Watercolor painting in both figurative and abstracted work, where you let your feelings go its own way. But whether you want to paint with your feeling or with your mind, it is always necessary to master the technique, otherwise it becomes a mess that nobody cares about.
Where you asked yourself whether it matters really matter which Watercolor paper to use, types of brushes, watercolor paint – types of paint, basic tools and extra requirements, practice makes perfect, watercolor techniques and, the list goes on…..
The possibilities with watercolor paint are countless. But before you start with this creative expression, first something about the materials you need:
Watercolor paper
Paper is available in many types, cheap and expensive, good quality or bad. I advise you not to experiment with cheap paper. If you then switch to better paper, the results are often completely different again. So buy a good paper from a art store. You can buy this paper in all shapes and sizes, single sheets or on a block of 10 or more sheets. A block is useful because the paper will not stand up so quickly. Use 200 gsm paper, 300 gsm or higher, you can also buy per sheet.
For watercolors you have special brushes, which you do not use for other types of paint. They are usually soft brushes. The image shows a spalter at the top, which you use for large surfaces and for the rough work. For the fine work you use different brushes, such as a trowel brush; With this you can draw long straight lines or write texts in your work. To draw a straight line with a tug you can use a ruler as an aid.
Watercolor pencils
You can buy paint in tubes and pans, but there are also water color crayons and pencils available. If you have big plans with watercolors, I advise you to buy tubes. But also with the pans you can advance a good time. There is a lot of quality difference in paint. The more expensive varieties, such as the Rembrandt paint from Talens, contain more pigment and have a higher colourfastness. The colors are deeper and more intense.
Basic tools
- Water – Always put at least two containers of clean water, a bowl to rinse your brush and a container to make the paint and make your watercolor paper wet
- Sponge – to wet large surfaces
- Tissues – to dab paint
- Heat gun – to dry painted parts faster
- Masking fluid – to save white parts of your paper(un-painted.).
- Pencil and eraser – in case you want to make a drawing first
- Pallet with wells to mix colors
Practice makes perfect
It is said of watercolor that it is the most difficult painting technique and that is true, because you can not paint over it if there is a mistake. Moreover, you must already know in advance which parts should remain white or light. You can not correct that later, unless with white acrylic paint, but that often becomes a mess. Just assume that, before you are satisfied with your work, there are already a few failures in the trash. That happens to me regularly too. In that respect I could put ‘patience’ and ‘perseverance’ on the list of requirements.
Watercolor techniques
- Work from light to dark paint.
- Layer paint to get rich colors.
- Use painter’s tape to preserve the edges
- Cardboard to stretch the paper
- Use salt or alcohol for interesting effect
You may also like to check out:
