Eradicator Brush

Sometimes you want to remove some paint just as the paper is drying or after it's dry. Most watercolour paints tend to play pretty well and will lift fairly well for you, while some paints are very staining.

I learned how to use an "eradicator brush" through some of the Billy Showell tutorials I took and it's really changed how I do some of my painting.

You can usually easily lift paint immediately after you've applied it and that tends to create some nice light areas, but you definitely get different results if you wait a bit or wait a lot before trying to remove the paper. I would expect that depending on the kind of paper you're painting on (hot press/cold press/quality) that the results would also differ. There seems to be a lot of Terms & Conditions when it comes to painting with watercolour paints.

One thing to consider is the paint itself. Sometimes the pigments are very staining and you'll fight with them, trying to remove them. I would hazzard a guess that all watercolours will lift to some capacity, just some colours/brands etc will lift much easier than others. There's a deep green student grade paint by Schmincke that just lifts entirely and when I was painting leaves, it seemed to be an 'all or none' scenario, so I had to adapt how I was using that one colour.

I came across an interesting bit of info to help explain staining/sedimentary/transparent paints on the Daniel Smith website. It explaings the pigments that are particularly staining. This is important info with watercolour paints as it plays such a huge role in how the paint will work for you and if you have to work for the paint.

I did a short video on what brushes I use as eradicators and how I use them after the paint has dried. I tried to find the same brush that I'm using in the tutorial - Robert Simmons SN60 Flat Shader, and it may be discontinued, I would warrant that this Simply Simmons brush could easily do the trick. I didn't pay much for my flat shader brush, it's more about the edge and stiffness of the bristles than the brand.

Reach out if you have any questions. One thing to consider if that you're continuously rubbing your paper with brushes, etc. depending on the paper quality, it may start to overwork the paper, causing it to appear a little rough. This may be undesirable depending on your paint style/effect you're creating. When in doubt, sample first.

Thank you for reading.

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