Getting watercolors at home. Painting with a flat brush

12.02.2019

Watercolor is artistic paints based on vegetable glue, water soluble. She lies down in a thin translucent layer, which is her feature. Watercolor was first created in China in the 2nd century AD. Watercolors are painted on special watercolor paper, which differs from the usual thickness, density and texture; soft brushes are usually used - squirrels or columns. Before applying to paper, watercolor is diluted with water, after drying it can be stored enough for a long time.

WHAT IS THE ARTICLE ABOUT?

Composition of different colors

Do you know what watercolors are made of? For their manufacture, aniline, mineral and vegetable components are used. However, the aniline substance is used the least often, since it gives a stable saturated color, soaking through the paper without being washed out with water, which eliminates the most important feature watercolor paints- translucent application.

One of the most common components is mineral. Its advantage is strength and low cost. So for the manufacture of watercolors, crushed and mixed with water color pigments are combined with a binder and the resulting mass is packaged in a tube, cuvettes or pressed into a cake shape.

As a binder, all components use fish or cherry glue, gum arabic, candy sugar, gelatin and others. The highest quality watercolors are made with the addition of gum Arabica, sometimes with an admixture of candy sugar (from 20 to 40%), as well as wood glue or dextrin in various proportions.

Different types of mineral substances correspond to a particular shade of watercolor.

Lead white with a large amount of heavy spar impurity give White color. The snow-white shade is obtained from lead white of the highest grade - Kremzerweiss.

Yellow is made from crown yellow - chromium-lead salt, and yellow carmine, ocher, cadmium sulphide, etc. are also used. These colors vary in shades from light yellow and lemon to rich orange and ocher. A feature of yellow paints is a change in hue to sunshine. If the watercolor is made on the basis of the crown, it should be noted that it cannot be combined with paints that contain sulfur, i.e. with blue hues.

Red shades are made from red lead - mineral paint, which has a bright red color, the highest grade is Minororange. The finished shade of the watercolor depends on the degree of grinding of the particles: the thinner, the brighter the color.

The red color is also obtained from carmine. However, its origin is not mineral, but animal, which gives such color specific property- insolubility in water.

Shades of blue are made from artificial ultramarine. Its shades range from sky blue to dark blue. More light color obtained from the mineral components of a thin fracture.

Also blue prussian blue is the basis of blue watercolor paints, its color is dark blue.

indigo - dark Blue colour with a copper-red tint, maybe of mineral or vegetable origin.

Green shades are obtained by mixing blue and yellow paints or they are made from crown green, verdigris, cinnabar green, chrome green, ultramarine green, etc.

Manufacturing process

How is watercolor made? The process of making watercolors begins with the selection of the desired shade of mineral paint. You can choose it from ready-made raw materials or by mixing several colors. If the shade is too saturated, it is weakened by adding white.

Most important point in production - careful grinding of mineral raw materials. Since mineral paints often do not dissolve in water, and coloring occurs due to the attachment of paint particles to the paper surface.

  • Primary mineral raw materials are produced in lumps or powder of coarse grinding.
  • Further, mineral paints are crushed in a paint grinder, runners, ball mills or a stone mortar if it is made by hand. The finer the resulting particles, the higher the grade of watercolor paint.
  • Then the resulting mass is combined with a binder, for example, gum arabic. So for a red color made from carmine, only a candy solution is suitable, and a dextrin solution is used for emerald green and chrome color.
  • The amount of binder depends on the mineral raw materials, so white and black colors require it least of all, and ocher shades most of all.
  • After combining mineral paint with an aqueous solution of a binder, a clay-like dough is obtained and rolled out 5-8 mm thick, after which it is left to dry for 12-20 hours.
  • If the watercolor is later packaged in a tube, then in addition to the binder, non-crystallizing liquid honey or glycerin is added.
  • Depending on the form of release, liquid is packaged in a jar, semi-liquid watercolor - in a tube, solid - in a cuvette or tile.
  • When the watercolor has sufficiently hardened, it is molded into the chosen shape. The finished mass is cut into appropriate pieces and glued to the tile with carpentry or fish glue.

The second cooking method

Glycerin is poured into the reactor with additional binding elements. Further, a coloring pigment is added to the bowl (special bowl), and the entire resulting mass certain time kneaded. Then, in a thin jet, the watercolor workpiece enters the paint machine, designed for a specific color, and is ground. Next, the mass enters the vats, from which it is poured through special hoses into a filling machine, where the colors are packed into ready-made containers for sale, and then the watercolor is dried for two days.

Blue paint example

Prussian blue mineral paint is finely ground, combined with water and hydrochloric acid and then bring to a boil. After which the paint settles, excess fluid merges. Gum arabic, glue, which is previously dissolved in water, is added to the resulting mass, and heated at the measured temperature until a thick paste is obtained.

Anything can be painted with watercolor realistic portrait to imagined alien worlds. To many, watercolor seems to be a complex artistic tool. But all you really need to learn how to paint with watercolor is just to start. We have selected 11 tips for you, thanks to which you will become 11 steps closer to comprehending the art of watercolor painting.

1. Don't be afraid to get your hands dirty!

If you've never painted before, it's time to get down to business. Open the album, create interesting textures and watercolor stains so as not to freeze in front of a white sheet. Start from them in search of a plot. Colored pages can be bright and exciting or create a calm, melancholy mood. Color or texture may suggest the next step - or maybe you can't wait to draw without them.


Illustration from the book The World of Watercolor.

2. Find your watercolor paper

The result of the work largely depends on the quality of the watercolor paper. Go to a bookstore and choose 5-10 pieces of different sheets watercolor paper"for trial". Be sure to make notes on each sheet (type, weight of paper and the results of working with it). A suitable paper weight for beginners is 300 g/m2, some professionals prefer 600 g/m2. There are other types of watercolor paper, such as NOT paper and paper with a rough texture, or cold pressed paper.


@miftvorchestvo

3. Use professional paint

Even novice artists should purchase professional watercolor paints. Unlike cheap analogues, art paints lay down and spread beautifully on paper.

“I prefer tubes over cuvettes: firstly, you don’t have to wait until the paint softens and becomes usable, and secondly, it’s easier to create rich dark mixtures with tube paint.”Billy Showell

It is true that artistic paints are more expensive, but they will also last longer. They are better bred and therefore not consumed so quickly.

Advice. Test new colors and more art materials as often as possible. Experiment. Don't become a hostage to one habit

4. Observe and consider before taking up the brush

Before drawing, study the structure of the object. Take a look at it as if you were seeing it for the first time, carefully consider, take notes, sketch, get comfortable with textures and details that you never paid attention to. For example, watch the spiral arrangement of the leaves or the whorls along the veins of the stem.


You get a double benefit from drawing plants - first you meditate, looking at it, and then you get real pleasure from drawing. Isn't it wonderful? @miftvorchestvo

Try to mentally break down what you see. Select the main shapes. See how they overlap. Imagine a landscape stage scenery̆. Pay attention to what is closest, what is farthest.

5. Learn to mix colors

Try mixing colors to see what shades you can achieve with your paint set. Mix two colors first, then add a third to them. Experiment!

You will love creating Beautiful colors and variations of shades and tones, their number is almost inexhaustible.

Focus on yourself. You can do or very realistic drawings or very non-trivial. Your task is to collect paints, the properties of which you will know, which will allow you to create desired shades with a guaranteed good result.


By mixing pure pigments, you can create cool, warm, or greyish versions of a single color. Illustration from the book "Song of Color"

6. Start with economical expression

If you are making pencil sketches or sketches, you can diversify your watercolor drawings by making accents. It is not necessary to color the entire page; sometimes a few successful brush strokes create the most powerful effect.


Careless dotted strokes in watercolor in sketches - form style Felix Scheinberger. Illustration from the book "Watercolor Sketching"

7. Use liquid watercolor primer

Liquid watercolor primer is applied to paper before work begins and makes it easy to remove if necessary. dried paint. This is especially important when working with intense or persistent pigments: you can not be afraid to “smudge” the paper in the highlight area. Before using it, practice in a sketchbook, as the surface for drawing will be quite slippery.

To remove paint from those areas where it was not needed (inadvertently went beyond the edges or you need to make highlights) - just wash off the paint with a clean, dampened brush or sponge.

8. Learn the art of glazing

Glaze artists call the technique of obtaining deep iridescent colors by applying translucent paints on top of the main one. The glazing technique is a great way to convey the finest color scheme. Paints are superimposed very delicately, layer by layer, and after drying, the details of the last layer are worked out.


Illustration from the book "Song of Color"

9. Dry brush technique

This technique can be used to paint animal fur or small hairs on fruits like kiwis.

Pick up the paint on the brush, remove the excess with a napkin. Straighten the brush hairs. Apply the paint to a dry surface previously painted in the background color. Work in small strokes in one direction, simulating the hairs on the surface.


Kiwi in the technique of dry brush. Illustration from the book

If you apply a smear of one color on paper and, without letting it dry, put a second smear of a different color on top, they will begin to leak, mix, creating a colored spot.

Not every paper is suitable for such an experiment. Higher absorbency papers will simply absorb the ink before mixing, while papers with minimal absorbency will allow the ink to bleed to the maximum. After practice, you will become easier to use this technique and control the spread of paint.

If you don't succeed, you can always wash off the paint and start over. This technique is used not only by novice artists, but is also widely used in a professional environment for painting large objects like water and sky, as well as for local areas on the canvas.

The effects of paint smudges are almost impossible to repeat with a brush. This is what makes them unique. They can create the effect of a water surface by applying highly diluted paint to an already dried one, fresh paint will spread, forming a semblance of ripples on the water. True, the ability to determine whether the paint has dried enough on the first layer comes with experience.

Drawing materials

brushes

Watercolor painting tools must meet the following requirements:

  1. Know how to absorb water well
  2. Be flexible
  3. Revert back to original shape
  4. When drawing, the hairs should not bristle.

It should be remembered that watercolor brushes, unlike the rest, short handles.

Wide flat brush serves to remove excess paint or wipe it off due to its rigidity.

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Blur brush rather soft, large, serves to process the background. Better than others, it changes shape and holds water with paint without drying out.

Working brushes can be of any size, varying depending on the technique.

Paper

1. Drawing paper should be thick and not delaminate, otherwise, when removing excess water and paint, it may warp.
2. Paper must be white. On it, the colors of paints are most correctly visible.
3. The paper should be thick and well glued. Well-glued paper absorbs water more slowly and does not allow colors to lighten. Papers sold in packs of A3 sheets are most often poorly glued and suffer from excessive yellowness.
4. Grain (paper smoothness)

  • Fine-grained paper is suitable for careful rendering of details. On it, the smear encounters almost no obstacles.
  • Medium grain paper is the most common and suitable for all types of work.
  • The coarse-grained surface of the paper is slightly rough, it has a distinct texture. It is used in very specific jobs. Often it is made by hand and it is famous for its high density.

5. Thin or grainless paper cannot be used, it warps during operation.

Paints

It's always best to go professional over regular school watercolors if you're in the mood for results.

Paints in baths require a little more effort to prepare them for drawing than all the others. To use them, you need to drop water from the brush into the bath so that the paints get a little wet. These paints are convenient in that you do not need to look for additional containers for them.


Paints in tubes suitable for more experienced artists. The master himself can form a palette according to needs, although a ready-made set with a dozen tubes can be recommended to amateurs.

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Number of colors in the set there can be either twelve or thirty-six pieces, but not all of them are used. It will still be good to mix different colors to find out which of them give unusual combinations. To work, you will need no more than ten frequently used paints.

In general, paints are divided into two types: warm and cold. Warm colors include yellow, orange and other colors based on red or yellow. Cold colors include colors with a predominant blue or purple tint. Green, purple, gray and black colors can be either cold or warm, depending on the characteristics of the color scheme and the influence of the environment. The colors blue, yellow, red are the main ones, the rest, obtained by mixing, are considered derivatives.

Let's draw a poppy

Painting with watercolors is more difficult than with oils or gouache, but you can always try to create works full of tenderness and lightness. At the same time, and see how much easier it is to paint with watercolors after practice.

Transparency to watercolor strokes adds the white color of the paper itself. To correct watercolor work almost impossible, so try to act accurately.

First, mix some colors. To do this, wet a piece of paper with water and draw a brush with paint over the wet paper. Excess paint can be removed with a glass of water.

Draw with the tip of watercolor. Do not put pressure on it, let the paint spread, make a couple of strokes on top of the already applied paint. You should not mix more than three colors in one place, otherwise you will get dirty stains. Now let's get down to drawing.

Do pencil sketch and move on to the background. Trying not to dry the paint, draw the background. The strokes should flow into each other, hiding the traces of the pencil on the paper. Use ocher, light green and yellow paints.

Wait for the background to dry and grab the petals. On the wetted paper, draw the light parts yellow paint. Without waiting for drying, apply red paint to the petals. Do not paint over the entire petal, the paint will spread itself. Do not make the color too thick.
It remains to draw the leaves and green stems, add dark green shadows and the drawing is ready. You can draw a frame on it.

Watercolor, flowers. Artists' works

It is now impossible to say exactly when a person first used paint. Initially, the choice of colors was quite small, because our distant ancestors had to use only what they could find in the surrounding nature. Coal and chalk, yellow and red clay - that, perhaps, is all color palette ancient artists. We are much more fortunate in this respect. A huge number of paints of various colors and shades, made on different basis, can be found on the shelves of modern stores. Let's talk in more detail about what substances underlie the production of all paints.

What and how paints are made from

Despite their great variety, all paints are made according to the same principle. The basis of their production is mixing in certain proportions of the three main components - pigment, solvent and binder.

The basis of each finished paint is a pigment. This is the substance on which the color of the coating obtained after applying paint to the surface to be painted depends. The binders in paints are usually adhesives of vegetable or animal origin, or polymer resins. They are found in paints in emulsified or dissolved form, and when the solvent dries, they harden and form a solid film that firmly holds the coloring pigment.

The solvent is necessary to give the paint a liquid form, since in this form it is much easier to apply it to the surface to be painted. Oil, alcohol, acetone, water or complex hydrocarbons are used as such a solvent. What kind of paints are not made in our time: watercolor and gouache, oil, acrylic, enamel paints, hair dyes and fabric paints - you can list their types for a very long time. Let's talk briefly about how the most common of them are made.

Watercolor paints

Watercolor paints are produced mainly on the basis of mineral pigments with the use of any vegetable glue as a binder - dextrin, gum arabic, cherry glue. Sometimes they are replaced with glue of animal origin - fish glue or gelatin. In watercolors highest quality natural honey is added.

As a preservative for all organic matter Phenol is added to watercolors. The pigment is crushed to a state of powder, mixed with the rest of the components, a little water is added, and paint briquettes are formed from the resulting “dough”, which, after drying, are laid out in boxes.

Oil paints

Oil paints are obtained by mixing ground inorganic pigments with synthetic or combined drying oil. Such paints are suitable for painting metal and wood. Oil paints for artists are kneaded in refined linseed oil and applied to a primed canvas.

Pigment production

Let's talk about how pigments are obtained, on the basis of which all paints are produced. All pigments, depending on their origin, can be divided into two main groups - mineral and biological, obtained from living organisms.

mineral pigments

Mineral pigments primarily include: titanium and zinc white, lead and iron minium, ocher, soot, umber, ultramarine and Prussian blue.

  • Titanium white in its own way chemical formula are titanium dioxide, they are made from ilmenite - a natural mineral containing titanium.
  • Soot is obtained by incomplete combustion of conventional natural gas in special burners.
  • Minium iron, also known as iron oxide, is obtained by calcining iron salts in oxygen.
  • Umbra is made from clay dyed Brown color salts of manganese and iron.
  • Ochre is a natural coloring pigment, mainly consisting of a mixture of iron oxide hydrate and clay.

biological pigments

The group of biological dyes includes carmine, saffron, indigo and alizarin.

  • Alizarin has a very bright orange-red color. Get it from the roots of madder dye.
  • Saffron - dye orange color produced from the pollen of saffron flowers. Due to its high cost, saffron is used exclusively in Food Industry, for coloring confectionery.
  • Indigo is perhaps the most famous dye of natural origin. Now they have learned how to synthesize it artificially, while earlier indigo was extracted from the leaves of indigo - a plant that grows in India. A dye derived from indigo was used to dye denim a deep blue.
  • Carmine is an extract obtained from a powder made from dried female cochineals, small insects that live on cacti. Previously, carmine was used to dye woolen fabrics red, but now it is most often used in the food industry.

annotation

The history of colors probably began with the advent of man. Until our time, preserved primitive drawings made with charcoal and sanguine (clay). The cave dwellers painted on the stones what surrounded them: running animals and hunters with spears. medieval artists They also prepared paints themselves, mixing pigment powders and fats. Such paints could not be stored for more than one day, as they oxidized and hardened when exposed to air.

For 3 years I have been painting at the art studio with different colors: watercolor, gouache, oil paints, pastels. These paints can be purchased at any office supply store. And contemporary artists that's how they do it. But a long time ago, when there were no shops and paints were not made in factories, where did the artists get their paints? Currently paints are made from chemical elements. Is it possible to make environmentally friendly paints?

Purpose of the study:

Find out what substances paints consist of, determine the advantages and disadvantages of “home-made” paints.

Research objectives:

1. Familiarize yourself with popular science, educational literature and periodicals on the research topic;
2. Study what substances paints consist of.
3. Conduct an experiment: make your own paints at home.
4. Compare paints made at home and bought in a store.
5. Draw a picture from the received paints.

Hypothesis: I assume that the paints can be made independently at home, but they will be different from the store.

THEORETICAL PART

Composition of paints

Paint is a material used to impart color.
Paints are made up of a pigment and a binder.
The pigment is a dry dye.

The world around us is colorful.

Ancient artists looked for material for paints right under their feet. From red and yellow clay, finely rubbed, you can get a red and yellow dye, or, as the artists say, a pigment. Pigment black gives coal, white - chalk, azure - blue or green gives malachite and lapis lazuli. Metal oxides also give a green pigment.

First blue paint from lapis lazuli was sold 1 kg for 600 francs. Paints from natural pigments were not only of various shades, but also of amazing durability. The Pskov icon of Dmitry Solu has survived to our time. This icon is over 600 years old and is still in good condition. The Pskov master himself made these paints. Still known: Pskov greens, red cinnabar and yellow Pskov.

Currently, almost all paints are made in laboratories and factories from chemical elements. Therefore, some paints are even poisonous, for example, red cinnabar from mercury. purple paint can be made from peach pits or grape skins.

Dry dye cannot stick to the canvas, so you need a binder that sticks together, binds particles of dry dye into a single colored paint-mass. Artists took what was at hand: oil, honey, egg, glue, wax. How closer friend to the other particles of pigment, the thicker the paint. The density of the paint can be determined by looking at how a drop of honey, an egg, spreads on a long-drying drop of oil, which does not even combine with water, and leaves a greasy mark when it dries.

Different binders give different paints with different names.

Glue is part of the watercolor and gouache. watercolor light, a translucent paint that requires dilution with water. The name itself says it.
Oil is included oil paints, they are the most durable and fall on paper with bold strokes. They are stored in tubes and diluted with a solvent, kerosene or turpentine.
One of the ancient painting techniques- tempera. These are egg paints, sometimes referred to as "egg paints". More than two thousand years ago, tempera was obtained by mixing pigment with egg yolk, and eight hundred or five hundred years ago with egg white, to which fig juice, honey, or other substances unknown to us were added at the same time.
There was another paint, very resistant, but the recipe for its preparation has been lost. This is encaustic - paint mixed with wax. Figure 1 shows the Fayum portrait. This painting is about two thousand years old, it was found in a grave, we see an expressive and bright look.
At present, it has not been possible to prepare a wax-based paint.
So, I found out that paints consist of a pigment and a binder.

The process of making paints.

After analyzing the literature and articles on the Internet, it is possible to describe how paints are prepared. First, they look for raw materials. It can be coal, chalk, clay, lapis lazuli, malachite. Raw materials must be cleaned of foreign impurities. The materials must then be ground to a powder.
Coal, chalk and clay can be ground at home, but malachite and lapis lazuli are very hard stones, special tools are needed to grind them. vintage artists ground the powder in a mortar and pestle. The resulting powder is the pigment.
Then the pigment must be mixed with a binder. As a binder, you can use: egg, oil, water, wax, glue, honey. The paint must be mixed well so that there are no lumps. The resulting paint can be used for painting.
After finding out the composition of paints, learning about the process of making paints, I realized that I could make some paints myself.

PRACTICAL PART

Description of experiments

To conduct experiments, I had to get natural pigments and binders. At my disposal were clay, chalk and coal. I made a plan of three experiments.

Experiment plan 1
1. Purify coal from impurities.
2. Grind coal into powder.
3. Sift the powder.
4. Mix coal with water.

Experiment plan 2
1. Clean the clay from impurities.
2. Grind clay into powder.
3. Sift the powder.
4. Mix clay with oil.

Experiment Plan 3
1. Clean the chalk from impurities.
2. Grind the chalk into powder.
3. Sift the powder.
4. Mix the chalk with the egg.

All experiments were successful, and I received black, brown and white paint. brown paint I drew a drawing.

After conducting these experiments, I wanted to try other raw materials, so I conducted a few more experiments. I mixed each type of raw material with water, oil and egg, resulting in paints of different colors and consistency.

Experimental results

Now I know what paints are made of. You can prepare some paints at home.

The resulting paints differed in consistency and quality:
Charcoal with water gave the paint a metallic hue, it was easy to pick up on a brush and left a bright mark on the paper, it dried quickly
Clay with oil gave a dirty brown paint, did not mix well with oil, was difficult to pick up on a brush, left a greasy mark on paper and dried for a long time.
Chalk with an egg gave white paint, which was easily picked up on a brush, left a thick mark on paper, dried for a long time, but turned out to be the most durable

The results of other experiments can be seen in the table.
The resulting paints have advantages and disadvantages: environmentally friendly, free, have natural colors but laborious, no bright colors and difficult to store.
In addition, I drew a drawing with my own paints.
So, to prepare the paint, you need to mix the pigment (chalk, coal, clay, malachite, lapis lazuli) with a binder (oil, egg, water).

conclusions

* The history of colors began with the advent of man.
* Paints for drawing consist of a pigment and a binder.
* Initially, earth, clay, coal, chalk, malachite, lapis lazuli were used as pigments.
* Eggs, oil, water, wax were used as a binder.
* Now paints are made in laboratories and factories from chemical elements.
* During the experiments, I managed to get paints of different colors and shades, draw a picture.

Supervisor: Tarasova Natalia Gennadievna

MOU “Initial comprehensive school №5”
Russia, Nefteyugansk



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