I was moderately surprised how much I’ve ended up liking Arteza’s watercolor brush pens; and not because I wasn’t expecting much – I already own some of their watercolor pencils and they’re very nice! No, this was simply because I’m able to do “things” with the pigment I really like really easily!

Probably the most significant of those painting things 😊 for me, is being able to scumble, ie, drag paint across the canvas (when I’ve layered it with absorbent ground) or across watercolor paper.

The sensation and effect is very close to my impressionist oil work of the 2000s.

No, the pigment can’t be layered on as thickly, since the watercolor pen is fairly liquid and ready to dispense.

But yes, I can drag the brush fairly easily creating a bump and drag, skip and nick painting effect that lets me soften edges with greater modulation of texture than a simple overlay or glaze.

Additionally (see two images below) I can also more easily spread / lighten / and lift color via these watercolor brush pens than I could with my water soluble oils.

Both the gradient and dry technique can look very much like pictured above, depending on pressure applied, any water added, etc. The fine lines attribute, since the brush is real and a round style brush, can be modulated ‘tween fine and thicker, though very fine lines, unless you have better hands than my 70 year old ones 😂 will be a bit more of challenge. For me, that’s ok, as I have some fine line water soluble pens of a variety of colors – and – the effect with a true round brush of starting or ending a line thinly, with nice body before or after, is really worth the trade off.

In terms of colors, I started with the 24 color count set, and love the colors, but have now ordered the 96 color count set to get the wider range of variances and tones.

Since the colors are obviously pre-mixed to be as described below, and though a color can be washed into a fainter semblance and tone, I still didn’t have the range I like to work with as I do with tube paints, adding white or other colors. Brush pen colors will mix with each other, but one will still need white to some applications.

Though I have all the colors in tubes I probably need for awhile 😊 what excites me most about Arteza’s watercolor brush pens is their portability.

I do have watercolor pencils for outdoor painting or traveling, but water either can be an issue, or is just skipped, creating just with the pencils.

That works, but isn’t my preference. Arteza’s watercolor brush pen sets though, come with a water brush pen and it works great! With or without a separate sealable small water container, I’ve so far been able to do what I’ve wanted with small work efforts with water from this included pen – nice! 😊

I’m still experimenting with these pens, now often mixing them with tube paints in varying ways.

Below is my tweet reply (had a nice multi-day exchange with Arteza on Twitter a bit back, and this tweet shows a nice mash-up of using the Arteza’s brush pens and my tube paints.

I’ve a recent blog post with three 30 second iPhone videos I made of work I’ve created recently, and it includes the painting below and others I’ve worked up with either Arteza’s brush pens by themselves, or mixed with tube paints – I hope you’ll take a look, I’ve gotten a nice response in views etc, and hope to do another very soon of even more recent work ☺️

Here’s a screenshot I also used for that post’s header etc –

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Links to category searches related to this particular post –

All Arteza related art supplies – https://amzn.to/35CQAUg

Watercolor paints – https://amzn.to/2UAJI3n

Artists oil paints – https://amzn.to/36HlPNm

Artists acrylic paints – https://amzn.to/3nzXEHq

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About My Amazon 2020 Affiliate Blog Post Series
https://felipeadanlerma.com/tag/my-amazon-2020-holiday-affiliated-recommendations/

Well, this is my 1st post for this year, so the series link won’t show much yet – unless you’ve come across this post after I’ve a few of my Amazon Affiliate posts up 😊

My goal is to feature items from a variety of categories – art of course, but food (important during the pandemic), clothing, household items, plants/planting, and really anything my wife and/or I have gotten, liked, and can recommend directly ❤️

I don’t have a posting schedule planned, more of an “as able.”

With working to stay healthy (exercise, sleep, good eating!), enjoying creating art, and family, my blogging is very “as able” lol!

If you have a question about a product I feature in this series, please feel free to comment & I’ll do my best to try and answer or point you where one might find more info.

Thanks so much everyone! Enjoy the holidays! Moderation may be a bit easier this season than usual at least ☺️ so stay healthy! Be creative, and enjoy!

Adan

My Related Posts Here On My Blog

My Related Amazon Affiliate Search Products
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My Art Searches

Watercolor instruction

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Oil instruction

Artists in Novels

My Semi-Autobiographical Art/Artist Novella

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My Latest Posts On My Website!

• August 03, 2021 – Working a New 16×20 Acrylic, Working Title : Testing the Water, Refining the Figure, Developing the BackgroundAugust 3, 2021
  I wanted to do more on this but things are happening re Covid, in my life. I’ll have more on this very soon – nothing w/me or family here in Austin (despite horrid #s lately), but nearby, also here in Texas. Wonderful how fluid and flexible art is, giving us challenges one day, inspiration on another, and solace even when needed.
• August 02, 2021 – Prepping a New 16×20 Acrylic, Working Title : Testing the Water, 1st Figure Lay-inAugust 2, 2021
  I included my most recent updated image from a post a few days ago further below. Besides the figure work (not yet complete), you can see where I continued to rework the area around the figure, setting her off more completely.
• August 01, 2021 – Some Interruptions in Life are BlessingsAugust 1, 2021
  Just back from an incredible trip to the Galapagos west of Ecuador, wife & I got the opportunity to have the youngest grandchild over. This is from our mid-morning walk in warm dappled light ❤️ I only wish I’d realized the value of this with our own children more fully…
• July 31, 2021 – Prepping a New 16×20 Acrylic, Working Title : Testing the WaterJuly 31, 2021
  The initial goal was to simply select and mark the area for my figure. Then I freely applied Golden’s light molding paste, leaving the selected area for my figure much more level, and forming the paste into potentially vegetative designs as inspiration and malleable ground meshed —
• July 30, 2021 – What a Difference a New Keyboard Makes : LENRICH iPad pro 12.9 case with keyboardJuly 30, 2021
  This is an older now discontinued keyboard, but one of the few still available for my IPad Pro 2nd generation model (current model is 5th generation I believe), but I’m impressed with it enough to post about it and (if all continues well) my renewed ease of use not having to use the onscreen keyboard for blog posts, emails etc – that’s a big deal for me, lol! 😊
• July 29, 2021 – Whew! Yesterday Was a Day of Plowing Through, lol!July 29, 2021
  Above is a picture of me November 2019 (notice the weather is warm but hot, finally 😊) and I look just a bit worn out? I’d just climbed the 218 steps to top of Old Baldy near Wimberley Texas! That’s kinda how I felt yesterday, only without as nice a view, lol! I’ll just say that….
• July 28, 2021 – New 25×40 #Acrylic on Canvas In-Progress : Barton Springs Greenbelt Indian SummerJuly 28, 2021
  A chore heat filled day where my keyboard evidently is deciding it’s had it, lol! Hopefully I finish this post 😊 Basically I started the groundwork for my newest painting, acrylic, wanting to settle on my composition before hand, unlike how I handled my just finished watercolor, same size, where I inserted my figure at the end.

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Thanks again, everyone! 😊

Adan

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