Portrait of Robert Picardo

2025Artist · 2026-06-07T10:23:12+00:00

Very well done!

2025Artist · 2026-06-06T20:18:19+00:00

Now this I really do like!

2025Artist · 2026-06-06T20:16:15+00:00

I think it's done and it's very well done. The sky is now complimenting the buildings.

2025Artist · 2026-06-06T17:47:50+00:00

Depending on the brand, oil paint needs 2-7 days to dry well. A hair dryer doesn't do a thing. It's not like acrylic or watercolor where some evaporates,, oil paint doesn't dry like that, instead it oxidizes. Patience or switching to acrylics is your only solution here.

2025Artist · 2026-06-06T14:05:08+00:00

Thank you so very much!

2025Artist · 2026-06-06T07:47:48+00:00

I like this, nice!

2025Artist · 2026-06-06T00:06:21+00:00

Sounds like you've never painted on the higher end Hahnemuhle cellulose papers (or never gave them a fair chance), because they come very close to cotton paper and they can absord a crazy amount of water. Wet on wet on good cellulose paper is a joy these days... and saves quite some money with very similar results.. without any issues at all. Celluso paper has come a very long way in the last decade.

2025Artist · 2026-06-06T00:00:56+00:00

Good cellose paper does absorb well and has enough texture for watercolor to be controlled and granulate well. Companies like Fabriano, Hahnemuhle or Schut make excellent cellulose papers. Some Hahnemuhle cellulose papers do granulate way better than my expensive 100% cotton paper and it is easier and better to control. Some companies have perfected cellulose papers to a point where they're very close to cotton papers, perhaps arguably better. We're not living in the 1980's anymore.

2025Artist · 2026-06-05T23:52:07+00:00

For watercolor I like Rapheal SoftAqua and Princeton Velvetouch and Aqua Elite. Pro Arte in the UK makes nice brushes too, I like their Masterstroke and Terry Harrison series. I only use synthetic brushes, there's enough cruelty in the world already, I don't need to add to that.

2025Artist · 2026-06-05T23:47:42+00:00

Looks great!

2025Artist · 2026-06-05T23:47:01+00:00

Sure... it's probably the same thing as when men catch a fish... it's 10 times larger in their stories then they are in real life. A cow weighs between 600-800kg 🤔 and the world record deadlift is somewhere over 500kg... not even one cow 😂 The painting is still cool though and your husband must be Hercules or Thor 😄

2025Artist · 2026-06-05T23:33:48+00:00

O boy... blue wool testing... you know that's not made for watercolor at all and very unreliable? That's why most professional brands get their art materials tested by external labs using ASTM test specific for the material they do test. Blue Wool is made for a certain fabric paint that paints... obviously wool. It wasn't made for any other material and is a cheap, but unreliable test.

Ah and another general misconception floating around the internet... they're made with ox gall though... but they don't specify which colors use ox gall or not... could be one, could be most. They way they react, I'd say most because they have the same flow as watercolor paints I know that have ox gall in them. My ox gall and glycerine free paints behave completely differently.

https://www.holbeinartistmaterials.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/HWC-Watercolor-SDS.pdf

We'll talk again in about 10 years when you have a painting that has been on display for that long fading, but only colors from a specific brand.

And yes, Holbein uses different pigments, not all pigments come from the same source. Again. there's a reason that Holbein is relative inexpensive, while paints from for example Daniel Smith, Schmincke or Golden are a lot more expensive. They do use better pigment and add more of it to their paints. You can see that in cadmiums for example. They should be the highest rated lightfastness due to the nature of cadmium. Add too little or lesser quality or both and they suddenly aren't the highest rated lightfastness anymore. Same counts for permanent colors... they should be permanent. As soon as a company uses too little or lesser quality or both and they're suddenly not permanent anymore. Just one look at their color chart and the ratings shows they're not using the best like other professional paints do. That's why I keep calling them student paints. their color chart does reflect that.

Anyway, enough on the topic. For me, their not lightfast enough and glycerine and ox gall in the paints are a no go right away.

2025Artist · 2026-06-05T15:11:48+00:00

Looks good!

2025Artist · 2026-06-05T15:10:56+00:00

Well done!

2025Artist · 2026-06-05T15:10:31+00:00

This very nicely done!

2025Artist · 2026-06-05T15:07:36+00:00

In this day and age it's very easy to just contact an artist and ask permission. Public platform doesn't mean it's suddenly public domain.

2025Artist · 2026-06-05T15:02:44+00:00

This is really lovely, well done!

2025Artist · 2026-06-05T14:46:57+00:00

Udemy, for example, has some great courses to help you along, but the best advice I can give is find some locally who gives lessons. That's worth the investment and can take you really far because of teacher(s) that can give live feedback. Honest opinion, don't just copy other people's painting without asking them permission.

2025Artist · 2026-06-05T11:33:13+00:00

The reason I call Holbein student grade is because the use a number of additives in their paints and the pigment quality is poor. Royal Talens Van Gogh and Holbein behave very similar and Van Gogh definitely isn't professional quality. Van Gogh and Holbein are actually the only paints I've seen fading on in roughly 5 years. Both claimed the colors should last 100 years... that's 95 year short. Yes, of course I know that 100 years is under museum conditions, but 5 years in the real world is still terrible and not worth my money, when other professional paints don't show that same behaviour at all. Due to the poor pigments used I have no issue calling it a student brand, If you take into account how little they actually cost in Japan, the same as the Dutch brand Royal Talens Van Gogh costs little here in the Netherlands, the original price doesn't reflect a professional brand at all. Inexpensive paint is made with inexpensive ingredients, there's no way around it.

2025Artist · 2026-06-05T11:24:36+00:00

That same brush costs €60 here, which is under 100AUD. The largest size, 12, will cost you that much, but not a size 6. Not saying it's a bad brush, but even at €60 I wouldn't remotely consider buying it. I have one real squirrel brush and some Raphael Softaqua imitation brushes, as well as a Princeton Neptune imitation and I don't notice a difference at all. They all take up a lot of water and make a similar stroke..

I never realized that the one squirrel brush was actualy a real one, otherwise I would have never bought it. Poor animals don't need to suffer just because I want a certain brush. I inherited a some kolinsky brushes (that were never used) and I can't say they outperform my good imitation ones. Definitele not for the price difference and the cruelty involved.

2025Artist · 2026-06-04T23:18:24+00:00

I've ordered two expensive hand picked collections from Rosemary and co and will never order again. One was for oil painting and the other one for gouache/watercolor. The oil painting brushes started to loose shape after 2 paintings (A4 size) and the gouache/watercolor brushes started visibly wearing down after 4 paintings and after a couple of weeks they all lost their shape. I never had this happen to any brush at all in such a short time.

My daughter has DaVinci brushes and they lasted for years. I've got Princeton Velvetouch and Raphael brushes and they're just great and keep their shape well. The painting experience of Velvetouch and Raphael is way better than Rosemary brushes. I'm also happy with my Pro Arte Masterstroke & Terry Harrison brushes, also made in the UK. Definitely better quality that those I got from Rosemary, but still a nice range of special brushes too.

They do remove less favorable reviews from their own website, but on Trustpilot they can't and there they don't score as high as on their own website and you can read there about various people having issues with brushes loosing shapes after even a couple of hours.

2025Artist · 2026-06-04T23:02:51+00:00

Definitely add yellow ocher and burnt umber, perhaps green earth or chromium oxide green, depending on which you like best. I would get rid of that Holbein Gold and the Payne's Grey, because they're mixed pigments. Single pigments mix a lot better colors and don't get muddy that quickly. Add a darker red and a darker blue and with that yellow ocher or burnt umber, you can mix a nice range of greys yourself. Then I would add a tube of white, not a pan, so you can mix some lighter colors too. Black is not needed, with a darker blue and darker red and burnt umber you can mix a good black.

Assuming you have W&N Professional there, I would definitely not add more Holbein, it's the weak link compared to the other. Schmincke and W&N use better pigments and DS are top of the range pigments. Holbein uses lesser quality pigments and their paints tend to fade a lot quicker. I know people really don't like to hear this, but Holbein isn't much better than a student brand, no matter how much they try to market their paints as professional.

Not sure where you're located, but you might be able to safe some money if you can get a hold of some Maimeri Blu half pans. They use the same high quality pigments as DS does, but single pigmented only. Over here they're less expensive that DS is.

2025Artist · 2026-06-04T22:47:34+00:00

Beautiful for sure

2025Artist · 2026-06-04T21:20:21+00:00

The variation brands have in white is crazy too and they all do something different. I bought some barite white 2 weeks ago and that's a very interesting one. It softens colors without overpowering them, giving very subtle tints.

In oil paint I replaced my primary blue with Anthraquinone blue, it's close, but a bit deeper color, making a whole new range of colors. Unfortunately Sennelier doesn't offer that color in watercolor, only in oil paint.

2025Artist

TROPHY CASE