The Beginner's Guide Watercolour: A Complete Step-by-Step Guide to Techniques and Materials

100 Pages·1997·11.14 MB·English

by  Gair

The BEGINNER'S Guide
Watercolour
A
complete
STEP-BY-STEP
guide
to
TECHNIQUES
and
MATERIALS
ANGELA GAIR
Boston Public Library
The Beginner's Guide
Watercolour
A complete step-by-step
guide to techniques and
materials
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The Beginner's Guide
Watercolour
A
complete step-by-step
guide to techniques and
materials
ANGELA GAIR
First published in 1994
as PracticalArt Watercolour
byLetts ofLondon
BR BR an imprint ofNew Holland (Publishers) Ltd
ND2420 London • Cape Town • Sydney • Singapore
.G353
1997x reprinted 1995
This edition published 1997
Designed and edited by
Anness Publishing Limited
Boundary Row Studios
1 Boundary Row
London SE1 8HP
Copyright © 1994 New Holland (Publishers) Ltd
All rights reserved. No part ofthis publication maybe reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form orby any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording orotherwise, without the prior
written permission ofthe publishers and copyright holders.
ISBN 1 85368 323 X
New Holland (Publishers) Ltd
24 Nutford Place
London W1H 6DQ
A CIPcatalogue record for this bookis available from the British Library
Editorial Director: Joanna Lorenz
Project Editor: Judith Simons
Designed and Typesetby: Axis Design
Photographer: Ken Grundy
ReproductionbyJ Film Process (S) Pte Ltd
Printed and bound in Malaysia by Times Offset (m) sdn Bhd
Acknowledgements
Special thanks are due to Winsor & Newton, Whitefriars Avenue, Harrow,
Middlesex, for providing the materials and equipment featured and used in
thisbook; Sean Kelly Gallery 21 London Road, London, for supplying
additional materials; Chris Beetles Ltd, 8-10 Ryder Street, London SW1; Linda
Blac Gallery, 13 High Street, Pinner, Middlesex; and
nie Wood for her invaluable help.
Contents
Introduction 7
Materials and Equipment 10
Basic Techniques 16
Gallery 23
Techniques
1 Painting with Rags 31
2 Masking Out 35
3 Working from Light to Dark 41
4 Body Colour 45
5 Backruns 51
6 Glazing 59
7 Wet-into-Wet 67
8 Variegated Washes 75
9 Drybrush Painting 81
10 Reserving White Areas 89
Suppliers 95
Index 96

Introduction
There can be few things which are more became part of the wall, instead of lying on the
unpredictable or satisfying than working in surface. The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, paint-
watercolour. The unique freshness and delicacy ed by Michelangelo (1475-1564), is one of the
of the medium, its ability to produce breathtak- largest and grandest frescoes ever painted.
ing images with just a few brief strokes, have The German Renaissance artist Albrecht
fascinated painters for centuries. Diirer (1471-1528) painted meticulous studies of
Water-based paint has its origins in prehis- plants, flowers and animals. As was the practice
toric times. Stone Age man depicted animals at the time, he used opaque watercolour to give
and hunting scenes on the walls of cave- his botanical works substance and clarity. But he
dwellings using pigments mixed from natural was also one of the first painters to exploit the
earth colours - yellow and red ochres, and black transparency of watercolour. Among his numer-
made from carbon - which were bound with ous paintings are delicate landscapes composed
animal fatand diluted with water. of thin layers of colour applied in swift, sponta-
Ancient Egyptian artists used water-based neous brush strokes. These have a wonderfully
pigments on plaster to paint decorative reliefs
on the walls of their palaces and tombs. They A City on a Riverat SunsetJMWTurner
used mainly red, blue, green, black and white
pigments, derived from minerals which were This small study is oneofmany that Turner
ground in water and bound with starch or produced in preparation fora series ofengravings
honey. The colours are as fresh and intense to illustrate the "Great Rivers ofEurope".
today as they were thousands ofyears ago. Breathtakinglyeconomical in its evocation ofplace
Water-based paints rose to prominence with andatmosphere, it is painted in transparent
watercolourand bodycolouron bluepaper.
the fresco paintings of the Renaissance artists of
fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Florence. Fresco
painting involved applying pigments mixed
with water directly onto wet plaster. As the
plaster dried, the colour was bonded into it and
The Great Piece ofTurfAlbrecht Diirer
Dtirerwas thefirst European artist toexploit the
transparent qualities ofwatercolour. His technical
skillasan engraver is reflected in this meticulously
detailed watercolourstudyofa clumpofgrass and
wildflowers, which combines thin washes ofcolour,
pen-and-inkline,and touches ofbodycolour.
Introduction
Chirk AqueductJohn Sell Cotman
This image leavesan indelible imprinton the mind,
such was Cotman's skill in balancingand controlling
colour, line, toneand mass. Layingdown crisp
washes ofclear, luminous colour,hecreateda pattern
ofsimple, interlockingareas oflightanddark tone
thateffectivelyconvey theweightand bulkofthe
enormous structure.
to paint the classical ruins and picturesque
scenestheyvisited.
The two greatest watercolour painters of the
eighteenth century were Thomas Girtin and
JMW Turner. Girtin (1755-1802) broke away
from the accepted conventions of watercolour
painting, in which preliminary outlines were
"filled in " with a grey underpainting, over
which washes of colour were carefully laid.
Girtin painted directly onto white paper, thus
allowing light to reflect off the paper and
enhance the transparent brilliance of the
colours. He used a strictly limited palette of five
basic colours - yellow ochre, burnt sienna, light
red, monastral blue and ivory black - with
which he created subtle harmonies of tone.
Girtin was one of the first watercolourists to
free quality which anticipates by several cen- paint directly from nature, braving all condi-
turies the work of watercolour masters such as tions in his desire to capture the transient and
Turnerand Cezanne. fluctuating effects oflight and weather.
Inexplicably, watercolour fell into obscurity Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851)
after Diirer's death, and throughout the six- was another iconoclast, who opened the way
teenth and seventeenth centuries it was mainly for artists to interpret their own sensations
used for making preliminary studies, roughs before nature. Turner explored the dynamic
and sketches for oil paintings. and sensuous elements of nature - storm and
During the eighteenth century watercolour at wreck, wind, sky and water, the shimmering
last began to be recognized as a medium in its light of Venice, misty mountains, rivers and
own right. By the late eighteenth and nineteenth lakes at sunset. In his preoccupation with
centuries watercolour painting had become colour and light he splashed, dragged,
enormously popular and something of a British scratched and pushed the wet paint around, lit-
speciality, due in part to the emergence of "The erallybending the medium to his will.
( Irand Tour". As Britain grew more prosperous The golden age of British watercolour paint-
and outward-looking, it became fashionable ing continued well into the nineteenth century
for the sons of wealthy families to travel with the work of such notable luminaries as
through continental Europe in order to John Sell Cotman (1782-1842), John Varley
broaden their education. These young tourists (1778-1842), Samuel Palmer (1805-1881) and
often took watercolour painters along with them others too numerous to mention.