Watercolor has been my go-to medium for about a decade. I dabble in other mediums, but I mainly stick to watercolor. The aesthetic of watercolor is timeless. It can be a tremendous grab-and-go medium. It is easy to transport, not too messy, and the outcome is always beautiful.
But, it does have some downfalls. Many people feel as if it is hard to "control." It is a finicky medium. Watercolor is known for its softness, but sometimes we don't want the details of our watercolor artwork to be blurry. If you don't want your paint to blur, a layer can take a while to dry before adding another. Even then, it still can blur. Try giving the first layer some time to dry.
I have set aside some bigger pieces for a day to let them dry entirely before adding another layer. Watercolors are known for their translucence, but you can achieve opaqueness with layering. Layering can add depth and dimension to any medium, including watercolor. Yes, the quick "go-to" medium can be a nuisance. But I love nuisances. I love pushing boundaries—often my own.
{Yes, the quick "go-to" medium can be a nuisance. But I love nuisances. I love pushing boundaries- often my own. }
If you have ever seen the animated Disney film, Moana, you know she has a close relationship with her Grandma Tala. Grandma Tala sings a verse in the song Where You Are, "The water is mischievous, Ha! I like how it misbehaves." I am Grandma Tala. Grandma Tala is me. It's all about mindset. I love the properties of watercolor that some other artists may find frustrating. I have learned its secrets. I have been patient in the practice and have become confident in this mischievous medium. You can, too. It just takes a little time and patience.
It can be difficult to achieve depth with watercolor without making it "muddy." (When the pigments don't dry evenly, they blur together and turn into brownish hues.) It will drive some people mad, especially if you are used to acrylics where you can cover mistakes. It's hard to cover mistakes with watercolor. Their transparency makes everything visible to the eye. Therefore, many people steer clear of the medium.
{Transparency means the variation of which an object is transparent (see-through). Opacity is the same, but when an object is opaque that means it cannot be seen through.}
Gouache is a form of watercolor paint that contains substances like chalk, making it solid and opaque. If layers of watercolor seem daunting, use gouache on the areas you would like to be opaque. Many watercolorists use white gouache if they haven't "saved the whites" of the paper.
Watercolor is valuable for any artist's toolbox, from beginner to advanced. Carry it with you to any park visit, and you can quickly dabble down ideas in your art journal. Then, later, go back to your creative space and paint a larger canvas, referencing your notebook for inspiration. Quick dabbles in your art journal may give you new inspiration for a different choice of color palette, strokes, or overall composition.
When I first bought my supplies, I did what many professional artists would advise you not to do. I went out and bought nearly ALL the colors available. I purchased the best quality tubes at my local art store. I spent a small fortune getting as many colors as I wanted then. It was impulsive and not a wise financial decision.
So, here is my advice: try to buy the best (high-quality) paint, but limit yourself to the primary colors, along with white and black, and buy a book about color theory. You could even work in the 6-hue method; in which, a cool & warm tone of each primary is used in the limited palette to mix hues. Color theory comes into play. I will make a blog post & beginner tutorials on that. Here is a list of those for Winsor & Newton:
Winsor Lemon
Winsor Yellow
French Ultramarine
Winsor Blue (Green Shade)
Permanent Rose
Scarlet Lake
You can mix an endless amount of hues and tones with just those. A consistent palette can amplify your work into a recognizable style. Start small, but start high-quality. That's my golden advice if I had to choose one recommendation.
{Speaking of "golden". There is French Ultramarine and then there is Ultramarine. French Ultramarine is a little redder of a pigment compared to the Ultramarine. But, what is super interesting is that ultramarine's vivid blue pigment comes from the stone Lapis Lazuli- a stone that protects the wearer against depression. Ground up lapis lazuli can be more expensive than GOLD.}
My tube paints have lasted years, with how little you need at a time to paint with watercolor. I also bought an empty palette, squirted my tube paint into individual wells, and let them fully dry. It makes for an easy go-to and grab so you are not intimidated by the tubes' mess. You also use less at a time.
The choice of paper is also essential when painting with watercolor. You will want a sturdy paper that will hold the water and is resistant to buckling, as water can distort it.
That brings us to paper. You will see the labels "hot-pressed" and "cold-pressed." Hot-pressed has less tooth to the surface. I usually use this paper if I do a mixed-media piece. If you plan to add pencil marks after the paint dries, your pencil will glide much smoother over hot-pressed paper. Of course, you can use pencils on cold-pressed paper, but your lines will appear much more textured due to the "teeth" of the paper. Cold-pressed is excellent for a lot of layers. It holds much more water due to the teeth/ texture of the paper.
Paper also comes in loose stacks or blocks. The blocks have a seal around the edge, so you can only access one at a time. Why would we ever only want one piece of paper at a time? It is to prevent the buckling from the water I talked about earlier. There are several ways to avoid buckling or significantly reduce it, and that's the quickest. Buying a block instead of loose watercolor paper is less of a hassle. But it's usually more expensive.
If that's not in your budget, I can teach you an easy way to "stretch" your watercolor paper by soaking it and stapling it to a board. I tape over the staples to create a clean border for my painting and to protect my arms from scratches.
Lastly, brushes! When I first started painting, I bought a lot of colors and only a handful of brushes. Quality brushes can be expensive. But they last forever if you properly care for them. My first ones didn't because I didn't take care of them. BIG mistake. HUGE mistake. I left them in my water cup upside down, soaking for God knows how long. UGH. We learn from our mistakes, right? The wood swelled and the ends became distorted and water-logged. ALWAYS take your brushes out of the water and lay them flat to dry after you rinse them. You will save yourself from so much anguish over ruining your beautiful brushes.
So, what brushes should I get? I have quality synthetic ones. Please make sure they are absorbent. We want them to pick up and hold the water without getting too drippy. Watercolor brushes tend to be soft and flexible compared to other medium brushes. You want to be able to layer without scratching off previous work.
Lastly, about brushes (for now), buy a few different ends. They come in various shapes for different strokes. Round brushes are one of the best go-to for filling in color, and you can do line work with them. Flat brushes make blocks of color great for background washes and hard edges. Filbert brushes are flat brushes with a rounded edge. I like to use them for flower petals and scales on a mermaid's tails.
Those are the main three I use. But there are many more to play with when you are ready to explore: angled shaders, script brushes, and fan brushes. I treasure my fan brush because it was from my mom. I use it to achieve the delicate downy barb details on my feathers.
I hope some of my insight on supplies has encouraged you to explore watercolor as a serious medium. If you have questions, feel free to contact me!
Gouache is like watercolor’s bulkier cousin. It has many of the same components as watercolor, like water, natural pigment, and gum arabic. (Watercolor also has other additives as well.) But, gouache also has to have an element to make it more opaque. Sometimes that is calcium carbonate (chalk) or barite. This allows for deep color with also the versatility of being able to still manipulate it with water.
I started off painting solely with watercolor but after years I decided to experiment with gouache and to be honest I’m a little mad at myself that I didn’t explore it earlier. It is a favorite of traditional illustrators. They having been using it for centuries- like at LEAST twelve centuries. Persians and Egyptians used versions of gouache for illustrating. I’m no history buff but I do enjoy hearing about the history of art. No wonder the act of creating art and enjoyment of making it is so naturally engrained into our very being. The history it carries feeds our soul, connecting us to humans who lived centuries ago without even speaking a word.
Using gouache in addition to watercolor can emphasize certain elements in a piece of art: drawing the observer’s eye to a focal point, creating a heavier contrast, or creating more depth in certain parts of your watercolor. Just remember that it is opaque, so the last layer would be when you apply gouache to a dried watercolor to achieve some of these effects.
If you love digital art and use programs such as procreate, there is a gouache tool under the painting tool tab! It is so fun to use and I use it on my digital paintings so that I have a consistent look between my digital and traditional artwork. The upside to using procreate on an iPad is that you can use it anywhere. You can practice whenever it is convenient for you. The downside to using digital is that it’s not tactile. There’s a certain feel to when you are painting with gouache (or any other medium) that is satisfying to me personally. I plan on making another post about digital vs. traditional art and how they can actually work together to amplify your work.
If you are new to gouache you may be wondering what brushes to use? As a rule of thumb, we know there are different brushes divided in three main sections at the art store: watercolor, acrylic, and oil. All these have different textures and stiffness because they are made to hold their mediums effectively and transfer to a canvas (or paper). I use my watercolor brushes for gouache painting without fear of ruining the brush or the canvas. Watercolor brushes are softer and made to be absorbent to hold the watered down pigment and gouache is in the watercolor family. One of its main components is water and you add water to dilute it. It comes out of your brushes easily as well if you rinse with water. If my brushes need a deeper clean to get pigment out, I use “The Masters” Brush Cleaner and Preserver. It is a soap-like bar in a round container that is easy to use and store. I just wet my brushes, swish them around on the bar, get them a little sudsy, and rinse again. Then I reshape them and lay them flat to dry.
Like watercolors you are able to mix gouache into many different hues, tones, and shades so don’t feel like you have to buy more than the primary color pack, white, and black to start. I did a color study recently just using the primaries, white, and black. You can see the range below. There is phenomenal range. And since gouache is opaque you can work quickly in layers. The green block with the seashell in my artwork below, I painted the background and foreground in the same day within the same hour. In comparison, when I paint a watercolor background I am waiting sometimes a day for it to dry to paint the foreground. A hairdryer is also an excellent tool for drying work faster.
Overall, I will be using gouache for a lot of my work here on out. I’m looking forward to having it be a main player in my illustration toolbox. Hands down. Or, should I say, hands up painting. Always painting.
