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Learning to paint using brush pens

I stumbled upon these things called brush pens, which are basically sketch pens with a brush like tip. After reading a bit online, I decided to give these a try (Camlin brush pens). I was expecting these to have watercolor like properties, basically just watercolor filled in a pen. But, I have to say I was disappointed. These turned out to be semi-permanent colors, very fast drying basically impossible to blend them after applying. The only way I could blend these was to touch the tips to transfer some color from one pen to other and hope that it works. Nevertheless I did paint a few things, and they turned out to be okay. I expect to not use these pens much though.

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Learning to paint using wax crayons

One fine evening I wanted to make a quick drawing but was lazy to get the brushes and colors out, and do the cleaning afterwards :). I thought, why not try wax crayons, which I have in my house for at least 15 years now. My parents tell me that I got those as a prize in some competition in primary school. Surprisingly, these things are a beast, they still work and there’s no mess created afterwards, and if you try can be erased using a rubber eraser. I had a few drawing sheets lying around, so just used those. That’s why you see the punch holes in most of the paintings :). The only minor problem I had was that I did not have all the colors, especially just one shade of brown.

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Learning to paint using watercolor

Having run out of oil painting sheets (see Learning to paint using oils), I thought to give watercolors a try. I already had necessary supplies at home, and bought some average quality watercolor paper from a local stationary shop.

Watercolor as a medium is very different to oils, in terms of blending characteristics and drying time. I was excited to experiment with watercolor and thought it would be much easier to handle. But it was a failure to being with, I found it hard to use the right amount of water and was always slow to apply colors while blending. The color dries super fast so the next few steps have to be planned in advance, and it’s not like oils where you can get a coffee in between applying two brush strokes.

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Learning to paint using oils

While at home during the lockdown I decided to finally try my hands on oil painting, with my mother as my mentor. I started with painting straight on a biggish canvas as that’s what I have seen my mother paint on since my childhood. Painting on canvas is fun, and will produce something which will last for years and can be easily put on a wall etc, but it’s time consuming and may not be the best to experiment. So, I decided to get small sized sheets on which I can practice and try out a new idea every couple of days. I wanted to get size A5 sheets and accidentally ordered A6, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise because I just loved A6 sized paper (which I think is similar to a postcard).

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