Tips for someone starting out with watercolours?

Question

Today I went out and bought a huuuge set of watercolours, it has 45 half pans, i also bought paper especially for watercolours, a round pointy size 6 brush and a flat big size 20 brush.

Any thing i should or should not do?

How do i take care of my watercolours and brushes?

What does Half Pan mean? Whats Full Pan?

Really apprietiate and help! Thankyou in advance!!!

Answer 1

Be prepared with a lot of patience.  Watercolors are unlike most other liquid pigments in that the color of the paper becomes part of the color being applied.  It is a translucent and transparent medium, so, control of the flow of pigment from the brush is critical.  It is not like one can scrape up excess oil or acrylic paint.  With watercolor, the paper is immediately "stained" to some degree and strokes cannot be erased.  There are techniques to "back off" some pigment by aborbing it up, but nothing can really erase a watercolor stroke.

Take some small sheets of watercolor paper and practice laying down strokes of pigment.  Practice using big wet globs of paint, and light, watery strokes of pigment.  Practice "dry brush" techniques where there is very little water and paint and, gradually, try wetter and wetter mixtures.  Practice mixing colors on your pallet and practice mixing colors by layering.  Practice "wet on wet" techniques, where the paper is wetted, with water and the paint applied while the paper is still wet.

You will be observing how pigment is absorbed and at what rate with these different techniques.

Once you are ready to start some serious pieces, I recomend you "stretch" your watercolor paper on a drawing board.  This step gives you better control of the wrinkles that are ineveitabley a part of the medium.  The sheet of paper is soaked in water, for a minute or so, laid out on the drawing board and then taped down with something like paper shipping tape.  As the paper dries, it shrinks a bit, leaving it tight against the board.  Any wrinkling that appears later, as you work your piece, is minimized.

Other supplies you can have handy while working.  Paper towels and sponges, hair dryer (to speed up the drying of particular sections, a greater variety of brushes, including some broad ones to create larger washes of even color.

Answer 2

visit these water color tutotial:

http://www.liquitex.com/products/med

http://www.watercolorpainting.com/water....

http://www.coe.west.asu.edu/student/tlin...

Answer 3

Here are my personal pointers of the day:

1. Remember, the amount of water you use changes the lightness and darkness of the color

2. Watch out for too much water, causes warping after awhile, even if you use thick paper.

As for maintnence it's pretty easy with water colors. Make sure you rinse them until you see there is no color dripping out of the water. Do not use a high pressure of water when rinsing. You can use a paper cloth to dry it a bit but make sure you do this gently. best way is to pink it gently and do a sort of twist around (like your closing a lid) this will make sure your brissels do not get messed up. Nothing worse then a stray hair on there messing up your art work.

Half pan and full pan is just a way to describe how much paint. Full pans generally have 3 cc of pain where as half pan hald that size for compact space.

Answer 4

My suggestion is that you first make a color chart using your paints, on your new paper.  Make a strong stroke of saturated color first, then rinse your brush (leave it somewhat wet) and draw another stroke right next to and touching the first, which should pull some of the color in a graduated wash, and continue pulling that stroke away from the strong paint until it is very pale.  Do this with each of the colors.  That way you will know what each can do, what it looks like when dry, and whether the color is warm or cool.  (Label them when done, and it helps to do them in the order you have them in the palette.)  

Next paint a long line of each color vertically across your paper (medium strength of color, not too wet(pale) or too dry(dark))  . . . and let them dry completely.  Now do the same in the other direction.  This will give you a grid that tells you how each color affects the others when you layer them.  Watercolors are painted using multiple layers of thin washes until you have built up the colors you want.  See how the colors can become completely different when layered. . . and you thought you only had 45 colors!)

Next pick one shade of each color and make a puddle (a puddle is just a wet spot of color, and it is not deep, just wet!) on your paper with that color.  Then begin picking random colors and drop them into the puddle . . . and see what happens.  If the color you drop in runs wildly into the other color, this is called charging. . . and it is one of watercolor's most wonderful techniques.  You will eventually want to know which colors charge into which other colors well, so you can use this in your artwork.  You also want to know which to avoid in case you don't want this effect.  

Even though you might be anxious to jump right in and paint a picture,  practicing just a few exercises and techniques first will help you greatly when you do finally compose and paint your first painting.  But how can you expect success when you don't know what your colors look like, what they will do for you, and how to handle a brush???  

I would suggest adding a #8 or #10 round brush to your set, as the #6 is really too small.  Always. . . ALWAYS. . . use the biggest brush you can use for what you are painting. . . it prevents your work from becoming tight, fussy, and overworked.  

Other things to do after you get started. . . . practice mixing your own colors, especially greens (yellow and blue with tiny touches of red or orange) using all your combinations of colors.  Cerulean blue and yellow makes a completely different green than ultramarine blue and new gamboge!  

Never paint things a solid color.  Watercolor is the medium of wonderful color mixing RIGHT ON THE PAPER!   Learn what happens when you paint wet into wet and when you paint with a relatively dry brush.  Learn how to use thin washes of color (called glazing) over dry paint to warm or cool the color, add shadows, and create deeper color interest.  

And remember the white of your paper is the white in your paintings.  You must learn to "save your whites" which means paint around areas where you want white or very pale color.  If your watercolor pans included a white, don't use it when you want sparkly white. . . use the white of your paper!  

good luck.