Introduction to Watercolor Painting
Paint, paper, water and a brush – that’s all you need to start painting with watercolor.
Here are brief introductions to these basics. Students are practicing watercolor basics.
Brushwork gives the watercolor artist a chance to express their own personality, and with time and practice, becomes as unique as handwriting. It works in tandem with color choices and subject matter to help define an artist’s style.
Washes are the backbone of watercolor painting. A wash is differentiated from a brushstroke by size…a wash covers much more of the paper than can be accomplished in a single swipe of the brush (unless you are using a VERY large brush!). Washes are used to fill in large background areas, or to create underlying forms that will subsequently have more detail and deeper tones painted over them. There are three basic types of washes: flat, graduated or graded, and wet-into-wet.
Textures as used in art are either actual (the rough irregular surface of gesso dabbed on thickly with a sponge for example), invented (unique marks that “feel” textural to the eye) or simulated (drawn or painted marks designed to mimic real textures like wood grain, hair or grass) Watercolor, unlike oil or acrylic, is a THIN-BODIED paint. That means that when it is used as intended (diluted with water), you can’t achieve actual impasto textures as you can with oil or acrylic paints.
It is very time consuming to practice every watercolor exercise there is, for this reason students will be creating washes, textures, and dry brush on their projects.
