Beginner’s Watercolor Basics

Artists agree that watercolor probably one of the versatile painting mediums out there. For beginners, watercolor is the best medium to use because it can give the artist the freedom to create free-style paintings or even realistic and detailed paintings, depending on how he or she uses it.

If you are planning to engage into painting using watercolor, it would be best to have the supplies needed and learn the basics techniques for beginners.

Getting the supplies needed

Before you can start with painting using watercolor, you need supplies. These supplies would enable you to unleash your creativity and paint whatever picture your heart desires.

The basic watercolor painting supplies include pigments and paints. In many stores, watercolor paints come in several forms including cake or moist pan watercolors or tube color sets. It’s up to you which type you would want to experiment with first. Cake watercolors or tube sets usually have a good selection of basic pigments and colors ideal for transparent watercolor painting.

Do not use the white paint that is included in most cake or tube color sets. For starters, pre-packaged watercolor tubes are ideal because these are easy to use. Since you are just a beginner, opt for brand names stating “academic” or “student” grade watercolors because these are cheaper. When you have gained mastery in watercolor painting, you can upgrade to using “artist” grade watercolor supplies which are of better quality but more expensive.

For beginners, it is ideal to choose a balanced palette of cool and warm colors including yellows, reds, greens and blues. Specific pigments include Cadmium Yellow Light, Pthalocyanine Blue, Cadmium Yellow Medium, Pthalocycnine Green, Cadmium Red Medium, Hooker’s Green, Alizarin Crimson, Burnt Sienna, Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Umber.

Brush is also a must. For beginners, one brush may be enough. Choose a good quality of brush and opt for the #8 round red sable watercolor brush. But if you can buy more than one brush, choose those synthetic or synthetic-blend brushes such as the round #4. You can also add the 1″ flat which is very useful if you will be doing detailed works.

Paper is also another major consideration. For starters, choose any watercolor block, pad, or loose paper weighing #140 or higher. Experts say that the heavier the paper is, the better output will be produced since there are lesser chances of damping the paper while painting.

You will be needing a watercolor palette. If you are using cake and pan watercolor sets, you need not worry about the palette since these come with built-in-fold out palettes. But if you are using tube watercolor sets, you need a palette to start with. For starters, a flat white dinner plate can be used or a plastic 6-welled palettes that are cheap but durable.

Water is a must for watercolor painting. Since you are just beginning, you can use tap water in a jar, glass, or a small bucket. Two containers with clean water is a must so you can rinse the brush to make it ready in using another color.

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Watercolour Basics

A look at the equipment and materials needed for watercolour painting

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Mixing Watercolors – A Combination of Science and Art

One of the most important aspects in watercolor painting is your sense of color. With luck, you have an inborn talent of discerning colors. But most of us don’t have that innate gift. The good news is that we can learn to mix colors from scratch. And eventually, as we study and master our craft, the colors that flow from the brush will become almost instinctive…

In watercolor painting, mixing colors is a challenge. A wrong shade here or there can make all the difference between a practice run and a work of art. Of course, it may take a long time to master such a simple thing as color. Happily again, part of the joy of art and painting is the learning of what workss.

The Basics

The basic colors are red, yellow and blue and the secondary colors are green, orange and purple.

In basic art classes, we are also taught that reds, oranges and yellow are named warm colors. Greens, blues and purples are cool colors.

Mixing

One of the first lessons in mixing colors is this — the most intense (and the purest) color come from combining two primary colors that lean toward the same secondary color. On the other hand, the more colors you mix together, the less pure your mixtures will become.

The difficulty in mixing watercolor paints comes from the absence of a “color neutral” tube color for each of the primary colors: red, yellow and blue. Some claim they have them, but these are colors that are just close and that most of them have a color bias or they lean towards some other color.

Combinations

Mixing colors need not be very complicated, if you think on as well as imagine first on the color you want to produce. If, for instance, you want pure vibrant purple, get it from a red and a blue that is biased towards purple.

A less intense purple can be had from the orange-biased red and a purple-biased ultramarine blue. For a dull purple, use the orange-biased red and the green-biased blue.

The same principle, more or less, governs colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel (ex: red and green). When mixed together, these colors will simply neutralize each other, producing only grayish, brownish color.

(One technique: To produce the color you want, use no more than three colors. Begin with the lightest one; add the darker one little by little until you get the shade you want.)

Neutralization

Mixing more than two pigments or mixing two pigments that are biased on two completely different colors will always result in “neutralized” mixtures. (“Neutralized” here means less intense or less pure.)

However, these less intense mixtures can be wonderful colors, too, and you need to know how to mix them to play them off against brighter, purer colors.

The science and the art

Another forgotten fact is that mixing colors is a matter of proportion. How much of each one goes into the mix determines the color shade of that mix. However, never over-mix your pigments.

One last word about mixing watercolors – your watercolor looks different on paper and on the palette. Spend some time dashing paint on the paper until you know what the actual look is going to be.

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