Mediapedia

By Birgit OConnor

Autumn Sky (watercolor on 140-lb cold-pressed paper, 12x10)

What is Mediapedia?
Mediapedia is an encyclopedia of art media. The Artists Magazine will prole a dierent medium in each issue for the rest of 2009. Next up: colored pencil.

atercolor is pigment suspended in a water-soluble vehicle or base (usually gum arabic). When mixed with water, the pigment particles can spread out across the page. You control how the pigment blends and flows by regulating how much water you use. This medium has always been perceived as very unforgiving, offering the artist little control. However, the transparent effects and luminous washes possible with watercolor are unrivaled. Watercolors are much less toxic than many other media, and manufacturers are continually working on improving and producing nontoxic substitutes for the cobalts, cadmiums and lead-based paints. When using these colors, find a way to dispose of your dirty water so as not to endanger waterways.

June 2009 www.artistsmagazine.com

This 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 800/4480915 to obtain a copy. OConnor is also the author of Watercolor in Motion (North Light Books, 2008). The self-taught artist has shown her luminous paintings all around the world.

Paints
Watercolor is available in different grades and a variety of forms. Experiment to find out what you like and what works in your paintings. Cakes of color usually have very little glycerin, so the hues appear concentrated. If you do use this type of paint, soften it by adding water to each color before 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 little can go a long way. Also, these paints arent usually lightfast and can fade over time. Tube colors, my personal favorite, have a moist, creamy texture that blends beautifully 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 ow 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 from brushes) transparent watercolors

Palettes
Make sure that you have a large enough palette with a large mixing surface so that you have room to mix a couple of dierent combinations at a time. There 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 wheel so that complementary colors are opposite each other.

Large, plastic-covered palettes work very well. Theyre light for traveling and inexpensive enough that you can keep several palettes with a variety of colors for dierent subjects. I prefer medium-depth at wells. Water tends to accumulate in the bottom of deeper wells, making the color too diluted.

Here are some of the interesting strokes you can create with fan, mop, cats tongue, round, at, lbert and sword brushes (top to bottom).

Brushes
Watercolor brushes can be expensive, but a few good brushes can last almost a lifetime if you take care of them. The most common brush types are the following: Round brushes are very versatile. Their brushstrokes range from wide and rounded to thin and delicate. Rounds create a soft, organic feel. Flat brushes are angular and stiff. They create a deliberate, hard-edged appearance. Flats are good for both wide and thin strokes. Filbert brushes are flat with a rounded point. They are useful for blending edges. Cats tongue brushes are fi lbert-style brushes with a tip. Fan brushes have spread-out bristles in a fan shape. Detail brushes have tips that are short, pointed and precise. Line or liner brushes have long thin tips and are good for detail lines. Sword/dagger brushes create interesting brushstrokes, ranging from wide to very thin. They work well for painting fence lines and ropes. Different brush bers produce different results. Blends and synthetics work well for more controlled paintings, while natural brushes hold more water and color and are softer, creating looser paintings. Natural hair brushes hold the most water and are soft enough to easily layer color upon color without lifting previous layers. Synthetic brushes spring back to form quickly and hold much less water than blended or natural-hair brushes. Some higher quality synthetic brushes are almost comparable to sable/synthetic blends. Sable/synthetic blend brushes are a nice balance between natural hair and high quality synthetics. They can hold ample amounts of water and are soft enough to layer without lifting.

June 2009 www.artistsmagazine.com

Brush handling and care

If 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 container, even if only for a few moments. This can permanently damage the tip. Instead, keep an old terry cloth towel next to your container. Clean o 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 dipping 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 watercolor only. Use only old inexpensive brushes for masking uid.
Hot-Pressed

Paper
There is a wide variety of fine art paper available; each paper reacts with watercolor paint differently (see examples below, at left). The hot-pressed sheet dries in the mold and then is run through heated rollers. This paper is smooth, hard and not very absorbent. Hot-pressed paper is ideal for drybrush techniques. It also works well for loose paintings where backruns and blossoming can be used to your advantage. The cold-pressed sheet is removed from the mold before the paper is quite dry, then pressed without heat. Its semi-smooth and easily workable, absorbing water and color well. Its the most commonly used surface for watercolor. The rough sheet is allowed to air-dry in the mold without any smoothing or pressing. Color skips across the very rough, absorbent surface and settles in the hollows, creating interesting effects. Rough paper is wonderful for bold work. In the scale for paper weights, the higher the number, the thicker and stiffer the paper is. Lighter-weight papers such as a 90-lb or 140-lb tend to buckle more and accept less water and handling. Heavier papers such as 300-lb are able to accept more water, lifting, reworking and general handling. Standard watercolor paper weights include 90-lb, 140-lb and 300-lb, with some new additions now available in 260-lb and 400-lb weights. Paper is sold in various formats. Blocks are pads of mold-made, 100-percent cotton paper with sealed adhesive edges. Blocks come in a variety of sizes and eliminate the need for stretching. Sheets are available in various sizes. A standard full sheet is 22x30, a single elephant is 25x40, a double elephant is 30x40 and a triple elephant is 40x60. Ten-yard rolls of 44-inch paper are a very economical way to purchase paper. You can cut any length you want. To remove the memory of the curl, cut your paper to the desired length and soak it in a tub; then hang it on a line with clothespins, or mount it to a board with staples. Sizing is a glaze applied to paper to make it more resistant to moisture absorption. Paper with both internal and external sizing is best. Traditionally in preparing the paper, most watercolor artists soak and stretch their paper before painting. This prevents buckling and allows you to use lighter-weight papers. Stretching paper removes the surface sizing, which then changes the flow of color for the initial wash. I prefer to work with heavier, 300-lb paper because no preparation (soaking or stretching) is necessary. I do not attach my paper to boards because I want my paper to be flexible and to bend if necessary.

Cold-Pressed

Rough