What Medium Should I Start With?

What Medium Should I Start With?
By: Luke Galutia
originally posted 2013-06-05
Galutia Gallery ( www.galutia.com )

Choosing a medium
Chances are if you have found this blog, you are a starting artist and have either googled this question, or found my post on Facebook, Twitter, or Google+. When beginning to learn a new skill, you often do not know where to start. Especially in the art world there are many choices out there, and it is often hard to tell what to get, what you’ll need, and how much it will cost. I have been painting now for close to 25 years. In that time I have learned to master 4 mediums of art, those being acrylic, oil, watercolor, and acid etching on glass and mirrors. In this blog I want to go over some of the strong points and learning curves of the three main staples of painting mediums ~ acrylic, oil, and watercolor.

Each medium has its strong points and also its learning curves. Oil paint has very rich textures and colors and is great for using “Impasto” technique on canvas or masonite panel. Its downside is that it can take FOREVER for it to dry and is not that friendly to having a child around, due to the toxicity of some of the compounds in the paint, and long drying times. Not to mention its flammable. Also in order to clean the brushes you will need turpentine or something similar, and need to find a way that is eco friendly to dispose of used turpentine when it is no longer useful for cleaning brushes. Acrylic has the quick drying time and a “similar” texture to oil paint, and is a less expensive medium to work in than oil. The learning curve is not quite as great with acrylic as it is with oil paint. plus acrylic has great glossy coat products that makes you painting look like stained glass which rocks! I love that stuff. Watercolor is the next choice, and is often overlooked by starting artist as being “kids paint”. Watercolor is cheap to buy supplies for. Watercolor paper you can get a fairly decent size of paper in a spiral bound stack for around $20, which is museum quality and acid free. Brushes will be the most expensive item you will buy for watercolor painting. The downside - it's also the most expensive to frame, and its lightfastness is a little less than oil or acrylic. Usually once you have been painting for a while you begin to find a preferred medium. For me, it depends on what mood i’m in.

The Alchemy of Watercolor
Watercolor is a very overlooked medium and here is why. Most beginning artist view watercolor as a “kids paint” like crayola. On the other end people who have started off with oil or acrylic are use to the heavy body paints, and have a steep learning curve when learning to paint in watercolors. You will often hear the statement that watercolor a is very hard medium to control because it is watery. I myself, did not start painting with watercolor until I went to art class at Selah high school in Selah Washington in 1994. I was fortunate to have a teacher who was a master watercolor artist. What Mrs. Tharp taught me in watercolor painting help me to apply to techniques in the other mediums I work in today. It is for this reason, that today when every I teach someone who is starting to paint, I will start them off with watercolor. If you master watercolor technique, you can paint in any other medium.

Before painting in watercolor I had no idea you could do such cool things with the medium which literally is like magical alchemy. There are techniques you can do with salt or alcohol to the wet paint that gives amazing effects on the paper and uses it to move the paint around the paper. This will sound funny to most people, but the use of crayons also has some practical uses as well.

The first thing I will tell a starting artist, is to learn the different brush techniques. Keep in mind, that when painting in watercolor, you are effectively “staining” the paper, rather than getting a thick paste of paint and spreading on top of the paper. This is what throws off most artists, when coming from acrylic or oil. The main techniques for brush work are:

1) Wet on wet = Using extremely diluted paint in water, and applying it to a soaking wet piece of watercolor paper. This gives the benefit of having the paint diffuse into the surrounding water and gives a swish like effect as the paint follows the water flows across the paper. Very cool effect. It is best to use cold water for this kind of effect. Its realy good for background layers in a painting.

2) Wet on dry = Using extremely diluted watercolor paint and applying it to a dry surface on watercolor paper. This gives the effect of having a hard line or a lip around the area of the brush stroke. This gives well defined edges while inside the brush stroke, it still gives a watery swish effect.

3) Dry on wet = Using this technique gives a very strong amount of paint at the center where the brush touches the wet paper, and fans out in a swish effect as the concentrated paint diffuses into the surrounding water. This gives really rich colors in the center of the brush stroke, and is good for foreground objects in the painting.

4) Dry on dry = Useful for foreground and detail painting. It is applied by either having a slightly diluted to very thick paste of watercolor paint on the brush and applying it directly to the dry paper.

When you use watercolor paint, you are staining the paper. because of this, you always work in layers while you paint. It is always a good idea to take a light quality pencil and draw faint lines on the paper. The first layers of paint will be very very faint as you will want to build up the painting from the background first, then the middle ground, and finally the foreground. After applying each layer allow the paper to fully dry. One cool feature with watercolor, is that rings will develop in the paint as it dries, creating lips of where the paint stained, and then dried, giving the brush strokes a watery effect. This is painting with Alchemy. you are letting the elements of nature move the paint for you, thus the elemental forces of nature become your brush.

Creating white spaces
One area which is a learning curve for watercolor is how to create a true white color. For some effects like drawing faint white lines you can use a white watercolor paint ~ but it doesn’t show up very well. If you want to keep an area white, a good technique is to use a transparent or white crayon after sketching your outline on the paper. You can also use specialized White Mask Liquid Frisket medium to cover the area as well, and then scrape off the medium once you are done ~ however this risks ruining the “nape” or teeth of the surface of the paper, which gives the surface its stain retention abilities.

Preparing the paper
One thing about watercolor paper is that it is mostly cotton, which means that it has a long lasting life. However this also makes it prone to shrinking and warping in moisture from the atmosphere, and most importantly ~ when you paint. In order to avoid this, you will need to stretch your watercolor paper. You will need to get a balsa wood board from your art supply store. You can also use plywood ~ which is not quite so good, but is a cheap alternative. You will also need thumbtacks or a stapler. First either in a large tub or sink, run hot water until you have depth enough to put in the entire paper. Place it in the water and let it sit for five to 10 minutes to get good and soggy.

once the paper has sat long enough, carefully take out the paper, by only touching the outer edge of the paper, or using rubber gloves. The oil on your finger tips leaves marks on the paper the keeps the medium from spreading around evenly. this care should also be used with all your brushes as well.

Place the wet paper on the balsa board, and staple the outer edges about 4 to 6 inches apart. It is best to allow the paper to fully dry, so you can apply your base sketch to the dry paper. It is a good idea to have a clear working space for painting in watercolor like a table or a workhorse type bench to lay the paintings on, as you really can’t put a wet watercolor painting on an easel like you can with oil and acrylic. This way you will not have to paint on the floor which can make your back hurt after long periods of painting and waiting for it to dry while walking around your painting space.

A good rule of thumb to remember while watercolor painting, is hot water is good for fast drying and quick staining of the paint on the surface of the paper. Cold water is good for slower staining which you will want for special techniques. I mostly use cold water when i paint, and hot water when i stretch a paper. Some people try to speed up the dry time of a painting by using a blow dryer. I would not recommend this as it can burn or brown the paint pigments and gum arabic binding medium by scorching them. This is a good reason to have two or more balsa wood boards available, in order to keep actively painting while waiting for the first one to dry.

This has been a brief introduction to choosing a medium, most preferably watercolor. When you master watercolor painting, you can master any other medium available. Good luck, now go and create great art!

- Luke Galutia 2013-06-05
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Luke Galutia has been in the fine arts since 1989, and has won awards for
his art. His artwork has been recognized as being cutting-edge Optical
Illusion Art, and is hosted as part of a permanent collection in the
Washington State Governor's Art Collection in the Olympia Capitol
Building.

Email: lgalutia@gmail.com
Website portfolio: www.galutia.com
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