h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I thought that it might be a good idea start a thread where we could perhaps share advice and tips on art...discuss methods and the like on any medium of your fancy - be it paint, pencil or photography for example.

So, I shall perhaps start this off with a question of my own -

I know that when I finish a graphite or pastel drawing I finish it with a fixative spray, if I complete an oil I fix it with varnish..but however, what to you use to finish water colours?



Here is a link to the h2g2 artists gallery, in case you haven't seen it yet, started by the talented Mudhooks:

http://public.fotki.com/Mudhooks/gallery_42/

I'd like to share a tip, if you like drawing with long pencils and get annoyed when the balance goes as the pencil gets shorter - I use one of those rubber biros, take the innards out and squeeze my pencil in there. Gives life to those annoying stubby ends! The other alternatives are mechanical of course - but sometimes you just need that grade softer and darker which comes in wood.

Hi MV, I've never heard of using any kind of fixative or varnish on watercolors. They are just usually framed under glass or plexiglass to protect them.

Good idea, a tips thread.

My tip: Liquin helps oils dry faster, and can be used to make brilliant glazes. Try adding Venetian "turpentine" medium for more shine.

JEllen

Hey JEllen,

I'd never heard of any type of fixative either for watercolours, which is why I thought I'd ask - mind you I've never come close to finishing a full watercolour before either

Good tips for oils

I have a spray can for watercolours - they call it a protective spray and it was £6 for 150ml a few years back They sold it in the shop

How effective it is I don't know as I have never tested it - perhaps I should

My

If you have never used Derwent* water colour pencils then you should. Particulary for doing tree trunks as you can add age and depth with them when using them on a wet trunk.

*other water colour pencils are available

Oh....I brought up a few watercolour fixatives on google by using *protective* watercolour fixative - it seemed to narrow the search down somewhat with just that word added..*yays* thanks Mort

Altho I do wonder if the fixative that I already have - Winsor and Newton for Charcoal, graphite, chalk and pastel wouldn't work, it contains acetone which might affect it...hmm..sorry typing aloud, I think I'll do a mini quick pic later and try it - I'll get back to you on that one!

I haven't tried water pencils in quite a few years, good tip for adding detail - brushes can get wayward and annoying at times

Tip: If you use a lot of graphite in your pictures, save the sharpenings, take the wood out and use the graphite filings for large background shading either using a tortillon* stick or paper towel, don't want finger grease on there..

AND - I use a large soft blusher brush to clean excess dust of my pictures. It's soft enough not to damage the picture or blurr too much.

* If your wondering what the hell a tortillon stick is, its a tightly wound spiral of paper (pencil shaped sharpened at either end) that is used for blending and detailed stumping - detailed stumping is making grooves in the paper.

Um, have any of you ever tried out brush tip india ink pens before? The stuff dries faster than paint and is less messy than calligraphy pen. Wondering though, why the heck do pens and markers tend to dry out/ run dry so fast? Hjow does painting using ink work? Have tried it out, and seen others do it okay, but I always wind up with a hopelessly messy blotch instead.

Oh and the really cool thing is that if you work in pen a lot, you can sort of train yourself to do cleaner line art because it forces you to have to get things right the first time or start all over.. Don't know, guess I just like working in ink. On a related note, does anybody have some advice on how to ink pencil drawings, say like when making comic strips? Whenever I try, the black pens always die on me. are you like, supposed to use some special type of pen or something?

Hi Thorn, don't know too much about working in ink, I usually work with oils. Maybe Manic Vixon will know.

Thanks. Well, one day I hope to learn how to make a web comic...
My pops used to do oil painting. Abstraction and surrealism type stuff. , but rather interesting.

You might pop over the The Post, h2g2's online paper, and get the names of some of the researchers that do comics!

very.

While you are at it, you can see my paintings if you go to my page and click on the Webshots link.

wherezat?

http://community.webshots.com/user/jellenj42

.

Hello and welcome thornthedruidguy!

Sorry been away for a while.....

As for ink, I'm afraid I haven't really worked much in ink at all, but I'm sure there are people on here that do comics..but none that I know of of hand.

I admire people who can get it right first time it takes me lots of lines and picking off graphite with blu tack before I'm happy with the resulting effect.

Please let us know what you come up with in answer to your questions tho, I'm interested <

Can we see some of yours?

~waves~ at JEllen

aqh, my kingdom, my kingdom for a scanner.