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It’s been about seven months since I began learning to paint with watercolors, and I’m accumulating quite a few paintings. What do you all do with your paintings? Of course, most of mine are learning paintings, but every once in a while I hit on a relatively decent one.
That is a quandary I’m sure many artists have to face. I used to paint with acrylic paints on canvas and board and quickly ran out of space to store them! As a teen, unless the painting sold, I basically just started painting over my old work because I had no room left to store new work. (Ugh!)
As for watercolours, they’re mostly done on paper and are thinner, thus easier to store. Those larger-sized “under the bed” plastic totes can come in handy. You can purchase them in most department or big box stores. Of course, there are artist’s bureaus and portfolios made for the purpose, but they can be expensive. If you have an unused chest of drawers, you could use that as well, though of course it depends on how large your paintings are and if they’ll fit.
That issue of where to store my finished paintings is the main reason why I do the majority of my paintings in my watercolour sketchbook. I can scan them in and make prints of them later on if I want to sell them (I rarely sell my originals unless they’re commissioned pieces – just a personal choice)
I’ve given some away, have a couple hanging on walls in the house; have turned them over and painted on the back side of some. And, have quite a few just stacked up in a corner of my “studio/office”. Finding that I enjoy painting in sketchbooks for several reasons and easier storage is one reason.
Yup! I’m in the sketchbook crowd! I had already learned that before I started watercolor so I have very few paintings that aren’t bound in a book. Usually, I only paint on sheets if I intend to bind it into a book later or if it is going to be a gift. Really saves on storage space.
I’ve mostly painted on watercolour paper, and just last year bought some w/c pads. I re-use my blah-paintings paper by first painting on the back, or trimming decent areas to put on cards. Then, I may re-purpose some by using the gelli plate to paint on them with acrylics, using those for cards or in mixed media. Recently I’ve been dipping yuck paintings in acrylic paints to create neat backgrounds. I’ve also gessoed one side of my paint fails (usually on 300 lb paper) and used them for acrylic pours.
Every few years I go through and eliminate sub-par paintings. The ones that are left (quite a few) are stored in three storage cabinets from Ikea. The six drawers are large enough to hold a half-sheet. I have three of these cabinets right now with one holding only unused paper, boards and printed reference photos. Similar to expensive flat-files, these cabinets are stackable. So, when I fill these up I can get another one.
Anthony, I’d love to see a photo of your cabinets, if you have one, and I suspect I’m not the only one!
Here’s a link to the cabinet I mentioned earlier: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40196241/?query=ALEX+Drawer+unit+on+casters
As I said, I now have three in gray. It took about an hour to assemble each one. They stack easily if you leave the casters off the top unit. I might post pictures of mine tonight if I get a chance.
Thank you for the link, Anthony. I may have to pay a visit to Ikea, though that’s something I try to avoid, lol.
I know. I’ve been to Ikea three times. Each time just to buy one of these. Looked at nothing else; bought nothing else. Go to the website and find the warehouse location in your local store so you can go straight to it. Get a flat cart, though. They weigh 70 lbs.
Whew! Heavy cabinet. That’s good. I’ve had cabinets in the past that I could knock over just passing by them.
I like the Hahnemuhle and the Stillman & Birn Beta or Deltas, though both perform quite differently. And that leads to the question. Other sketchbooks that I like are the Global Arts watercolor handbooks.
Do you have a very definite preference in the paper you currently use? What I like might not suit you at all.
Usually paper in a sketchbook is a bit thinner, which means more problems with curling, buckling and dimpling. I also find you get more harder edges. You need to stay with lighter washes, which means wet-into-wet techniques are not as easy to use.
You might try making your own sketchbook to begin with. A pamphlet stitch is very easy, and there are all sorts of instructions to be found by googling it. I’d recommend starting with a small book, maybe five sheets of paper, large enough to fold in half to the size you want which would give you 10 pages, 20 if you use both sides. For this size, I don’t always add covers, but if you want them you can cut cereal boxes or cardboard to size and glue them to the front and back sheets.
The advantage here, beyond using the paper you are used to, is that you can see if you like painting in a bound book before paying for one and can use paper you’ve already bought.
An alternative is to just paint on the paper you normally use but tape off one edge. I took the cardboard backing from a couple of paper pads, covered them with newspaper and painted them. Then I punched holes in them and inserted rings that can be reopened. As I finished a painting, I punched holes in the unpainted area that I had taped off and added it in. Sometimes, I punch and add all the paper before hand and then paint right from the sketchbook.
I am on a quest to find the perfect sketchbook. So far, since I started really painting in sketchbooks last summer, I have tried a variety of sketchbbooks including Kahdi, Moleskin, handbook with handmade rough paper, Stillman and Birn Beta, Hahnemuhle and something spiral bound with black covers (there’s no mark on the inside so I don’t know the brand.) My favorites far and away are the Hahnemuhle and the Kahdi.
In the past I have only painted on Arches cold press which I truly love…next project will be making my own sketchbook with Arches 140#. Oh, except I picked up a package of Bee paper today….just because I haven’t tried it yet….and I had a 50% off coupon at Michaels. So maybe the next sketchbook will be handmade with Arches.
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