How To WaterColor

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April 26, 2010

Let me start by telling you that painting with watercolors is more difficult than any other painting technique. Knowing this should not keep you from trying to master the watercolor technique because watercolor paintings are also the most beautiful paintings around. Just go for it and let your imagination and creativity lead you. Ones you master watercolor painting, any other painting technique will be like a walk in the park.

how-to-watercolor-pans

Before you start though make sure you have the following watercolor art supplies around either from your local art shop or your favorite online watercolor paint supplies store. You will need; watercolor paper, watercolor paint (tubes or pans just make sure it is quality paint), distilled water, watercolor brushes (quality preferred), and something you can not buy at the store creativity.

Having all the supplies you need does not mean that there is nothing more to know. You will need some knowledge on the techniques on how to watercolor. You need to know what kind of paint to use. Find information on some essentials of what kind of paint to use for your watercolor painting. If you just go ahead and use any kind of paint you will be very disappointed in the result although the painting is quite good but the wrong choice of paint ruined your painting.

Also the choice of watercolor paper is something you might struggle with, the best tip I can give here is try a few different kinds and see what works best for you. Paper and brushes are usually very personal.

As for water I advice you to use distilled water, this does not contain any acids so your painting will not fade after a while because of the acids. Most city water contains chloride which will fade the colors in your painting.

As mentioned before already watercolor brushes is something personal but most of the watercolor artists walk away with sable hair natural hair brushes or the squirrel hair brush. They might be a bit more expensive but well worth it.

Last but not least is your imagination and creativity these two things will make your watercolor painting the most outstanding because it is all yours and because of that so unique. But just go out there and paint it takes a lot of practice and failure before you can hand over the knowledge on how to watercolor.

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Watercolor Paper

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April 24, 2010
Were you ever looking for the right watercolor paper and just got lost? Well I was lost, the amount of various brands available, the different surfaces, various weights and the sizing. So in order to make it easier, not only to make a good choice but to make the best choice in watercolor paper, I put some information together on the different surfaces, various weights and sizing. This helped me enormously at making the best choice. I hope the information will help you as much as it helps me.

WaterColor Paper

I found that one of the most essential details of watercolor paper is that there are the different surfaces available. Machine-made watercolor papers come in three surfaces: rough, hot-pressed or HP, and cold-pressed (aka NOT). Now if you were to make a choice based on this you would need to know a bit more on the different surfaces. Let me help you.

Hot pressed paper is very smooth, like a cotton shirt after ironing, rough paper is highly textured, and cold press is somewhere between the two. Cold press is probably the most commonly used because watercolors are harder to control on smooth paper and rough tends to create more texture than many artists prefer. Besides machine made watercolor paper there is also handmade paper still available but these are quite expensive as you could imagine. It is a very nice experience though painting on handmade watercolor paper. Now don’t base your discussion only on the type of surface but also pay attention to the weight of the paper.

The weight of watercolor paper is an indication of its thickness , measured either in grams per square meter (gsm) or pounds per ream (lb). The standard machine weights are 190 gsm (90 lb), 300 gsm (140 lb), 356 gsm (260 lb), and 638 gsm (300 lb). For Paper less than 260 lb it’s recommended you stretch the paper before use, otherwise it’s likely to buckle. More about stretching paper here. Now the price will make the big difference here, but don’t get tempted to get the cheap paper as will have a big impact on the quality of your painting. Sizing is another aspect of your watercolor paper to pay attention too.

Sizing of watercolor paper is the treatment of the fibers, that make up the paper, with gelatin to make those fibers less absorbent. Some times watercolor paper is sized during the production process, here all fibers are sized, other paper have the sizing painted on afterward. Here only the outside is sized so you have to be careful when you rub or scrub your painting not to remove the sizing. Without the sizing your watercolor paper would be like a cloth napkin, now you try and paint on that :-)

As you can see choosing the right watercolor paper is not something that you should take lightly, please pay close attention to the surface, the weight and the sizing of your watercolor paper before you buy. Now what brand of paper is something else this is something very personal.

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