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Statues in Love

Edam Netherlands

Fundraising Poster for EFN without the words

Watercolor Art Lesson by Planet Bubbles. This is for intermediate or beginning artists.

Planet Bubbles Favorite Water Colors, How to Make a Color Book, Favorite Paper, Brushes and Mask Tips. This is not a link, but a lesson. Each person who uses much watercolor should have a color book they make filled with all of there colors they normally and occasionally use. Mine are WnN (Winsor & Newton) Colourless Art Masking Fluid, WnN Iridescent Medium, HWC (Holbein) Lemon Yellow, HWC Opera, Cotman WnN Permanent Rose and Grumbacher Academy Rose Madder will also do, but are not as bright, Grumbacher Cadmium Orange. Cotman WnN Cadmium Red, Cotman WnN Purple Lake, in a pinch Cotman WnN Mauve seems to be the same color, Cotman WnN Cobalt Violet is also very nice if you can't get the other color. Be sure to read the labels, as some people are sensitive to some of the ingredients such as cobalt or cadmium. Most of the newer versions take most of these substances out in the processing. HIA (Holbien Irodir Antique) Antique Turquoise, MG (M Graham) Cobalt Blue (I have been to the factory and was very impressed as it is lower in cost, but very high in quality, I will be switching most of my WnN to them as I run out), MG Ultramarine Violet, MG Prussian Blue, WnN Cobalt Turquoise Light, HWC Permanent Green No.1, MG Hooker's Green, Cotman WnN Intense Phthalo Green, DVP (Da Vinci Paints) Raw Sienna, GM Burnt Umber, MG Payne's Gray, and HWC Peach Black. I have found that I can make any color I can see with this set of colors. Every year I try a few new colors to expand my visions.

How to Make a Water Color Book. Making a watercolor book will improve your painting and give you new inspiration and help you to understand how your colors work. Get a watercolor Pad of about 12 sheets 12x9 size. Spiral bound is best for this. Use your regular quality paper. The stuff you like to paint with best. If you use cheap paper meant for children you will not get the results that you can use. You will also need some tracing paper (not the inked kind) to put between the pages of your book and a roll or two of transparent tape.

Don't use the first page for the experiments, but you can use it for a title page and you can feel free to put some color on it. Now you are on the second and third page, or in other words it's the back of the first page and the front of the second page. You will need two pages for each experiment. Divide up the pages into 4 columns and six rows with the transparent tape. Just pull it off in long enough strips and trim it alter you set it down. I can eyeball it, but feel free to use a ruler to make marks where the tape should go. Now you will have 24 little squares about two by 1 inch on each page, or 48 on both facing pages. Just do two pages at a time.

One this first set of pages take your watercolor pretty full strength and paint it in the square. Then paint a very watered down version of the same color in the next square. Depending on how many colors you have you may need more than these two pages, no problem, just wait until the first set is dry before turning the page. Label each square with the name and brand of the color, using an F for full strength and an H for the watered down squares. When dry carefully pull off the tape being careful not to tear the paper. After you are very sure it is all dry you can put a piece of tracing paper between the sheets to keep it from sticking together. If the tracing paper sticks in a few places it won't matter if it gets torn.

Now make the same set of squares on your next pages, you may need to finish with your first assignment, so make a mark where the full and watered down colors end. Please use a waterproof pen. Now make a decision on where on the color wheel you would like to start. Line up your colors according to this color wheel. I like to start with yellow. The first square will be yellow. The second square will be yellow with a pink (opera) glaze while still wet. The third will be yellow with the red I use and so on until I have used it in the same way with each color. As you add the second color also put a dab of plain water in the center of each square. This will take up as many squares as you have colors. Now do the same for your next color on your wheel. Mine is Opera, so it's plain opera, then opera with yellow, then opera with red etc. Always keep the base color first and lay the second color over it so you are doing it the same way every time.

Do this for all your colors. You may need another book, but I didn't even fill up a whole one. Do not use a dryer to speed the drying time here, you want to see what happens when the color pools or when a dab of water separates the granules of paint. Do not do this experiment when your home is colder than 65% or hotter than 85% because the paint will not all have the same consistency. Of course you can paint at most any tempature you are comfortable in, just not this experiment. After each page is dry study it before moving on to the next color. This book will help you attain special colors and will tell you what your colors will do and not do. Of course you will have slightly different results if you change paper, but it will still work. When you are done you can scan these colors into your computer and use each one as a fill, stamp or brush in photoshop and other programs. Make a small file for each one. You can expand it latter to fit the picture you are filling.

Paper. I prefer Cotman WnN 140 or 200 lb (300 or 425gm), cold pressed pads or blocks. I do not use the spiral bound for my normal work, just for my travel journal and my color book. I like this paper because it is very bright white, can take scrubbing, masks and tape removal without tearing or making funny marks. I like the way the colors blend with wet in wet and the control I have for delicate work and small lines.

When doing bigger paintings using full large sheets, I go to the local collage and pick out whatever I think I might like. I also try to buy some small paper of that same brand to practice on first. They often have some wonderful paper on sale in the signal large sheet size. I buy most of my water colors either on line or in a larger city due to the cost of watercolor. I buy my frames and mats already cut to my specs online and I put them together. This saves money and time. I try to only use museum quality archival stuff because if someone buys it I want it to be around a long time for them and I want to encourage various judges that I am a serious about my work. It gets shown more often that way.

How to get better. Paint until you drop. Practice everyday. Carry a pen and a bit of paper around with you for quick studies. I can't say it often enough, practice will make you better. Do not expect every picture to turn out good. Learn all you can from how you did your picture, weather it's good or not. Read lots of books on watercolors. I buy a few at general used bookstores, buy a few when I can, and use my library for more. Go to shows and see what others are doing in every medium. Combine mediums for experiments. Use only your best brushes for watercolor and use different ones for other mediums. The same goes with mask and glitter. I have white tipped brushes for other mediums and my grandchildren and brown ones for watercolor. I keep a few non toxic acrylics (red, blue, yellow and white) and tubes of watercolor I no longer use and some Canson Montval acid free cold press paper, as well as found objects, wood and plastic items for them to paint on.

Brushes. My favorite brands of brushes are Robert Simmons Expression, American Painter Taklon, and Grumbacker various styles.

My last tip is in using the masks. First I put about 1 capful in a small older plastic cap, it makes a nifty little mixing tray for the mask. Then I put in about ¼ capful of Seventh Generation Liquid Dishwashing Soup, apple flavor (I just like that smell, but the flavor is not important). I mix them together and it makes the mask easier to apply and take off. It makes the brush easier to clean afterward too. I keep a jar of slightly soapy water nearby to put the brush in if I use another brush. I have two sizes for my masking, a tiny 06 for tiny lines and a 3 for bigger spaces. I don't do gigantic spaces with mask, just the outline of a big space if needed, but mostly use it for tiny white lines I don't want to loose or other small objects or the white of reflection. Go ahead and make a few mask squares for your book in a few colors, say two brights and two darks. Keep on Practicing. Have fun.

Sample of Colors from Color Book

1.Pure Colbalt Blue 2.Antique Turquoise with Opera auto level adjusted 3.Antique Turquoise with Opera 4.Turquoise Inverted to Red 5.Lemon Yellow with Opera

The quality of the work is always better than the example because of "dumbing down" to fit on a web page. My artwork is much more complex than shown and is mostly computer and watercolor artwork. Much of my artwork can be seen on other pages in this site as the background, except this one, which is plane so you can better see the artwork.

Art is important as an expression of what we see, hear, smell or feel. It is a sensation that helps us better understand each other. Music is also artwork.