


These can be switched out for other colors within the same family eg Ultramarine Blue for Cobalt Blue but for purposes of simplicity in painting and for viewer friendliness Robert has kept to a limited palette. He uses artist quality but if caught out in the bush, ‘anything will do’, he says.
For abstracts he uses acrylic paint . “It dries fast and lets me be 100% spontaneous”, he says.
When a button lights up he is using that particular color either alone or with any other button that may be alight. This toll does not say what the value of the resultant color is just the mix but by watching the final color that Robert puts to the canvas one is able to identify the relative amounts of each that went into the making the value or tone.
There are 3 brushes in the toolbar. A pastry brush, a # 4 long handle flat bristle and the watercolor liner brush. Each performs a function in the painting but the most used is the pastry brush and the liner. The pastry brush is available in most department store kitchen sections at something around one dollar. Robert likes this brush because of its versatility and durability. “There are different types out there but the one with the more flexible hairs is the best. The hairs bend this way and that but return to almost to the original position.”, he say. The liner brush is a used for all the small work and with its long hairs holds a good big mix of paint. Says Robert,” It seems to last forever and is a must have in all my paintings.” The #4 flat is primarily used for laying on clips of highlight and is the less used of the 3. Robert uses the painting knife here and there to ‘grab some force’.
To clean his brushes and thin the paint Robert uses a mix of turpentine with a little linseed oil added to help the paint bind when it’s applied. “I paint ‘thick on thin’ he says but I carefully calibrate my mix to fit the amount of layers I expect a certain feature in my painting will take till its finished. There’s is no use applying thick paint then retreating to thin later. It’s unstable when it dries and difficult to paint on at the best of times”, he says.
