Artsy: Watercolor can be intimidating for beginners, and even some experienced artists find it challenging. In fact, throughout my years teaching the medium, I’ve met many talented acrylic and oil painters who have a hard time switching over to watercolor because it just works so differently. With these simple warm-up activities, you’ll begin to understand how watercolor really works, get comfortable with your paints, and hopefully come up with ideas for new creations.
6 comments:
I have never used watercolor in my life. I actually haven't painted or drawn at all since elementary school really. These exercises are super helpful, even when just reading them. For instance, I didn't know that water color would dry to be such a different color and sometimes even change shape slightly. This is obviously good to know so I am less frustrated when I have to use this medium for a project. The fact that I can't really control it worries me, and I seriously doubt I will be using the wet on wet technique unless I absolutely have to, but I am glad this article exists. The dry paper technique seems comfortable to me, but I don’t envision myself being able to get super close to shapes I draw and make those precise lines pictured in the article. I don’t have a very stead hand, but hopefully I’ll inch closer each time to make that white space a little smaller. I hope I will be able to use these exercises to practice getting familiar with water color before I have to use it for a project.
I’ve done some painting here and there, even occasionally watercolors, but watercolors have always felt pretty foreign to me. I know some of the basics of watercolors and how they act, I’ve figured out a little from playing around with them and watching a few video tutorials. A lot of the work I do is super “clean” (I’m not sure exactly what word to use here) and I enjoy keeping everything under a lot of control, nice lines, no color outside designated areas, etc. so loosening up a bit and letting it flow and go where it wants is intimidating. I love the kinds of aesthetics one can achieve with this medium that you simply can’t with others, however, the way that type of paint behaves is so much different than other kinds of paint it’s kind of difficult to translate between the two, especially since I’m not that used to them- it even talks about that in the beginning of the article. I do, however, think Ana Victoria Calderon does a good job breaking down the basic techniques into understandable and manageable steps. I can understand how she’s working with the medium, and the different techniques used in order to get more or less precision. I know that with some more practice I could become pretty efficient with them, and I hope that I will get the opportunity to build upon what I already know.
The last time I painted with watercolors I was probably 5 or 6 years old. The article had me shocked multiple times. It honestly never occurred to me that one would put water on the paper before painting with the watercolors. The whole idea is so foreign to me. This year I know I will be doing some painting with watercolors and I have to say I am very nervous about it because I have no clue how to paint. And this article was actually very helpful for someone who has never used watercolors before because I never know how versatile they are and all of the different techniques you can use with just one medium. As excited as I am to start painting and learning about all of these different techniques, I am also very nervous because reading this article really confirmed for me that I know nothing about watercolors and how to get different shades using the same color, and the precision and again I never realized that you could paint of both wet and dry paper. I have bookmarked this article and have full intentions to come back to it later when I can actually practice those techniques with actual watercolors.
Right away in the article, 5 Simple Watercolor Techniques for Beginners , Ana Victoria Calderón, validates my weariness with the idea of using watercolor. As someone who has been teaching the medium for years, she points out that she had “met many talented acrylic and oil painters who have a hard time switching over to watercolor because it just works so differently”. She offers, based off of experience, simple warm up activites and basic watercolor techniques that are great for the watercolor virgin.
She first gives you two essiential watercolor methods: Wet on Dry, Wet on Wet. She does this clearly by intially describing the uses of the said technique, then gives you concise step by step intructions. So, as she was attending, a complete beginner can follow along. She follows the techniques by giving you three ways to achive specific looks: Ombré, Gradients, and Being Precise. I found the section on way to excute creating precise lines with watercolor very helpfull. As she does in many of the other methods given, gives you advice or activies for you to practice this skill. For being Precise she gave the reccomendation to “Paint simple shapes around your dry piece of watercolor paper. I chose circles, stars, and a moon, but you can choose any simple shape you like. Triangles, diamonds, hearts, and squares can work, too”, this is just another example of her being understanding of a beginner.
Personally wanted to try out watercolor for a while, but was to confused, and struggled with things like “Being Precise”, when I do give it a try again, I will for sure pull out this article for advice.
My mom has been helping me with my watercolors for the past year. I wouldn't say I'm bad at using watercolors, but I'm definitely not the great. This article does a great job at explaining how to master watercolors, for any level of expertise. I enjoyed how the author broke up the article into sections and showed each method step-by-step so that it would be easy to follow along to. This article would be extremely helpful for someone who has never used watercolors before, because many people think that there is only one way to use watercolors. My favorite thing about water colors is the fact that there are so many ways to make different looks using the same materials. It's easy to lighten a color that you accidentally made too dark, by just adding some more water to your paper. If you apply paint with too much water, you can wait until it dries and then go over it with a dry brush to get a more defined look. These techniques are special because you really can't use them with any other medium. I really love the flexibility that watercolors present, and I'm excited to start using them in class!
My first experience with watercolors was not actually here at Carnegie Mellon as was the experience, I think, of many of my peers. At the theatre program at my school, I used watercolor to do costume designs fro several assignments, believe it or not. One of the biggest things I learned when working with watercolor before, during, and after freshman year at this school, is that watercolor just... moves. You can't really predict where it's gonna go, and if you have a really wet brush, its just gonna flow everywhere it wants, and not necessarily where you want. I do think that this is one of the pleasures in working with watercolors; there is such a capacity for the creation of truly beautiful organic and expressive works that mix color in incredible ways that may not be as easily accessible to people working with more traditional acrylic or oil paints. All you have to do is realize that you're dealing with a thin suspension of pigments in water, and those pigments want to settle somewhere very fast.
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