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June2009www.artistsmagazine.com

Watercolor is pigment suspended in a water-soluble vehicle or base(usually gum arabic). When mixed with water, the pigment particlescan spread out across the page. You control how the pigment blends andfows by regulating how much water you use.

This medium has always been perceived as very unorgiving, oer-ing the artist little control. However, the transparent eects and luminouswashes possible with watercolor are unrivaled.

Watercolors are much less toxic than many other media, and manuac-turers are continually working on improving and producing nontoxicsubstitutes or the cobalts, cadmiums and lead-based paints. When usingthese colors, nd a way to dispose o your dirty water so as not to endangerwaterways.

Mediapedia By Birgit OConnor

What isMediapedia?

Mediapedia is an encyclopedia ofart media. Te Artists Magazine

will profile a different medium

in each issue for the rest of 2009.

Next up: colored pencil.

Autumn Sky (watercolor

on 140-lb cold-pressed

paper, 12x10)

Tis article is excerpted from Watercolor

Essentials 2009 by artist Birgit OConnor

(www.birgitoconnor.com) and is used with

permission of North Light Books, an imprint

of F+W Media Inc. Visit www.northlightshop.

com or your local bookseller, or call 800/448-

0915 to obtain a copy. OConnor is also the

author ofWatercolor in Motion (North Light

Books, 2008). Te self-taught artist has shown

her luminous paintings all around the world.

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Large, plastic-covered palettes work very well.

Teyre light for traveling and inexpensive

enough that you can keep several palettes with

a variety of colors for different subjects. I prefer

medium-depth flat wells. Water tends to accu-

mulate in the bottom of deeper wells, making

the color too diluted.

Palettes

Make sure that you have a large enough palette with a

large mixing surface so that you have room to mix a cou-

ple of different combinations at a time.

Tere are several ways to set up your palette. You

can arrange your colors in groupings of lights and darks

or warm and cool colors, or you can create a color wheelso that complementary colors are opposite each other.

PaintsWatercolor is available in dierent grades anda variety o orms. Experiment to fnd out what

you like and what works in your paintings. Cakes of color usually have very little glycerin,so the hues appear concentrated. I you do usethis type o paint, soten it by adding water toeach color beore you begin. Pans are similar to cakes but have more glycerin,making them semimoist and easier to use. Highly concentrated colors in bottles are striking;however, since these liquid colors are so strong, a littlecan go a long way. Also, these paints arentusually lightast and can ade over time.

Tube colors, my personal avorite, have a moist, creamy texture that blendsbeautiully when mixed on the palette or on paper.

My basic materials list

brushes; No. 30 natural-hair round, Nos. 8, 14, 20 sable/

synthetic-blend rounds, Nos. 3, 8, 20 synthetic rounds, wash

brush (2 -inch bamboo hake brush, sky flow or mop) No. 2 pencil or B art pencil vinyl eraser plastic one-gallon or two-gallon water container paper; 140-lb. Arches cold-pressed watercolor paper (for

exercises), 300-lb. Arches cold-pressed watercolor paper (for

paintings) plastic palette with cover paper towels (to lift out excess water and create texture) hair dryer (to speed up the drying process and prevent

unwanted backwashesbe sure to apply heat evenly) old terry cloth towel (to keep your painting surface clean

and remove excess water f rom brushes) transparent watercolors

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June2009www.artistsmagazine.com

Brushes

Watercolor brushes can be expensive, but a ew goodbrushes can last almost a lietime i you take care othem. The most common brush types are the ollowing: Round brushes are very versatile. Their brushstrokesrange rom wide and rounded to thin and delicate.Rounds create a sot, organic eel. Flat brushes are angular and sti. They create a delib-erate, hard-edged appearance. Flats are good or bothwide and thin strokes. Filbert brushes are fat with a rounded point. They areuseul or blending edges. Cats tongue brushes are lbert-style brushes with a tip. Fan brushes have spread-out bristles in a an shape. Detail brushes have tips that are short, pointed andprecise. Line or liner brushes have long thin tips and are goodor detail lines. Sword/dagger brushes create interesting brushstrokes,ranging rom wide to very thin. They work well or paint-ing ence lines and ropes.

Dierent brush fibers produce dierent results. Blendsand synthetics work well or more controlled paintings,

while natural brushes hold more water and color and aresoter, creating looser paintings. Natural hair brushes hold the most water and are sotenough to easily layer color upon color without litingprevious layers. Synthetic brushes spring back to orm quickly and holdmuch less water than blended or natural-hair brushes. Some higher qualitysynthetic brushes are almost comparable to sable/synthetic blends. Sable/synthetic blend brushes are a nice balance between natural hair andhigh quality synthetics. They can hold ample amounts o water and are sotenough to layer without liting.

Here are some of the interesting strokes

you can create with fan, mop, cats tongue,

round, flat, filbert and sword brushes (top to

bottom).

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PaperThere is a wide variety o fne art paper available; each paper reacts withwatercolor paint dierently (see examples below, at let). Te hot-pressed sheet dries in the mold and then is run through heatedrollers. This paper is smooth, hard and not very absorbent. Hot-pressedpaper is ideal or drybrush techniques. It also works well or loose paintingswhere backruns and blossoming can be used to your advantage. Te cold-pressed sheet is removed rom the mold beore the paper isquite dry, then pressed without heat. Its semi-smooth and easily workable,absorbing water and color well. Its the most commonly used surace orwatercolor.

Te rough sheet is allowed to air-dry in the mold without any smoothing orpressing. Color skips across the very rough, absorbent surace and settles inthe hollows, creating interesting eects. Rough paper is wonderul or boldwork.

In the scale or paper weights, the higher the number, the thicker andstier the paper is. Lighter-weight papers such as a 90-lb or 140-lb tend tobuckle more and accept less water and handling. Heavier papers such as300-lb are able to accept more water, liting, reworking and general han-

dling. Standard watercolor paper weights include 90-lb,140-lb and 300-lb, with some new additions now availablein 260-lb and 400-lb weights.

Paper is sold in various ormats. Blocks are pads o

mold-made, 100-percent cotton paper with sealed adhesiveedges. Blocks come in a variety o sizes and eliminate theneed or stretching.

Sheets are available in various sizes. A standard ullsheet is 22x30, a single elephant is 25 x40, a double ele-phant is 30x40 and a triple elephant is 40x60.

en-yard rolls o 44 -inch paper are a very economicalway to purchase paper. You can cut any length you want.To remove the memory o the curl, cut your paper to thedesired length and soak it in a tub; then hang it on a linewith clothespins, or mount it to a board with staples.

Sizingis a glaze applied to paper to make it more resis-tant to moisture absorption. Paper with both internal andexternal sizing is best.

Traditionally in preparing the paper, most watercolorartists soak and stretch their paper beore painting. Thisprevents buckling and allows you to use lighter-weightpapers. Stretching paper removes the surace sizing,which then changes the ow o color or the initial wash. Ipreer to work with heavier, 300-lb paper because no prep-aration (soaking or stretching) is necessary. I do not attachmy paper to boards because I want my paper to be exibleand to bend i necessary.

Hot-Pressed

Cold-Pressed

Rough

Brush handlingand careIf you take care of your brushes, they

can last a long time. First and foremost, never leave your

brushes tip down in a jar or water con-

tainer, even if only for a few moments.

Tis can permanently damage the tip. Instead, keep an old terry cloth

towel next to your container. Clean off your brush; then place it

on the towel. Dip your brush in water before you

begin to prepare the tip. Dip your brush in water before dip-

ping it into paint. Avoid submerging the entire tip in

paint. Keep the color out near the

point, not by the ferrule. Use watercolor brushes for water-

color only. Use only old inexpensive brushes for

masking fluid.