Often it is said that watercolor painting is not for everyone. Even with advanced watercolor techniques, it is still a scary and a hard to handle medium. Watercolor streaks, leaks, create a mess, unpredictable and impossible to change once the color is applied and to top it, watercolor buckles the paper. Nothing is farther from the truth. Watercolor is a challenging medium. That much could be said but difficult? No.
This is how it starts. It all starts with the manner at how things are approached. Unlike other mediums, the beauty of the watercolor is its unpredictability. With it go the uniqueness and the surprise. That is why no two watercolor paintings are totally alike. Other mediums could be manipulated and tweaked by the artist for the most part. With watercolor, the artist typically goes where the water goes. Manipulations are done but the water generally dictates the phase, and then he proceeds to create art that are totally different from those that preceded it.
Do not let the moment pass. To put it another way, watercolor painting is something like jazz music. You will jam and create music this moment and if the spirit hits you, you will never be able to replicate the same music a second time, similar maybe but not quite. As with jazz, when working with watercolor, you go with the flow. It could be tweaked yes, redirected yes, but the water and the pigment will not wait. Once the moment and the creative eye escape you, it escapes forever, or you anticipate another one because usually it does.
Let Loose. The best artworks ever created by man are those whose final results are not totally anticipated. Of course there is always the general idea. The final outcome is an idea too. But to be fixated on a final outcome is to create art that is too rigid and too frozen. The best poets and writers will tell you anytime that to write well is to start with an idea and then let the characters do the job and keep on writing what hits you at the moment. Use less of your brain and think with your guts. That way unexpected results happen. Beautiful results, because art is an emotional thing. Masterpieces were done that way. In watercolor it is the same thing if not more so.
But first you must work. It is the knowing and mastering of the rules first that will enable you to break the rules with appropriateness and masterful art. It is the constant practice. Masters of the art developed the passion not because the passion was always there. It is the constant desire to create better that immersed them in the discipline that made them good. When the time spent is sufficient, the eye and the hand coordinate more freely that judgments in proportions, colors, and styles are developed.
Watercolor painting like all mediums of art has its own challenges and difficulties. But with the mastery come the reward and the satisfaction that always happen sooner if not later. Watercolor a hard medium? Not actually just different.
When glazing, the main point to consider is that watercolor is not an opaque medium like oils and acrylics where the pigments stay where placed. The transparent nature of watercolor makes it harder to cover underlying pigments with a new color and even with the best effort, the color underneath will not be completely covered over. That is the main issue with watercolor. That also makes it a unique and wonderful medium to work on. That brings us now to the issue of glazing.
Glazing as it pertains to watercolor is by definition changing the color value and the temperature of the under painting to achieve a particular effect and color strength. It is a layering of color not exactly to cover the color underneath but to arrive at another color definition where the hue of the underlying pigment is seen through even as another color is laid on top of it. Because of this, using watercolor as a medium will typically start with colors of the lightest value working to the darkest. That way, undesired effects are minimized and lifting dry watercolor is limited if unnecessary.
When glazing is desired, allow the underlying paint to dry. The measure of dryness of the paper underneath will influence the intensity of the color used to glaze. A paper that is very wet will result into mixing with the layered color that will produce feathery effects, blooms and other patterns that has rough edges. A dryer paper will create better-defined lines and patterns. Often, glazing requires a color that is lighter in shade than those underneath. Sometimes, plain water is used. There is however no strict rules to go by except the effect that the artist wants produced. To approximate a result, practice glazing first on a separate patch of paper before finally applying the glazing to the work.
There are many particular tasks in watercolor painting that fast is the key. In glazing however, patience is. Work slowly. Glazing requires slight changes with each application. The changes has to be gradual until the desired glazed effect is arrived at. Allow each application to dry out as the intensity of the watercolor when wet is different than when it is dry. The success of the application could be judged correctly only when the application is dry.
To allow the paper to dry will typically use fifteen minutes. To speed up the drying process, a blow dryer could be used safely. However, do not hold the blow dryer on an area that is too damp for too long. Water on paper may produce steam when heated for a prolonged period. Speeding up the drying too much will also affect the final appearance of the painting.
It is also well to remember that since watercolor is applying sometimes very wet pigments, care must be taken that the brush does not ruin the paper. For glazing, use only brushes with very soft tufts and apply with light controlled strokes. Let the paint flow off the brush. This will reduce the possibility of disturbing the underlying pigments.
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