6 Ways to SIGN your Watercolor Paintings (& the BENEFITS of Each)

[@marideelebrun5811]

Hi you are so great with your advise. I have been painter for 65 years, but l have to say you have taught me so much ! I love your knowledge keep putting it out there! Thanks

[@TheDevonArtist]

Thank you so much Maridee, I am a simple person with simply techniques, I just talk the way I think, Paul LOL 🎨

[@mheredge]

I learn something new with every video! Thanks!!

[@TheDevonArtist]

Thank you very much 🤗

[@natlisan]

Great suggestions Paul! I normally sign my work with coloured pencils in a colour which coordinates with the painting, or I have signed with masking fluid before painting my final layers. When you remove the masking you have a subtle signature that blends into the painting. It looks quite similar to the white gel pen actually!

[@TheDevonArtist]

That's a great idea Nathan, I've never thought about using masking fluid to re-sign your name with. 😀

[@carolhensel7705]

I just came across this video. Thanks for the demo. I love your work!!!

[@TheDevonArtist]

Thanks for watching Carol. 😊

[@kathryncurry2662]

Very helpful tips, thank you!

[@TheDevonArtist]

You're so welcome Kathryn :-)

[@michaeleenneher4454]

Excellent tips. Thank you.

[@TheDevonArtist]

Glad it was helpful Michael 😀

[@voliabrandaolaveneremachad7849]

Great tips thanks!

[@TheDevonArtist]

Glad it was helpful!

[@rachelwalton3772]

Hi Paul! I was just wondering about this a few days ago as I'm a beginner, so your video was perfect timing and really handy. Thank you so much. Love your tutorials!

[@TheDevonArtist]

Glad it was helpful Rachel, keep playing with those brushes and paints and most of all 'Have fun!@ Paul 🎨

[@flyinghaggertys9362]

Very helpful video, I love the white jelly pen that you paint over! I’m going to try that. That’s awesome! I’ve been signing mine with gold or silver ink and dip pen. I love the look of the metallics!

[@TheDevonArtist]

I do like the idea of metalic inks. Remember to test out the gel pen on some scrap painted paper first though. 😉

[@flyinghaggertys9362]

@@TheDevonArtist I sure will! Thank you

[@timeenuf4200]

Great demos - thank you. Especially showing the effect of paint on the choice. Love the Signo pens. Smooth as butter.

[@TheDevonArtist]

Glad it was helpful to you, there are many more tools, pens etc we can use for our signatures. 😀

[@susannewendt4543]

Thank you, that was very helpful information.

[@TheDevonArtist]

You're welcome Susanne, Paul 🎨

[@TheDevonArtist]

Do you use a different method of signing your work or do you use the same ones I do? *Leave me a comment I would love to hear from you.* Don't forget I have lots more videos that share tips and techniques, why not try this one next and learn how to paint realistic eyes. bit.ly/3byRxjy

[@sds9418]

Hello Paul ! To sign my work, it dépends the size of my paper . When the sheet I use is A4 or smaller, I prefer using a very fine permanent black pen or a white pen over a dark subject..Thanks for the gelly white, I don't know it . To sign my bigger work , I use my 00 liner with black ink of China . With a plume , the paper is really too rought , even if it's a fine paper.

[@luzo1171]

Thank you for the ideas, I was using watercolour pencils but l may change that; the jelly pen is the best!

[@TheDevonArtist]

Great idea regarding the watercolour pencils, thank you very much for watching. Paul :-)

[@francesnorton65]

You're a wonderful teacher and artist! So glad I've found your channel. Just a thought...be wary of using a biro/ballpoint pen. The ink on those will fade.

[@TheDevonArtist]

Thank you for your advice Frances, I either use a pencil or a fine tipped size 003 waterproof pen to sign my work. Bear in mind, if you wish to exhibit your work anywhere, you must sign it with a pencil as standard for many exhibitions. 😉

[@annp4756]

I love your videos. Thank you so much.

[@TheDevonArtist]

Glad you like them Ann, thank you for watching, Paul 🎨

[@BertosArt]

Thank you very much for this! I used to sign using a watercolor brush only, now I have other options. I think I will try the white Gel Pen soon. I subscribed to your channel coz of this. Happy painting!

[@TheDevonArtist]

Thank you for subscribing Berto! Just remember that if you ever need to exhibit your work in a gallery, some may be a little funny about a painting being signed with anything other than a pencil or brush. So worth considering what you intend to do with the painting once completed. Paul 🎨

[@BertosArt]

@@TheDevonArtist Thank you for the reminder. I appreciate it. Keep safe, sir.

[@TheDevonArtist]

@@BertosArt You too, thank you. Paul :-)

[@SDPleinAir]

Terrific!

[@TheDevonArtist]

Thank you very much 😊

[@karenfinneganart2480]

oh boy thank you Paul this has made my life easier. I have been first writing it out with a pencil then painting over it with a 000 paint brush.....don't ask me why because I have no idea lol.

[@TheDevonArtist]

I'm glad you found my little video helpful Karen. :-)

[@pakeeroothuman1970]

Thanks a lot.

[@TheDevonArtist]

Thank you for watching. 😊

[@crystalheart9]

Thank you for this. It sounds like a simple thing to sign your painting but I have screwed up more than one painting trying to get my signature looking nice. So stressful! I've mostly used a paint brush but as you show here you have to alter how you would normally do your signature and it always looks a bit awkward no matter how careful I am. It isn't too bad if I'm signing on a painted area of the painting but if I have a white background and the signature is going to show up easily I want it to look extra nice. I'm going to try some of your suggestions and hopefully get a nicer looking signature on my paintings. Thanks so much for this video, it was a great help. P.S. Love your beautiful paintings!

[@TheDevonArtist]

Thank you very much. Just remember to test all the ideas out onto some scrap watercolour paper first though, just to be on the safe side. Paul 🎨

[@crystalheart9]

@@TheDevonArtist will do Paul, thanks a million you're the best 🥰

[@angelmonroe1750]

Very usefull information, when I am using Acrylic paint, I sign using the blunt end of my paintbrush whilst the paint is still wet

[@TheDevonArtist]

Great tip Angel, thank you for that. 😀

[@deborahmeyers551]

Thank you Paul can I use water over pencil to seal my signature? Instead of paint? Thanks for sharing your awesome vids

[@TheDevonArtist]

Hi Deborah, I find using just water will tend to wash the pencil away. You really need a colour to go over the pencil, even it's it to a thin consistency. I would use similar colours to the ones you will be using for the painting. Paul 🎨

[@deborahmeyers551]

@@TheDevonArtist thanks for getting back to me with this Paul appreciated

[@KarenmitchellANI]

Thank you for the tips. I have 3 of those white gel pens and they've seized up on me. I've tried numerous ways to get them flowing again... what a pain!

[@TheDevonArtist]

I've only used mine a few times Karen and so far all ok. I can imagine you tried leaving it in hot (not boiling) water for a few minutes as well. :-)

[@scchawla2507]

Sir who is teh maker of that thin jelly pen? And also. Of that black permanent marker pen?

[@TheDevonArtist]

The non-permanent gel pen is one I picked up within a local shop so not a known brand, and the permanent marker is a Pilot pen, a good brand and one I've used for many years.

[@ennelle2024]

Signed on the left side throws me off. lol. Maybe it's because I am right handed. I wonder if there is a connection between dominant hand and where we sign and where it looks better to us?

[@TheDevonArtist]

I think that must be true as well, mind you, it also depends on the space left over on the painting where I can add a, signature. 😁 ✒️

[@annmariemilanesi4188]

Hi - if using the very fine marker to sign your painting, what color(s) would you suggest? Can you use black? Thank you!

[@TheDevonArtist]

Hi Ann Marie, I personally use a fine black waterproof pen, but please bear in mind that this is permanent. Plus, if you decide to enter your work into a gallery, some galleries may not accept it as being purely watercolour. So my advice, if you possibly wish to enter and exhibition or a gallery, sign it with a pencil instead. Paul 🎨

[@MattBlytheTheOne]

Acrylic Paint Pens are good, permanent and you can get them in fine nibs :-)

[@TheDevonArtist]

Spot on Matt, this is why I use sizes down to a 0003 waterproof pen for the detail work. I must try the acrylic pens though, thank you. Paul 🎨

[@jr2bder4u]

Thank you for these idea's for signing a painting. I had this idea of creating a Custom rubber stamp w/ a logo. using waterproof ink as the ink pad?....than I could easily stamp the paintings...........what do you think of this idea?...I have fear of writing my signature LOL.

[@TheDevonArtist]

I do like the idea, but to me, a normal signature is the way a painting should be signed. It gives the painting authenticity, ownership and a sort of finality after the painting has been touch. After all, when you have spent as long as I do painting a detailed wildlife piece, I feel a signature, by hand is best. Plus, You have to be careful if you ever decide to sell your work within a gallery. Some galleries or exhibitions, will only take a watercolour with a signature made with a pencil. As you will have seen here, I very often sign with a fine tipped waterproof pen, and that could be shunned as well! If you are not intending on exhibiting your work, then use a pencil to sign with, but a soft leaded one such as a 2B. This way you won't need to press on too hard and if you mess it up, you can lightly rub it away. Paul 😉

[@jr2bder4u]

@@TheDevonArtist That makes allot of sense, the importance of your own signature!.........another way to sign artwork could be the use of a "fountain pen", tends to create fine lines.

[@TheDevonArtist]

@@jr2bder4u That's a very good idea! 🙂

[@creativecolours2022]

I make my white signatures ( on dark backgrounds) with a dip pen and white acrylic ink. Acrylic ink is waterproof and with the appropriate nib on the dip pen I can make my signature as thick as it is needed depending the subject and the background. I sign all the rest of my artworks with a fountain pen that contains either India or Sepia ink. The watercolour societies claim that the only valid way to sign and artwork is with pencil but I don't do it this way because pencil lines are erasable allowing anyone to appropriate your work something that you don't want to happen when you exhibit an artwork or if you sell it. What I want is to make at some point is a custom seal like those that Japanese artists are using. But not in Japanese of course. A custom logo or something to stamp my artworks! But I don't know where to make something like this.. lol

[@TheDevonArtist]

I've never thought about trying white acrylic ink. I do have dip pens here, so what a good idea. Thank you for that. 😀 Yes, I tell my members the same regarding signing your work with a pencil for galleries and exhibitions, due to the specifications required, I suppose any other medium means it will effectively then be a mixed media project. Regarding the stamp, search for rubber stamp carving on here, it's something I used to do quite a lot of years ago, using a surgical knife with very fine carvings. 😊

[@clemenceprosen]

What kind of pencil do you use? Every time I paint over pencil, the pencil mixes with the paint.... it seems it doesn't for you. Also, you don't use archival ink for the pens?

[@TheDevonArtist]

Hi Clémence, to be honest with you, it's just a mechanical pencil with a 2b size 05 lead. I do take off some pencil with an eraser though before I add the paint, which helps. Paul 🎨

[@jilliancrawford7577]

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but how are you brave enough to sign on just the white of the paper or the matting? I would be worried someone would remove it with photoshop and replace it with their own or even steal the signature itself to out on other art to ruin your reputation (I know that's more of a deviantart and digital artist concern but still) or something like that.

[@TheDevonArtist]

Hi Jillian, this is an excellent question and to be honest with you anyone who has the computer know-how on editing images will be able to remove any signature. I, for one, have removed my own signature on a scan of my paintings sometimes, just so I can reposition it in a better way for printing. I very often sign my work with a fine tipped pen as well, but to be honest with you, it won't make a difference. There are ways of searching for similar if not the same images through Google photo search as well, just to see if a copy of your painting come up somewhere else. But if you find one, then what would you do? I would love to hear what other people may say about this issue as well, it's one we as artist may just have to accept as one of those things. Paul 🎨

[@jilliancrawford7577]

@@TheDevonArtist Thank you so muchfor such a quick reply! My current best ideas would be to maybe scratch the signature somewhere into the piece itself in the later stages so the pigment sinks into the fibers of the paper or maybe even sign with a layer of gesso also in the later stages so it's semi-transparent as it's painted over but not fully coverd. I personally just prefer signatures that are either a gradient or somehow transparent so that the way it's superimposed I to the piece makesits harder for someone to accurately duplicate or cover up. This is mostly from my background with digital art and what I've seen of other digital artists experiencing theft via erased signatures or even stolen signatures to create fake claims of offensive art (someone making offensive content, putting the stolen signature on it to harm an artist's reputation). I am sure the young digital artist side of the internet isn't quite the same as the more mature watercolor side of artists on the internet, but it's just a concern.

[@TheDevonArtist]

@@jilliancrawford7577 Thank you Gillian, this is certainly a valid question. As you said though, it's only a simple matter to use a cloning tool in say PhotoShop to remove a signature by cloning the background next to it. I hope others may pop a little reply here for us as well with their opinions. Paul 🎨

[@nicoleperron3315]

I was always told to sign on the bottom right but never told to use pencil, couldn't someone just erase it? You can't read my signature so I've always printed my name, I thought it should be legible. I've also always put the year because time flies and I like to know when I made something. I don't know if you're supposed to or not. I have a framed charcoal that was made by my great grandfather and its dated 1886 and some watercolors made by my grandmother dated 1914.

[@TheDevonArtist]

Hi Nicole, as you can imagine, the way people sign their paintings is a very personal thing. I know that say for example if you decide to place your work within a gallery or competition, then some committees prefer a watercolour signed with a pencil rather than with a pen, otherwise they class it as mixed media! Sheesh, I know, that sound silly really, but it has happened to me far back in the past. I no longer exhibit my work, so I simply use a fine tipped waterproof pen most of the time. Dating a painting is a great idea for the artist and someone wondering when for example a city or landscape painting was completed. However, some can also look at a date on a piece of artwork and consider it old and end up buying a painting with a 'newer' date 🙄 even though to us, paintings can be timeless. To get around that, you can always date a painting on the reverse just for another option. Paul 🙂

[@nicoleperron3315]

@@TheDevonArtist I find that so interesting calling it a mixed media because of the signature. I've always reserved my whites, no masking fluid, no black or white paint, any darks were mixed from other colors, and Arches watercolor paper or comparable until this year. I've been watching a lot of KZbin these past few years and most of the people giving tutorials use masking fluid, white gouache, black straight from the tube and many other things, oh and blooms are considered a beautiful wanted texture now and if I questioned it in the comments, I was told I was wrong or they felt insulted. It had nothing to do with the beauty of the finished work, it's just these I would call mixed media. They all had degrees from art schools in their channel description, which I do not. So all those years I spent learning how to not make blooms doesn't seem to be a wanted effect now. I decided if they can call their work watercolors with all their degrees, I'll just call mine mixed media 😂 and try all their different ways of "cheating" on my Watercolors this year. Now I find out the way I sign isn't considered Watercolors, so maybe I have never done watercolors 😂 I thought the pencil was only for numbered prints on a limited edition. Live and learn. I must say it's so much easier with all the cheats but maybe not quite as satisfying 😉 when you get the result you want.

[@TheDevonArtist]

You proved how varied the opinions of the art world certainly is Nicole. Oh and like you, I have never been to art college, gained degrees or been taught in any way other than my own trial and error over the past 40+ years, so I am certainly singing from the same song sheet as your good self. Whatever the case, paint the way you want to paint, I certainly do whether other like my methods, it's simply what I'm personally happy doing. Paul 😀@@nicoleperron3315

[@amexjam55]

Do you ever sign and date your paintings? I'm just starting out learning watercolor. Thanks.

[@TheDevonArtist]

This is a good question, and the answer is that I don't date a painting, only sign it. I've always believed that if you display a painting for sale with a signature and date from a few years ago on it, it may 'psychologically', cause people to think it's 'old', so they tend to look for a more recent painting. I know, age doesn't really matter with a painting, but it's just one of those things that may or may not be right, just my own way. Paul 🎨

[@poppyhali3648]

@@TheDevonArtist that's an interesting point. Hadn't thought of that

[@susanchristoffersen3980]

My surname alone has 14 letters in it. I haven't had success with signing with a pencil and painting over it. Normally I use watercolour in a colour in my painting and a dip pen. However due to the surface that I normally paint on (Cold Press), I am unable to sign using my normal fllowing signature.

[@TheDevonArtist]

Yes, I can imagine that using a dip pen on a texture paper can catch when you work with upward strokes. If it was me I may try embossing my paper with an invisible signature before beginning a painting, doing this with a biro pen that has run out of ink or a blunt ended stick. When you paint over the top your signature will stand out due to the paint darking within your embossed signature. Try this on some scrap watercolour paper a few times and see if it works for you, Paul 🎨

[@susanchristoffersen3980]

@@TheDevonArtist Paul, Thanks for the response. You are brilliant--I will try that as with my name being so long it is difficult. Another way I have seen done is to put your background washes down where you want to sign your painting and then insert it with masking fluid, then when it is dry paint your final wash over it. Or, alternatively, sign the painting in masking fluid before starting and then complete the painting and then remove the masking to leave a white signature.

[@TheDevonArtist]

@@susanchristoffersen3980 Hi Susan, thank you very much for the other options. I do like the idea with masking fluid, you could use a ruling pen or a dip pen to apply it as well. Thank you. Paul :-)

[@crystalheart9]

@@TheDevonArtist Oh wow, another good suggestion, thanks!

[@Larinator]

It is a complete mystery to me why so many British folk are afflicted with rhotacism yet do nothing about it - like it is normal. I have never understood that. Thanks for the video anyway.

[@TheDevonArtist]

Thank you Larry, sadly it's the way I talk, also maybe my mid-UK accent and something I am unable to change. Thank you for watching though.

[@reneewilson5225]

Paul, I find you and your accent charming. Thank you for being you.

[@lisabennett5078]

I read that the only way to sugn was in watercolor, if it's a pure watercolor painting, *if* it's going to be judged. A man who had been a judge said this. Is that not true where you are?

[@TheDevonArtist]

Hi Lisa, yes I know of the traditional method, but as you may know I don't stick to tradition and simply do my own thing. Some galleries here state that you can't enter a watercolour painting if its not signed with either a pencil or in watercolour, otherwise it will be classed as mixed media. I just simply do what suits me. 😊