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I have been trying various things lately while I am out of school for the summer. I've tried markers, pastels, and I am finally wondering how the aqua painter works. Does anyone have any basic instructions for this technique? I've visited the gallery and there are a ton of cool cards that are watercolored with this tool. I just need help using it.
It works like a watercolor brush, but you don't have to dip it in water. You fill the barrel with water instead. You can use it with ink or watercolor pencils or watercolor crayons. I mostly use it with the crayons. I just brush the aquapainter over the crayon to pick up color and then paint with it. If I need the brush to be wetter, I just lightly squeeze where I grip. To clean the brush, I squeeze water out of it and brush onto scrap newspaper until no more color comes off.
Be careful that you get good quality waterbrushes! The ones from SU and Niji are good, and I have seen another brand that looks good but right now don't remember the name. It is a well-known company, that's all I remember right now!
M's had some for less than $10 for three and I have heard that they leak badly. I use the Niji - sold in the art department at M's - for fine and tiny detail work, and the SU medium and large for all others.
Another piece of advice is to be sure to use a good quality semi-permanent ink when you stamp your image, such as Stazon, otherwise your image will bleed.
I only use the aqua painter when I'm stamping away from home. I have much more control with my paint brushes. Also, watch to make sure that you are not sucking color back into your water in the barrel of the painter. I wasn't paying attention and the water had some orange in it and when I switched to a lighter color the orange was mixed into the lighter color. And yes, I cleaned the brush, but did not dump out the colored water. Overall, unless you need to use it when you travel I don't think the aqua painter is worth the cost.
The water color brushes are my favorite way of coloring. They took a while to get use to ....and I'm not particulary artsy...so maybe that's why I'm so satisfied with them. I generally use ink. I take the fresh ink brush and put it where I want the darkest color...then I blend in to where I want the lighter shades. If I don't want anything too dark, I'll swipe it on scrap paper before putting the brush on my artwork. It works best on water color paper, because it tolerates more water while you move your color around...but I've done it on different papers. When using SU whisper white, you just can't play as much with moving color. I have brushes from Michaels which were cheaper...but one day I got to use an SU brush, and I really noticed a difference. The SU brush was very nice.
I have to say I prefer normal brushes for watercoloring. I can control the wetness of the brush better. I use my Aquapainter for things like Future Floor Finish (with pearl-ex for example) or bleach (few problems with smell!).
When I use the aquapainter, the only time I have to actually squeeze it is when I am getting the color out. I find that it usually keeps the perfect amount of water in the brush on its own.
personally I prefer using a regular brush as I can control the amount of water in the brush BUT As the SU Aquapainted comes in set of 2 I use the blue one for water and the white one for FRESH Javex.
I color sometimes the inside of my stamped image and it will bleach the cardstock. Using stencils with flourishes motifs it makes nice Batik effect like Batik Indian Fabric
Make sure you use Fresh bleach otherwise it won't work
I just tried the blender pens for this look...and lved how easy it was...just make sur eyou load up on the ink...if you have to keep going pover the paper to darken it starts to get "linty" looking and brek apart
I love my SU aqua painter. I (and a few of my customers) wipe it on the top of our hand to get rid of the excess water. I also squeeze my stamp pads so the lid gets ink on it and then pick up the color with a blender pen.
This is my first post! I'm really excited (and admittingly, a bit nervous), but felt the urge to respond today. I've been contemplating buying the aqua painter since I've begun taking drawing and painting courses at the art institute. I think I'll stick with the traditional brushes until someone shows me how to use it and holds my hand. Thanks for reading! :-)
I have just learned to use the aqua painter this summer. I took a class from my SU demo and used the Bloomin' Beautiful stamp set. One good tip she gave us was about the paper she uses. Watercolor paper is great, but a little expensive. In the class, we used SU confetti paper which worked great! Also, we used the Basic Brown stamp pad and (to my surprise) the ink did not run. I thought we would have to use the Stazon ink, so I LOVED that tip, as the brown gives a softer image than black. The advice I would give is just to practice a lot. I hated my first few attempts, but am starting to feel more comfortable with it and (most importantly) I'm starting to have fun with it. I use one drip of ink refill on a styrofoam plate or (for just a little ink) squeeze my ink pad and take excess ink from the lid. A little goes a long way. Just keep practicing and have fun!!!
Amanda
I love my aquapainters! I use a "junk" acrylic block and stamp the Stampin' Spots on them or marker onto them and then pick up the color with the aquapainter. If I need to "water" it down for sky, etc., I just do it on the acrylic block and then paint with it. I can even mix colors right on the block if I want!
With the full-size ink pads, I give them a little squeeze before opening and there will be some ink on the lid when you open it. But I prefer the first method most of the time. I also use them with my Twinkling H2O's and refill inks sometimes.
I bought the H2O aqua painters, they are $8 each at Archiver's but I got three sizes for $10 shipped on Ebay. I LOVE them! They are very precise, easy to control flow, and never suck color back up in them. Well worth the Ebay price, and after using them, I would pay full price to replace them if I needed to!
Oh and I mainly watercolor with the lids of the ink pads...if I use the pencils, I use blender pens instead of the H2O brushes.
__________________ Cher No longer stamping...on to bigger things.
I use the BrusH2O (medium Tip) from Zig (EK Success). It works just as well as the Niji brush and I love that it comes in the different tip sizes.
The waterbrushes do take a while to get used to, but keep practicing and you will get the feel for how much water you need. I used to hate mine and now I can't stamp without them.
I use the BrusH2O (medium Tip) from Zig (EK Success). It works just as well as the Niji brush and I love that it comes in the different tip sizes.
Yeah...that's the brand I have...the BrusH2O...I use the yellow and green (I think Small/Detail and Medium Tips) all the time...the wide blue one I use less, but it's great for large abstract areas!
Check Ebay for them...once in a while I see the whole lot of 3, sometimes a 4th larger one for a fraction of retail prices!
__________________ Cher No longer stamping...on to bigger things.
Question about SU Aqua Painter
aqua painter doubts
