Hi all! You really asked me to publish watercolor painting lessons, and I thought for a long time where to find suitable material, because this topic is not new, and there is already a lot of different information on the Internet, so I decided not to invent, but to use the materials of foreign authors. This article is the first, but not the last. I hope you enjoy it and find it useful!

This article covers the basics you need to know to get started with watercolor. However, if you keep scratching your head after reading this, then please feel free to ask questions in the comments! I will answer you with pleasure!

Before I started writing this article, I decided to do a little research on the Internet on painting watercolor for beginners. That way, I reasoned, I wouldn't miss a single moment and write a better post. But good God.. I've been painting with watercolors all my life, and the information I found on Google stunned me. After three too long mind-boggling articles, I threw up my hands and decided that I would show you how I, personally, work with watercolor - and the adjective for my watercolor approach is “simple”.

Tools and materials

First, I want to talk about the materials and tools that you will need. Of course, the most obvious tool would be a watercolor set.

I prefer the set from Greenleaf & Blueberry. It's a little pricey, but I love it! However, if you are just starting out, there is no need to invest in expensive kits.

Advice from the site:

Go to the nearest art store and buy an art set of watercolor paints that suits your price, as long as it is not for children 😉

If you live in the outback, where it is difficult to find such a product, then you can order a set through an online store. So that you can navigate by cost, I throw off examples of sets that are easy to find in our country:

Finally, you will need clean water and cloth(I use an old dinner napkin) or paper towel to blot the brush.

Any dish will do, I use an old mug.

Watercolor transparency

The great thing about painting with watercolors is that you have complete control over the transparency of the paint. Watch how one color can change depending on the ratio of water and paint on the brush!

The picture on the left shows what a stroke looks like when there is a lot of water and a little paint. In the illustration in the middle, a more equal ratio of water and paint. The right picture has more paint than water.

You might be thinking, “That’s all well and good, but how can I control this water/paint ratio?” Before you do anything, apply a drop or two of water directly to the cuvette you plan to use. This will dampen the paint and make it ready to go. Then, you can do one of two things:

1. Use a palette
You can take a palette and mix three different shades of the same color on it. For the first color, use the brush to apply about eight drops of water into the indentation. Then, dip the still wet brush into the already dampened watercolor, and transfer the color to the palette.

Apply about five drops of water to the second recess. Again, dip the still wet brush into the watercolor and transfer the color into the water. Be sure to shake the brush so that all the paint comes off it! If this new color is very similar to your first, add more paint.

For the darkest shade, you'll just be working directly with paint from the pan, the shade should be very saturated.

2. We work directly from the watercolor set
You can use the concentration of water on the brush to control the tone of the paint. If you want a very light shade, dampen the brush well with water and touch the tip of the brush to the paint. If you find that the concentration of paint is too high when transferring to paper, dip the brush into the water again and apply this water directly to the paint on the paper. The color will become more transparent! For midtones, you'll still be painting with a wet brush, but with more paint. For dark tones, I blot the brush with a tissue (it will still be damp, but not saturated), and then take the paint directly from the set.

Mixing

The reason we learned about transparency is the blending and overlaying of colors. With the help of various shades of the same color, you can make any image real. I'm going to show you how to turn a circle into a ball using watercolor blending and transparency:

1. First, draw a circle of the lightest shade.

2. Assume the light is in the upper right side as shown in the picture. Accordingly, the shadow will be in the lower left corner of the circle. To start painting the shadow, take your medium shade with a brush. Draw the shadow as if it is "embracing" the circle in the form of a crescent, like this:

3. You can see that there is now a certain separation between the shadow and the light part. To get rid of this difference and create a smooth transition, you need to mix the colors together - this is an easy task when painting with watercolors! To mix, dip the brush in water to wash any remaining paint off the brush. Dry the brush to make sure all the paint is gone, then wet the bristles of the brush again with water. Then, put the brush on the separation between the shadow and the light part and drag the middle shade with water, it will blur. Soon, you won't be able to tell where the midtone and light ends and where the shadow begins!

4. Now it's time to add a dark shadow to the bottom of the circle. Go with a darker shade around the bottom of the sphere, as in the photo.

5. Mix the dark shade the same way you did with the medium shade, and voila!

6. You can add a drop shadow if you like. To do this, draw a thin line on the opposite side of the light below the sphere, like this:

Then, you need to draw the color with a brush dipped in water until it disappears.

You may find it easier to understand the concept of blending/shading if you watch the video:

If you want to practice mixing and shaping more, I would recommend drawing these shapes in different colors:

You could make a sphere green, a cube blue, etc. Drawing shapes like these helps you understand how to make objects look three-dimensional. Yes, it can be a bit boring... but so rewarding!

Mixing watercolor

To mix watercolor, you definitely need a palette, whether it's built into your kit or standalone. The process of mixing colors is simple: you need to put one color on the palette, and then add another color. Mix them together and you get a new color!

If you have a small selection of colors in a set, knowledge of blending will come in very handy. There are many sources that tell you what colors to mix together to achieve the desired result.

If your mixed color dries up in your palette, don't worry. You can re-wet it and it will be as good as new, no matter how much time has passed.

From a technical point of view, painting with watercolors is simple: dilute the paint with water and move the brush over the paper - that's all the wisdom. And so begins an amazing creative adventure! Here are 10 tips to help you avoid common mistakes and improve your very first results.

1. Drying, the watercolor brightens.

As long as the watercolor is wet, the color will always be more saturated and darker, and, accordingly, will become duller and paler when it dries.
With time and experience, you will adapt to this feature. If you lack brightness, use more paint and less water, or apply an extra coat of paint on top of the previous one.

2. Test colors

Watercolor dries very quickly, so test the new color on a piece of paper or on the edge of your sheet before applying. Then you will know for sure if this is the shade that you need.

3. Dried watercolor stays soluble

Even if the paint on the painting is dry, it can still be thinned with water. You can moisten it with a brush and then you can work with it again. This allows you to correct flaws, lighten some areas by removing a little paint, or mix in a different color there. But still, this must be done carefully and in moderation so as not to damage the surface of the sheet.

4. Watercolor is transparent

Yes, it's completely transparent. Looking at the picture, you can see all the layers of paint that you have applied, so you will not be able to "paint over" your mistakes. You should not fight it, just take it for granted and use it as a tool, I don’t perceive it as an annoying hindrance.

5. Move from light to dark

Since there is no white color in watercolor, and in this case paper replaces the paint, the usual recommendation in watercolor technique is almost always to start with light, gradually darkening the work. However, do not be afraid to experiment - it can always turn out that starting with dark spots is exactly your style.

6. Use a good brush

It is better to have one quality brush than several cheap ones that warp and lose hair. This will save you a lot of disappointment and ruined work. A good brush holds its shape, which allows you to make beautiful strokes right away, and also holds more paint, which means that it will be less likely to be dipped into it.

7. Don't add too much water

To avoid over-wetting the brush after rinsing it, dry it slightly with a clean cloth before picking up paint with it. If you have already picked up the paint, and decided that you need less paint, you can remove the excess paint with the same cloth, blotting at the very base of the hairs - then the paint will remain on the tip where it needs to be.

8. Watercolor paper is different

Under this name, a lot of different options are sold. Differences can be in sheet thickness, texture, smoothness and even shade, not to mention different sheet formats.

9. Thin paper is better to stretch

The thinner the sheet and the more ink you apply, the more likely it is that the paper will warp and ripple. This can be avoided by stretching the sheet over the tablet (we will tell you how to do this later).

10. Use a liquid mask and masking tape

A liquid mask (frisket) helps to “block out” those areas that you do not want to paint over until you finish the rest of the areas. You just need to apply it to the right places and let it dry. Then the mask is removed with a rubber eraser (but only when the paint is completely dry). The only point is that the liquid mask is not suitable for all types of paper, so find out in advance, otherwise the product will simply be absorbed into the work and you will not be able to remove it.
Tape usually closes the edges - and they remain clean.

Watercolor is a very popular and relevant painting technique today. Sometimes it seems that absolutely everyone works with watercolor and, it is worth noting that everyone works differently! There are many well-known techniques for working with watercolor, and new effects and techniques are constantly emerging. Often, novice authors try to work with all possible techniques at once, apply various effects, experiment in the vastness of watercolor painting and, as a rule, sooner or later find their own combination, which later often develops into their unique author's style. I think the main advantage of watercolor is its diversity... I like to work in new genres and hone my skills in old ones. I always want to be able to choose a painting technique for a specific task, because I find it boring and wrong to approach a portrait or a landscape in the same way and paint them in the same watercolor technique. Today I'm going to talk about five different ways to work with watercolor using the example of a botanical illustration of a fly agaric mushroom. I will try to draw five identical motifs, in five different ways of watercolor painting: 1. Watercolor technique "glaze" 2. Watercolor technique "A la prima" 3. Watercolor technique - use of masking liquid 4. Combination of several watercolor techniques 5. Wet watercolor technique or "Watercolor in a raw"

Watercolor technique "glaze"

The first fly agaric I painted was made in the watercolor technique "Glaze" (from German Lasierung - glaze). This technique is very suitable for beginners. She often works in art schools. It consists in layer-by-layer application of paint on the drawing. From the lightest shades to the darkest. Each layer must have time to dry. Working in this watercolor technique, we gain the tonality of the subject gradually, and we always have the opportunity to correct the color at each stage.

Watercolor technique "A la prima"

The second mushroom is drawn with the “A la prima” technique (or “Alla prima”, from Italian a la prima - “in one sitting”). This is a more expressive technique, and is very suitable for those who know how to knead beautiful colors the first time. Drawing in this technique is done quickly in one layer, in one session, without further additions and alterations. We immediately receive the finished drawing. Here you need to be careful that when mixing a large number of watercolor colors, you do not get dirt, and the colors are bright and clean. Watercolors made in this technique, as a rule, are very colorful, colorful! This watercolor technique is fast enough to perform and is loved by those who don't like to work for a long time.

Watercolor technique - use of masking fluid

I drew the third mushroom with the help of a reserve (mask) liquid. In order not to bypass the white spots on the mushroom cap, I “hid them in reserve”, that is, I applied a reserve liquid to the spot spots (on a dry sheet, before starting to work with paints). Of course, this cannot be called a watercolor technique, it is rather an effect. Today, all kinds of reserves (masking fluids) are very widespread. If you do not want to paint over every speck or are afraid that in an emotional outburst you will paint over some highlights, then you can apply a reserve.

The work with the reserve goes much faster. But it is worth noting that this approach has its drawbacks. The main disadvantage is a very sharp edge. Your work will always have a sharp border where the white sheet, on which the reserve liquid was, passes into the area painted over with paint. This will give you away. Many artists are not embarrassed by this, and sometimes even help to make additional effects! Also, the reserve is sometimes problematic removed from the paper, and sometimes not removed at all. Therefore, before using the reserve in your work, try it out on a small sheet of similar paper.

A combination of several watercolor techniques

The fourth mushroom is drawn with a combination of effects (watercolor technique). Before starting to work in color, I "hid" the entire mushroom with a reserve liquid. This allowed me to create a dense layered background with paint. I applied the paint in 4 layers. Only by layer-by-layer glazing is it possible to achieve a sufficiently dense, deaf, but at the same time not a black background. After waiting for the background to dry, I removed the reserve and painted a mushroom using the same Glaze watercolor technique.

Wet Watercolor or Wet Watercolor Technique

With the fifth mushroom, I worked with the most "watercolor" technique of all. Looking at it, it is immediately clear that we are looking at watercolor. This is the Wet Watercolor technique (often referred to as Wet Watercolor, Wet Watercolor) and it is certainly impressive. In my opinion, this is the most difficult side of watercolor painting. The skills of the artist, exclusively personal experience, are very important here. The “Wet Watercolor” technique consists in the fact that before you start painting, a sheet of paper is completely moistened with water, and then you quickly write on a still wet surface. Spreading, watercolor paint can convey soft transitions from one color to another. If you want to draw small details, then you need to wait until it dries completely, and only then make additions.

Wet watercolor is particularly sensitive to the quality of the materials used. Paper, paints, brushes - everything is important here. In this watercolor technique, you have to work quickly and confidently. The artist must be as concentrated as possible, and ready for anything. We have to give watercolor some freedom, but at the same time create conditions in which it will spread exactly as we need. And the watercolor should dry when we need it. In this watercolor technique, the most common mistakes are a poorly wetted sheet and a misunderstanding of the depicted form. And most importantly, wet watercolor is beautiful for its lightness and ease. But we are often afraid to “let go” of paint, we try too hard to control it, we try too hard, thereby losing that very lightness and ease. This technique requires constant practice, and if you want to work in the wet watercolor technique, then I advise you to practice it more often.

Conclusion

In this article, I have described the main watercolor effects and techniques that I work with. Of course, this list can be continued for a long time, and I am sure that there will always be something that I have not tried yet that will inspire me to new works and experiments. I wish you creative success and inspiration!

In today's world, more and more beginners are trying new things to find their calling. Many stop at drawing, namely the creation of paintings with watercolor paint. It seems to many that drawing is a very complex process that requires special knowledge and skills. But everything is much simpler, because anyone can draw with watercolors from scratch.
To learn more about watercolors and become a real artist after a couple of classes, we recommend contacting a drawing school http://arhangelsk.videoforme.ru/designschool/drawing, there you can deal with all the subtleties and nuances in more detail.

The very process of creating a picture using watercolor appeared a long time ago, it happened in China. Subsequently, it was this country that became the first manufacturer of a special canvas on which it was best to paint with watercolors. Although then drawing was difficult, but now it is a very easy and interesting process. It is enough to open a search engine and independently study the materials and see examples.

What do you need to get started?

Before you learn how to paint with watercolors for beginners, you need to stock up on certain tools and supplies:
- brushes;
- paper;
- paints.

Brushes are perhaps the main tool that will help you create masterpieces of art, more about the history of brushes at the link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D0%B8%D1%81%D1%82%D1%8C_(%D0%B8%D0%BD%D1%81%D1%82% D1%80%D1%83%D0%BC%D0%B5%D0%BD%D1%82). They must be flexible, that is, after exposure, they must take their former shape, they must perfectly absorb water, and when drawing, the hairs should not be lost on paper. Remember that real watercolor brushes have a shorter handle than regular brushes.

Quality paper is the key to a beautiful picture. No wonder they say that bad paper spoils the image. The situation is the same in watercolor painting. Therefore, it is extremely important to approach the choice of canvas very carefully. Density is considered the main characteristic. It should be above average, that is, the higher the density, the better. The paper should not delaminate, this indicates poor quality. A medium-grained and dense canvas is best suited, because you can draw anything on it.

Paints must be special - watercolor. Before starting work on them, it is definitely recommended to drop a little water to make it easier to draw with them. For beginners, paints in baths are suitable, and for those who are more confident in their abilities - in tubes.

Watercolor painting technique for beginners

There are many ways and all kinds of techniques for beginners, but I would like to note the four most effective and useful:

Drawing with a flat brush;

Gradient;

Watercolor glaze;

"Wet" technique.

Watercolor drawing step by step for beginners, starts from theoretical knowledge:

Drawing with a flat brush makes it possible for a novice artist to depict any figure with exactly the same and even color tone. To do this, you need to outline the desired shape with a simple pencil, then take a brush, dip it into the paint and draw a straight line along the drawing. Next, it is worth repeating these steps, but at the same time overlapping the previous end of the stroke, so that there are no accumulations of paint in the form of lines. Throughout the procedure, try to stick to the same tone of paint.

In art, there is such a thing as a gradient. This is a special painting technique that allows you to get a smooth transition between dark and lighter tones, which makes it possible to depict a beautiful background or iridescent objects. To begin with, you should take a suitable brush and dip it in the color that suits you, but always in the darkest shade. Next, we draw lines like a technique using a flat brush. With each subsequent application of new lines, it is necessary to select lighter and lighter tones, and it is also necessary to overlap the lower border of the previous line.

A technique such as watercolor glaze requires a little ingenuity and imagination from the author. This technique allows you to depict landscape differences in different colors. It is always worth starting from the sky, because it requires light colors. Then we start drawing mountains and slopes, for this we take a yellow tint of paint and outline the contours of the mountains, sequentially sketching them. Higher mountains can be drawn in green. You can also depict a river or a waterfall by mixing a couple of blue shades, such as cobalt and ultramarine.

The next, "Wet" technique, makes it possible to get beautiful and unusual landscapes and backgrounds. To do this, using a sprayer, you need to slightly wet the paper and remove excess drops with a rag or napkins. Then, as is customary, we draw the sky, for this we take a blue tint and put it on paper as your fantasy and imagination require. It is recommended to paint subsequent objects in bright and neutral tones, as this technique makes it possible to obtain unique images. The main thing is to apply a little imagination and show creativity. After completing the drawing, let it dry, and then you can safely show it to your friends.

Beginner Tips

The first thing to remember is to use only quality materials. This refers to high-quality brushes, paints and paper. It is not necessary to buy expensive brushes and equipment, it is enough to find good ones, even at a low price. The main thing to remember is that the best drawings are always those in which the soul is invested. Therefore, create with pleasure.

In contact with

We will deal with one of the most common difficulties - how to avoid dirt in watercolor.

I think some of the tips I will give will be useful not only for watercolorists. They are common to painting in general.

So, we want watercolor painting to be thin, delicate, ringing, transparent. It is the transparency and purity of color that often captivate in this technique.

However, sometimes we are disappointed - despite our best efforts, the watercolor becomes gray and nondescript, and the more we try to correct it and add brightness to the color, the more dirt appears in it. Familiar?

Before answering the question how to prevent dirt in your picture, you need to understand what is generally considered "dirt".

Grey colour? ​

Looking at this study, we can hardly say that the watercolor is dirty here. The color in it is restrained, gray, but, you see, it does not cause a feeling of dirt.

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So the gray color in the picture is not bad at all?

Why do we consider the appearance of gray color in the work as dirt? After all, the gray color itself is not at all dirty, but very picturesque.

After looking at the works of subscribers who sent their watercolors as an example of “dirty”, I made the first conclusion:​

“Dirty” is when the gray color appears where it was not expected.

Here is an example. We planned to draw red flowers. They painted green grass, and red flowers on top. Due to the transparency of the watercolor, the green color shines through the red, and the flowers are no longer red, but gray-brown-crimson. Dirt? Dirt.

But the second picture in the example above gives us another insight:

“Dirty” is also a failure, cloudiness, blurryness, lack of contrast.

In both examples, there is no use of gray. And the causes of dirt, in fact, lie not in the use of complex colors, but in a completely different area.

And there can be many more such reasons.

In the paragraphs below, I tried to collect all the possible options for the appearance of dirt when painting with watercolors and give advice on how to avoid them.

USE QUALITY MATERIALS IN PAINTING WITH WATERCOLOR

Looking at the first example (and this is a real picture that was sent to me to analyze the flaws in watercolor), we can immediately say that the reason for the dirt here is thin paper, which is not suitable for drawing with water-based paints.

It gets wet, warps, goes in waves and “spools”.

Do not use ordinary printer paper or thin landscape paper for watercolor painting!

Many artists will generally assure you that you can only paint with watercolors on special 100% cotton paper.

I'm not so categorical. Cellulose paper marked “for watercolor” is quite suitable, and even paper for drawing. The main thing is that it should not be thin. See that the paper weight is at least 170 gsm.

For beginners, I also do not recommend watercolor paper such as “shell”, “canvas”, “linen”. This hot-pressed paper from Goznak is often found in folders and gluing. However, for those who are still poorly versed in watercolor technique, this paper will be difficult.

Secondly, the quality of your work will depend on the colors. Avoid paint sets that are whitish in appearance, with pastel shades. They will give haze in batches.

MAINTAIN THE TRANSPARENCY OF THE WATERCOLOR LAYERS

The two examples below show us a bright and juicy, but opaque painting, more like gouache than watercolor:

Remember that through a layer of paint in watercolor, the paper should shine through.

And this does not mean that the colors should be pale, light!

Even the black color in a watercolor painting can be transparent, while remaining rich and deep.

Look at the examples above. In the first case, the black color of the cat seems muddy and dirty to us, and in the second case, the dark black areas of the picture continue to be voiced.

The difference here is precisely in the thickness of the paint layer, its density and opacity.

DO NOT MIX WATERCOLOR WITH WHITE

Even if there is white in your paint set, this does not mean that they need to be mixed with other colors or applied in a large layer in order to get a light shade.

Paper plays the role of white in watercolor. To get a light shade, we simply dilute the paint with water.​

Look at the examples below. The use of white makes the watercolor cloudy and opaque. And as a result - dirty.

Of course, as with any rule, there are exceptions. There are pigments that already contain white. And there are artists who deliberately mix white into the shade. (For example, Miguel Linares. An article about his technique)

But when using white, you must understand what you are doing and why, and be able to compensate for the opacity of the layer with contrast.​

Therefore, in watercolor painting for beginners, I recommend forgetting about white.

USE COATING PAINTS CAREFULLY

Covering colors include yellow, orange, iron oxide red, cerruleum and other shades.

Before use, be sure to pass them through the palette and dilute with water, because. they are more dense than the rest, taken on a brush. And, unwittingly, you will bring a covering layer into the picture.

remember, that in watercolor it is impossible to achieve sonorous brightness due to the density of the layer.

To make yellow glow, be bright, it must be put in a transparent layer!

In most cases, layer density = opacity = dirt.

DO NOT WRITE LIGHT ON DARK

If you paint with watercolor in layers, apply one shade to another, then go from light to dark.

First paint all the light and distant areas, and then gradually go to the foreground and darker shades.

In the version when the shades are equal in lightness, first write with opaque paints, then with transparent ones.

For example, to stretch the sky from a warm shade near the horizon to a cold one at the top, first lay ocher, and then pour in a shade of blue into it.

Why exactly?

Because yellow shades, as mentioned above, are more opaque, and if they are placed on top of transparent and dark ones, they create an opaque cloudy layer.

Put warm light shades in the first layer, then you can get a transparent structure.

6

DO NOT MIX A LARGE NUMBER OF COLORS IN ONE BATCH

We have already found out that gray can be sonorous and beautiful.

It becomes ugly and dirty when it loses its transparency.

Remember, the more paints you mix, the more different pigments that make up them are involved in the batch. And the less likely you are to get a more sonorous and transparent color.

Based on this,

ADVICE! How to paint with watercolor without dirt:

1. Take 2 containers with water (for washing the brush and for adding water to the paint solution). Keep your water clean and change it often. Indeed, in watercolor, water is 90% of the content. And if it is dirty, then this color is mixed with the shade on the brush.

2. Know your colors. When opening a new set, save the labels with the names and color in the colors in the order they appear in the box. Keep this sign next to the paint box.

So you will always hit the right color with a brush, without catching random shades in the batch.

3. Periodically wash your brushes with cold water and soap to remove pigment lingering on the bristles.

4. Try to get the right shade using a minimum number of colors

5. The more layers, the duller the color; if you want to write juicy and loudly, then write a la prima, in one layer.

Workshop “Peculiarities of color science in watercolor”

will answer the questions of mixing colors that may arise when working with watercolors!

Learn the basics of watercolor painting with a popular course

“The Taming of Watercolor”