Watercolor Lessons

Popular Compositional Themes As a pastime, watercolor legend Edgar Whitney inventoried and cataloged successful painting compositions. He weighed the primary visual masses by size and value as well as arrangement and came up with six visual themes that most successful paintings appear to fall into. As an aid for composing paintings, these themes were passed on to his students, including Tony Couch, who wrote about them in his book: Watecolor: You Can Do It!. What we have here are the symbols of first impressions of paintings. The vague shapes and values that first attract your eyes to interesting paintings have...

Bands of Color This exercise is designed to hone your wash-laying skills in the form of single strokes of color laid down side by side in whatever pattern your first stroke takes. The object is to concentrate on the white line you are forming between each stroke. Try not to touch any previous strokes, keeping the white lines of unpainted paper unbroken. Mix several puddles of different colors on your watercolor palette. I used a round #10 red sable for most of this exercise. A round #4 red sable was used to add smaller variations in the gaps. A larger...

The Classic The Classic grip for holding a watercolor brush is much like the way you hold a pen or pencil for writing. The only difference being that you (for the most part) are gripping the brush further from the business end of things. Pick up your brush and grip the thickest part of the handle above the ferrulle—the body of the brush—and hold it like you are getting ready to write a letter. Remember writing? Weigh the brush in your hand, roll it with your fingers, find the balance of the brush in your grip. Since you are holding...

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,...

What are the professional watercolorists preferences for tools and colors? The following lists include color, paper and brush preferences of accomplished, professional artists, past and present. For some artists, it doesn't take much in the way of materials to make great art. CHARLES BURCHFIELD (1893-1967) Paper: Early work - mounted light weight HP Strathmore; Mid career - HP, CP or Rough, usually CP Whatman or Arnold; Late career - mould-made rag papers, gelatine sized. Brushes/Palette: 1 pointed red sable, 3 straight black sable (camel hair) brights, 4 diagonally trimmed brights, 2 pig bristle brights cut short (for scrubbing). Palette used...

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...