What is a good cheap medium to practice on?

Ryck

Needle-chuck Ninja
OK, the Buddha board is a good way to practice but since everything evaporates so quickly I have nothing to gauge my progress with so I was thinking of just buying some cheap Dollar Tree poster board and using the matte finish side to paint on. Is that a good choice?
 
Poster board used often, using the shiny side will help you work on your PSI & reduction so you don't get spiders/splattering.

Photo paper (you can get it in the larger A4 & A3 sizes as well as normal photo type sizes (which are really good for doing PaintPals when you sign up ! )
 
Poster board used often, using the shiny side will help you work on your PSI & reduction so you don't get spiders/splattering.

Photo paper (you can get it in the larger A4 & A3 sizes as well as normal photo type sizes (which are really good for doing PaintPals when you sign up ! )

Thanks for the tip. What is PaintPals?
 
*wraps arm around Graywoulf shoulder and slowly walks him to a chair*

PaintPals is a fun gathering of fellow members who come together a few times a year to paint something for each other and see who can be the last person to send it to another member before getting smacked in the back of the legs by @Mr.Micron for not getting it done before the deadline !!

I'll grab the link to the last one for you but in a nutshell.

Its Secret Santa meets Pen Pal.
take a piece of 5" x 7" paper /canvas / board
you have a nominated time frame to paint a picture on it and get it out in the mail
you also will receive a 5" x 7" artwork from another member who also decided to join in the fun.

its a way of challenging you to go out of your comfort zone and push yourself, its also awesome receiving artwork that you can study up close and wonder how on earth they managed to do it.

We don't care where you are on your journey, we encourage you to lay paint on paper any way you feel comfortable, but most will attempt to arrange them in a pretty pattern.

The first one is the hardest, but once you do one you start looking forward to the next one.

Let me grab the link
This is the type of thing you'll see pop up when Herb announces a PaintPal is open for registration.
https://www.airbrushforum.org/threads/paint-pal-22-the-pandemic.23369/

here is an example of a thread where we show everyone what we received
https://www.airbrushforum.org/threads/official-paint-pal-21-posting-area.23054/
 
Thanks for the information on PaintPals. That sounds and looks like a lot of fun. I looked at all of the pictures in the "show us" thread and there is a lot of talent in this forum. I have to ask though, what is it with painting skulls? I see that everywhere. I think they call it "grunge" or something like that.

Not my cup of tea so to speak but it does showcase a person's talent in many ways. I don't know where I am headed quite yet but I hope it will be fun.
 
It doesn't matter where you're headed, we'll help you get there. Paint Pals are a lot of fun - the first one is stressful and you have doubts that you can do anything 'worthy' but its not a competition, its just pure fun. A way to encourage people to paint.
As for skulls - I'm not sure why they're so popular, maybe its because you can trial textures, depth of field and they don't actually have eyes (which many people find daunting)
The only subjects not permitted are X-rated ones (or clowns if you get @Squishy as a recipient. )
 
I use poster board from the Dollar Tree 2 sheets (forget the actual size being I cut them into 5x7 anyway) but 2 sheets gives me about 26 5x7 's to practice on .
Paint pal welcomes all , We started it so others can see first hand what a painting looks like done by someone else. I have gotten them from total beginners and from artist that still just amaze me.
What is with the skulls well what is under your skin ? A skeleton and being the skull is under the face it allows you to start to get a understanding on painting the human form . At least that is what a drawing teacher told me 50+ years ago :D

Mainly I suggest for beginners to start simple and as their muscle memory grows so will their control .
 
I use card stock alot. its cheap and can get it in many colors

Thanks for that tip. I just watched a video that I found on the link that @Karl Becker gave me a couple of posts back and the guy that made the video (Josh Seaman) used glass to paint on as far as practicing goes. I like that idea a lot so he was using a practice sheet behind the glass for demonstration purposes. I will probably try this idea. As for card stock, I think I will use some of that too. I just need to find out who sells it around here.
 
It doesn't matter where you're headed, we'll help you get there. Paint Pals are a lot of fun - the first one is stressful and you have doubts that you can do anything 'worthy' but its not a competition, its just pure fun. A way to encourage people to paint.
As for skulls - I'm not sure why they're so popular, maybe its because you can trial textures, depth of field and they don't actually have eyes (which many people find daunting)
The only subjects not permitted are X-rated ones (or clowns if you get @Squishy as a recipient. )
Yep. Anyone who sends me a clown gets hunted down and flambéd until they really are pretty darn sore indeed.
 
Roasted and sore Ooo Err Mrs :)

Its about time Josh showed his face again. @Seamonkey Another one who is missed. I know he is ok as he commented on one of VR's posts on FB not long back.
It's just getting him to get the AB bug again..
 
We have a few little shops over here in the Uk. We have one called hobbycraft but its quite expensive so I rarely use them. I can get huge a1 or a0 card for about ÂŁ1.50 from The Range and there's also a small shop called The Works that sells some ok stuff. Mainly I go to our version of the dollar store "PoundLand" and get packs of their card or photo paper. Occasionally they have canvas or canvas backed boards. Nice and cheap however canvas isn't my 1st choice.
 
Be aware that painting on porous media will behave differently than non-porous media. Porous media like paper or plaster will soak up fluid from the paint from the moment it hits, making it much more forgiving in terms of drips and spiderwebs (i.e. less precise pressure/reduction ratios).

So if you're practicing to paint on plastic (or metal), practice on plastic rather than paper. Otherwise you'll think you've gotten everything dialed in from practice, only to get blindsided by what seems like overly runny paint when you go to work on an actual project.

Skill learned on non-porous surfaces will transfer to porous surfaces, but not the other way around. This IMO means glass is kind of the ultimate practice surface regardless of what you're looking to paint on. Glass also has an advantage in that you can easily clean and reuse it indefinitely.

For modeler-oriented practice empty bottles are king IMO, as they teach you to paint on curved and/or irregular surfaces instead of just flat. You're likely already generating them as trash anyway, so they're basically free and plentiful. Plastic for easy mode, glass for hard mode.
 
Thank you @Nessus for those tips and information. I have a 16x20 picture frame with glass that I printed a practice sheet and installed in it to practice on. I did not think about painting on plastic or glass bottles or maybe jars. So many great ideas here. :thumbsup:
 
Thank you @Nessus for those tips and information. I have a 16x20 picture frame with glass that I printed a practice sheet and installed in it to practice on. I did not think about painting on plastic or glass bottles or maybe jars. So many great ideas here. :thumbsup:
EVERYTHING is a potential canvas - with the exception of the grandkids unless you have body paint lol
 
EVERYTHING is a potential canvas - with the exception of the grandkids unless you have body paint lol

That is what crazyvet said too. Grandkids... hmmmm. I'll have to think about that one. lol I was even looking at my silver smartwatch and thinking of a translucent blue coat for a candy apple effect. :D
 
The glass idea works great. I use that as a warm up before each painting session (of which there have not been many lately).

I encourage you to check out the next PaintPal. I am by no means a skilled painter, but I turn out something, and a kind person receives it and generous with some positive feedback. And it makes me paint something to my best ability, which is great to stretch.
 
The glass idea works great. I use that as a warm up before each painting session (of which there have not been many lately).

I encourage you to check out the next PaintPal. I am by no means a skilled painter, but I turn out something, and a kind person receives it and generous with some positive feedback. And it makes me paint something to my best ability, which is great to stretch.

Hi Gordon and thank you for your input on PaintPal. I hope I have developed sufficient skills by the next time it comes around.
 
Back
Top