Artists using water colours, if they’re producing landscapes, portraits or indeed pet portraits, will traditionally go for a high quality water colour paper as a support. One of the points to consider when buying the paper is what weight to go for. Paper weights, which are measured in Pounds, are based on the weight of a ream of paper, a ream being 480 sheets.
Artists working in pet portraits have a few painting surfaces to choose from, but if you’re working with water colours the best option has to be water colour paper. The making of high quality paper for artists has become an art form in itself and undertaken by skilled craftsmen. Among the best are those that are hand made and provide artists with a choice of surfaces to suit a variety of painting techniques.
Easels should help make the life of the pet portrait artist much easier, by offering a secure support for their canvas, at just the right height and angle. However, there are a number of varieties to choose from, each one designed to meet the particular needs of the artist whether they are in a studio or outdoors.
The most versatile is the sketching easel.
Since the early Renaissance, artists working on portraits in oil (or any other subject for that matter) have always started with a layer of size to seal the raw canvas or board prior to the gesso ground. It’s role is to protect the canvas from the chemicals in the paint that may cause it to decay. Today, if you use an acrylic primer, size is not always necessary, but it’s remains a good way of protecting the canvas and if you make your own gesso is a crucial part of the preparation.
Youngsters usually experiment a lot with hair color changes, body piercing and tattoos, but there comes a time when all these no longer seem that fun. While most transformations are reversibles, tattoos are longer lasting and more difficult to be rid of than body piercing. The effects of body piercing wear off in time, skin and hair grow back, yet tattoos stubbornly resist skin exfoliation.
