[HN Gopher] Watercolor Basics
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Watercolor Basics
Author : pkdpic
Score : 107 points
Date : 2022-06-15 18:21 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (github.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
| waynesonfire wrote:
| Some of these concepts are new to me if someone that has an art
| background could expand on these, maybe with a graphic example if
| possible. > zoom WAY in on subjects >
| force shapes / objects to fall off edge / zoom in > no
| un-broken edges > don't let yourself think about objects
| / people / things
| Tao3300 wrote:
| > zoom WAY in on subjects
|
| > force shapes / objects to fall off edge / zoom in
|
| This is a composition hack. The extreme alternative is to paint
| an entire thing sitting smack in the middle of the page all by
| itself. That's probably not going to look as interesting. Mind
| that the author prefaced these tips with some context: "For
| expressive observational painting more than rigid illustration"
|
| > don't let yourself think about objects / people / things
|
| Paint what you see, not what you think you see. In drawing this
| usually manifests as the fact that you'll be more accurate if
| you focus on say, drawing a precise contour where a nose ought
| to go than focusing on drawing a nose.
| LegitShady wrote:
| There are some of these pieces of advice I don't agree with, but
| that probably don't matter until you have some experience and
| know the difference.
|
| Paints section
|
| bricks not tubes is not a rule I'd ever follow, and many nice
| paints are only available as tubes. You can make bricks out of
| tubes as well.
|
| More money up to $30 for what? One paint tube? A paint set?
|
| Check pigments - what does that mean to a beginner? Nothing.
|
| Brush section
|
| list of rules, including a rule about no rules, is a little
| ridiculous.
|
| natural vs synthetic does matter - different brushes can hold
| differing amount of water which affects how you paint, especially
| in watercolor where you don't want dry edges if you want to blend
| sections together. They also hold shape differently, even
| different natural fibers hold shape differently.
|
| a medium round might be "all you need" without considering
| frustration or different techniques, but you might get a lot less
| frustrated having different brush shapes, and open yourself up to
| using different brush techniques the round won't work with.
|
| Paper Section
|
| Definitely don't buy paper just because its cheap.
|
| Open it up feel the paper - for what? Until a beginner knows what
| they like, what area they feeling for? It's advice that doesn't
| help anyone do anything.
|
| Medium heavy...relative to what? Depends on how much water you
| plan on using too.
|
| paper size...depends on what you want to make. "postcard to
| printer paper sizes" might be ok for some things, but its small
| for something hanging on a wall.
|
| trust your gut, trial and error - those are opposite
| recommendations. "make mistakes until you get it right" is not
| really advice.
|
| I do recommend watercolor blocks, especially if they hold all
| edges of the watercolor paper so you have to worry less about
| stretching.
|
| >old school / fun / unecessary -> this is not advice, it doesn't
| even mentioned what its talking about.
|
| 100% cotton paper is not "unnecessary/unnoticeable". It is
| definitely noticeable in how well the paper holds up to water and
| repeated washes, correcting mistakes, etc.
|
| >paper weight is in lbs or gsm usually - is that advice?
|
| >if it feels thick enough it is -> again depends on what you're
| intending
|
| Other materials
|
| Needs to recommend a hair dryer (if working at home) to speed up
| wash drying
|
| The whole painting advice section is sort of...not a good way to
| learn any graphic discipline - graphic disciplines should be
| shown/demo'd graphically.
| bradford wrote:
| On practical how to:
|
| 1. Keep two water reservoirs for cleaning your brushes. One for
| warm colors and one for cool. (This prevents muddiness in your
| palette).
|
| 2. Knowing when to let the layers on your paper dry before
| further progress is vital.
|
| 3. Carry pigment from the bricks to your palette, don't mix
| pigments in the bricks.
|
| On technique:
|
| 1. Experiment adding water to a pigment on your palette (More
| water == thinner with less Saturation and vice-versa).
|
| 2. Experiment with how wet pigments interact with other wet
| pigments on the paper. (More water == better flow).
|
| 3. Experiment with the paper tilt direction (water flows under
| the force of gravity and this can be used to create a desired
| affect).
|
| 4. Know how to layer (i.e., 1st layer low saturation, broad areas
| with high water/flow, final layer is fine detail lines with low
| flow/higher saturation).
|
| 5. You must understand the color wheel and how pigments may mix.
|
| I have beef with this guidance:
|
| > let your palette and paint bricks get dirty
|
| Keep your bricks clean: Let your palette get dirty (if you so
| choose).
| kawera wrote:
| Don't ruin your acid-free paper by using tap water, use bottled
| water for everything, including cleaning your brushes (valid
| for every water-based technic like acrylic, tempera,
| guache...).
| tux1968 wrote:
| Isn't most bottled water essentially the same as tap water?
| What is the problem with tap water that needs to be avoided?
| 323 wrote:
| Bottled water typically doesn't have chlorine, through I'm
| not sure what that does to water-coloring.
| waynesonfire wrote:
| or floride -- oh crap, actually, i'm wrong. lots of
| bottled water has floride.
|
| https://fluoridealert.org/content/bottled-water/
| gilleain wrote:
| what does fluoride do to watercolors?
| CharlesW wrote:
| By "bottled water" do you happen to mean "distilled water"?
| waynesonfire wrote:
| pellegrino
| egypturnash wrote:
| My experience in physical media makes me want to add
|
| 1a: Keep your water reservoirs well away from your drinking
| water. This prevents drinking paint.
|
| :)
| gilleain wrote:
| This all seems like sound(er) advice.
|
| On color : I recently realised (or read somewhere) about the
| simplest color wheel- if you divide a circle into 6 segments
| and paint the primaries : {R, Y, B} in non-neighbouring
| segments, then the ones in between are the secondaries: {R+Y=O,
| R+B=P, Y+B=G}. Then if you combine primaries and the 'opposite'
| secondary, you get brown/grey like colors.
|
| Also, I get quite good combinations (palettes) by using a
| mixture of the same colors, like a red and a green and then a
| mix of the two to make a grey.
|
| I've thinking about using https://github.com/scrtwpns/pigment-
| mixing to go from a desired RGB output to the {RGB1, RGB2,
| percentage) inputs somehow. Would have to be quite rough
| estimate though, as mixing real paints in exact proportions
| seems hard.
| asciimov wrote:
| Neat, I haven't water colored since I was a child, maybe I should
| try it again.
|
| Now to find a tutorial on how to art. Perhaps there is a book on
| it, like "How to Art with Watercolor" or "Teach yourself to
| Watercolor in 24 hours".
| gilleain wrote:
| It's good to read books on how to do it, of course. However, I
| started out a couple of years ago just making small pictures as
| quickly as possible over lunch.
|
| If you don't set too high expectations, it's great to just
| experiment on cheap paper to see what can be done, and get a
| feel for it before trying to actually make a scene or paint
| something 'serious' that you might want to show others.
|
| YMMV, perhaps some people get more out of it using a course or
| from a guide.
| UncleOxidant wrote:
| "Watercolor in a month of lunches"
| pkdpic wrote:
| from original post person - added some basic somewhat pertinent
| history - thanks for all the upvotes / stars / unsolicited
| criticism ;^)
|
| > ## History
|
| * history is cool but optional * watercolor originates from
| africa / the middle east * where gum arabic comes from
| traditionally * it was used to produce ancient artworks / maybe
| prehistoric * it reached europe in the middle ages * used for
| spooky illuminated manuscripts * gum arabic is the traditional
| binder in watercolor * fun fact you can eat gum arabic and they
| use it in desserts * it smells delicious * dont eat your
| watercolors * all paint is primarily pigment + binder * oil paint
| uses oil as its binder * acrylic uses acrylic * watercolor uses
| gum arabic or synthetic replacements * its special property is
| its water solubility * it remains semi-soluble even after drying
| * but it resists increasingly as it ages * thats why you use
| water with it * also why you can layer etc * good to know maybe
| Tao3300 wrote:
| Traditionally, tempera paints use egg yolk as a binder. Don't
| eat your tempera either.
| grumblepeet wrote:
| Kudos for getting this page together. I've only ever had mediocre
| results with Cotman watercolours which can give muddy results and
| I absolutely disagree with buying cheap paper. When I started
| buying the most expensive watercolour paper I could afford (300
| gsm) my watercolour practice got much better. Obviously that is
| just my experience and people have to work out what works for
| them. I'm on Instagram @chloegilbertartist and if you scroll you
| will get to my watercolours.
| randito wrote:
| Agreed. Good paper that can handle a extra water makes all the
| difference. It doesn't need to be super expensive... just not
| the cheap stuff.
| tartoran wrote:
| I get Strathmore, the largest size I find then I cut it out
| smaller with the help of a cutting press (free for use at
| Fedex/Kinkos or Office Depot). It helps save a lot of money
| that way.
| katz_ wrote:
| themodelplumber wrote:
| It's kind of funny to read that. It's a sort of rationalist's
| advice in that it seeks to match a consensus bell curve. Much of
| it is good advice but there are lots of exceptions that ought to
| be tweaked through subjective practice.
|
| BTW here's a favorite little project.
|
| Go to your local craft store and buy some tube watercolors in the
| hues you like.
|
| Get an altoids tin and a lego flat base that fits inside of it.
| Flip the base upside down and put it inside.
|
| Get some lego bricks, turn them upside down, use needlenose
| pliers to extract the circle part so there's room to squeeze in
| your paints. Use a twist-pull motion and it's easy to get those
| plastic bits out.
|
| Squeeze in the paint, let each color form a mound at the top of
| the brick (this'll shrink), and put them outside to dry.
|
| As you get new watercolor hues you like, add/subtract to the
| palette lego set.
|
| With any extra room in the tin, fold up some paper towel or cut a
| sponge to fit.
|
| (BTW if you plan to sketch outside, be careful about doing so in
| front of cars, or if you're sketching cars, use a large pad and
| not a small one. I've had a person go off on me for "writing
| tickets" in free parking zones when I was sketching a lovely
| coupe...)
| aendruk wrote:
| Reminds me of a similar experience when first shooting street
| photos with a deceptively compact zoom lens. After capturing a
| close-up of a sign someone well out of frame berated me for
| allegedly taking photos of him. I suspect if I'd used a larger
| lens he wouldn't have been confused.
| dwringer wrote:
| Yes, IME if you walk around with a footlong telephoto lens
| they'll just get upset and/or confront you for slightly
| different reasons, though.
| themodelplumber wrote:
| Ah, that must have sucked. Photography can be _really_ bad
| for that kind of thing. Especially IMO since a lot of people
| think regular cameras are obsolete unless you are on Official
| Business. Just use your phone, etc.
|
| You reminded me of one time when I was out walking with the
| idea of capturing some aircraft, so I had a superzoom with
| me. While walking into the hills I saw a house that was for
| sale, and I happened to be looking for a house, so I snapped
| a photo.
|
| Some weeks later I greeted an acquaintance-neighbor on the
| street and they looked kind of conflicted while we spoke.
| After I crossed the street, post-greeting, they called out,
| "HEY, WHY ARE YOU TAKING PICTURES OF PEOPLES' HOUSES?" and I
| had no idea what to make of that...only to realize hours
| later that they lived across the street from the house that
| was for sale. Geez. I'll bet they absolutely hated the fact
| that the mysterious house photog greeted them like a normal
| person would!
| Arcanum-XIII wrote:
| Those choices are bad: watercolor supplies need to have be of
| high quality to not frustrate the painter. Otherwise you'll have
| bad result (destroyed paper for example, oversaturated or muddy
| color) and will have to fight every bit. When I was studying
| illustration, our teacher would advise us to avoid those kind of
| kit and paper. I've tried the one from children: that's not a
| pleasant experience.
|
| Last thing: watercolor is one of the hardest technique you can
| try. You need to be able to work fast, be precise and not
| overwork it.
| ghostly_s wrote:
| Yeah, "brush quality doesn't matter" is horrid advice. My
| watercolor teacher required us to buy only one brush, a pricey
| squirrel hair. The difference between that and a cheap acrylic
| brush is so great they shouldn't even have the same name.
| lancesells wrote:
| I came to say the same thing. I paint in oil but I would
| imagine with watercolors being so delicate and sensitive
| materials would make a big difference.
| Geonode wrote:
| I have a few Kolinsky sables- made of a Russian weasel's
| tail. Really nice brush.
| themadturk wrote:
| Not an artist at all, but I _loved_ the items on gum arabic.
| jll29 wrote:
| This article contains what I would call unorthodox advice.
|
| Here are my own recommendations regarding tools (I won't give
| advice how to paint, unlike the OP): you will need 5 tools only:
|
| - colours: get a Lukas (preferred) or Schmincke set, a box with
| 12 half-bricks of colours will last for a long time and provide
| plenty of choice, 50-70 EUR;
|
| - 2-3 brushes: only natural horse hair, one medium, one thinker
| and if you can afford three a thinner one, 30 EUR;
|
| - paper: thick watercolour paper A5 to A3, well-glued, 15-25 EUR;
|
| - 1 soft thin pencil to pre-sketch, e.g. Faber-Castell, 2-3 EUR;
|
| - a glass (e.g. ordinary drinking glass or former pickles
| container) 200-400 ml, 0 EUR;
|
| So 120-150 EUR give you a fantastic equipment, which may not be
| cheap but the cost of a good table-tennis bat is in the same
| range; the paper will be a costly repeat purchase if you stick to
| it, but the other tools can last for a long time (depending on
| how prolific a painter you are, of course).
|
| (In my opinion, the quality of the brush and the quality of the
| paper matter the most.)
|
| Edit: This selection has a strong German bias based on where I
| grew up but also because Germany, Japan and a few other countries
| also have a long-standing reputation for high quality stationary.
| 323 wrote:
| Most who will try this will probably drop it after 2-3
| paintings. So it's wasteful to start with the high quality
| stuff.
| HiroshiSan wrote:
| GurneyJourney.blogspot.com is a treasure trove of great advice
| and information.
| LegitShady wrote:
| james gurney is a great artist and I find his youtube videos
| instructive, although mostly it seems like he paints with
| gouache over casein and no matter what you might hear, gouache
| is NOT similar to watercolor even if they're both water media.
| HiroshiSan wrote:
| He does have a course called "watercolor in the wild" though
| I can't vouch for it as I only draw in charcoal.
| vittore wrote:
| Highly recommend Kuretake GANSAI TAMBI watercolors.
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