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What is Watercolor Painting ?
Watercolor painting can be defined
as that technique of painting that involves the use of colors
dissolved in water. The most common material used in this form
of painting is paper; the other materials include canvas,
plastic, wood, fabric, wood, leather, papyrus and bark papers.
The beginning of watercolor painting
Though not considered as a typical example of olden day
watercolor painting, the wall painting, technically known as the
buon fresco painting of the olden days (during the Egyptian and
Roman civilization), involved the use of water and paints. One
of the finest examples of such painting is Michelangelo’s
Sistine Chapel; this piece of art took 6 years for completion –
from 1508 to 1514.
Typically watercolor painting signifies the use of brush and
paint in the Asian history of art. In fact Asian works of art
has a long and rich history in several parts of the world. The
watercolor painting was extensively used in Chinese and Japanese
works, mostly with the drastic colors like black and brown.
Besides China and Japan, India and Ethiopia also has a long
history of watercolor painting.
Various cartoons also used watercolor paintings. The famous
Albrecht Durer from Germany used watercolors for all his works,
including those of different landscapes. Albrecht Durer’s
concept gave rise to the Durer Renaissance that was responsible
for the birth of one of the most important schools of watercolor
painting led by Hans Bol.
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Some of the famous watercolor
painters are – Van Dyck, Claude and Giovanni Benedetto
Castiglione.
The British school of watercolor
painting
The English or British school of watercolor painting dates back
to the seventeenth century. This school specializes in the
different landscape subjects and is one of the most religiously
followed traditions in Europe. The famous British painters
include – Alexander Cozens, William Gilpin, Thomas Girtin, John
Sell Cotman, Thomas Gainsborough, Francis Towne, Paul Sandby,
Richard Parkes Bonnington, William Blake, John Constable and JMW
Turner
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Besides the English painting style,
the other style that came into prominence in the first half of
twentieth century (1920 to be precise) is the ‘California Style’
of work. The pioneer of this style can be credited to Milford
Zornes. His style became hugely popular due to the type of
paintings that relied on very detailed pencil drawing. Milford’s
style typically involves the generous use of transparent washes
of color on big paper sheets, permitting the white color to
highlight the various shapes.
The
various techniques used in watercolor painting
The conventional watercolor method involves the use of brushes;
however, in the present scenario you can either use other
mediums or just mix it with others like collage or acrylic.
Typically the colorant is diluted with water before the painting
so that the lighter areas become bright and clear. This happens
as light passes through the transparent area giving it a
freshness and clarity and reflecting back to the watcher.
Generally the white portion of the paper is the white color that
is used in transparent watercolor; obviously as evident, opaque
shades are avoided for attaining the white color.
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About
the watercolor paints
The conventional paints used in watercolor painting is made out
of ingredients like powdered pigment that is fused with gum
acacia (Gum from an acacia tree; used as a thickener) to give
the body and honey or glycerol (A sweet syrupy trihydroxy
alcohol obtained by saponification of fats and oils) to give the
desired thickness as well as to allow the color to adhere the
paper or the surface needed for painting. The other substances
used are some unpigmented fillers that are mixed with the
traditional watercolor or gouache to give some opacity and some
clove oil to prevent the formation of fungus. Depending on the
percentage of the ingredients used, the transparency of the
paints differs from one another. In the case of very transparent
paints, the paper (the medium) can be seen through by the
viewer. Watercolor paints have no white color, thus letting the
artist to leave some areas unpainted even in the final work. The
white color is generally used to signify snow or the foam of the
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There are some colorants that are
termed as “Fugitive”. These characteristic of these colors are
that when they are exposed in light they start to become
lighter. One of the examples of such a shade that I can recall
right away is Alizarin Crimson. However, there are some
companies that are successful in creating certain shades which
are slightly less ‘fugitive’ than their counterpart and are
differentiated by the word ‘hue’. Thus when you come across two
shades, Alizarin Crimson and Alizarin Crimson Hue, remember that
the latter is less fugitive than the former. Another common term
associated with watercolors is ‘staining’. These are very strong
shades and cannot be removed from the medium on which it is
worked upon.
What is meant by ‘Wet-in-Wet’
painting ?
There are two ways for the application of paints on the surface
to give some special effects; these methods are ‘wet-in-wet’
painting and ‘dry brush’. The wet-in-wet method is used to
nullify the hard edged effect at the border of the paint. As the
name suggests, it is a wet paint that flows on a wet surface.
The technique of this paint is to dampen the surface with water
and then lightly paint it with much diluted color. When the
color spreads over the wet surface, a soft and flowy effect is
created. If the artist wishes to apply extra layers, he or she
can do it once this dries up. I personally prefer this technique
as it does come up with some wonderful results.
What is meant by ‘Dry brush’
painting ?
As opposed to the “wet-in-wet” method, the dry brush method is
used to give some hard and rough appearance to the paintings.
They are generally applied to define the bark of a tree, moving
sun rays on the surface of the stream or even some part of the
rocky mountain. The special equipment for this painting is a
heavy brush dipped in viscous paint; the paint is then lightly
pulled on the dry medium.
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Article Contributed By: Sukanaya
Banerjee
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