Watercolor is the soul wide open

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Our first acquaintance with watercolor occurs in childhood. "Masterpieces" of children's painting are drawn with these unpretentious colors. School years are also not complete without watercolor drawings.

Probably for this reason we treat her like a child, not seriously. But when we see the watercolor drawings created by the artists, we freeze in contemplation of this beauty. And we wonder how you can create such splendor with simple watercolors familiar from childhood.

A bit of history

Watercolor has been known to people since ancient times. This is the first paint that man learned to make, along with ocher. Egyptian pharaohs wrote in watercolor on papyri. Since the very technique of drawing with such paints was laborious, it was forgotten for a long time. Mostly tempera or oil paints were used.

In ancient Rome and Greece, watercolor was used for the background or for painting contours when creating frescoes. And in China, it became popular only after the invention of paper. Combining watercolor paints with black and colored ink, silk fabrics were painted in Japan. And Chinese artists have learned to paint portraits and landscapes with watercolors.

In Europewatercolor painting did not take root for a long time. It wasn't until the 18th century, when painters began to use contour easing and shading, that it became strong and effective. A vivid example of this is Albrecht Dürer's Hare, which has already become a textbook.

Watercolor painting in Russia

The first artist of watercolor painting in Russia was Sokolov Petr Fedorovich. It was he who widely used watercolor in his works. He painted landscapes, portraits, genre paintings. Thanks to his works, you can find out what the life and customs of the distant past of our ancestors were like.

In the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, when there were still no photographs, watercolor was a huge success among the Russian people. The easy application of the paints and the fast execution made tedious and lengthy hours of posing a thing of the past. And the transparent and airy coloring appealed to Russian society.

Watercolor portraits were ordered by all members of the royal family, the nobility and the middle class, ministers, diplomats, secular beauties. It was prestigious and fashionable to have a collection of watercolors in the home arsenal. Later on, such famous artists as K. Bryullov, M. Vrubel, V. Serov, I. Bilibin painted their paintings.

Modern artists have improved the technique of working with watercolors beyond recognition. The drawings are realistic and accurate. Artists of our time reject all textbook techniques and methods of working with these paints. And they get amazing drawings filled with transparent light, gentle tones andas close to reality as possible.

Watercolor composition

So what is watercolor? These are pigments, finely ground, glues of vegetable origin, which quickly dissolve in water. Usually it is gum arabic and dextrin. To retain moisture, honey, sugar, glycerin are added. So that the watercolor spreads well, and does not gather into drops, ox bile is introduced into it. In order to prevent the material from becoming moldy, phenol is introduced.

What are watercolor paints

There are several types of watercolors. Each type is good in its own way, but they all have disadvantages. Watercolor is made in several forms:

• Liquid paints in a tube.
• Soft paints in cuvettes.
• Solid colors in tiles.

Each type of watercolor has its own advantages and disadvantages. Liquid watercolors are perfectly diluted with water, do not get dirty during work and during storage. The disadvantage is that they quickly begin to peel and dry.

Soft and hard watercolor gets dirty during work and dissolves in water much worse. But they are not subject to stratification and do not dry out during storage. And yet, such paint cannot be taken on a brush as much as necessary. What can not be said about liquid watercolors.

Color quality

What should be a quality watercolor? These are durable layers after drying, which do not stain hands, do not wipe and do not crack. High-quality watercolor paints are an even layer, without all sorts of spots, streaks and clots of paint. Good watercolor is color transparencyand easy rinsing from paper with water.

Beginning artist

The most suitable watercolor for beginners is school honey. The paint is ordinary, it is cheap, the quality is good. The composition includes honey as a plastic base. Everything else is synthetic substances that dissolve well in water.

Professionals advise to take expensive materials for work. But for a beginner, this is a financially expensive business, given the quality of the drawings. School honey watercolor is perfect. You can only take paper and brushes of higher quality.

Such watercolors are sold in a plastic pallet with cells. Paint is poured into the cells; it will not work to change the used cuvette, as in professional kits. You need to change the whole box, or you will have to buy another one. This is inconvenient, but more cost-effective than acquiring expensive prof. paint.

Of the domestic paints, Sonnet and White Nights have proven themselves well - an ideal solution for those who take watercolor lessons for the first time. These paints fit perfectly on paper, tend to mix well with each other. The color scheme is calm and saturated. Paints do not fade for a long time, resistant to light.

What you shouldn't skimp on is paper. It should not be smooth, but rough. Otherwise, the paints will simply drain, and not lay down with beautiful strokes.