Welcome to a complete guide to watercolor painting! From watercolors, watercolor paper and watercolor techniques to more!
Introduction to Watercolor Painting
In the world of art, there exist several mediums of art. Watercolor is one such medium. It's a water-based medium that is famous for it's transparency. In simple terms, watercolors are a type of paint made with pigments suspended in a water-based solution. They are known for their transparency and the ability to create light, airy, and luminous effects. Watercolors are applied to paper using brushes, and the paint can be thinned or blended with water to create various shades and textures. They dry quickly and are easy to transport, making them popular for both indoor and outdoor painting.
Watercolor painting has it's traces since ancient times, with evidence of it's use in cave paintings. Early civilizations, such as the Chinese and Japanese also used water-based inks and pigments for calligraphy and scroll paintings. Watercolor became more widespread and recognized as a proper medium for fine art in the 18th Century. In the modern era, it is far more widespread and easily accesible. It is one of the most, if not the most, famous mediums for artwork in the present day.
I've been dealing with watercolors since childhood, and I think many of us used watercolors as a kid. They were just that accesible and cheap to get. Of course their quality was also for kids use and not for artists. But if you've decided to delve into the world of art and watercolors, let's explore all about them together once again!
What is unique about watercolor?
1. Transparency
As I mentioned before, watercolors are a transparent medium. The pigments are of transparent nature, allowing light to pass through and give the painting a luminous effect. This is a distinct feature of watercolors, for which it is mostly famous.
2. Fluidity
As they are watercolors, it is evident that water is needed for painting with them. Watercolors need water too be applied and are a very fluid medium. Depending on how much water you use, they can be as fluid as water, or slightly less. This nature makes them quite unpredictable and uncontrollable, but is often seen favourable to add more artistic expression in the painting.
3. Layering and Glazing
Despite their transparent and fluid nature, an artist can add up layers on the painting, and create glazes. Although it needs to be done with caution so as to not reactivate the previous layer, but it is doable and also adds more depth and complexity to the painting.
4. Portability
Watercolors are very portable paints, making them ideal for plein air (outside) painting or for traveling. They require minimal supplies making them a great medium to carry around.
5. Versatility
Watercolors can achieve various artistic expressions with the help of several techniques. They also work great with other media to produce mixed media artworks.
6. Quick-Drying Time
They dry quicker than oil making them faster to work with.
7. Simplicity and Accesibility
Since they don't require much supplies to get started with, they are rather simple and also a lot more accessible and easier to start painting with than other supplies.
How many types of watercolor are there?
Pan watercolors
They are solid, dry cakes of pigment placed in pans arranged in a tray or container. They are used by adding water with a brush. These watercolors have the advantage of portability and convenience. They can be carried around easily and are simple and convenient to use. They are quite durable and the intensity of their color depends on how much water you use to activate them.
Tube watercolors
These are liquid paints stored in small, squeezable tubes. They are more concentrated than pans and can be squeezed out on a palette for mixing. These colors have the advantage of mixability and flexibility as they can be squeezed out anywhere and mixed with other mediums or additives for special effects. They are also typically more intense and vibrant colors than pans, and have quicker drying times than pans.
Liquid watercolors
These are highly concentrated, ready-to-use liquid paints that come in bottles. They are often used for illustration, calligraphy and detailed work. They are already at optimal consistency and do not require any additional water, unless you need to achieve a lighter shade. They are ready for application and dry quickly due to their water nature. They also retain their transparent nature despite being in liquid form.
Essential Supplies
1. Watercolor Brushes
There are various brushes to use for painting, but when looking for watercolor painting the key thing to keep in mind is that it should be able to hold a lot of water, as watercolors are very fluid. So my personal suggestion would be the round brush, but it's up to your preference.
2. Watercolor Paper
When choosing a surface or paper for watercolor painting, there are three things to keep in mind : Material, Texture and Weight. The material of various paper differs. Traditional paper is made of recycled wood shavings, but that is not suitable for watercolor painting, so we use a specific type of paper known as watercolor paper, which has certain requirements. The material should be made of cotton or at least have cotton to a certain percentage, because cotton is good for absorbing and when you paint with watercolor, you use a lot of water. The paper you use should have an absorbent nature or else it will start to tear or damage due to the heavy waterload. The texture of watercolor paper can be in three categories : Cold Pressed, Hot Pressed and Rough. Cold-Pressed paper has a toothy or grainy texture, that is useful to keeping water more controlled. Hot-Pressed paper has a smooth surface which allows the fluid nature of watercolors to be used to it's full potential. The rough paper has an extremely rough surface which can also be used to achieve a dramatic effect in watercolor paintings. Lastly the weight of a watercolor paper should be about 300gsm or 160lb or higher. The more the weight the greater the absorbency and application of pigments. These three things should be taken into consideration when getting watercolor paper.
3. Mixing Palette
When it comes to palettes, there are several options to choose from, but when it comes to watercolor palettes need to be carefully choosen. Although there are several materials for a palette, when using watercolors you are limited to fewer options. These options include Ceramic , Metal and Plastic. In many cases, water beads up in plastic palettes so it is not exactly the best for watercolors, but it's one of the cheapest and most accesible palettes. Ceramic would be my suggestion to you, metal palettes would also be a good ide. One more thing aside from material to take into consideration is the shape. Getting a Palette with wells and compartments would be better when working with fluid mediums than getting a flat one.
4. Water Containers
As water is essential for painting with watercolors, having a container or two of water wouldn't be such a bad idea.
If you need more information on the supplies and steps on getting started with Watercolor Painting, check out my blog on it.
What are the rules of watercolor?
1. Light to Dark
Since watercolors are transparent, it's highly advised that you paint from light to dark. If a dark color is applied early, it's hard to create lighter areas on top of it without reactivating other layers.
2. Work with the paper
Use high-quality paper that doesn't peel or warp under the heavy waterload, the paper quality is essential for the end look of the painting.
3. Control water usage
Manage the amount of water you use with the piment to control it's transparency and consistency. Too much water can make a paint too diluted, while too less can make blending hard.
4. Layering and glazing
By adding layers of paint over dry layers, you can create depth and complexity which makes the painting stand out more.
5. Preserve white space
In watercolor painting, the white paint is practically useless, because the real white that helps is the white of the page. You should preserve the white space for light areas or highlights because it's difficult to lighten an area once paint has been applied to it.
6. Understand the color wheel
Use color theory to mix colors effectively and know how to achieve a color harmony in your painting. Know the primary, secondary and tertiary colors as well as complimentary colors.
7. Embrace imperfections
Watercolors often create unpredicted results and are hard to control, when painting with watercolors you should maintain patience and accept the imperfections as part of it's cham.
Watercolor Techniques
The two most basic techniques are the wet-on-wet and wet-on-dry. Other than these two techniques there are other fun techniques you can also apply.
Wet-on-wet.
You may or may not have heard about this technique before, if not, the name implies what you do in it. The wet-on-wet technique is simply applying wet paint to an already wet layer of paper. This gives the painting a more soft look as the paint easily settles on the wet paper. This technique is used to achieve soft backgrounds for paintings, as it gives a very natural look.
Wet-on-dry.
Similar to the wet-on-wet, the method for this technique is in it's name as well. You start with a dry paper and apply wet paint to it. This technique, contrary to the wet-on-wet, gives a more sharp finish. It is used to making clear shapes with sharp edges. It's great for adding details and precise strokes.
Dry brush.
The dry brushing technique is similar to the above ones except it's more like a dry-on-dry technique. You use a dry brush and apply very little paint to it, before applying the brush on a dry paper. This technique creates some interesting textures on the paper which could be considered grass-like. So this technique is great for making grass, fur or hair.
Lifting
Lifting is a technique, that means literally what its name is. You lift paint off your paper when it's still wet to create patches of less color and interesting texture in your painting. It's quite a fun method to create various things in a painting, for example clouds!
In case you're wondering how you lift the paint, you can use a simple tissue and lightly dap it in the area you want the paint to be lifted.
Glazing.
Glazing is when you put a thin transparent layer of paint over a dry layer to increase the color intensity and depth of the painting.
If you're interested in more watercolor techniques, check
out my blog on them!
What are 3 common mistakes that people make when using watercolor?
1. Overworking the paper.
The paper gets damaged after having too much water absorbed and too much pigment brushed on it back and forth. It begins to peel, tear or wrap and becomes too rough.
2. Using too much water.
As mentioned before, always manage your water carefully or else it'll ruin your painting and your paper.
3. Not letting layers dry.
If your layer isn't dry and you try to add another layer, the layers will mix and ruin the effect you were going for, and if the colors happen to be in contrast to one another, there's a high chance your paint may get muddy. So always let the layers dry and then carefully apply the second layer.
Conclusion
Watercolor painting has it's imperfections, but it has it's own charm nonetheless. If you like to paint with watercolors but want to alter it's properties to have it tailored to your taste, you should try using mediums! Check out my blog on Mediums to know more about them!
Watercolor Painting requires patience and practice to get a control of the process. It ma be hard at the start but get's easier the more you practice. Having high-quality supplies is always helpful for the end product but what matters more than supplies is the artists own skills. So even if you're supplies aren't high quality, practice makes progress!
Thank You for Reading!
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