Every art form involves discipline unique only towards its application. In the visual arts for example, like oil, acrylic, pastels, charcoal etc., there are the basics that are common. Some of the basics may include the ability to interpret images into visual form, intrinsic artistry, and skills gained and learned. As the discipline widens and develops, the unique quality of the medium that is used is addressed according to the quality that makes it unique.
Likewise, watercolor painting poses challenges addressed differently. For example, watercolor is a transparent medium making it unique when compared to other mediums that are opaque. To address this, the following are the watercolor basic painting techniques developed and used over the years and which no watercolor artist can do without.
• Dry Brush – the dry brush technique is good for creating textured surfaces. Samples of dry brush technique are often seen in watercolor paintings of tree barks, rocks, twigs, foliage etc. creating a visibly dominant textures. Dry brush painting relies on painting with a brush that is just about moist and often charged with a thick paint. The dominance or the subtlety of the effect will depend also on the grade and quality of the paper used and the angle and stroke applied.
• Lifting Wet Watercolor – The tools to use when applying this technique are soft tissue paper, sponges, paper towels, or brushes. Lifting is a negative painting tool where instead of applying color, you diminish the color that is applied. It creates a dreamy effect and is widely used when painting clouds where the paint, while still wet is dubbed with the absorbent tool to create the image desired. Twisting is done to create more texture in the paint that is left on the paper as well as scrubbing. When doing the actions though, especially when scrubbing, care must be observed that the paper underneath is not damaged.
• Lifting Dry Watercolor – One of the greatest challenges in watercolor painting is its being a transparent medium which makes it very difficult to remove or blot out. Once it is in the paper and dries, removing the paint is difficult if not impossible. Painting over will hide it partially. Just the same, sometimes a pigment has to be lifted from the artwork and for lifting dry watercolor, what is normally used are acrylic brushes or sponges. To lift the dry pigment, the sponge or the brush is cleaned thoroughly with clean water and applied very carefully to the surface. The process is repeated until manageable tinge of color remains.
Other tools used are razors, sandpapers, penknives, and sometimes X-acto blades. All of which are destructive. Blades are used but then the texture of the artwork is altered. In skilled hands highlights will be created when using a blade but as mentioned it is a risky process.
• Wet in Wet – is another watercolor basic painting technique where the paper is brushed wet before applying pigments. This technique produces a very different texture and appearance that is unique only to watercolor paintings.
Watercolor out of the tube or the pan is at its full paintable strength. Seldom will it be used in that manner except when the design calls for it. However, the use of full strength color is by large discouraged due to bronzing when watercolor applied to the paper dries. Diluting and mixing color pigments with water changes its values, depth, and hue. When applying watercolor though, an important thing to remember is that the color will tend to be lighter when the color dries. If you want stronger color, you can make adjustments by applying slightly stronger hues before application or you can dab some more color to the object when the paint is already dry.
Creating test sheets
Before attempting to mix watercolor pigments, it is advisable to test out the colors first on a clean paper to get a good grasp on how it behaves and the color when it dries. Paint on a damp paper the colors that you will use. Maintain a uniform brush stroke starting with the lightest color to the stronger ones. Label the color and maintain a clean brush while doing the strokes. When the paints are dried compare it to the colors in your color well to judge how the final outcome of the colors will be.
Mixing a Puddle of Color
To start your puddle, wet the brush in clean water. This opens up all the hairs in the brush up to the ferrule. At this point, your brush would likely be fully loaded with water, if so, remove excess water by thumping the brush a few times or run the brush across the rim of the mixing well.
Add the first color (blue for example) by touching the tip of the brush across your pigment and dilute it some more with your puddle of water. Start painting and continue the process until you get the color value that you desire.
You do not need to wash your brush if you want to add another color for combination. Touch the tip of your brush to a new color (Green for example), dilute it with your puddle of water, and apply it over the blue or parts of the blue that you painted previously. Continue adding strokes until the correct color is achieved.
To keep tube and pan colors pure, place small amounts of the pigments in a separate well. This way, all your colors stay clean and will not intermingle with another.
Practice mixing primary Colors
To achieve a very good grasp on how colors behave and how it will affect your work, it is advisable to practice with primary colors. Primary colors are the colors Red, Blue, and Yellow. Combining these colors in different degrees will give you infinite color combinations. Most professional artists use only these colors and have created masterpieces out of them.
This is the best practice that you could have in mixing color and making color combinations. Try to produce different color hues. The experience that you will derive here will be priceless.
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