Watercolor Painting Techniques

As a watercolorist, I learn the techniques of drawing and painting when I was in junior high school. I did not have any books to read. I learned the basic drawing and painting techniques from my art teacher. However, listening to his explanations alone was not enough. I could only understand the techniques when I created some artworks by myself. From sketching to mixing colors, to using brush, I mastered them from doing a lot of painting exercises in watercolor. Watercolor is one of the most difficult medias that cannot easily be mastered even by experienced artists. Even tough it is a complicated media, watercolor has a unique property which other painting and drawing medias do not possess. Watercolor is translucent meaning that the background white color from the paper brightens the layers of colors of the painting that you have created on the paper. The luminosity of the colors breathes life to your painting. The fluidity of watercolor often makes artists become frustrated when creating a painting. If this is the first time for you to paint in watercolor, I suggest that you begin making your artwork using small size cold press paper (for example A4) supplied by Canson. Artists need a lot of exercises to master the painting techniques of wet on wet. As a watercolorist, I do not recommend you to create artworks using wet on wet painting techniques unless you are ready to get the results that you want to make or create. I also used to experience the same problem. When an artist create a drawing or painting, he or she must determine the focal point of the artwork. The focal point has to be composed using various tones of colors to make the painting looks three dimensional or attractive depending on the subject that is being painted. The application of perspective drawing will not be enough to bring the subject to live. Coloring it with dark and light colors will. So, the combination of perspective drawing with the application of various tones of colors really determines whether the watercolor painting is really a beautiful artwork or not.

To create a beautiful painting, besides mastering the basic techniques of drawing and painting, artists need to use materials whose quality are excellent. Online art supplies shops now offer high quality products on the internet. Read the product reviews from experienced artists who have used them carefully before you decide to buy the watercolor painting materials for yourself. If you are not sure about the type of paper, the size of brushes and the watercolor paints that you have to choose, don't worry about it. In this article, I am not going to give you a detailed description of how to create a drawing with graphite pencil and then color it with watercolor. I only want to recommend a book that I believe is suitable for beginning watercolor artist. If you want to learn the watercolor painting techniques by yourself, you can read a book entitled Watercolor Workshop. It was written by Glynish Barnes - Mellish. The book is divided into 5 main parts as follows:

Introduction

Materials and Techniques: paint and other materials; paper; brushes; brushstrokes; color wheel; color mixing; color blends; useful color mixes; washes; building a painting; paint effects; composition; sketching

Color: Vibrant colors, Gallery; Tuscan landscapes; Ballet shoes; Cherries

Tone: Light and dark, Gallery: Geese in the park; Peony in a jar; Boats on a canal

Perspective: Creating Depths with Colors, Gallery: Field gate; Wild hare; Street Scene

Focus: Focal Point, Gallery: Chair by window; Cliffs and beach; Portrait

Glossary

Index

Acknowledgments