for drier media, or you can resize the paper using a product called Watercolor Ground. I have no personal experience with this product, but I want to try it. Watercolor Ground will let you watercolor on not only paper, but also metal, glass, plastic, fabric… just about anything!
While You Paint
There are myriad tips & tricks to weather the humidity a little better while painting. Please be aware, painting in extreme humidity can be dangerous. Sweat does not cool you as efficiently in humid heat & humid cold can sap your body heat very quickly. The following tips are more appropriate for painting in a poorly-insulated studio or out on your porch than on a mountaintop. Please read guides on proper clothing & safety equipment before painting en plein air (fancy art term for outside) in humid weather.
Do not paint in the most humid parts of the day, if you can avoid it. Mid-morning to early evening will be more comfortable for you & your watercolors, as it is comparatively drier. Want to know the best time to start in your area? Touch grass. Once the dew has dried, you’re usually OK to start painting.
Work on multiple pieces at once, if you can. Everything dries more slowly when it’s humid. If you switch between pieces, it’s easier to wait until each layer of each painting is really truly dry. Don’t muddy your colors or blur a piece just because you’re impatient!
Give your paintings lots of support. If you’ve painted even a single watercolor painting I probably don’t need to tell you how water can make paper buckle & ripple. That can be much worse in humid weather, & the paint is more likely to peel. Make sure you tape, tack, stretch, or otherwise secure your paper to avoid this trouble! The adhesive in tape can fail if it gets too wet, consider using binder clips.
I don’t think I can emphasize enough how long everything is going to take to dry. It will take forever. Maybe even twice that. If your paper looks dry but feels cool to the touch, it is still damp. Give it more drying time!
Turn on a fan. You may not want it pointed directly at your paper, but keeping the air moving will make everything better for you & your painting.
Switch to a different medium entirely! I recently switched from 300 lb (640 gsm) watercolor paper to cardboard from a cereal box, as well as using ink along with my paint, as the humidity fell so low the “water” part of my colors was evaporating before I could work.
‘Art differently’ may not be my favorite tactic, but it is a tactic. Thinner paper, less water, or switching entirely to pencil, charcoal, or markers, will all work better at higher humidity than watercolors will.
Happily, there are other solutions. For example, there are a number of DIY solutions you can add to your water to make the paint dry faster. Read I Started This Heatwave & revel in my meticulous #WatercolorScience. Those experiments were focused on keeping the paper wetter for longer, so several solutions which were considered failures in that experiment could be immensely successful in this one!
After You Paint
Be patient! This goes for your painting as well as you paint pans & palette. Everything needs a long time to dry, preferably undisturbed. Give it all as much time as you can! Some paint companies recommend sticking your paint pans in the freezer if it is too humid for them to dry properly- check with your specific paint manufacturer. Do not freeze paint tubes! Read When Winter Comes Howling In to find out why. Many people will let their paint pans dry as completely as possible before storing them & the paper with those little silica gel desiccant packs to be extra safe from moisture build-up.
We Didn’t Listen!
Something went wrong, & now your paintings are moldy. Don’t cry- that will just make it more humid. You may be able to fix this! Here is a link to the Museum of Modern Art’s guide to fixing molded paintings
Turn A Bug Into A Feature
There are countless wet on wet watercolor techniques, & you will have time to play with all of them on a humid day! There are also many desiccants, such as salt or sand, that will soak up moisture. The world is your oyster- dehydrate that sucker!
I live in an area experiencing a drought, so I can’t test any of these solutions. This is your chance!
Test the various solutions in this article & any tricks you may have of your own, then send me your results & pictures! That way I can write a #WatercolorScience article for humid weather. You can contact me on Ko-Fi or Mastodon. Please include the name/user name you would like me to use so I can give you proper credit! I can’t wait to hear from you!
This is an ongoing series of #WatercolorScience articles about how different types of weather affect your painting, even if you work inside.
I’ve spent the last few weeks writing a series of articles on how to paint in extreme heat & low humidity. These two conditions lead to your paint & paper drying fast. They have been making my life very difficult recently! However, I don’t want to neglect my peers from other hemispheres, my beans from other scenes, my legions from other regions… Don’t want to season shame anyone.
So if you want to learn how temperatures over 90°F (32°c) can affect your watercolor painting, various techniques that can help you watercolor in hot & dry weather, as well as a number of solutions you can buy to help you in this endeavor, read Part 1. If you would like to read all about my #WatercolorScience experiments with DIY solutions for hot & dry weather, read Part 2. If “hot & dry” are not your current problems, read on!
How Does Cold Weather Affect Paint?
Watercolors, as the name implies, rely heavily on water. If you have to paint at or below 32°F (0°c) your paints can literally freeze. Tube paints are more susceptible than pan paints, as they have a much higher water percentage. Previously-frozen paints can end up with a grainy texture & are more likely to develop mold. Paint tubes subjected to freezing temperatures are more likely to rupture as the paint expands & contracts.
Paints Are Like Human Beings
There are myriad tips & tricks to weather the cold a little better while painting. Please be aware, painting in extreme cold is much more dangerous than painting in extreme heat. Sitting still for the long periods of time required to paint helps you stay cool on hot days, but that is exactly what you want to avoid in the cold- even above freezing temperatures! The following tips are more appropriate for painting in an unheated studio or out on your porch than on a mountaintop. Please read guides on proper clothing & safety equipment before painting en plein air (fancy art term for outside) in cold weather.
Do not paint in the cold, if you can avoid it. Working in the middle of the day or early evening when it is comparatively warmer will be more comfortable for you & your watercolors.
Work smaller, if you can. Cold paper dries more slowly. If you can finish fast enough, neither you nor your paints will have time to freeze up.
Give your paintings lots of support. The water can freeze as it dries on the page, which can crack if your paper is bowed or bent. The adhesive in tape can fail at low temperatures, so consider using binder clips or a watercolor pad instead.
Recognize the effect freezing will have on your painting, even if it doesn't crack. When you bring it inside it will thaw & need to re-dry, which can make your picture muddy & blurry. This is probably not the time for an extremely detailed masterpiece.
Switch to a different medium entirely! I recently had to switch from watercolors to ink mid-painting as the temperatures climbed so high the “water” part of my colors was evaporating before I could work.
‘Art differently’ may not be my favorite tactic, but it is a tactic. Pencil, charcoal, alcohol-based markers, & oil paints will all work better at lower temperatures than watercolors will.
Happily, there are other solutions. For example:
The Cause Of – And Solution To – All Of Life’s Problems
Alcohol is the famous answer here. Traditionally, painters have added anything from gin to vodka to their water to keep it from freezing. This absolutely works for watercolor paint! Painters have also traditionally added it to themselves “to keep from freezing”, but this is a myth. Drinking alcohol makes you feel warmer, but makes you cold faster. So far as paint is concerned, mix the alcohol in with the water used to dampen your paint pans, brushes, & paper, as well as the water you wash brushes in. ⅓ to ½ alcohol seems to be what most people prefer. This will damage brushes, don’t use your nice new ones for your boozy painting.
PSA: Do Not Use Rubbing Alcohol!
I tried this once, to see if it worked like DIY alcohol inks. It does not! The watercolors gets all gross- on the palette, the page, & in the pan. I ended up washing a fair amount of paint down the drain trying to make sure it was all rinsed out of my paint pans!
DIY Solutions
Putting your palette on an electric heating pad or radiator set to “low” is almost certainly a fire risk, but it is a suggestion I have seen several times. Your metal & ceramic palettes could easily get too hot & your plastic palettes could melt! I wouldn’t even mention it, except it keeps being suggested online & I wanted to emphasize how easily that can backfire.
Warm water. Seriously, try it. Hot water will damage your brushes, but warm water will take longer to ice up.
Turn A Bug Into A Feature
Work with the freezing temperatures to make new, cool art! Many different artists have experimented with intentionally letting their paintings freeze. I tried to do this in my small freezer, it resulted in a muddy mess! People who work outside have gotten very nice results, though.
I hate the cold. I am very dedicated to never being cold again, & I live in an area that doesn’t get very cold even in winter. In other words, I can’t test any of these solutions. This is your chance to shine!
Test the various solutions in this article & any tricks you may have of your own, then send me your results & pictures! That way I can write a #WatercolorScience article for cold weather. You can contact me on Ko-Fi or Mastodon. Please include the name/user name you would like me to use so I can give you proper credit! I can’t wait to hear from you!
This is an ongoing series of #WatercolorScience articles about how different types of weather affect your painting, even if you work inside.
In Part 1 of this earthshaking, dream making, groundbreaking blog duology I explained how temperatures over 90°F (32°c) can affect your watercolor painting. I explored various techniques that can help you watercolor in extreme heat, as well as a number of solutions you can buy to help you in this endeavor. Sadly, all the proposed solutions were outside my budget so I could only discuss options instead of testing them. Happily, this week we are talking about DIY options using common household items! Roll up your sleeves & strap on your safety goggles, Part 2 is all about #WatercolorScience!
You Can DIY A Solution
The internet contains a literally infinite amount of DIY art solutions. Some are sensible, some are ridiculous, & some, like a cat flap, are so ridiculously obvious it takes a real genius to point them out. With a small amount of time for testing I chose to limit my experimentation to 5 DIY solutions in 2 groups.
The Solution is in the Water
These solutions were added to the water I used to coat the paper before painting. I tested adding dish soap, ice, vinegar, & witch hazel. Some are meant to make the paint spread out faster, some are meant to make the paper dry more slowly, & some are meant to do both. The solutions make the paint spread faster by destroying the surface tension of the water. If you follow me on Mastodon, you’ve already seen my post explaining surface tension. If not, here we go!
Liquids like water (or, in the example below, oat milk) have a high surface tension; the molecules hold tightly together. That’s why water can ‘mound up’ over the top of a cup before spilling, & why some insects can walk right across the water’s surface. When you add a solution that lowers surface tension, like dish soap, the water molecules stop holding tightly to each other & instead spread themselves out as much as possible, as seen below!
This is the first video I ever made for this blog. It is truly an historic moment in both scientific & cinematic achievement!
Experiment Time!
I brushed on the solution, then painted a green flower shape using the wet-on-wet technique to see how the paint flow & drying rates were affected over time. Vinegar & witch hazel behaved so similarly I only photographed vinegar’s results. Here are my super science results:
The ‘A’ card is my control- just plain water. On a day over 90°F (32°c), with no fan, it was bone-dry in 7 minutes.
Dish Soap
The ‘B’ card was soapy water. As you can see, the paint disperses faster, just like the food coloring in the video above. However, it also dries a lot faster. It hardly blurs from the 3 minute mark on, whereas plain water was blurry past the 5 minute mark. Considering how many claims I saw online about soap slowing drying time, I was surprised!
Ice Cubes
The ‘C’ card is for icy water. Cold water evaporates more slowly. It seems so obvious when I say it out loud! I felt genuinely foolish that this had to be pointed out to me- but it works.
Vinegar or Witch Hazel
The ‘D’ card is for vinegar, which behaved exactly like witch hazel in that neither worked as intended. The paint dried noticeably faster, even though at this point the temperature had fallen & the humidity had risen slightly! I declare these both to be complete failures.
Winner: Ice water. Who knew?!
The Solution is in the Paint
This was suggested for watercolor paint that comes in a tube instead of pans, so I could only test it with gouache. I mixed the smallest drop of honey I could squeeze out of the bottle with about 4–5 times the amount of paint using an old supermarket rewards card as a palette knife. It mixed up much more easily than expected! That was the last part that went more easily than expected…
Mixing honey with pigments to make paint is old- we have literally found this mixture in cave paintings from Neolithic times. It was also used in Ancient Egyptian paintings & illuminated manuscripts. People still use it to make their paints today! It makes your colors brighter & shinier. If you use a light-color honey it barely affects your colors! I have seen honey that is practically clear that would be perfect for this. I was using black paint for this experiment, so I didn’t worry about the color of honey.
This worked much too well. As you can see from my test papers, there is an enormous difference in drying time between the lines.
Line ‘B’ was plain gouache. Whether used fresh out of the tube or left to dry on a palette & rehydrated, it dries on the page inside of 3 minutes. Honeyed gouache just… doesn’t dry at all. 30 hours after the initial experiment, the gouache on the test paper was still tacky – like it usually feels about 2 minutes after painting. The gouache on my palette was still wet! It was shiny & sticky, like fresh tar on a hot street. I have watched videos of people making paint with honey so I know that works, but adding it to already-mixed paint was not the easy solution I was promised by internet randos.
[Friendly Neighborhood Karin here. 60 hours after mixing honey & paint, all the honeyed paint was still wet. 90 hours after mixing, it was still a bit sticky but dry enough that a sealant spray might have worked. I have no sealant spray & so just threw all the honeyed paintings away.]
Winner: Nobody. Well, maybe the ants who find these honeyed paintings in the trash.
Xtreme Climate Conclusions
I’m so pleased that ice water is the clear winner here. What an easy, inexpensive solution. I’ve started dropping one ice cube into each of my 2 water glasses when I start painting on a hot day. Adding a lot of ice (as I did for the ‘C’ card) means that sometimes a bit of ice can stick to your brush & you end up carrying it to the paper, which messes with your water levels. One cube is plenty. Put the rest of your ice into your drinking water- you need to stay hydrated too!
This multi-part extreme weather blog has been a blast! Thank you to everyone who sent me suggestions. I am spending this week doing a series of free watercolor workshops (made possible in this weather by ice water!) See you next week!
This is an ongoing series of #WatercolorScience articles about how different types of weather affect your painting, even if you work inside.
Both react poorly to heat. Dehydration becomes a larger & larger concern as the temperature climbs. Where I live, the temperature rising is generally combined with the humidity falling, which leads to even faster dehydration. As extreme heat waves become more & more common, we are going to have to adapt how we do a lot of things, from growing our food to building our homes. Those are issues I will leave to architects & agricultural experts, however. I will be talking about a different subject: how to watercolor in extreme heat. There’s a lot to talk about because, as you will see-
Paints Are Like Human Beings
There are myriad tips & tricks to weather the heat a little better while painting.
Do not paint in high heat, if you can avoid it. Working early in the day or late at night when it is comparatively less hot & more humid will be more comfortable for you & your watercolors.
Be aware of how much heat your light source is contributing. Painting in direct sunlight (even if you are inside) or under a hot lamp will dry everything out quickly! When it gets over 90°F (32°c) I use my somewhat dim ceiling light to paint as much as possible. I turn my bright/hot lamp on only for mixing color & painting details. The difference it makes is remarkable!
Work smaller, if you can. When it gets over 100°F (38°c), if I absolutely must paint, I won’t paint anything larger than 2 x 3 inches. If the paper is small enough, you can paint fast enough to beat the accelerated drying time!
Add water to the back of the paper, then tape it to your work surface. The paper will stay damp longer if both sides are wet! I have seen this as a tip to avoid the paper rippling, but it also helps keep everything hydrated on hot days.
Add water to everything! Mix your paints a little thinner than usual, wet your paper a little more than usual… You know the poem; “water water everywhere, so let’s all have a drink.” Get yourself a spray bottle with a very fine mist, & you can mist your paper, your paints, even yourself!
Switch to a different medium entirely! I recently had to switch from watercolors to ink mid-painting as the temperatures climbed so high the “water” part of my colors was evaporating before I could work.
While ‘art differently’ is certainlyatactic, it may not be thebesttactic.
Happily, there are many other solutions. In fact-
You Can Buy A Solution
Several, even. There are a variety of products you can add to either your water or your paint to extend drying time. These products can also make the watercolors more glossy, more transparent, more textured, or more pearlescent, so test before using! I have not tried any of these products & therefore cannot make any recommendations.
Gum Arabic is the hardened sap of Acacia trees. It is a common ingredient in many watercolors already. It will make your paint dry more slowly, giving you more time to work, while also making the paint appear more glossy & transparent. You can mix it into the water or the paint.
Ox Gall Liquid is not vegan. It is a fluid harvested from bovine (usually cattle) gall bladders & mixed with alcohol. Some watercolors use ox gall as an additive ingredient. If having a vegan art kit is something you value, check the ingredients for each individual color- especially shades of black.
Synthetic Ox Gall Liquid is vegan. Both versions of ox gall reduce surface tension, increasing how much & how quickly the paint flows. They both extend drying time. You can mix both into the water or the paint. You only need a few drops! Too much can dull your colors.
Watercolor Medium is a confusing name. All the products in this section are referred to as watercolor mediums. Watercolor Medium, however, is a specific product. It increases the paints’ gloss & saturation, like gum arabic, as well as the speed & extent of the paints’ flow, like ox gall.
Tune In Next Week For The Epic Scientific Conclusion!
I thought this could be done in one week but it is getting long. I’ve been experimenting with adding various solutions to my water & paint to beat the heat. Next week I’ll share the #WatercolorScience I’ve been engaged in!
This isn’t a mess, it’s science!
Making this a 2-part series means you had an opportunity to share your watercolor wisdom! Thank you to everyone who sent your tips & tricks to me via Ko-Fi & Mastodon! I absolutely loved trying as many as I could that week!
This is an ongoing series of #WatercolorScience articles about how different types of weather affect your painting, even if you work inside.
This is Yu-er’s grandfather, a true insect aficionado.
Spoiler alert: cats are awesome.
Watercolor cats are a weakness of mine
I might have gotten distracted from writing this article by painting cats.
What an adorable ball of demonic rage!
I baked a cake while painting this nightingale.
A moment of appreciation for my local libraries' audiobook selection.
Or sitting & enjoying your tiny garden.
Such ghastly humor!
Eat your heart out, Casper!
Certified Pizza Expert
Properly-sized fire
Poorly-sized fire
This isn’t a mess, it’s science!