Watercolor Painting for Dummies (11 page)
Read Watercolor Painting for Dummies Online
Authors: Colette Pitcher
Tags: #Art, #Techniques, #Watercolor Painting, #General
Paper is the foundation that your painting will live on. It’s pretty important to understand. In this section, I give you some tips on treating paper properly and getting it ready to accept a painting.
Respect your paper. You’ll probably respect it automatically after you pay $5 to $10 a sheet for it. But you need to handle your paper with respect, which means trying not to crease it. If it must be rolled, make sure you roll it gently. Also try not to touch it with your hands because your hands have oil on them. You may be painting along only to have a big thumbprint show up in the middle of an even wash you were hoping to achieve. Carry paper by the edges, or use a wrapper you can touch. And wash your hands before handling paper. Avoid resting your hands directly on the paper. Use a tissue or tracing paper to rest your hands on when painting or drawing.
Store paper flat. Storing paper upright fatigues paper and makes wrinkles. Of course, storing large sheets of paper flat takes some room. You can get flat drawer files that store a lot of paper. That’s the goal, but to get started, just buy a few sheets at a time that you’ll use before they get banged around too much. Store the paper in a
portfolio,
which is a big, flat container, usually zippered with handles, that you use to store or transport artwork. A portfolio keeps paper safe. You can choose from many styles and materials — from leather to plastic with prices to match. You can even get an acid-free cardboard portfolio for cheap storage. Or make your own using a couple of sheets of mat board or foam core board hinged on one side with tape.
When I went to school, we had to paint on full sheets of paper — bigger was better. Personally, I think we wasted a lot of paper. Most of the projects in this book are set on small paper sizes. It lets you get a lot of mileage out of a full sheet, and you don’t have to invest a lot of time either.
To reduce handmade paper, follow these steps (and put gloves on first or otherwise protect the paper from the oils in your hands):
1.
Fold the paper in half and crease the edge.
2.
Fold it back the other way to weaken the fold.
3.
Repeat Steps 2 and 3 a few times.
4.
Dip a finger in water and run your damp finger along the fold.
5.
Place the paper fold on the edge of a table and gently tear along the fold.
By dividing paper in this manner, you get the deckle edge on your new smaller sizes.
You can divide a half-sheet in half to make a quarter sheet and keep divid- ing for miniature pictures. Do you have to divide the paper evenly in halves? Of course not. You may want a thin vertical painting or a long horizontal painting, or you may want a shape other than a rectangle. Anything goes in art. Many of the exercises in this book look nice on a 1/16-sheet (or 5-x-71/2-inch) size.
Water on paper makes the paper buckle. The more water you apply to paper, the more wrinkles and buckles you make. To get rid of wrinkles and buckles, you can stretch the paper flat either before or after you paint on it.
The bigger the sheet of paper, the more important it is to stretch it. A bigger sheet of paper has more room to expand and contract; therefore, it gets more wrinkles when it gets wet. The wrinkles get in the way of watercolor washes being able to flow, so stretching minimizes the wrinkles. As the stretched paper dries, it goes back to flat. The stretching is subtle, so the painting doesn’t get distorted when you stretch paper that’s already been painted on.
If you think wrinkles will bother you while painting, stretch your paper before you paint. You can stretch paper a gazillion ways, but this method is my favorite, and it works great:
1.
Thoroughly soak the paper.
You can mist it with your spray bottle or soak it in the tub for five minutes. Just make sure it’s completely wet.
2.
Place the paper on a piece of 1/2-inch thick
Gatorfoam board
that’s an inch or two larger than the paper on all four sides.
Gatorfoam board is thicker and sturdier than foam core board, which will bend if you use it to stretch paper. You can use the same Gator board many times on both sides to flatten paper.
Most art supply stores carry Gator board. If your local store doesn’t, ask a frame shop to order some for you. Gator board comes in 4-x-8-foot sheets. I cut it in my frame shop to accommodate full sheets, half sheets, and quarter sheets. Watercolorists love it.
3.
Staple the paper to the foam board while the paper is wet.
The staples should be about 1/8 inch from the outside edge.
1. Staple one edge in the middle.
2. Go to the opposite side and staple in the middle near the edge.
Before you staple each side, lift and pull the paper gently to ensure that it’s wrinkle-free. When paper is wet, it’s fragile, so do this with caution.
3. Staple the other sides in the middle at the edge.
4. Staple the corner edges down.
5. Staple the rest of the edges about every inch.
4.
Lay the Gator board flat, paper side up, so the paper can dry.
If the board is placed on its edge to dry, the paper will tear as it dries.
Wet paper expands. As the paper dries, it shrinks and pulls against the staples and stretches, becoming super-flat.
You now can paint on the paper while it’s still on the board. The board gives the paper rigidity, keeps it from wrinkling, and is lightweight for easy portability. After you’re finished painting, you can remove the staples.
You can stretch paper after it’s painted as well:
1.
Turn the painting over onto a clean surface.
2.
Dampen the back side of the paper with a damp sponge.
Don’t make any puddles that may run over the edge and accidentally ruin the painting.
3.
Cover the painting with a piece of glass and place some weights — books are good — on top of the glass.
4.
Leave overnight or until dry.
Your painting is now flattened.
A framer can flatten your watercolors before framing them, too.
You need certain things in your painting area: a table and comfortable chair for starters. Most watercolorists paint flat on a table, though you can place a small box or a deck of cards under your paper to give it a slight incline so that the water flows down and doesn’t create puddles. Even a card table you can leave up lets you have a place to paint without having to put everything away after each painting session.
Lighting is a consideration. Daylight is best but not always available, so take advantage of the excellent daylight lamps on the market that help you evaluate color correctly. Place the light above your work space so it won’t cast shadows that interfere with your painting.
Place your palette of paint, water container, and sponge together in a triangular arrangement on the table within easy reach of your dominant hand. Put your paper in a clean area next to your palette.
Don’t put water on the left side of your paper and paint on the right because you’ll drip in the middle — on your painting. Keep all the dripping in one area and then you’ll only drip where you want to drip. Of course, you can fix accidents, but the easiest thing is to avoid them in the first place. Chapter 3 takes you through getting familiar with using your paints.
You may be a messy painter. If so, wear a painting shirt, which can just be a shirt you don’t mind getting dirty, to protect your clothes. Watercolor doesn’t stain as badly as other paints, but it still may remain on a white shirt. Save your best clothes for a different day than paint day. If you get paint on the table, just wipe it up with water and a sponge.
