Hello everyone. I'm Richard & a'newbie' to SAA, and live in North Devon near to Croyde.

My question is about reviving dried-up watercolour (i.e., in tubes. Can anyone help or advise me about this, please?

Thanks

Hi richard, im a newbie, but what my friend told me to do, even if you have paint on your pallette and its dried, get yourself a spray bottle fill with water and just mist the paints and then your ready to paint.

I know it works, as when I started she gave me 1 of her old palletts and she did for me, and i leave mine overnight and i spray, hope that helps.

lizzie

Hello Richard and Elizabeth, I went on a painting course with Jenny Wheatley and Mike Chaplin some years ago and their first piece of advice was to wet the whole of the palette of paints, pour off the surplus water and leave open overnight so that the next day the paints would be soft. They are ready then to pick up juicy paint on the brush. The only disadvantage I found was that the paints could go mouldy if the box was closed and left some time. No problem if the paints dried a bit first. Mind you, if you paint every day, they won't have time to go mouldy!

John

Hallo all, I've just returned to the hobby after an long enforced lay-off as a carer. Most of my tubes of water-colour paint were still soft(ish) but the caps were locked on.

I stood them, cap down, in warm water (repeatedly refreshed from a kettle). After a while, one by one, they all recovered - that'll larn me to clean the neck of the tube off before I put it to bed!

You can cut the tubes wide open remove the solid dried up paint and add water and gum arabic medium to them. Water will dilute the colors so use a tiny amount and medium might bring them back to life. Put them into empty pill bottles depending on size or baby food jars to preserve and keep moist.

Watercolor Painting

I have had the same problem with old paints that had got stored away in a drawer. Hot water and a good soak worked.