watercolor notes...

Painting
Ms. Sergonis

Watercolor - Any paint that uses water as a solvent. Paintings done with this medium are known as watercolors. What carries the pigment in watercolor (called its medium, vehicle, or base) is gum arabic.
When made opaque with white, watercolor is generally called gouache or bodycolor. Tempera is another exception.
Colors are usually applied and spread with brushes, but other tools can also used. The most common techniques for applying watercolor are called wet-on-dry and wet-on-wet, along with the dry brush techniques dry-on-dry and dry-on-wet. Colors can be removed while still wet, to various degrees by blotting.
Most watercolor painting is done on paper, but other absorbent grounds can also be employed. The papers most favored by those who paint with watercolor is white, very thick, with high rag content, and has some tooth.

Other techniques/words...
hue - The name of any color as found in its pure state in the spectrum or rainbow, or that aspect of any color.
frisket – a masking device, used as a resist, to keep certain areas of the paper white
transparent/transparency – how see through the paint or hue is
saturation - A color's purity of hue; its intensity. A pure hue has the highest saturation. The ratio of pigment to water.
value - An element of art that refers to luminance or luminosity -- the lightness or darkness of a color
wash - A thin, translucent layer of pigment, usually watercolor or India ink.
Often it is the background of a picture, prepared using watery paint applied quickly using large, sweeping brush strokes. A wet area of wash can be made lighter by blotting.
staining - This has to do with whether or not the paint can be re-wet once dry and blotted or "lifted" lightening the value in some cases to nearly white paper.
warm/cool colors - Colors are often described as having temperature — as warm (, reds, oranges, and yellows), or cool (greens, blues, and violets). Warm colors are often associated with fire and sun. They appear on one side of the color wheel, and opposite the cool colors. Psychologically, warm colors are said to be stimulating and passionate. Optically, warm colors generally appear to advance, coming toward the viewer. Cool colors are often associated with water, sky, spring, and foliage, and suggest cool temperatures. Psychologically, cool colors are said to be calming, unemphatic, depressive; and optically, they generally appear to recede
complementary colors - Colors that are directly opposite each other on the color wheel, such as red and green, blue and orange, and violet and yellow. When complements are mixed together they form the neutral colors of brown or gray.
analogous colors - Any two or more colors that are next to each other on the color wheel and are closely related
monochromatic - Consisting of only a single color or hue; may include its tints and shades.
split complements - One color plus the two colors that are on either side of its complement on the color wheel. For example, the complement of orange is blue, and the two colors on either side of blue are blue-green and blue-violet. Therefore the split complements of orange are blue-green and blue-violet.
triadic - Three colors equally spaced on the color wheel. For example, red, yellow and blue form a triad, as do orange, green and violet, and so on.
variation - To vary is to cause change, or to give variety or make diverse
graded wash – A wash that is light or thin in an area where little color has been applied, and gradually becomes darker or heavier into another area, where more color has been applied
layering/glazing – the process of layering many transparent layers , working from lightest to darkest values, letting each layer dry before adding another, creating texture, shadows, patters, etc.
focal point - The portion of an artwork's composition on which interest or attention centers
contrast - A large difference between two things; for example, hot and cold, green and red, light and shadow.
shade - A color to which black or another dark hue has been added to make it darker, tending to make them neutral in color
tint - A soft and light color — one to which white has been added
intensity - The brightness or dullness of a hue or color. For instance, the intensity of the pure color blue is very bright. When a lighter or darker color is added to blue, the intensity is less bright, or more subdued

Assignment 1
On a sheet of watercolor paper, you will practice and experiment with watercolors
You are to include the following:
a color wheel (using ONLY red, yellow, and blue – mix your secondaries and tertiaries)
2 value scales (for 2 different hues - 1-10)
3 scales of complementary colors that mix to neutral in the middle (R+G, Y+V, B+O)
2 scales making each of the 3 primaries darker (using complements or an inherently darker hue – NO black!)
practice brush work (use ONE brush, thin to thick lines, light to heavy pressure, wet to dryer brush – should be three different scales)
a test of transparency and staining qualities
an area of a graded wash
an area of wet in wet and wet in dry (wash with detail, use same colors and lines)

Assignment 2
Create a complete painting of an apple, including a background and a surface for the apple to be resting on (table). Use glazing and layering techniques, blotting or frisket for highlights. Practice mixing accurate/realistic colors (neutrals). Start with light washes first, begin building up darker values gradually. Work on creating the illusion of a 3D form, using lights and darks (highlights and shadows). Remember, this is a learning process!

Final Project
Using all you have learned in the previous two assignments, complete a watercolor painting of a still life. Work on good composition, color mixing/theory, creating a strong focal point, variation with value (should have values 1-10 obviously present in painting) and intensity, create realistic forms by using light and shadows. Think about what kind of line you want to use, real or implied? Plan accordingly for the use of frisket. You will sketch on newsprint first, and then transfer composition to good watercolor paper. HAVE FUN!!