WATERCOLOR
The airy and atmospheric qualities of watercolor set it apart from all other painting media. Watercolor is a fluid medium that requires quite a bit of practice to master. However, if you devote enough time to this medium, you’ll understand why it is praised for its ability to quickly capture an essence, suggesting form and color with just a few brushstrokes.
TYPES OF WATERCOLOR
Watercolor is pigment dispersed in a vehicle of gum arabic (a binder), glycerin (a plasticizer to prevent dry paint from cracking), corn syrup or honey (a humectant to keep the paint moist), and water. Fillers, extenders, and preservatives may also be present. Watercolor comes in four basic forms: tubes, pans, semi-moist pots, and pencils. What you choose should depend on your painting style and preferences.
Tubes
Tubes contain moist paint that is readily mixable. This format is great for studio artists who have room to store tubes and squirt out the amount needed for a painting session. Unlike oil and acrylic, you need only a small amount of tube paint to create large washes. Start with a pea-sized amount, add water, and then add more paint if necessary.
Pans
Pans, also called “cakes,” are dry or semi-moist blocks of watercolor. Many lidded watercolor palettes are designed to hold pans, making them portable and convenient. They often contain more humectant than tube paints to prevent the paint from drying out. To activate the paint, stroke over the blocks with a wet brush. To create large washes or mixes, load the brush with paint and pull color into a nearby well.
Semi-Moist Pots
Semi-moist pots are the most economical option. The colors sit in round pots, often in a row with a lid that serves as a mixing tray. Like pans, these gummy-looking watercolors are formulated with more humectant to retain moisture. Activate the paint by stroking over the color with a wet brush.
Watercolor Pencils
These tools combine the fluid, colorful nature of watercolor with the control of pencil drawing. Available in both wood-encased and woodless forms, they feature leads of hard watercolor that you can sharpen like any graphite pencil. They are great for creating fine details or sketching a composition for traditional watercolor painting, or you can use them with a wet brush to develop entire works.
WATERCOLOR MEDIUMS
Watercolor mediums and additives alter the characteristics of the paint. Whether you want more flow, gloss, sparkle, or texture, a number of products are available to help you achieve your desired results.
Gum Arabic
Made from the sap of an acacia tree, gum arabic is the binder of watercolor paint. When added to your jar of clean mixing water, it increases the gloss and transparency of watercolor.
Ox Gall
Ox gall is made of alcohol and cow bile. The medium is a wetting agent that reduces the surface tension of water and increases the fluidity of watercolor. It is particularly useful when working in large washes on hard-sized watercolor paper, as it makes the paper more readily accept paint. Add just a few drops to your jar of clean mixing water to see the effects.
Iridescent Medium
Iridescent medium gives a metallic shimmer to watercolor paint. Mix a small amount into your washes, noting that a little bit goes a long way. For more dramatic results, stroke the medium directly over a dried wash.
Granulation Medium
When used in place of water in a watercolor wash, this medium encourages granulation. It is most effective when used with nongranulating colors such as modern pigments. In these examples, view phthalo blue with (A) and without (B) granulation medium.
Lifting Preparation Medium
Lifting preparation medium allows you to easily lift watercolor from your paper—even staining pigments. Apply the medium to the paper with a brush and allow it to dry; then stroke over the area with watercolor. After the paint dries, use a wet brush to disturb the wash and lift the paint away by dabbing with tissue or paper towel. These swatches show attempts to lift permanent carmine on a surface prepped without (A) and with (B) lifting preparation.
Masking Fluid
Masking fluid, also called “liquid frisket,” is a drying liquid, such as latex, that preserves the white of the paper while you paint. This allows you to stroke freely without working around highlights. Fluids may be colored or colorless and rub-away or permanent.
WATERCOLOR TECHNIQUES
Unlike other painting media, watercolor relies on the white of the paper to tint the layers of color above it. Because of this, artists lighten watercolor washes by adding water—not by adding white paint. To maintain the luminous quality of your watercolors, minimize the layers of paint you apply so the white of the paper isn’t dulled by too much pigment.
GRADATED WASH A gradated (or graduated) wash moves slowly from dark and to light. Apply a strong wash of color and stroke in horizontal bands as you move away, adding water to successive strokes.
BACKRUNS Backruns, or “blooms,” create interest within washes by leaving behind flower-shaped edges where a wet wash meets a damp wash. First stroke a wash onto your paper. Let the wash settle for a minute or so, and then stroke another wash within (or add a drop of pure water).
WET-INTO-WET Stroke water over your paper and allow it to soak in. Wet the surface again and wait for the paper to take on a matte sheen; then load your brush with rich color and stroke over your surface. The moisture will grab the pigments and pull them across the paper to create feathery soft blends.
FLAT WASH A flat wash is a thin layer of paint applied evenly to your paper. First wet the paper, and then load your brush with a mix of watercolor and water. Stroke horizontally across the paper and move from top to bottom, overlapping the strokes as you progress.
TILTING To pull colors into each other, apply two washes side by side and tilt the paper while wet so one flows into the next. This creates interesting drips and irregular edges.
USING SALT For a mottled texture, sprinkle salt over a wet or damp wash. The salt will absorb the wash to reveal the white of the paper in interesting starlike shapes. The finer the salt crystals, the finer the resulting texture. For a similar but less dramatic effect, simply squirt a spray bottle of water over a damp wash.
DRYBRUSHING Load your brush with a strong mix of paint, and then dab the hairs on a paper towel to remove excess moisture. Drag the bristles lightly over the paper so that tooth catches the paint and creates a coarse texture. The technique works best when used sparingly and with opaque pigments over transparents.
APPLYING WITH A SPONGE In addition to creating flat washes, sponges can help you create irregular, mottled areas of color.
USING ALCOHOL To create interesting circular formations within a wash, use an eyedropper to drop alcohol into a damp wash. Change the sizes of your drops for variation.
SPATTERING First cover any area you don’t want to spatter with a sheet of paper. Load your brush with a wet wash and tap the brush over a finger to fling droplets of paint onto the paper. You can also load your brush and then run the tip of a finger over the bristles to create a spray.
MIXING WATERCOLORS
Painting with transparent watercolors is a unique and enjoyable experience because of the way the colors can be mixed. Other types of paint (especially oil) are usually mixed on a separate palette and then applied to the canvas. They are also mixed additively; in other words, white pigment is added to lighten the colors. In contrast, transparent watercolor relies on the white of the paper and the translucency of the pigment to communicate light and brightness. A well-painted watercolor seems to glow with an inner illumination that no other medium can capture.
WET-ON-DRY
This method involves applying different washes of color on dry watercolor paper and allowing the colors to intermingle, creating interesting edges and blends.
MIXING IN THE PALETTE VS. MIXING WET-ON-DRY To experience the difference between mixing in the palette and mixing on the paper, create two purple shadow samples. Mix ultramarine blue and alizarin crimson in your palette until you get a rich purple; then paint a swatch on dry watercolor paper (near right). Next paint a swatch of ultramarine blue on dry watercolor paper. While this is still wet, add alizarin crimson to the lower part of the blue wash, and watch the colors connect and blend (far right). Compare the two swatches. The second one (far right) is more exciting. It uses the same paints but has the added energy of the colors mixing and moving on the paper. Use this mix to create dynamic shadows.
MIXING A TREE COLOR Next create a tree color. First mix green in your palette using phthalo blue and new gamboge, and paint a swatch on your paper (near right). Now create a second swatch using a wash of phthalo blue; then quickly add burnt sienna to the bottom of this swatch. While this is still wet, add new gamboge to the top of the swatch. Watch these three colors combine to make a beautiful tree color that is full of depth (far right).
VARIEGATED WASH
A variegated wash differs from the wet-on-dry technique in that wet washes of color are applied to wet paper instead of dry paper. The results are similar, but using wet paper creates a smoother blend of color. Using clear water, stroke over the area you want to paint and let it begin to dry. When it is just damp, add washes of color and watch them mix, tilting your paper slightly to encourage the process.
APPLYING A VARIEGATED WASH After applying clear water to your paper, stroke on a wash of ultramarine blue (left). Immediately add some alizarin crimson to the wash (center), and then tilt to blend the colors further (right). Compare this with your wet-on-dry purple shadow to see the subtle differences caused by the initial wash of water on the paper.
WET-INTO-WET
This technique is like the variegated wash, but the paper must be thoroughly soaked with water before you apply any color. The saturated paper allows the color to spread quickly, easily, and softly across the paper. The delicate, feathery blends created by this technique are perfect for painting skies. Begin by generously stroking clear water over the area you want to paint, and wait for it to soak in. When the surface takes on a matte sheen, apply another layer of water. When the paper again takes on a matte sheen, apply washes of color and watch the colors spread.
PAINTING SKIES WET-INTO-WET Loosely wet the area you want to paint. After the water soaks in, follow up with another layer of water and wait again for the matte sheen. Then apply ultramarine blue to your paper, both to the wet and dry areas of the paper. Now add a different blue, such as cobalt or cerulean, and leave some paper areas white (left). Now add some raw sienna (center) and a touch of alizarin crimson (right). The wet areas of the paper will yield smooth, blended, light washes, while the dry areas will allow for a darker, hard-edged expression of paint.
GLAZING
Glazing is a traditional watercolor technique that involves two or more washes of color applied in layers to create a luminous, atmospheric effect. Glazing unifies the painting by providing an overall underpainting (or background wash) of consistent color.
CREATING A GLAZE To create a glazed wash, paint a layer of ultramarine blue on your paper (far left). Your paper can either be wet or dry. After this wash dries, apply a wash of alizarin crimson over it (near left). The subtly mottled purple that results is made up of individual glazes of transparent color.
Charging In Color
This technique involves adding pure, intense color to a more diluted wash that has just been applied. The moisture in the wash will grab the new color and pull it in, creating irregular edges and shapes of blended color. This is one of the most fun and exciting techniques to watch—anything can happen!
CREATING A CHARGED-IN TREE COLOR First apply a wash of phthalo blue (left); then load your brush with pure burnt sienna and apply it to the bottom of the swatch (center). Follow up with pure new gamboge on the opposite side, and watch the pigments react on the paper (right). Remember that pigments interact differently, so test this out using several color combinations.
WATERCOLOR PENCIL STROKES
Watercolor pencil is very versatile, allowing you to create everything from soft, even blends to rough textures and intricate patterns. There are four basic approaches to using watercolor pencil. The first is to apply it as you would regular colored pencil and then blend the colors with a paintbrush and water. Another method is to create a “palette” by applying the pigment to a piece of scratch paper and then scrubbing a wet brush over it to pick up the color. You can also break off the tip of a sharp pencil and place it in a small amount of water to create a pool of color. Or you can dip a pencil in water until the pigment softens, rub it over the bristles of a brush, and apply the color to the support. Below are a number of ways to make the most out of your watercolor pencils.
STROKES
When you choose a subject to render in watercolor pencil, you’ll also need to determine the weight, direction, and intensity of the strokes you’ll use to make the most accurate representation. Try making strokes in different directions, varying the pressure, and alternately using the point and side of your pencil. Then go a step further by blending the pigment with a damp brush—your strokes will still be apparent but softened and more diffuse.
LEFT DIAGONAL STROKE You can fill in large areas with left-slanting diagonal strokes. Here they were blended in the middle with a wet flat brush.
RIGHT DIAGONAL STROKE This is the same example as at left but with right-leaning strokes. You’ll get better coverage with this stroke if you’re right-handed.
VERTICAL STROKE This stroke can give you more even coverage, but it can be tedious. Be sure not to slant your strokes — your hand may get tired!
OVERLAPPING STROKES You can mix colors by overlapping two hues and blending them with water. Here right diagonal strokes of green were layered over vertical strokes of blue.
CIRCULAR STROKES Straight lines aren’t the only way to fill in color. On the left above, color was applied in tiny, overlapping circles. On the right, larger circles created more texture.
BUNDLING To create interesting texture or patterns, “bundle” small groups of linear strokes together. Note that the closer together the lines are, the more intense the resulting color.
HATCHING Hatches are parallel lines used to suggest texture, create form, and build up color. Overlapped lines in opposite directions are crosshatches.
POINTILLISM You can also apply color with small dots made with the pencil point (called “pointillism”). The tighter the dots are, the deeper the hue.
STIPPLING Although stippling is often thought of as a brush technique, you can also stipple with a pencil;. use small dots and dashes to color small areas.
WATERCOLOR PENCIL TECHNIQUES
PRESSURE
The amount of pressure you use on the pencil determines the intensity of color you produce. The more pressure you apply, the more intense the color will be. Please note that very firm pressure is not generally recommended for water-soluble pencils, as the pigment tends to clump if applied too heavily.
USING PRESSURE Here you can see the difference between light, medium, and heavy pressure, as well as a gradated example—varying the pressure from left to right. The bottom half of each example has been brushed with water.
BLENDING
Working with watercolor pencil gives you a unique opportunity to mix and blend colored pencil pigments—you don’t need to restrict yourself to overlapping layers and layers of color, as water can mix the hues. Adding water also allows you to smooth your strokes or create special effects that wouldn’t be possible with regular colored pencil. Below are just some of the ways you can blend and manipulate both dry and wet watercolor pencil pigments.
HAND BLENDING Here dry watercolor pencil was applied with varying amounts of pressure from left to right; then the bottom was blended by hand. Make sure your hands are warm, and then use your fingers and a circular motion to blend or smudge small areas.
TOOL BLENDING In addition to using your fingers, you can utilize tools to blend the pigment. The red lines above were blended slightly with a cotton swab (on the left) and with a paper blending stump (on the right). Both tools create smoother smudges than you’d get by hand.
COLOR MIXING This example shows two wet methods for blending and mixing color: with water, as shown on the left, or with alcohol, as shown on the right. As you can see, the alcohol doesn’t thoroughly dissolve all the pigment, so it produces a coarser-looking blend.
DRY PENCIL In the top section, dry watercolor pencil was applied to dry paper; it looks the same as regular colored pencil. In the bottom half, the paper was wet first, and then the dry pencil applied. Notice that the lines over the wet paper appear blurry.
WET PENCIL In this example, the tip of the water-soluble pencil was dipped in water before being applied to the dry paper; then clear water was brushed down the stripe just off-center. Notice how much more intense the pigment is when wet.
SHAVINGS This mottled texture was created by dropping pencil shavings onto the wet paper. Then, on the left side of the example, the pigment was rubbed into the paper by hand. The right side was spritzed with water to let the pigment dissolve naturally.
SPECIAL EFFECTS
Because watercolorists generally use the white of the paper for the lightest areas of their paintings (rather than using white paint), it’s important to “save” these areas from color. There are several methods you can use either to protect your white areas from color or to lighten areas where color has been applied.
Painting Around White Areas
One way to save the white and light areas of your paper is to simply paint around those areas of your subject. It helps to wet the paper where you want to paint, keeping dry the area you’re painting around. The dry area stops the bleed and flow of the wet paint, protecting the white and light areas from receiving paint.
PAINTING AROUND WHITES Here you can see the progression of a painting where the artist employed the technique of painting around whites. At an earlier stage in her painting (shown at left), the artist decided that the white picket fence and the right side of the lighthouse should receive the lightest values, so she simply painted around those areas. The example at right shows the final result.
White Gouache
Gouache is similar to watercolor (it is water-based), but it contains an ingredient that makes it more opaque. Some artists use white gouache to create or restore white areas in their watercolor paintings, as it can give light areas a more vibrant look. Gouache is also great for adding small highlights, such as in the pupil of an eye, or fine details, such as animal whiskers. Use a brush to paint white elements of your painting or to cover small mistakes.
SOFTENING DETAILS To create soft white details such as these water ripples, dampen a brush and dip it into slightly diluted white gouache; then paint over an area of already dry paint. The white gouache will sink softly into the underlying color, creating a slightly blurred effect.
RENDERING EDGES
The most interesting paintings have varied edges. A painting done completely wet-into-wet will have all soft edges, resulting in a mushy look without any focus. And a painting with only hard edges will be busy and sharp, making it difficult to look at. Combining different kinds of edges gives depth, focus, and interest to the subject matter. Varying edges also produces a finished piece that is both more realistic and more interesting.
DISTINGUISHING EDGE TYPES Varied edges aren’t limited to painting—they’re a part of life. In this photo, you can pick out hard edges, soft edges, and even lost edges (where an edge merges with an adjacent edge).
HARD Hard edges suggest structural, angular, and mechanical subjects. To make a hard edge, apply wet paint to dry paper.
TEXTURED Broken edges define rough objects and can be used anywhere. Create them by dragging a lot of paint and minimal water across the paper with a brush.
SOFT Soft edges produce rounded, diffused areas. For soft edges, paint wet into wet, soften a freshly painted edge with clean water, or lift out color.
VARIED EDGES This subject looks lively because the painting includes a combination of hard edges, soft edges, and lost edges. Find the edges yourself. (They’ve changed a bit from the photo! Remember, the eye sees differently than the camera does.)
EDGES REVEALED How did you do? The white tube of paint is on a white surface, which allows for many lost edges. The pear is a little more difficult because you don’t see the lost edges right away. When you have two areas that are close in value, squint and you’ll see that the edge disappears. Once you can identify various types of edges, it will be easier for you to create them.
FILL THE SKY WITH ACTION
It often is an easy option to paint the sky with a simple flat or gradated wash, but what if you changed your approach and made the sky the most detailed part of the scene? As a general rule, keep the sky simple if there is a lot of detail in the land portion of the composition—but if the land isn’t very detailed, try to introduce some tone, shape, and life into the sky. It’s really all about balance, as you don’t want to clutter your painting compositionally. Every once in awhile you’ll find a sky that’s exceptional, and you can make it the main focus of your painting.
STEP 1 Faintly draw the cloud shapes, horizon, and tide line with a pencil. Using the side of a medium round brush, scrub in the blue portion of the sky with cobalt blue, leaving the edges around the clouds rough. Immediately afterward, use a mix of French ultramarine and light red to similarly map in the cloud shadows. As you paint, drop in a pale wash of raw sienna for the cloud shadows on the right and soften some areas with clean water.
STEP 2 For the water, apply Hooker’s green, French ultramarine, and raw sienna very loosely, letting them mix on the paper to suggest the varied colors in the sea. Then wait for the wash to dry.
STEP 3 Next apply layers of Hooker’s green mixed with French ultramarine to paint one or two of the harder-edged wave shadows. For the beach in the foreground, mix raw sienna with a bit of French ultramarine.
STEP 4 Using a very small round brush loaded with a very dark mixture of French ultramarine and burnt sienna, carefully lay in the rocks and the distant stretch of land below the clouds. Then wet the beach area with clean water and apply the reflections of the strongest tones and the shapes of the clouds above. To do this, simply use stronger mixes of the colors used to form the clouds in step 1. For the lighter reflections, lift out paint with a damp brush.
STEP 5 Once the foreground is dry, add a few more dark rocks using French ultramarine and burnt sienna. Then use a rigger brush loaded with white gouache straight from the tube to dab crests along the small ocean waves.
RENDERING SOFT EDGES
Flowers are one of the most exquisite subjects an artist can paint. With a little planning, you can transform any arrangement into a stunning work of art. Take a few minutes to work out the best composition, colors, and background. These templates will help you feel confident in achieving your finest work.
STEP 1 Try to “audition” colors by painting samples onto scrap paper (see “Selecting Mixes” below). Then I paint several quick studies using the chosen colors with different backgrounds (see left). Once you’ve selected your color palette, create a line drawing of the subject above.
STEP 2 Paint masking fluid around the outer edges before wetting the entire background. Then drop in diluted colors—rose and yellow at the top, rose and cerulean blue on the right, and cerulean blue and yellow at the bottom. Mix the colors, and allow them to blend by tilting the painting. If an area begins to dry, mist it with a spray bottle. Then spatter yellow with a toothbrush.
STEP 3 Once dry, peel off the masking and work on the flowers. Keep each color—rose, yellow, and cerulean blue—separate, and use only clean water. Apply a light wash of color.
STEP 4 Wet the entire vase with clean water, drop in cerulean blue and a purple mixture on the left side, and tilt the painting to blend. After the vase area is dry, use a light green wash made from both the blues and yellow to cover the leaves. Mixing phthalo blue, yellow, and a bit of rose in varying proportions will create every shade of green needed for the leaves. Beginning with the shadowed areas, paint one leaf at a time. Work on dry paper, and paint the shadows with graded washes to achieve soft dark-to-light transitions.
STEP 5 Give the vase another wash of cerulean blue and purple, again working wet-into-wet. Now finish the flowers. Work the values so that light flower edges are against dark leaves and dark flower edges are against light colors to create maximum visual impact. Keep your colors bright and pure by layering shadow colors and never mixing more than two primary colors at a time. For example, layer yellow tulip shadows with light washes of rose and yellow (orange), rose and cerulean (purple), or yellow and cerulean (green).
STEP 6 Wet the vase again before dropping in a final layer of blue and purple. Once dry, paint a small shadow under the edge (darker on the left side) so the vase doesn’t appear to be floating. Use white ink to clean up ragged edges and add tiny highlights to a few leaf and flower edges.