Paint Tips & Spaceships

Hello everyone and welcome back to another blog post! I must admit, although writing these blogs does take up a fair chunk of my evenings each week, I do love the feeling of writing the post on a Thursday as it means that Friday has come around once again! This week is (yet again please forgive me) a quick and mish-mashy post. Again, I’ve been a mega busy little bee what with commissions and Thorntons and all the other things I do (I say 'all the other things' but I mostly just paint and drink tea).

So, first and foremost, I’d like to mention our competition again! The competition is ending on the 30th, so if you haven’t entered yet, today is the day! Simply share the post and comment your suggestion for the name of this little puffin on the post, which you can find here.

The winner will receive a free two-night stay for themselves and up to five guests at a beautiful holiday cottage in a fantastic location in Llandudno. For more information about the venue you can win a stay at, visit their website here!

And secondly today I thought I would have a little chat to you all about painting. If you have ever read any of my previous posts, you will know that I bang on about how amazing painting is in near enough every single post, how relaxing it is and how calming it can be if you’re stressed, and so on and so forth. Hang on, don’t panic, I’m not about to launch off on another cheerleading routine for painting, so don’t click away just yet, hear me out. I thought that today, I’d give you a few tips on just how to create a lovely painting atmosphere for yourself, so you too can see for yourselves that what I’m saying is true! I won’t get into what you’ll need for the painting itself, if you’re painting for you and for relaxation, then any paint and any paper and any paintbrush will suffice. It isn’t about the tools or supplies you use, I used very cheap supplies for a long while before I invested in proper supplies for my art work. Perhaps in another blog post I’ll get into which supplies I use but for now, any old things will do, this is about the process itself rather than the outcome. So here we go, my top five tips for having a lovely painting experience!

1. Environment!

Before you even get near a paintbrush, if you want to have a pleasant painting experience you’ll need to sort out where you’ll be painting. If you’re at home and you’re near a pile of dirty dishes, the whole time you’re sat there you’ll be looking at the dishes and berating yourself for not doing them. If you’re looking to achieve peace of mind and a little bit of ‘you’ time whilst painting, sitting next to housework or unfinished chores will not help you. You’ll need a nice area, preferably a table and chair set up, away from anything that’s going to negatively distract you. So, for me, this is my desk, which I have set up in our bedroom. I’m sat facing a wall and so I have taken the time to decorate it with art and quotes and lots of little things that help to inspire me, since I know that I spend a lot of time at my desk, and most of that time, I’ll want to be creative and content.

You’ll also need a reasonably well lit area, as you definitely don’t want to strain your eyes (my eyesight is very poor from years as a child drawing and reading in the dark) so if it’s day time, natural light is your best friend and so near a window is always my go to, or if it’s evening or night time you’ll need a lamp or light of some sort. I am torn between cosy yellow lighting at night and brighter white lights which are more like daylight, so I tend to use the torch light on my phone along with a nice warmly coloured lamp. I also like to light a candle, but this is more for cosy reasons than the light it gives. To make any environment I’m in even cosier and make it feel more familiar to me, a cup of tea always helps.

2. Music

This could also fall under environment, but I think it’s extremely important in its own right and so I’ve given it it’s own designated category! I tend to find that I’m influenced artistically by anything i’m listening to, and my mood is also very often dictated by the music I’m listening to, so I like to find a nice happy but relaxing playlist to have on whilst I’m painting. Alternatively, if you’re lucky enough (like I am) to have a partner who is very good at playing the acoustic guitar, having them practice nearby when you’re painting is also another very good way to go.

3. Two water cups.

As someone who can spend hours painting, there is nothing more frustrating than having to get up every twenty minutes to change your paint water because it’s muddying up the colours you’re trying to use. A trick I learned a few years back to help combat this is so simple and yet took me years to come across, is to have two cups of water in which to clean your brush. Simply rinse your brush out in the first one, as you usually would, and then rinse it again in the second cup. This keeps your dirty water from muddying up your palette as quickly and means you only have to change your dirty paint water half as often, in theory.

4. Masking tape or painter’s tape.

This is just something I like to do to give my work a nice clean, finished look once I’ve completed a piece, but it’s also very satisfying to peel off! Masking tape is a less adhesive version of tape often used to mark off areas that you don’t want to have any colour. For example, I mainly use masking tape to mark off where a border would be, and so when I have finished a piece, I can peel off the tape to reveal a completely white and unmarked border.

5. Hair dryer!

If you’ve ever used watercolour or gouache before, you’ll know that the reason anything takes so long to complete is because you have to let each layer dry before you carry on. Well, pals, I have learned a little cheat, if you will! I use my travel hair dryer to dry the layers super quick and then I can carry on painting without waiting at all, and it’s fab! Here’s a little speedpaint video I did one evening to get rid of some of my spare paint! I also did this on an offcut piece of paper, which is why there’s a random white line in the middle of it, even after painting. I used this white line to come up with the idea of the ship on the edge of the world, see if you can spot it showing through the paint!

And that is about all for this week folks! Thanks so much for reading and I’ll catch you next week, I hope you found my tips helpful and if you have any more paint-related questions, please comment them down below or drop me an email, I’m always happy to help a fellow painterer! Rachel x