When It Comes To Watercolor— Less Is More

You've heard the adage less is more. Well, I do like this one! If you've been painting a while, you know how tempting all those little tubes of paint can be. They fit so perfectly in the hand, come packaged so neatly in those sweet little boxes— and the contents, oh so brilliant! Color is mesmerizing. It's easy to spend hours (not to mention dollars) pouring over color swatches in art material catalogs. But stop! Listen up now. Less really is more. For beginners in watercolor, the concept of less is more pays huge dividends down the road. Working with a limited palette is not only economical, it affords you the opportunity to learn much more about color and the essence of watercolor painting— transparency. Luscious layers of glowing color!

Starting with a palette of primary colors— red, yellow and blue— you'll soon see that these three little colors are capable of producing an infinite variety of hues. Here are some primaries from my palette. If you read my materials list from an earlier post, I suggest using a split primary palette— two reds, two yellows and two blues. These three extra primary colors will add another dimension to your palette. One set of primary colors is considered warm, and one set is considered cool. Warm and cool colors are not easy to discern and are somewhat subjective, never the less I recommend giving it some attention from the very beginning of your painting practice. For now simply notice color in your world. Is it warm or cool? You are beginning to develop your senses, the most valuable tool in your box, and it's free!

No matter how many colors in your paint box, you may find it helpful to chart your palette. Developing a chart of the colors on your palette will help you understand some unique characteristics of your pigments. Do they stain the paper or do they just sit on top? Are they transparent or opaque? While learning the quirks and personalities of each pigment on your palette, you’ll create helpful reference material for future artwork. Layering two simple strokes one crossing over the other, you learn about the transparency or opaqueness of your pigments. (Remember to let the first stroke dry before you add your cross stroke.) You can learn something about the staining quality of your pigments by gently rubbing the dry paint on the paper with a damp sponge, or simply applying a brush stroke of clean water to a dry painted area and blotting up the water and loosened pigment with a paper towel. In watercolor parlance, this is called lifting. I love this effect! You'll find some of your pigments lift from the paper easily, while others stain and no amount of scrubbing will remove the color, short of making a hole in the paper. So, unless you like holes in your paintings, be gentle!

Oh, and remember to note on your chart the name of each color and the brand of paint you are using. You'll be glad to have this information later, when you slip off the less-is-more wagon, or you simply run out of paint and need to buy more pigment.
Okay. The chart is done. You've learned some basic information about each of your pigments, and also about your paper and brush. I think it's time to paint something! Don't you? Pick a simple object to paint keeping in mind what you have learned about how layers of paint deepen the color. How about painting lunch?

Getting Started In Watercolor

Here is a list of basic materials to get you started in watercolor. Art materials are expensive. No doubt about it. So, I'm suggesting some good quality materials that are less expensive than most. You may substitute materials of your own choosing, though it will be helpful down the road to maintain the split palette of primary colors— 3 cool primary colors and 3 warm primary colors. It's amazing how much fun you can have with just three colors— red, yellow and blue! 

You'll notice the first thing on my list of materials is space. It is essential for beginner painters to have dedicated space to work in. Create a work space that is yours and yours alone! It can be as simple as a card table in a corner of your kitchen, as long as that space remains dedicated to painting and you can leave your projects there without losing track of them.
 
Take care of your brushes, paints and other materials as though they were your own eyes. Periodically wash your brushes in warm, soapy water, clean your palette with a damp sponge, wipe the lip of each tube of paint before capping it. Pay attention to how you handle and store your materials. It can't hurt to give thanks for all living beings— earth, human, animal— who have brought these art materials into your life.

Materials List

Space— Create a space for yourself that is dedicated to painting

Pigments— Van Gogh Watercolors 10 ml tubes
    Reds: (cool) Quinacridone Red and (warm) Permanent Red Lite
    Yellows: (cool) Permanent Lemon Yellow and (warm) Gamboge
    Blues: (cool) Cobalt Blue and (warm) Phthalo Blue

Palette— Cheap Joe’s Original Palette 
(12-1/2" x 9-1/2" with 17 color wells & lid)

Brushes— Cheap Joe’s Starving Artist Brushes
    Flats: 1" and 1/2"
    Rounds: #6, #8 and #12

Paper— Winsor & Newton Watercolor Paper
    5 sheet pack of 140# Cold Press 22" x 30"

Paper Support— Gator Board- 16" x 23"

Miscellaneous—
    Magic Rub eraser                                         sketch book
    pencils- 2B                                                     natural sponge
    water container (ice cream bucket?)        hair dryer
    spray bottle                                                    masking tape
    paper towels & Kleenex                               ruler
    black permanent waterproof marker       old toothbrush

Suppliers—
    Cheap Joe’s Art Stuff 1-800-227-2788 or www.cheapjoes.com
    Art Materials Inc. 612-872-8088
    Daniel Smith 1-800-426-6740 or www.danielsmith.com
    Dick Blick 612-593-5588
    Penco 612-333-3330
    Wet Paint 651-689-6431

Playing With Color

There's a reason I paint— words do not come easily. And words are much more ambiguous than images. I much prefer the stillness of the crows and cicada in the yard today. Never the less, in the next few weeks I'll be writing some simple tips and exercises for beginning watercolor artists. There's an artist in all of us. Finding him/her can be as simple as quieting down and listening. Give yourself five minutes to just sit still and focus on your breath and see what happens.

I'm playing with color again. With this new painting, I'm pushing the local color of the image out of it's conventional boundaries. We're all affected by color and often in ways we're not aware of. Our consumer-driven culture is ablaze with flashing color, much of it unnatural on tv screens and computer monitors, and quite over-stimulating. Is it any wonder we're so stressed out? Warm colors in the red spectrum are known to excite the appetite. (I've painted my kitchen a soothing, appetite-discouraging, blue-gray.) Our perceptions of color are often muddied by emotional response beyond initial perception. For painting though, conjuring an emotional response to your subject matter can bring it to life. Imagine the taste of a color, the sound, the smell, the texture. We each perceive colors in our own unique way and try as we might, we can never truly share that experience with anyone else. We can paint with intention though and in so doing energize our whole life.

During the beginning years of my zen practice, color was a problem for me. Actually, it was one of many problems. I encountered zen at the confluence of several difficult life circumstances— hence the perfect storm. At first glance, the zen center appears to be a colorless place. White walls, black calligraphy, priest robes of black or brown, novice robes of gray. There was even a dress code for student practitioners— gray or other neutral colors only, please. Color was considered a distraction. Okay. Out with the color and in with gray! "I can do this," I thought, while nursing a healthy dose of skepticism. It felt so unnatural to shut out color! When one of the zen students purposely wore brightly colored t-shirts, I began to feel like a color addict greedily drinking in the color and secretly reveling in his rebellion. His shirts were like a siren in the stillness of that environment.

We take color for granted hardly noticing the depth and breadth of energy it exudes until it's excluded from our lives. I admit that after several years of zen practice, I felt great peace and ease in those gray surroundings. When you let go of attachments to color, to the emotional response, you may discover new freedom and spaciousness in your life. Living and acting from the neutrality of gray, the vividness of my whole life is magnified and colorful takes on new meaning.

I did leave my mark on the zen center by the way. I painted one kitchen wall red... But that's another story.