The Spin Doctor likes spinning, crochet, knitting and weaving and drawing (charcoal, pen and ink), colouring (pen and ink, ProMarker, tinted charcoal), painting (acrylic, watercolour, gouache and very, very rarely oil), papercraft (dyes, inks, alcohol inks, die-cutting) and mixed-media. Through this website he shares projects, tips, product reviews and gives help where he can to those who need it.
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Sunday, 3 July 2016
Cotman Studio Palette - Converting into an en plein air palette
I've been trying to get myself organised for en plein air painting before the summer is over and I bought myself first of all a small Cotman sketchers set with 12 half-pans, and I liked it a lot but, y'know, I like to paint with 24 colours, minimum, so I started looking at buying another one, getting some empty half pans and pouring my own professional paints blah blah...then it hit me - I'm never going to paint a finished painting outdoors - only ever studies and sketches - so who needs professional paints, right? I found a Cotman 45-half-pan studio set, which was at a steal of a price - reduced from £65.00 to £27.79 on Amazon UK - too good to miss out on, right? That's like £0.60 per half pan, they're normally £2.50 each in the shops! So, I got it, but, unlike the sketchers set, that is clearly designed for en plein air work, with every pan fitting tightly, this is a studio set in which the pans rattle and I just couldn't see it working in the field without being damaged. First thing I did was repair the loose paint and remove all the duplicates and colours I hate. I then bought two colours from Winsor and Newton professional range that I can't live without in the field - Green Gold and Opera Rose - and I added a medium to it - compressed oxgall from Schmincke, already in half-pan form. I added a colourchart, backed with funfoam so that it cushioned the paints. I also intended to add some sticks cut from facial sponges to pad between the pans and to be useful in the field too. My plans to accessorise this are a mini-mister containing 1% solution of Daler & Rowney acrylic flow enhancer, as it is a good way to wet the paints really fast in the field. There will also be some bottles for clean and dirty water, plus a brush. As the set doesn't come with a brush, I chose a 000 Renaissance Squirrel Mop from Pro-Arte, who are rapidly becoming my favourite brush company! It's a beautiful brush with genuine fur, and thus gives a needle-fine point or can be used to wet large areas - perfect in the field where I don't want to carry multiple brushes.
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