life’s not a paragraph

so on friday a representative from windsor newton (the paint company) came to talk to us. i don’t know if i’ve mentioned this (i don’t know how i could’ve forgotten to mention this honestly!) but i am going to prague in may for three weeks for my painting class! 🙂 i’m so excited! i’ll have to write another post on this, but right now let’s focus on the windsor newton guy.

ok. so this representative came in and gave a little demo. he talked about windsor newton, gave us a brief history of paint pigments and oil paints, and then he told us about water-soluble oils. i don’t know how many of you have experimented with oils… probably a lot of you have actually. but as much as i have dabbled in the world of art media, i have never used oils. i went through a watercolor stage when i was really young (probably 9 haha), and then i realized how hard they are to use so i chose to try acrylics. and needless to say, i have been using them ever since.

i’m listening to this man talk about this-seed oil and that-seed oil, and glossiness, and thickness, and the paint taking 2-12 days to dry, but this quick dry medium cuts that in half, and thin layers then thick layers…. honestly, my brain is going in circles. i have no idea what he’s talking about. i nod and say “oh wow” when everyone else does, but i truly couldn’t be more lost. i only got a few things out of the presentation: free paints (always great), that you can clean up water-soluble oils with water, regular oils with turpentine (and i could’ve figured that out), there is some sort of liquid (whether it be seed-derived or otherwise) that i need to use with these paints and that i need to pay attention to the types of brushes i use.

major problem: this information is not going to help my when i go to the store to buy paints. well, at least i know the kinds of paints i need. but other than that, i’ll be completely winging it if i don’t get some help. hahaha when i get back from break i am going to have a serious paint chat with my professor!