BeckerArt FLOAT-YOUR-PIGMENT Newsletter March 15th Don't Touch
Published: Tue, 03/15/22
Hello
Welcome to the FLOAT-YOUR-PIGMENT Newsletter #356
Hello from the great snowy Northshore of Lake Superior... since we didn't really get any snow that stuck in Illinois this winter I have to travel to Duluth to get some skiing and snowshoeing in. I also want to get some nice winter scenes for painting.
This coming Thursday I will be heading to Winona, MN to the Mississippi Mornings Art Studio to do my evening Paint-a-long in front of a live crowd. If you are in the area at that time, please stop in. The 3 day workshop which will happen that Friday, Saturday and Sunday still has a couple of openings if you want to take a live watercolor workshop from me. See below for info.
Yes to Class with Sue MacFarlan at the Civic Center in Libertyville March 17th 1pm to 3:30pm
NO Class at The Studio in McHenry, March 19th 9am to 11:30am
Email me at Beckerart@gmail.com for any info you may need about my classes or workshops.
Don't Touch your Brush
Last week I was talking at the paint-a-long a little bit about my brushes and I have had my brushes for a good 10 years and they still work great. I could use a new set so I could again have a really pointy brush.
I have warn down my brushes because of how much I use them but I also try to take good care of them.
The one pet peeve I have that I feel shortens the life of the brush is when I see students trying to sharpen the point of their brush with their finger tips. Some wet the brush in their mouth and then take their thumb and pointer finger and rub the bristles to a point. This seems like it is a great way to sharpen the point on your brush, but since you fingers usually have oils on them, rubbing your oily fingers onto the bristle is not something you really want to do
since oil and water don't mix. Putting the brush in your mouth is also something you really don't want to do as you could have some residue pigment in that brush that could make you very sick.
Take good care of your watercolor brushes by just rinsing them off in clean water and that's it... super simple and it's not hurting your brush of making you sick.
I also have heard that if you dip your nylon brush into boiling water you can get the point back onto the brush, that's if it isn't warn down because of extreme use.
Sometimes it is just that simple to keep your brushes working great for a long time.... Keep them out of your mouth and don't touch the bristles with our fingertips!
Paint-a-long Details: the paint-a-long this week will be done on Stonehenge Aqua 300lb Cold Press using Holbein Watercolors. Looking to paint this Tugboat and tone down the background a bit.
If you want to show your paint-a-long work to my Facebook BeckerArt Group
