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Painting is actually very similar to drawing. This article will focus on watercolour painting – because that is the medium I use.
The medium of watercolour provides great scope for expression, since it is very fluid (hence the name) and transparent.
Watercolours come in tubes or pans. I have always used pans but you may find tubes works best for you.
The initial cost of starting up can be quite expensive so its best to start with just one or two good brushes and a few different coloured paints. I have always found that it is not necessary to have a large range of different colours to paint with. I feel that this limits your ability to create your own shades of colour.
Good quality paper is very important. The types of paper available can be very confusing. 140lb paper is the type that I use as it is not too expensive and only requires a small amount of stretching before use. I always buy my paper loose, as it is cheaper.
Stretching involves submerging your paper in water for about 10 minutes and taping it down to dry. This will prevent the paper cockling.
The first wash could be considered the most important because it will show through all the other washes. Depending on the type of picture you are painting this wash could be one wash of colour that covers the whole paper or a graduated wash. I almost always use a graduated wash. This can be either tonal or colour graduation. Tonal is where one colour is used with different shades. Colour graduation is when one colour merges into another e.g. yellow to red.
For this article I will focus on three areas of watercolour painting:
1. wet on wet,
2. trees,
3. painting outside.
1. Wet in wet is probably the most dramatic of watercolour techniques, but also one of the most difficult to control. To produce wet in wet apply each new colour without allowing the previous one to dry, any colours applied will bleed into each other producing very soft, moody effects. When painting wet in wet you should take care to ensure subsequent colours contain less water than the original wash, in some cases use pure colour. This technique is very useful when painting skies and water. Try practising on scrap pieces of paper first before using it on your final piece, but never worry that it won’t look right. As you get more experience you will be able to control this technique and use it to good effect in your work.
2. Trees are a significant part of most landscape paintings. Trees, shrubs, bushes etc. appear in many shapes, sizes, and colours depending on the time of the year. The most common difficulty with trees is painting foliage. Many beginners end up with ugly blobs of green. Begin by wetting in the paper with clean water, then, with a strong mix of colour paint the trees in loosely using the wet on wet technique described earlier. If you do not get the effect you want straight away, don't give up. Keep trying and eventually you will develop a style which you will be able to use to paint realistic trees with a minimum of effort every time!
I would highly recommend that you go out and paint trees from life. Also do not be affraid to experiment with colour to achieve different effects.
3. When painting in the open air care should be taken in selecting equipment needed. Requirements for outdoor painting can be quite different to that of working in the studio. Do not fall into the trap of taking everything with you. Limit your equipment to the bare essentials of a few pencils, paints, brushes and paper. You may want to walk from site to site and the last thing you need is a mountain of equipment to carry about.
When I work in the open, I prefer to produce sketches that I can work up into a finished painting in the studio. These sketches are produced in either Indian Ink, pencil or charcoal and are monochromatic. I don’t usually add colour washes to these sketches. This forces me to consider tonal contrast.
The best reason to paint outside is that it gives you a great sense of achievement and it also adds emotion to your painting, usually based on the weather (usually: “why did I even bother to come out in this weather!?). These, unfortunately, can’t be reproduced very easily in the studio.
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