When artists first learn how to paint watercolor art, the fluidity of the medium is often a stumbling block because it makes the paint less predictable. Successful watercolor artists know how to balance control and freedom in their work, using watercolor painting techniques that create effects that often occur almost by accident rather than on purpose.
To create texture effects, a watercolorist might employ a variety of watercolor painting techniques, such as washes, working wet in wet and wet on dry, lifting out and masking out for highlights, and many more. The fundamental idea behind watercolor painting is that while techniques and teachings are important, letting go and striking a balance between controlling and releasing the painting medium is what counts most to a watercolor artist.
Part1: A Comprehensive Course on Watercolor Painting
Since watercolor lessons are frequently best observed, art students will find Margaret Martin's step-by-step watercolor demonstration to be especially beneficial. The artist incorporates individuals into her architectural and landscape themes in her painting, Country Jewels. Martin thinks that by doing this, she is better able to guide the viewer's gaze and infuse her watercolor paintings with a sense of movement and vitality.
Step 1
For many of Martin's watercolor paintings, she begins with a reference photo, analyzing the images for compositional elements and forms she might use. She chose a warm color scheme and added figures to the painting for interest in Country Jewels. She draws the painting's backdrop, foreground, and middle ground with a felt-tip line pen and uses cool-gray markers to identify the basic lights and darks. This serves as her sketch for the watercolor painting.
Step 2
Martin began by sketching the composition on her watercolor paper. She then painted the foreground with washes of Winsor yellow and alizarin crimson. The watercolorist then added a wet-in-wet coat of Winsor blue to the backdrop when it had dried. The washes merge close to the horizon, and Martin uses Winsor blue and French ultramarine to highlight the distant mountains.
Step 3
Martin uses the blue shades of burnt sienna and Winsor green to work on the composition's wide amount of greenery as he moves through the watercolor painting. The colors used for the lights in the central section of the forest are red, yellow, burnt umber, cobalt violet, and Winsor orange. The watercolorist paints in broad strokes, leaving white spaces in between, and surrounds the regions where the figures would eventually go.
Step 4
Martin shifts her attention to the center ground as the watercolor painting comes together in the backdrop. The runners' edges are occasionally of a comparable value to the background of the watercolor, and they are sharp and muted. Winsor yellow, blue, and orange, as well as Perylene violet, are the shadow zones. As a result, there are warm shadows that hint at sunlight thanks to glimmers of the paper's white surface.Throughout the painting, the artist purposefully used the same colors to create a sense of visual unity and color harmony. Take note of how the painter further improved the piece by including birds in the sky and reflections in the puddle for added visual interest.
Source: Watercolor magazine, Winter 2008.
