Painting in Watercolor 1: An Introduction
What makes Watercolor Special?
Watercolors are a translucent paint consisting of water (the solvent) pigment, gum arabic, which is a kind of tree sap, and various additives and preservatives. Because they are translucent, they are meant for glazing, which means painting in layers.
Watercolors are unique in that, to lighten your colors, you simply add water and dilute them. The white of the page is your white. This is why watercolor purists refuse to use white paint on their palette.
You should know, many great painters aren’t traditionalists. James Gurney keeps white gouache on his palette to go over things as needed. He also uses a white gel pen and white watercolor pencils. But, it’s good to at least try it the traditional way for awhile – choose which areas in your picture you want to leave blank white and carefully paint around them. It makes for good planning and practice. You see, using the white of the page looks different from painting over with white gouache and other things - so it's good to know different kinds of white and how, when, and where to use them.
Here's another example by Sargent. You'll note here, the statues have unpainted areas, using the white of the paper as his lightest lights. Then, he also used some gouache white, mixed with other colors to paint on top of the first layer, for bushes, reflections, and even people in the shadow areas. His use of gouache white looks totally different from the sunlit areas left blank, and this was intentional:
If you ask a great watercolor artist which skills are most important for success, most of them will advise you to focus on skills that are not specific to watercolor: improve your drawing, gain a better understanding of values and color mixing. Learn how to simplify what you see and add depth to your scene. These are general composition skills, applicable to all paint mediums. The only special skill that’s unique to watercolor is timing.
Timing is critical. How long to wait while your paper stretches. How long to wait for it to transition from wet to merely damp, and from damp to dry. How much water to keep in the brush and how much to release to get the desired effect. All this depends on timing.
This is critical to master in watercolor, and it only comes with many, many hours of practice.
Another feature that's unique to watercolors is that they always dry a lighter value. You may think your colors are quite dark or intense, only to find they seem faded when dry. But, that's okay, because you can always paint a new layer even darker or more intense, as needed.
Cakes & Tubes
Watercolor paints come in “cakes” and tubes. Both work really well. When you squeeze tube paint onto your palette, you can and should let it dry before you work with it, just so you don't use it up too fast. Be sure to put the caps back on your tubes! You do not want them to dry out in the tube!
For colors, you really only need a warm and cool variant of the primary colors. Some advanced painters will add in a variety of browns and greens as a time saving device when mixing. But, beginners can often fall in the trap of using these colors without mixing, resulting in strange, artificial color combinations. It's best to learn how to mix your own precise colors from the primaries, just as with acrylics. Once you've mastered that, you might consider adding in some premade browns or greens.
James Gurney prefers these colors (note, some may be fugitive, and/or light sensitive):
Payne’s grey
Ultramarine Blue
Cerulean Blue
Viridian
Lemon Yellow
Cadmium Yellow
Yellow Ochre
Raw Sienna
Sepia
Burnt Sienna
Cadmium Red
Alizarin Crimson
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