[Claude]

Here's a question for the painting gurus: How do you mix your acrylic paints?
When you put a drop of paint and xx drops of water in a small container, how do you mix them together so the paint doesn't "instantly" settle to the bottom?
I've tried using a twig, the wrong end of the paint brush, the right end of the paint brush (this one seems bad to me as I suspect it's hard on the bristles), but nothing seems to work well.

Claude

[snickerbocker]

Claude,
We start with a teaspoon of water and add 2+ drops of paint depending on the depth of color and mix with the hair end of an old paint brush, not one we paint with. You have to mash the paint into the water and then stir. Hope this helps.

[Plain_Ol_Ed]

I think Vickie has it right. Just mix er up good. Give er a few extra stirs now and again as your painting as the paint tends to settle out. I wish somebody would invent and auto painter, I hate painting. I got whittlings piled pup what need paintin like you wouldn't believe. One of these days I'll get fired up and paint them. An old fried of mine said to just paint the eyes and the teeth, everything else was gravy. Seemed to work on some carvings.

[mark yundt]

I've always mixed directly on a pallet using whatever brush I happen to be using. No,,you can't mash the brush and splay out the bristles,,but it's worked well for years without a problem.And I don't use cheap brushes either. Guess I started out doing it this way 'cause it seems to work well for Godin,,Sprankle,,Brunet,and all the other great painters I 've watched as they did their birds.

[squbrigg]

To mix my paint with water, I use a syrenge to add the water amount in the pallet bowl and then the drops of paint colour, I then use medical piece, that they use for taking throat swabs. You can buy them at a pharmacy, in sealed invidual packs, or I use to get them in a box of 100. They are about 8" long with cotton on the one end. They work great and are disposable. I usually cut odd the handle part and throw out the painted swab, as I use thin round sticks a lot in ship modelling.

Bob

[Lynn O. Doughty]

I paint on wood just as I learned to paint on canvas. I use a glass palette as a platform to mix the colors I use as I can pull in and mix different colors as I work just as I can thicken or thin a color by pulling out more paint or add more water being as I paint with acylics. If I don't like a color I've just mixed I just grab a paper towel and wipe it off the palette and start over. The glass, being transparent, allows me to see the thickness of a color or wash and whether it will be opaque or transparent once it's applied.

While this is off the subject of mixing colors, one of the biggest problems some have when painting is that they only use the tip of their brush when picking up color when they should be loading the entire brush. Just as you wouldn't want to run out of ink in mid-sentence you don't want to run out of paint in mid-stroke. This is also where the better quality brush comes into play as a natural bristle will absorb and hold paint while a synthetic one actually repels it. I use Sable brushes as they last a long time, keep a point, and you can really load them up with paint.