Matting and Framing Your Work Matting your watercolors protects and enhances the look of your paintings by cleanly defining the image edges and isolating your image in a uniform neutral or complementary background. Mats are made from mat board which should be made from all cotton acid free fiber. How to make a mat 101 As a start, choose neutral off white mats either warm or cool depending of the overall hue and value of your painting. After you've been at it a while and have seen what others are doing with colors and bevels and layers feel free to...
Categories: Watercolor Lessons , Beginner TechniquesGot your dad a gift but forgot the card? We've got you covered in this watercolor painting lesson where we create a galaxy-themed Father's Day card!
Categories: Step-By-Step Painting Ideas , Color Theory , Beginner TechniquesHistory of the Watercolor Industry Origins and Original Recipes Watercolor came to western artists in the late 1400s. Artists had to formulate, prepare and grind their own watercolor paint and tended to keep their secret recipes and methods to themselves. In the 18th century the first paint manufacturers set up shop in major european cities. They not only provided the basic pigments, resins and oils but found a market for ready made color pastes and other artist equipment. A famous example is an "herbal extract" shop in Paris that prepared the colors for Jean Baptiste Chardin when the artist's failing...
Categories: Watercolor Lessons , Beginner TechniquesPainting a portrait can be overwhelming, so why not start small? In this tutorial, you'll be focusing on what it takes to create a realistic watercolor eye.
Categories: Advanced Techniques , Step-By-Step LessonsSummer is all about fun, color, and carefree activities. Here's one great way to chill and get some painting practice - painting colorful watercolor popsicles!
Categories: Watercolor Lessons , Step-By-Step LessonsHow to use wax crayons and wax candles as a watercolor technique to resist paint and produce special effects.
Categories: Watercolor Lessons , Advanced TechniquesDesign Principles and Elements: an aesthetic tapestry Look around you. Everything you see that is made by man is made by design. Our buildings, our transportation, our entertainment, the items we consume; everything is designed for a purpose. Some design is utilitarian, some is ergonomic, some informative, and a whole lot of design is aesthetic. Products are designed to please the eye and produce a reaction based on the "feel" the product evokes from the viewer/user. Artists do this every time a pencil is sharpened or a color is mixed. We are the designers. When you look through the catalog...
Categories: Watercolor Lessons , Beginner TechniquesThe Stuff of Paint Watercolor: What it is. Traditional transparent watercolor is finely ground pigment in a water-soluble binder such as gum arabic. Gum arabic is water-soluble gum produced by a species of the acacia tree and is available in crystalline form or in prepared solutions. The gum arabic crystals or granules are transparent when pure, but less highly refined varieties can be yellowish to honey colored. Gum arabic is also used in inks, adhesives, pharmaceuticals, and confections (it's non-toxic and tasteless). Other binders used for watercolor paint have included Tragacanth, a gum optained from various asian shrubs, and fish...
Categories: Watercolor Lessons , Beginner Techniques