Beginner Techniques

1. Brush If you can afford only one brush, buy a #8 round red sable watercolor brush. Otherwise buy the best synthetic or synthetic-blend brush you can find. Adding a round #4 and a 1" flat would come in handy for detail work and large washes. Most manufacturers have starter sets that contain very usable equivalents. 2. Paint Select a set of watercolor paints. The 12-color set shown below is a great deal. Most sets have a good selection of basic colors you'll need for transparent watercolor painting. Rarely use the white paint that is included in most cake or...

I remember spending a whole lot of my youth with my nose buried in art and watercolor painting books when I wasn't playing in the woods. I always seemed to learn more from step-by-step pictoral walk-throughs of paintings in progress than from reading descriptions of how to paint a particular subject or technique. Being rather old school, I watched John Gnagy on television, I read American Artist magazine and could not get enough of seeing how other artists were doing what they were doing. I grew up with the haunting dynamic realism of Andrew Wyeth versus the lyrical world-affirming characters,...

Finding the depth in art We function in a multidimensional universe and have to funnel our creativity into only two or three of those dimensions. In sculpture and related fields of art we are concerned with three dimensions. In drawing and painting however, we have to convert our 3 dimensional (3D) visual experience into 2 dimensional (2D) symbols. Perspective, in it's various forms, aids us in taking a 3D view and evoking the same visual sensation within the limits of two dimensions. The basic rules are simple and based on the visual reality we view through our stereoscopic vision. The...

Blockx (Belgium) Years in business: 130+ The Blockx company was founded by the Belgium chemist Jacques Blockx in the 1860's. His artist friends coerced him to make a selection of paints for their use. Blockx watercolors come in two versions: the original honey-rich colors or 'moist' variety have a black cap. Those made with a more conventional formula have a white cap. Sizes available: 5ml, 15ml, and some pans. Go to Website: Blockx (Belgium) Daler Rowney (England) Years in business: 200+ In late 18th century England, with the declining taste for wearing wigs impacting their wig powder business, Thomas and...

History 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...

Your brush with destiny Watercolor brushes are traditionally made of the red sable hair that comes from the pricey little critters of fur coat fame. Over the centuries artists have winnowed out the best materials for their tools. And by consensus it has been determined that the finest watercolor brushes are made of the hair found on the tips of the russian male Kolinsky red sable's winter coat. This particular hair has become reknown for it's ability to hold a load of paint and keep a resilent, sharp, and durable point, that always snaps back. The russian fur farm industry...

This watercolor technique is for every beginner. Fix mistakes while painting by lifting wet paint using these techniques.

Everything you need to know about this watercolor technique for applying paint or water to wet watercolor paper.