Watercolor Painting for Dummies (3 page)
Read Watercolor Painting for Dummies Online
Authors: Colette Pitcher
Tags: #Art, #Techniques, #Watercolor Painting, #General
As with any
For Dummies
book, you can start anywhere you like and jump around as you like. But if you’re a complete newcomer to art or painting, I suggest you turn to the chapters in Part I. If you want a refresher on how to compose a good painting or how to deal with perspective, the chapters in Part II can help. And if you want to jump right in and get your paints wet, turn to any of the chapters in Part III for painting projects of all descriptions.
You’re about to set sail on a journey that can last a lifetime. Watercolor can take you anywhere, build you anything, elevate your spirit, and calm your soul. Watercolor provides a way to communicate when you can’t find the words. It’s a companion whenever you require one. Watercolor will take you wherever you let it lead you, so welcome aboard!
And remember: You learn and discover most by doing. The best advice I can give you is to paint, paint, paint!
In this part . . .
T
he wonderful world of watercolor welcomes you! These first chapters are all about the basics. I share the basic art elements and the basic watercolor painting tools, along with a large variety of basic and more-than-basic techniques.
These four chapters offer design tips, help you set up your workspace, and start you painting, so jump right in!
In This Chapter
Grasping the basics of watercolor
Separating the myths and truths about watercolor
Examining the basic art elements
Dropping into your first project
A
ll paint begins with pigments. To do watercolor painting, you take those pigments, add water, and use a brush to apply the paint to paper. It’s as simple as that.
And, painting is a good thing. Your blood pressure goes down, your brain is stimulated, your mind is active, and your body is challenged. It’s up to you to express your artistic calling. When you do so, you benefit in big ways.
Two of the most important things to keep in mind as you become a watercolorist are to breathe and to have fun. Breathe? Yes, when you concentrate so hard and focus like you will while painting, you hold your breath. Breathe! And have fun. Art tends to be stuffy, pretentious, and cerebral. Forget the art snobs for now. Have fun by enjoying the colors, how they interact, and the results they yield. Because art is fun. Keep in mind that it’s only paper, and you have to mess up some paper to make art.
In this chapter, you discover the interactive nature of watercolor, start to understand its attributes, get a quick overview of art design, get some ideas of what to paint, and then put some paint to work in a quick project.
Watercolor has a life of its own. When you apply paint to watercolor paper, it moves. You then add more paint or more water, and again the watercolor responds with a swirl. Painting with watercolor is a dance; it’s a relationship between the paint and the artist.
When you paint watercolor on paper, you can make anything in the world happen. Figure 1-1 is one of the latest paintings I’ve made. To be fair, I probably should show you one of the first paintings I ever made, but I’ll spare you the meager beginnings. It was probably a finger painting on the wall. But trust me, however bad you think you are starting out, I was probably worse. But I wanted to paint so badly that I kept at it. I have done watercolor as long as I can remember. I still struggle to make a great painting. But it’s an enjoyable struggle.
Figure 1-1:
One of my recent watercolor paintings.
Transparent watercolor
is what I want to share with you. In my opinion, it’s watercolor at its best. Thin, transparent layers of paint are applied to white cotton rag paper. The see-through layers allow light to penetrate the paint, bounce off the white of the paper, and reflect back through the paint to the viewer. The result is a watercolor painting that glows and sparkles.
Opaque watercolor is called
gouache,
pronounced
gwahsh.
Chinese white is added to watercolor to make the
opaque
(not see-through) gouache paint. Acrylic paint is also an opaque, water-soluble medium. All of these can be used together. The big difference is that watercolor and gouache can be rehydrated and moved after they dry. Acrylic is like plastic and doesn’t rehydrate. When it’s dry, it stays in place on the palette or painting, and it can be painted over in layers. I’ll save these mediums for another book.
What aspects attract an artist to watercolor painting? What myths make an artist fear watercolor? There are many old wives’ tales and misinformation about the medium, but watercolor is
Permanent:
Watercolor is a permanent medium. But because it’s a work on paper, it may seem less substantial than a work on canvas. But good quality watercolor paper is made from 100 percent cotton rag content, which has been found intact in Egyptian tombs thousands of years old.
Watercolor also had a reputation for not being lightfast. And, though it’s true that the old masters’ watercolors are often stored in museum drawers between black sheets of archival paper so they’re not exposed to light, the good news is that today’s technology and chemistry ensures that paint pigments are more lightfast than ever. Today’s watercolors will last a very long time.
Portable:
Watercolor is a portable medium. Paper, paint, a brush, and some water are all you need to get to work. They fit easily into a bag, and you can take them wherever you want to paint. So whether you travel around the world or just to class, you can take your supplies with you.
Correctable:
Watercolor is a changeable medium. An artistic myth is that once watercolor is put down on paper it can’t be removed or erased. Well, that just isn’t true. You can manipulate the medium completely. You can erase. You can make additions and corrections in layers of paint on top of other paint. Chapter 3 talks about erasing.
Immediate:
Watercolor dries quickly — in a matter of minutes. Oil paint can take up to six months to dry completely. We live in a culture that appreciates immediacy. Watercolor fulfills that need.
Fluid:
Some folks are scared of watercolor because it’s difficult to control. Watercolor moves. It ebbs and flows like water does. That very aspect is its charm. It reacts to you. It paints itself if you discover how to give it some room to work.
Varied:
Watercolor is technique intensive. There are
lots
of techniques. That’s part of watercolor’s charm too. (Chapters 3 and 4 explore techniques.)
Watercolor is full of surprises. It’s a great experimental medium. Although I spend a lot of time painting realistic scenes, it can be great fun for abstract and experimental painting as well.
