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Watercolor Pigment problems? Help!
14 years ago
When they come for me... I'll be gone
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Hey- do any of you use Dr. PH Martin's watercolor pigments for your watercolor exploits?
I had a really pretty picture I wanted to do for an important friend-of-mine's birthday, sort of a memorial piece, and what ended up happening was I had to mix some pigments to get the right color for the subject (sort of a russet color- a reddish brown), and no matter what I did the pigment bled out to be GREEN!
This meant that any hard line edge I'd make would bleed out a centimeter or so of lime fucking green. It was visible in the body, too, in that if you paint a portion and then move on to the next portion the first portion had already bled out green.
I have never had a problem with this paper in the past (canson watercolor paper, Aquarelle, I think, cold press) and have not used the pigments sufficiently enough to REALLY see a major problem, but basically you take the concentrated ink and drop it into water in varying quantities to get the water opacity you need.
The solid colors didn't seem to do this (though they did bleed heavily, I think my paper was too wet still at that point), it was only the shade that I had mixed for the body colors.
Any tips or suggestions? I've had the best luck (believe it or not) using crayola 1st grade pan watercolors, and I'd still do that, except that the brown they have is just brown and mixing it with the other pan colors won't get the shade I need.
The shade I need is a russety color, and I had to mix saddle brown, daffodil yellow, amber yellow and sepia to get it. (it was like a chemistry lab- like 8 different test pools!)
I'm sad the picture is ruined. I tried to replicate it on acrylic board to try my hand at acrylic, but I wasn't aware of the fact that apparently micron pen + acrylic board=bad idea? the pen smudged all over the place and ruined it. It seems like this picture is doomed from the start!
Help :(
I had a really pretty picture I wanted to do for an important friend-of-mine's birthday, sort of a memorial piece, and what ended up happening was I had to mix some pigments to get the right color for the subject (sort of a russet color- a reddish brown), and no matter what I did the pigment bled out to be GREEN!
This meant that any hard line edge I'd make would bleed out a centimeter or so of lime fucking green. It was visible in the body, too, in that if you paint a portion and then move on to the next portion the first portion had already bled out green.
I have never had a problem with this paper in the past (canson watercolor paper, Aquarelle, I think, cold press) and have not used the pigments sufficiently enough to REALLY see a major problem, but basically you take the concentrated ink and drop it into water in varying quantities to get the water opacity you need.
The solid colors didn't seem to do this (though they did bleed heavily, I think my paper was too wet still at that point), it was only the shade that I had mixed for the body colors.
Any tips or suggestions? I've had the best luck (believe it or not) using crayola 1st grade pan watercolors, and I'd still do that, except that the brown they have is just brown and mixing it with the other pan colors won't get the shade I need.
The shade I need is a russety color, and I had to mix saddle brown, daffodil yellow, amber yellow and sepia to get it. (it was like a chemistry lab- like 8 different test pools!)
I'm sad the picture is ruined. I tried to replicate it on acrylic board to try my hand at acrylic, but I wasn't aware of the fact that apparently micron pen + acrylic board=bad idea? the pen smudged all over the place and ruined it. It seems like this picture is doomed from the start!
Help :(
So I guess I can't really offer a solution, but I really enjoy these paints so if you decide to switch brands, I recommend them!
Anyways, I'm sorry to hear your pictures got messed up ): that is always disappointing.
The liquid pigments are nice because you can use them as watercolors, you can use them as dip-pen ink, and also you can use the pigment for airbrushing (the latter two I don't do, personally), which really extends their life/use.