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Watercolor Basics
21–30 of 79 posts
Re: Watercolor Basics
#22Neat, I haven't water colored since I was a child, maybe I should try it again. Now to find a tutorial on how to art. Perhaps there is a book on it, like "How to Art with Watercolor" or "Teach yourself to Watercolor in 24 hours".
"Watercolor in a month of lunches"
Re: Watercolor Basics
#23This article contains what I would call unorthodox advice.
Here are my own recommendations regarding tools (I won't give advice how to paint, unlike the OP): you will need 5 tools only:
- colours: get a Lukas (preferred) or Schmincke set, a box with 12 half-bricks of colours will last for a long time and provide plenty of choice, 50-70 €;
- 2-3 brushes: only natural horse hair, one medium, one thinker and if you can afford three a thinner one, 30 €;
- paper: thick watercolour paper A5 to A3, well-glued, 15-25 €;
- 1 soft thin pencil to pre-sketch, e.g. Faber-Castell, 2-3 €;
- a glass (e.g. ordinary drinking glass or former pickles container) 200-400 ml, 0 €;
So 120-150 € give you a fantastic equipment, which may not be cheap but the cost of a good table-tennis bat is in the same range; the paper will be a costly repeat purchase if you stick to it, but the other tools can last for a long time (depending on how prolific a painter you are, of course).
(In my opinion, the quality of the brush and the quality of the paper matter the most.)
Edit: This selection has a strong German bias based on where I grew up but also because Germany, Japan and a few other countries also have a long-standing reputation for high quality stationary.
Re: Watercolor Basics
#24On practical how to: 1. Keep two water reservoirs for cleaning your brushes. One for warm colors and one for cool. (This prevents muddiness in your palette). 2. Knowing when to let the layers on your paper dry before further progress is vital. 3. Carry pigment from the bricks to your palette, don't mix pigments in the bricks. On technique: 1. Experiment adding water to a pigment on your palette (More water == thinner…
This all seems like sound(er) advice.
On color : I recently realised (or read somewhere) about the simplest color wheel- if you divide a circle into 6 segments and paint the primaries : {R, Y, B} in non-neighbouring segments, then the ones in between are the secondaries: {R+Y=O, R+B=P, Y+B=G}. Then if you combine primaries and the 'opposite' secondary, you get brown/grey like colors.
Also, I get quite good combinations (palettes) by using a mixture of the same colors, like a red and a green and then a mix of the two to make a grey.
I've thinking about using https://github.com/scrtwpns/pigment-mixing to go from a desired RGB output to the {RGB1, RGB2, percentage) inputs somehow. Would have to be quite rough estimate though, as mixing real paints in exact proportions seems hard.
Re: Watercolor Basics
#25Neat, I haven't water colored since I was a child, maybe I should try it again. Now to find a tutorial on how to art. Perhaps there is a book on it, like "How to Art with Watercolor" or "Teach yourself to Watercolor in 24 hours".
It's good to read books on how to do it, of course. However, I started out a couple of years ago just making small pictures as quickly as possible over lunch.
If you don't set too high expectations, it's great to just experiment on cheap paper to see what can be done, and get a feel for it before trying to actually make a scene or paint something 'serious' that you might want to show others.
YMMV, perhaps some people get more out of it using a course or from a guide.
Re: Watercolor Basics
#26Those choices are bad: watercolor supplies need to have be of high quality to not frustrate the painter. Otherwise you'll have bad result (destroyed paper for example, oversaturated or muddy color) and will have to fight every bit. When I was studying illustration, our teacher would advise us to avoid those kind of kit and paper. I've tried the one from children: that's not a pleasant experience. Last thing: watercol…
Yeah, "brush quality doesn't matter" is horrid advice. My watercolor teacher required us to buy only one brush, a pricey squirrel hair. The difference between that and a cheap acrylic brush is so great they shouldn't even have the same name.
I came to say the same thing. I paint in oil but I would imagine with watercolors being so delicate and sensitive materials would make a big difference.
Re: Watercolor Basics
#27On practical how to: 1. Keep two water reservoirs for cleaning your brushes. One for warm colors and one for cool. (This prevents muddiness in your palette). 2. Knowing when to let the layers on your paper dry before further progress is vital. 3. Carry pigment from the bricks to your palette, don't mix pigments in the bricks. On technique: 1. Experiment adding water to a pigment on your palette (More water == thinner…
Don't ruin your acid-free paper by using tap water, use bottled water for everything, including cleaning your brushes (valid for every water-based technic like acrylic, tempera, guache...).
Isn't most bottled water essentially the same as tap water? What is the problem with tap water that needs to be avoided?
Re: Watercolor Basics
#28On practical how to: 1. Keep two water reservoirs for cleaning your brushes. One for warm colors and one for cool. (This prevents muddiness in your palette). 2. Knowing when to let the layers on your paper dry before further progress is vital. 3. Carry pigment from the bricks to your palette, don't mix pigments in the bricks. On technique: 1. Experiment adding water to a pigment on your palette (More water == thinner…
Don't ruin your acid-free paper by using tap water, use bottled water for everything, including cleaning your brushes (valid for every water-based technic like acrylic, tempera, guache...).
By "bottled water" do you happen to mean "distilled water"?
Re: Watercolor Basics
#29Those choices are bad: watercolor supplies need to have be of high quality to not frustrate the painter. Otherwise you'll have bad result (destroyed paper for example, oversaturated or muddy color) and will have to fight every bit. When I was studying illustration, our teacher would advise us to avoid those kind of kit and paper. I've tried the one from children: that's not a pleasant experience. Last thing: watercol…
Yeah, "brush quality doesn't matter" is horrid advice. My watercolor teacher required us to buy only one brush, a pricey squirrel hair. The difference between that and a cheap acrylic brush is so great they shouldn't even have the same name.
I have a few Kolinsky sables- made of a Russian weasel's tail. Really nice brush.
Re: Watercolor Basics
#30Some of these concepts are new to me if someone that has an art background could expand on these, maybe with a graphic example if possible.
> zoom WAY in on subjects
> force shapes / objects to fall off edge / zoom in
> no un-broken edges
> don't let yourself think about objects / people / things