A few posts ago I was moaning about the cost of paint, especially artists' quality paint. Well, I have come up with a cost saving plan that should keep my wallet happy. I have joined the SAA to take advantage of their great prices and every thing else they have to offer. Here is an example of what I mean.
A 5 ml tube of watercolour paint in my local art store cost me £5.60.
A 14ml tube of SAA watercolour paint costs £4.70
I'm sure you can do the sums yourself and this isn't just a offer price, it is on the full range and all the other artists' materials in their catalogue are excellent value as well. More good news, postage is free no matter how many times or what you order. My experience is that delivery is also very quick.
The only catch with being a member is that you have to pay an upfront fee of £29, but when you see the prices of their stuff the membership fee will soon be recuperated and you will forget the pain.
Being a member also has lots of other advantages, a gallery to display your paintings, a forum and every two months you get a free magazine etc. I'll put a link at the end of this post if you are interested in taking a look at their website.
Anyway, when I joined the SAA, they sent me a free book and some watercolour post cards. The purpose of the post cards are to allow new members to enter the new member competition. You don't win a big prize but if it is selected it is printed in the free magazine that members get every two months. I nice boost to the ego I thought, so I decided to have a go at a postcard painting to see how I got on.
Here is my first attempt, which was inspired by a painting by Jane Betteridge who is the author of Watercolours Unleashed.
I masked off the snowdrop flowers stalks and some parts of the leaves. When that was dry, I wet the paper and brushed paint across the paper in a vertical strokes to try and give the painting a bit of movement. When the paper was almost dry, I brushed in some of the leave and then sprinkled salt over it to give it a bit of an interesting texture.
When the whole painting was dry, I brushed off the salt and removed the masking fluid. Then I painted the stalks and put some more definition into the leaves.
I would say that it is my best effort so far and a step in the right direction, so I'm giving it a score of 12 out of 100
My review of the bad bits
The salt didn't work. In fact, I'm not sure at all about always being on the look out for happy accidents because my accidents always look like total carnage. I don't want to be a botanical artist using a brush as big as a butterfly's todger, but I think a bit more control wouldn't go amiss.
The ink splatter at the bottom right was also a big mistake.
Good bits
If you take away the scabby salt marks and silly ink splatter it isn't too bad.
I don't think it is good enough to enter the post card competition so I will have another go this week.
Here is the Link to the SAA and here is a link to Jane Betteridge website. She is a fine painter and she also uses SAA paints in her work. So if they are good enough for her they will do for me.
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