The essentials in Watercolor Painting
Guess what I found in my classmates drawing book 😊
Later I have plans of buying Brustro artist paints.
Figure: Different types of brushes
Figure: water and tissues
Figure: A palette
Figure: A palette
Figure: HB pencils, erasers and sharpner!
Figure: A kneaded eraser
Figure: Watercolor Pencils
Now that we have the color wheel, let's see what else we need before we get started or rather the resources!
"Art is the only way to run away without leaving home."
– Twyla Tharp
Of course the first thing for watercolor painting would be the watercolors itself!
WATERCOLOR
Watercolors are made from particles of pigment bound together by an adhesive agent such as gum arabic. Many brands are available in the market and almost all have both student's quality and artist's quality watercolors with the difference in the Pigment concentration. Student's quality are less expensive but not as finely ground as artist's quality. And artist's quality tend to be more intense and permanent than student's quality paints.
Since I am just in the process of learning I didn't want to spend too much money so for the time being I am using my old poster colors and camlin tubes and recently purchased water color cakes for students (but I don't prefer this. I would have rather bought the camlin artist water color. It's lockdown and I couldn't find it online so settled with student one!).
Or may be even the 12 colours set. But that's when I have learned enough. I would recommend the same to all. It wouldn't be 'wise' to spent too much money at this point not just in paints but for any of the equipments that we may feel needed. Mainly because each one us is unique with an unique style. So first get acquainted with your own style and preferences and then accordingly be choosy. But for the start, basic required items of not so bad standard should be enough! But again, there are many varieties available in the basic items as well. But as we saw previously, we can make any shades with our primary colors... Yellow, Red and Blue
.
So, any good grade paints to take off will do! And, then how can we paint without those brushes.
BRUSHES
Technically, a painting brush is a brush made by clamping bristles to a handle with a ferrule. The main parts of a brush are the bristles or hair, ferrule and handle. Ferrule is the metal clamp which attaches bristles to the handle. Handle may be made of wood or plastic... Mostly wood.
There are so many varieties of brushes and different brands out there differing in sizes, shapes and the type of hair or bristles. The main criteria in choosing a brush should be it's water carrying or holding capacity (after all we are working with watercolor) and retaining that unique 'spring' (no matter how you use the brush, once free the hairs should come back to its original shape).
Let's see the different types of brushes available.
Sizes:
There's a range of sizes available from very thin to thick hairs enabling us to make thin lines or details in a painting to covering large areas in one stroke. But brush sizes can vary with brush shapes, brands and even the measuring units differ for different types. Most common sizes that we can get online are mostly a set of 7 to 13 brushes... sizes #0, #2, #4, #6, #8, #10, #12, #14, #16, #18, #20, #22, #24.
Shapes:
There are different shapes of brushes available in the market... Quite enough to confuse any normal person! But as a beginner the less we have the better. That's what I feel. The different types are as follows:
Round brushes:
Most of our works can be accomplished using round brushes. From very thin lines for details to broader strokes can be achieved using the different sizes of round brushes. But all this only if the brush we choose has a good pointed tip! This can be checked by dipping the brush into water and shaking the water off; it should form a fine point.
Size #0 represent the thinner brush and #24 the bigger brush.
Flat brushes:
Another very popular type is the flat watercolor brush. It produces good straight edges and can block in color quickly.
Mop and Wash brushes:
Apart from these two most common types there are mop and wash brushes. They are mostly intended for loose work covering a large area and even produce very fine lines and details.
Relatively speaking, the size of Mop brush with number 6 will be equivalent to a number 16 round brush.
Rigger brushes:
They have long hairs and excellent for making fine long lines, curves etc. And, it can hold more paint and water at once.
Size 1 Rigger would be a perfect choice for details.
Photo Credits: Internet
There are many more types available but as a beginner one large brush for washes and one or two small brush for details should be more than enough. My personal choices are round brushes #0, #8, #12. Just need to make sure that the round brushes form a fine point when dipped into water and shaken.
Along with sizes and shapes, different brushes with different types of bristles are also available.
Hair Types:
Bristles may be natural or synthetic.
Natural hair or pony or sable brushes have a higher water holding capacity and since watercolors are generally heavily pigmented , they work very well for it. The best brushes for watercolor are made from Kolinsky saple (taken from the tail of Kolinsky, a kind of weasel) but they are pretty expensive!
Synthetic brushes on the other hand, are great for detailing because they can pick up more pigment and less water. These days, synthetic brushes are being developed that hold as much water as natural hair and closely resemble their properties. Synthetic brushes also have more spring than natural hair.
As a beginner, synthetic brushes is the perfect choice.
Ok, we have the watercolors and we have good pointed round brushes. Now what? Where do we paint? Of course, the paper!
PAPER
We can compromise a bit on anything but for watercolor painting, the quality of our creations would absolutely depend on the quality of the paper that we work on. The paper should be thick enough to sustain the number of washes that may be needed (Washes are nothing but large strokes covering more area) without buckling. There are different types of papers available based on weight, sizes and texture.
Based on the texture the watercolor papers can be classified into:
1. Hot pressed (HP)
2. Cold pressed (NOT)
3. Rough.
These are available in different weights, measured in grams per square metre (gsm).
1. Light: 190 gsm
2. Medium: 300 gsm
3. Heavy: 640 gsm
The watercolor paper should be of heavier weight and made with additives called "sizing" that allows it to absorb moisture in the proper way. The sizing reduces the sheet’s flexibility when dry and allows a slow seeping of wet paint into the fibers so that the paper remain flat, have an even color tone, and doesn't pill or tear.
Paper is made using a mixture of water and cellulose fibers. In a artist's quality paper these fibres will be cotton. Paper made from cotton is often referred to as "rag paper". They tend to be costly. Less expensive papers are made using wood pulp, or sometimes a combination of cotton and other cellulose fibers.
A professional watercolor paper is real cotton and 100% acid-free, which means the white surface will not turn yellow over the years.
Hot pressed:
• Highly compressed paper.
• Has a smooth, hard surface.
• Good for detailed works.
• But not suitable for loose watercolor painting where too much water will make the paper wavy and paints to blot up as very little pigment penetrates beyond sitting on the surface.
Cold pressed:
• Semi-compressed paper
• Also referred to as "Not paper" meaning not hot-pressed!
• Most popular in watercolor painting
• Has a semi-rough texture also known as toothy surface.
• Suitable for both detailed works and washes.
• Some pigment penetrates deeper into the fibers.
• Suitable for landscapes.
Rough:
• Loosely compressed paper.
• Has more pronounced tooth or bumpiness.
• Good for washes.
• The pigment seeps even deeper into the fibers of rough paper.
As a beginner, I would recommend to go for cold-pressed watercolor papers with 300 gsm or more. Out of experience I would say 100% cotton and 300gsm or more paper is the best choice but the availability is pretty limited online. I don't know, may be I hadn't looked enough. But I wanted an A4 size sketch pad but I couldn't find anywhere. (I would really appreciate any help and recommendations in this regard!). Finally had settled with 25% cotton 300 gsm paper!
Now, we have the colours, the brushes and the paper. Just a few items thats needed for a neat execution.
Water and tissue papers!!!
WATER and TISSUES:
It's recommended to use a minimum of two glasses or bottles of water... One to risne off the paint from the used brush and other to wet the brush before going to a different color so as not to contaminate the colors on the paper. And, a tissue paper to dab off excess water or paint from the brush and even paper.
Photo Credits: Internet
For easy access to the paints we may use a palette.
PALETTE
Many different types of palettes are available in different shapes and sizes and material. Cheaper plastic ones to more expensive ceramic palettes are available. Palette with different number of compartments for paints and a plain palette are available.
Photo Credits: Internet
As a beginner, it would be good to start off with a plastic palette havings wells or compartments to keep colors and also separate compartments for mixing of colours.
Photo Credits: Internet
OTHER ESSENTIALS
Keeping a few other items within reach will make this journey smooth and well planned!
A pencil preferably HB just in case we need to draw an outline for our segments or any drawing that we may need to do. HB would be neither dark nor hard... Won't leave an impression on the paper if we use it lightly. Can be erased off after the paint has dried using an eraser.
Photo Credits: Internet
A kneaded eraser is rubbery and can knead like dough or putty, shaping it to form a small point to get into smaller areas of the painting. This kind of eraser won't leave crumbs behind as we erase the lines.
Photo Credits: Internet
A scale or roller might be of use at times. So check that too.
Figure: A scale
Photo Credits: Internet
There are a set of color pencils available that are water soluble. They come as watercolor pencils. They can also come in handy. Well, instead of HB pencils watercolor pencils can be used (if possible) and there won't be any need to erase them as they would get merged into our water colour.
Photo Credits: Internet
Okay 👏 I think we are now too good to go 👍.
Experiment and find out what suits you. As I said everyone is unique and so would be the styles and hence the preferences. And the mediums, papers are all selective. Different type of papers will be advantageous for different kinds of painting.
This is just a beginning. A start of journey towards self discovery!
🙏
28.05.2021
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