Watercolor Lesson Series

Hi watercolor enthusiasts! Yes, watercolor is said to be "hard and difficult" and do you know why? Water! It is wet, fluid, affected by gravity, evaporates and is absorbed into the paper at varying rates; not like oils or even acrylics. and is it fun and challenging. So, as an instructor in watercolor at the University of Washington in Seattle, i am going to begin a series of watercolor lessons for interested beginners on this blog. i hope you like the series and pardon my bad jokes when i tell them as there is a purpose behind them: reducing your fears or reticence (form of fear) so that you can engage the exercises and gain confidence. Here we go!

For this first Blog, I will set you up with materials at a more reasonable cost and a few exercises to get you going until two weeks from now.
Materials:
Materials purchased online via mail order companies are on average 50% cheaper than in retail stores and that is the way i suggest you go. I use Art Supply Warehouse (aswexpress.com) due to their large inventory and great prices (and no they are not paying me for this). Others are Cheap Joes, Blicks, Artorama and others. Do your research and compare both prices and inventory. iwill suggest all student grade materials below as your effort here is to paint not be a master. The more paint on the paper the more learning occurs.

Brushes: brushes are your most important purchase. you need a watercolor brush, not bristle brush, that both absorbs water and springs back when used. Many quality brushes have a combination of synthetics and sable hairs. Student grade watercolor brushes are usually synthetic. DO NOT BUY BRUSHES THAT ARE GOAT, SQUIRREL, CAMEL, YETI OR AUNT HILDA'S HAIR! Why? they absorb water (not sure about Aunt Hilda's) but will not spring back to a vertical position and flop over instead. You cannot paint this way and it will be the tools fault, not yours.

At a minimum:
(1) one large round, about a 16 pt. minimum and the student grade brushes are a bit smaller than the professional grade. I use Winsor Newton Septre Series but these are professional grade brushes and more expensive. I urge you not to spend money on small brushes. Why? They will not hold a "charge" or water volume in the brush. they are good for final detail and signing your name.

(1) One inch flat brush, for larger washes like sky and other applications. I also use a wash brush, 2 or more inches in width but they are expensive.

(1) optional 10pt or 12pt round for smaller shapes and detail.

Paper:
again, student grade only...

140 lb. cold pressed watercolor paper in tablet or spiral form, block pads (edges are glued to pull the paper tight as it absorbs water); do not get any paper lighter than 140 lb. as the buckling will really create too many valleys and bulges that will affect your washes

I use hot press but do not recommend it for beginners as it is smoother, runs faster and leaves more blemishes...which i like as it causes me to work faster and staying looser.

the student grade papers are cheaper and have a gesso like finish but will allow you to play and experiment so dont have great expectations on results. and you can use both sides of most papers as you are practicing.

Pads are usually 9 x 12 in size and I suggest not getting anything smaller.

Pallettes:
you want a decent paint pallette with at least eight or more pigment wells (the place you put your pigment ($) in) and three to four good sized mixing wells (the place you mix the pigments with water). you want to keep diluting water excess away from the pigment wells as you will be losing pigment ($).

Plastic rectangular and circular pallettes are inexpensive. I urge you not to get a field or sketching pallette as they just are not large enough to be effective except when travelling.
When you purchase the pallette, wash is with a dish detergent and a scrubby type sponge as many have some coating that makes your washes bead up for awhile.

Other pallette choices include metal with enamel interior which I like, ceramic plates as in dinner plates. Do not invest in wash cups, to be explained later.

Pigments:
There are lots of new pigments on the market. Later you can have fun and explore them. I suggest that you stick to the basic three families of color pallettes, in student grade paints, and learn how to mix and use these before moving on to exotic paints.

Manufacturers include (student grade name in ()): Grumbacher (Academy), Winsor Newton (Cotman), Da Vinci and many more. Here is the critical rule: do not buy any watercolor that does not have a common name: yellow ochre, cobalt blue, rose madder (all common names). Say no to "blue, red, " etc.

Delicate Transparent Pallette (bright and delicate meaning they can be lifted off of paper after dried with a brush and clear water and blotter)
Rose Madder (red)
Cobalt Blue (blue)
Azo or Aureleon Yellow
Veridian is a mixing green that is optional, not pleasant by itself and used to mix and cool other colors.

Staining Transparent Palette (bright and intense and will not come out of paper after application i.e. stains)
In professional grade paints, the stains are often called by the manufacturer's name, such as Winsor Red, Grumbacher Red etc. In most other cases they are called pthalo, intense, permanent.

pthalo red, yellow and blue
I often use a pthalo green as a mixing color for getting darks as well as alizarin crimson, a cooler red and great for mixing (be careful it will glow if over-used).

Opaque Transparent Pallette (oxymoron i know but they are transparent and chalkier as they do not totally dissolve)

Cadmium Red (great color but not a great mixing color as it gets "foggy" or murky)
Cerulean Blue
Yellow Ochre

Other colors that i like and use a lot are: Cadmium yellow and orange, burnt sienna, Ultramarine Blue, Indian Yellow.

Other Materials:
paper towels
soft pencil (not softer than a 3B as softer pencils can get oily due to density and hard to come out of paper and they can smear)
kneaded erasure (I do not recommend erasing at all!)
water container such as a margarine type for cleaning brushes and getting water during painting
water reservoir if painting outside or away from water source, such as hiking jugs
one inch drafting tape if desired (not masking tape as this kind can dry and tear paper when being removed)
object to elevate your watercolor paper when working so you create a minimum of 30% angle to bring gravity into picture
brush holder that breaths and has a bottom so you dont lose your brushes; if you use a hard container punch some holes into it so you dont mold your brushes
backpack

And, set up a place at home that is YOUR place; small desk whatever...so that you can start painting immediately without having to clean up and get all materials out each time you paint--this helps reduce "circling the wagons" avoidance.

Okay, a couple of basic exercises to get you going, get you familiar with tools, get you familiar with what your pigments are like and how to begin mixing pigments and water.


First, the Basics of Painting Techniques:
There are many ways to paint in watercolor and there are a number of ways to begin with that are conventional and very useful: WET ON WET, WET ON DRY, GLAZING, MERGING

WET ON WET (developed in the southwest of US in hot dry climates)
this provides water in the paper prior to adding a wash in order to better control evaporation and drying. Wet the paper in your rectangles 3x5 with clear water, let the shininess disappear (water is now in paper fibre and not floating on top reflecting light) and then immediately add your wash--see how the water in paper grabs your application and gently or quickly moves your wash around and creates a soft edge.

WET ON DRY (DIRECT METHOD)
This is the method I use and consists of bring a wet wash to dry paper. more control and leaves a dry edge unless you bring water to that edge and keep working it (more later)

GLAZING AND MERGING
Glazing is simply applying another wash over another DRIED WASH and creating a transparent or translucent color effect. DO NOT GO OVER A DAMP WASH AS THE WATER REMAINING IN THE PAPER WILL GRAB YOUR NEW WASH AND SPREAD AND MIX IT INTO MUD. LEAVE IT ALONE! Merging as described below can also be glazed over a previous DRIED WASH.

Exercise One: Three values for each pigment.
This may seem like a bit tedious but it is not. for each color in your three families of colors, paint each one three times in 3x5 rectanles with one being very light, two being rich and in middle value and three being as dark as you can paint it. if you go too far then I give you a gold star as you now know what too far is instead of a cautious and ineffetive "dark". It is okay to "fail". Mark the colors. If you go too far, usually you will see a shininess to wash as the pigment is so thick that there is no light getting to paper as it is being reflected back to you.

Exercise Two: Merging Washes
Instead of regular mono- or same washes, I like to start my students out on merged washes as a prelude to mixing colors on the paper as well as on the pallette.

for each family of colors, mix at least two colors together on the pallette and paint in a 3x5 rectangle; e.g. mix red and yellow to get orange;
below that rectangle, put the yellow down, immediately put the red down and push it into the yellow about a quarter to half inch minimum and mix some red and yellow in pallette for an orange and add that as well, repeat and keep going with all three colors until you achieve a merge wash. If you look at my work on the web site, www.ronkasprisin.com, you will see a lot of merging in all of my work.

More next week.
Have fun painting
Ron Kasprisin AIA