Watercolors: How To Start Working With Them

Watercolors are a difficult medium to work with. However, they can also be the most rewarding for any beginning artist. This is because the different techniques that you learn as you develop your skills will help you even more when you start working with oils and acrylics. Watercolors are a temperamental medium and learning how to work with the paint and letting it flow properly from your brush to canvas is a great asset for your future development as an artist. How does one start their journey in watercolors?

First of all, you need to get the right materials. Get a good selection of paints Ð high-quality paints usually produce high-quality work because they work well on the paper and the brush. Get a good start set of colors – most sets follow the standard collection of red, blue, white, black, yellow, purple, ochre, umber, and sienna. These starter colors give you a wide range to work with in your starting lessons in the art. The next thing you need to pick up is a set of three brushes: a medium size round brush, a small size round brush, and a flat brush.

These will be your basic brushes for painting, Finally, you need to choose the right paper to work with. It is better work with watercolor paper when painting using watercolors Ð this is because watercolor paper is thicker and more durable when used with this particular medium. Ordinary paper would warp from the contact of water and would have the paint spread in an unpredictable manner. Proper watercolor paper stands up to the punishment and the paint works with it properly.

After choosing the materials, you’ll need to know a few basic techniques in watercoloring. The most basic technique is washing. This describes the process of layering paint on the canvas while creating the illusion of depth and detail. The basic wash goes like this:

• Set your initial boundaries a small rectangle or square would help set your parameters.

• Use your flat brush and dip it well in paint. Draw a stroke from left to right. Stop at the boundary you set.

• Dip your brush again and repeat the stroke this time underneath the first store, overlapping it.

• Repeat again and continue until you reach your bottom boundary.

Congratulations! You’ve done your first flat wash!

Washing is where it all begins. Most techniques using watercolors are based on washing. Your initial wash was on a flat horizontal surface. Can you imagine doing it on an easel, with the canvas vertical? The effect would have been different because the water would have been flowing down. Flat washes are easy Ð another type of wash is the graded wash. This means that the color slowly fades as the wash progresses. Here’s how to do it:

• Set your initial boundaries once again a small rectangle or square would help set your parameters.

• Use your flat brush and dip it well in paint. Draw a stroke from left to right. Stop at the boundary you set.

• Now, dab your brush a little and use a lighter mixture by using more water or a different paint.

• Make your next stroke beneath your first one, making sure to overlap it. You’ll notice the difference immediately.

• Repeat again and continue until you reach your bottom boundary, while progressively using a lighter mixture.

There you have it! A graded wash is often used to display changes in color tone.

These two watercolor techniques are just the beginning. There is a whole constellation of painting techniques that can only help you as you progress as a watercolorist.

Making Your Own Watercolor Paints

I think everyone has had the opportunity to paint with watercolors. Perhaps that is because painting with watercolors has become a regular activity in schools. Watercolors may be difficult to master is subtleties, but unlike oils or acrylics, they are essentially child-friendly. They are so easy-to-use and their water base is non-toxic. This is why most preschools and kindergartens usually use them in parts of their curriculum.

Watercolors are an excellent medium for any budding artist to start in. But before you start painting, how about making your own watercolor paints?

The idea of making paints may sound daunting, but remember most artists before the twentieth century mixed their own paints. With easy access to the ready-made art marketplace, the art of mixing paints is something of a “lost art.”

But creating your own watercolor paints is actually pretty easy. Here is an example making the children’s version – mixing a batch of watercolors for professional use is a more involved process…

First, you’ll have to get together some basic ingredients. You’ll need the following:

• 3 tbsp baking soda
• 3 tbsp cornstarch
• 3 tbsp white vinegar
• 1 1/2 tsp light corn syrup
• food coloring

Note that the measurements can be doubled or tripled depending on how many people will be using the watercolor. This should be enough for a small group of four, but for larger groups add a bit more.

By the way, the corn syrup is the binder, the substance that will keep your pigments together, for your watercolor so its pretty important. YBefore there were bottles of corn syrup on the grocery shelf, artists made their own glucose syrup. “Glucose syrup” is just a fancy name for a sugar solution. To make it, just boil two cups of sugar in a cup of water. Mix it well until you have a clear solution. Now that you have your binder, whether a homemade sugar solution or corn syrup, it’s time to start.

First of all, mix the vinegar and baking soda together in a small bowl. It will start to foam, but that’s a natural reaction, so you just keep mixing. When the foaming has died down, it’s time to add the cornstarch and your syrup, to the mix. Keep on mixing until you get a smooth consistency to the mix. This will be your clear base.

Now that you’re got your base, it’s time to create your color sets. Get several bottle caps or small containers of similar size and pour in the base. After you’ve used up all the clear base, you just add a different food coloring to each small container. Be generous with your coloring amounts – the color needs to spread well, so this means you also have to stir a bit. When you’re done, there’s only one step left – put the caps in a cool dry place so that they can dry.

By the next day, you’ll have a dry set of watercolor paints ready for use!

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