The story of watercolor dates as far back as when the first man learned to paint and interpret his surroundings. Yet as old as it is, watercolor paintings do not sell as much as oils and acrylics. This is because watercolors are developed only lately. Cezanne used it, Eugène Delacroix, François Marius Granet, Henri-Joseph Harpignies did excellent works with it and a whole bunch of masters dabbled with it. But for centuries, the issue of the watercolor basically is that it cannot hold its colors for long. It fades overtime fast, and so very few serious artists used the vehicle. Not anymore
The real development of modern watercolor painting as far as its preparation and commercial viability is concerned is a little more than a hundred years old. Too recent compared to most visual art mediums, resulting to the partiality of masters to use oils and acrylics in their works. Hence, watercolor paintings seldom succeed commercially. But watercolor is a very wonderful medium to work on let alone the most portable, very easy to maintain and always non-toxic. For centuries it remained in the background, never as popular but the demand has always been there.
Previous to the 1800's, artists using the medium by large, buys their pigments from the local apothecary and mixed their own colors. The 18th to the 19th century saw a rise in market in printing books where the usual vehicle of illustrators is watercolor. Consequently, there was also an increase in watercolor demand as it became fashionable during that period to use the medium particularly in the upper classes of society. And so manufacturers taking notice bring the production of watercolor to a different more commercially viable level.
Then, majority of the binder that is used in watercolors are plant carbohydrates. Likewise, the pigment is drawn to the paper through the paper's cellular components where it stays. This leaves the pigment exposed like pigments stranded in a sand paper, leaving powdery pigments to scatter when very dry thereby fading it fast. Today though Arabic gum is used as the principal binder together with improvements done to improve its light fastness.
The light fastness of watercolors are measured by its numerical rating and is printed at the packaging for identification. In fact, if an artist uses watercolors today with high light fastness rating and conduct the work in archival paper, the pigments will stick, the transparent brilliance that only watercolors could provide will remain, and the artwork will last longer than those done in either oil or acrylic.
Applications have also changed. While paintings utilize brush (including watercolor) as its primary tool, modern implements include the use of sponges, tissue papers, plastics, crayons, sprayers and other organic and non organic material to create a final artwork that is most possible with watercolor paintings.
Concepts have also changed as it relates to the use of the watercolor. The injunction that white and black paints are not to be used, instead only primary colors that are mixed either in the palette or directly into the painting is already of no relevance to modern watercolor painting concepts.
Contrary to misconceptions, the only difference between tube paint and pan paint is that tube paints has viscosity to allow it to be squeezed out of the tube while the pan paint ranges from moist to dry, other than that, and except for brands, they are basically the same and will display no visual difference except when using the dry brush application. Dry brushing requires that you get the paint from the tube and apply it to paper as obviously that is hard to do when using dry pan paint. When mixing watercolor paints, whether using the tube or from the pan, to obtain the densest color is to get it straight out from its container undiluted with water. On the other hand, to get the lightest color value is to saturate it with more water.
In mixing watercolor paints the key point is that the denser the paint used over large surfaces, the more the tendency of the paint to dry dull. Very dense paints will tend to have a leathery appearance that unless it is the actual purpose, this "bronzing " of the paint will lose the luminescent quality that are typical only to watercolor paintings. Likewise too saturated paints will get the paper very wet that again if that is actually not the purpose, controlling the paint on very wet paper will take more skill than is normally required.
While all saturation levels are used for watercolor, the normal mix applied ranges from a part of paint to ten parts of water. To prevent bronzing yet have that sharp look and retain the paints luminescence, the mixture will typically start at two parts of water to every part of the paint. A mixture of about six parts of water to a part of paint will still get a saturated color. After this, saturation levels are achieved depending on the value and color temperature that is desired. To get delicate pastels to subtle tints, more water is mixed.
When mixing watercolor paints, preserve the "raw" paints as much as possible and never allow it to be muddied by another color. To prevent this, pick a desired amount of paint with a clean brush from the paint well and put this on the mixing area. Before picking up another color insure that the brush used is not tainted with another color. Muddied paint when allowed to dry will make it a little difficult later on to pick pure colors.
There are different ways of mixing watercolor paints. One is to completely mix it on the palette for a desired or a matching color, it could also be mixed by loading the brush with a color or color combinations and applying it directly on paper, dropping colors into a wet surface is another method, and the use of glazing technique is also another method of mixing watercolor paints.
Watercolor paints also have the tendency to acquire mold when stored but not allowed to dry completely after using. It is then desirable to get only desired amounts during mixing colors as watercolors specially the bluish variations will have the tendency to produce an uneven and flaky texture when left to dry and rewetted.
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