Fine watercolor paintings are stunning in their vibrancy, seeming spontaneity, and high energy. Playing with the flow of color on paper is intoxicating. Watercolor supplies are readily acquired and, at least initially, cost less than comparable equipment in most other media--a few tubes, a plastic palette a few brushes, and paper. You don't even need a proper studio; a desk or dining room table are adequate for the beginner. Clean-up is simple, and the water is almost free.
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| Winter Light Near Bayview, private collection |
Novice painters face two challenges:
- Mastering the fundamentals of making pictures, namely drawing, composition, values, color, and edges; and
- Mastering the idiosyncrasies of the particular medium one has chosen.
As a result, many novice watercolor painters are typically tentative and risk averse--attitudes that slow down learning and lead to indifferent paintings that do little to encourage their creators.
I believe that starting with acrylic or oil provides a faster path to competency in painting. Acrylic and oil are not easier than watercolor; they are simply more forgiving. With acrylic, you can paint over mistakes. With oil, you can scrape them off or paint over them when dry. Both media reduce fear and thereby encourage boldness and exploration because one can always recover even from the worst mistakes.
Still, if one loves watercolor and is willing to persevere, the rewards are enormous. I learned to paint mainly using watercolors, and you can too. Just expect to take a little longer than you would using a more forgiving medium.
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| Marmalade, private collection |
Water color always bothered me, as a child. It wasn't easy to define anything with it, in my opinion. I liked drawing objects, but I did not care for coloring them in. That's because the two media available to me were crayons and water colors. In my grubby fingers, neither of these coloring agents had any precision. I didn't color in drawings until I got a set of charcoals and pastel chalks at age 12. They weren't precise, either, but I found a compromise I could live with.
ReplyDeleteWhat I should have studied was airbrushing. I see now that I would have liked to have done that type of hyper-realistic illustrating. (I won't call it 'painting,' as it doesn't seem to fit the type of painting you're writing about here.)
Adults give children watercolors because they're less messy than, say, pastels or acrylics, but as you point out, after a certain point kids get frustrated because control is so difficult. Also, the watercolors that kids get are of very poor quality. So are the poster paints (wrongly labeled as "tempera")used in schools.
ReplyDeleteToday, hyper-realistic illustration is mostly done on computer, using Adobe Photoshop, Corel Painter, and similar programs. A lot of "fine art painters" got their starts and made their rent by working as commercial illustrators.