Watercolours! How to use them! Please help?!!?

Question

I bought a watercolour paint set recently for my school artwork, but I need a link on how to use them - Does anyone have one??? Please, no stupid answers like "you pick up a paintbrush and start painting" I dont want to ruin my work so I need like a guide on how to use them properly to get a good piece Please Help!! Xx

Btw, the watercolours I mean are the ones in tubes, not the pans

Answer 1

http://www.oldandsold.com/articles11/culture-6.shtml

Answer 2

Materials: watercolour set, brushes (some thick to make the initial washes, and then thinner ones for detailing), kitchen paper, several cups with clean water, watercolour paper (preferably 300g or thicker), a palette, a flat surface to work on (do not use easel). Optional: sponges, cling film, salt, candle wax, etc, all of this will help you achieve some textures when doing the detailing.
1-Always work from brightest colour to darkest. You cannot add bright colours in the end, as watercolour is all about transparency. Say you have a blue underneath, you cannot add a yellow and expect to blue to be brighter, that will never happen.
2- You can make the drawing on the paper, or you can be bold and start the painting without any drawing at all (this will aid you achieve a more spontaneous painting)
3-You can work using several techniques. Start by making the colour you want. If you are painting (say a sky of a lake) do an initial wash with clean water in the area you want and then add the colour with the brush. Let it dry and add more washes until you got the colour you want for the sky or lake. (this technique is useful for large areas)
4- Always allow the colour to dry before adding a different one, otherwise one colour will bleed to the other and spoil the effect you desire.
5- Then go the smaller areas, remember to use washes, do not try to attempt to reach the effect you want in the first wash, specially if the colour you want is a strong one.
6-If you are an impatient person, start by doing a painting, and while that one is drying start another one. This will help you improve your skills as a watercolour painter.
7-When you finish your painting for the day. Clean all your materials, and be very careful with your brushes. Keep them under water until they are clean, with a kitchen paper carefully dry it, and give back with your fingers the shape of the brush (either if it is pointy brush, fan, flat, etc). Never leave your brush inside the water container, or else it will be good to throw away.

If you want to add textures for your watercolour, you can use cling film, salt, sponge, salt, scrap while the paper is still damp.
Some colours granulate(ultramarine blue, burnt umber, etc), specially if you work with a lot of water.
Remember to never give up. Watercolour is a difficult technique, but not impossible. There are no rules to do art. You make your own rules. These are some guidelines.
For step-by-step tips go to this site. There are some interesting tips that will help you.
http://website.lineone.net/~peter.saw/index.html
And welcome to the fascinating world of watercolour!!! :-)

Answer 3

if you can buy a good watercolour brush,one with a very good tip so you can use it for heavy and fine detailed work as i doubt you will be able to buy the whole set as this will cost alot .Buy a winsor & newton watercolour brush,get your parents to help with the cost,it will be around £5 to 10.

Use watercolours on watercolour paper only ok!!
You need to pratice movement and colour and how to apply firstly.WCs are hard to use and take alot of practise.
I am guessing you are using block colour and not tubes.
Load the brush with water and pick a colour and load as much colour onto the brush as you can then put all the colour on the loaded brush onto a plate then clean the brush in your clean jar of water.Then you want to add more water to you colour on the plate so it looks weak.
This is the basic art of watercolours getting the colour correct,never use WC until you have mixed alot of water with it otherwise it will look harsh and unreal on the paper.
WCs bleed so if you are painting a trunk of a tree lets say and its still wet and try to cover the bottom of the trunk with grass it will just bleed into the brown you have applied,this is called 'wet on wet' and is very good for creating skys/trees bushes etc etc but takes time to learn.

(sketch out your picture, a basic landscape for practice is good in hb pencil)Start off with a navy blue and really really water this down more than you would any other time ,load up the brush and go from the top of the paper always from right to left in one motion right across the paper and fill up the paper to the horizon line which you mark out before hand with a pencil lighly.This process is called a wash,let it dry and start the painting in you piccy.You can add a little more stronger colour of blue to the sky while its wet watch it bleed for a great natural effect,dab a little of colour in places for a good look,use your own judgement but remember never have it looking harsh .


I wish you luck

Answer 4

You need watercolour techniques. First off, wash your brush so that the hair is nice and moist.

Start with base colouring first. Fill your brush with the desired colour and lots of water. Test the colours on your paper. Once you like the base colours, then adjust the water and paint, and the pressure on how you apply it to get the effect you need. Heavy pressure gives wide strokes, the tip/light pressure on the brush gives you narrow and stronger line strokes.

If your watercolour set came with a plastic blocker, apply that to your paper for the areas you want to keep white or colour later for details before you start painting.

Good Luck

Answer 5

Hi. I'm not sure exactly where to start, because you haven't specified what you have done until now. Of course you need to have special paper to do watercolors. You cannot do watercolors on just any old paper, because of, well, the water (duh). You don't really need to have special brushes. It's good to have a large brush and some medium sized and smaller ones and also a real tiny one. A slanted brush comes in handy too. When you start, you have your container of water nearby. You put a drop of water on the paint and let it sit for a little while, so it gets easier to work with. If you want to have really pale color, you work with lots of water. If you want the color to be brighter, you use less water. Don't worry, the paper will be able to handle it. If there is just too much water, you wipe off the brush (or soak it up with a Kleenex). There are also watercolor-pencils, I love to use them. You can sketch with them and then go over with water to create that watery effect. Hope this helped you a bit. Good luck and just experiment and have fun with it. I'm sure you are going to create a lovely picture.

Answer 6

I used oils paints for years before I tried watercolors. I messed up many, so don't be afraid to ruin a few to learn. I have pallets or little pans. I squeeze some paint out. Then I wet my brush and dip it in the paint. I may wet the paper in some areas, e.g. I wet the top in an area that will be the sky. Then, I apply some blue and dilute it as needed to begin. Work from light to dark in European watercolors, but with Chinese watercolors the rules are different.

Answer 7

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Answer 8

Hi,
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Best

Answer 9

Ignore certain answers. Pencil will never be as vibrant as watercolor.. Watercolor can explode off the page, especially when used straight from the tube and not diluted. Your best bet is to take a watercolor class to learn how to correctly work with the medium. it is more difficult than any other and more exciting.

Answer 10

have a look at these paintings in watercolour
www.pamelajonespaintings.co.uk

Answer 11

Make sure you have TWO pots of water one for washing your brushes with and the other for mixing your paint. If you use dirty water to mix your paints you will create what they call a muddied colour. Good luck and ENJOY