Advantages and Challenges of Painting With Watercolor
In the last blogs I introduced you to some of my paintings and focused on the inspirations and back stories for them.
In these next blogs I’ll share some of the materials and what I love about creating art with each type of paint.
To Begin A Watercolor Painting
We learn that creating is all about decision-making.
I have the image of the subject in my mind. It may be vague or very specific. If my idea is very specific, as I paint I loosen up and let it become what it will be, so I’m not frustrated with the gap between vision and execution. I usually start with some idea or a sketch.
I intuitavely choose my materials. Here are some questions that begin the process of gathering my materials.
Do I envision this picture with watercolor, gouache, acrylic, or mixed media?
Do I imagine it on canvas or paper?
What size painting do I envision? Does it need to be big or small?
Then I gather materials and begin to sketch either with a pencil or a paintbrush. Now the materials are part of the collaboration with questions like, “Do I use a pencil or a bold pen?… “If it’s canvas, how will I sketch it first??
Let’s focus on watercolor painting.
Many people are familiar with watercolors. They may have been part of our grammar school art classes. What are watercolors? Basically, the pigments are water-soluble. When you paint with watercolors they are transparent. You can see through them. Some colors are more transparent or translucent than others but essentially this is what I think is great about working with watercolors.
Watercolor painting of Newfoundland dog. Layered wet on wet painting only with watercolors.
Pros of Watercolor Painting
Since it’s water-based it’s easy to clean up and therefore easy to pack and paint on the go. It’s also easy to thin the paint.
Being water-based it doesn’t smell bad or have chemicals to worry about.
You can layer the paints letting each layer dry (wet on dry)or apply them in a fluid quick manner (wet on wet).
They now come in many forms. There are tubes of watercolors, trays, watercolor pencils, watercolor markers, etc. which you can employ on pieces. Prices vary. A student tray of watercolors is an inexpensive way to begin but you notice how wonderful the pricier popular ones work.
The last positive is also part of the negatives or challenges of watercolor painting. Because it is water-based it can be applied in a very fluid manner with lots of water in which more pigment is added. (wet on wet) You can manipulate the movement of the colors on the piece. Imagine a giant picking up a patch of earth and letting streams of water flow, dripple, and drip across the paper. It feels OUT OF CONTROL!
Watercolor paints on cold pressed paper. White capped mountains and lake have white gouache highlights added.
Challenges of Watercolor Painting
It is challenging because it is so fluid and transparent. One can feel out of control painting with it. It takes practice to use control and let go of the form in areas or individual paintings. If you like layering and reworking pieces the opaque nature of oils or acrylics may be more your thing.
Even so, watercolors are also forgiving and you can add, blot out, and add more. But that poses another challenge. The paper. Excellent (and pricey) watercolor papers are needed if you want to layer or remove paint multiple times as you texturize a painting. The nicest papers are pricey, and you should conserve your layers on thinner-grade paper or else it will deteriorate.
Because it’s so fluid, things happen with the water. It can “balloon” or look like cauliflower if you aren’t using the correct amount of water with the pigment. This balance of water and paint pigment takes practice.
You often work from light to dark colors as you add layers because it is transparent. For other paints, you can move back and forth layering dark/light/dark/light but watercolors move from light to dark on top. Also, you should envision the lightest/white places by not putting pigment down at all. For instance, the snow on snow-capped mountains should be where you have not painted or go back and add white acrylic, gouache, or pencil to create the snow effect.
I love watercolor painting because I am constantly discovering how to work with it. I’ve been honored to share many of my flower and animal watercolors with others. Now I often combine watercolor with gouache paints which I’ll share in the next blog.
Pen and watercolor parrot