Watercolor painting tools and lessons learnt........

Since childhood I am inclined towards art and paintings....its other thing that I chose science, research and academia as profession...therapeutic value of art is unparalleled.....so I like to try my hands at it quite often...using water, poster, acrylic, pencil, gel pen, mixed media...trying sketch, collage, pebble, pressed flowers... I don't have formal training..and I rely on blogs and free lessons in YouTube to learn...

Watercolor art is a challenging but exciting form of art....Its good for beginners....with adequate practice, one can master or devise own techniques...Here I am sharing some key notes as I learn myself....

Its unpredictable......Its about more water and less paint...

White wash with water (or any other color wash)

Paint from light to dark (warm to cool, thin to thick)

Idea of texture, soft edging, blending, grading

Glazing: wet coat on dry coat

Charging: wet coat on wet coat

No overcoating, few strokes with confidence

Use of hair dryer for fast drying

To fill in apply water and let  paint from edge bleed in
Opaque background will highlight the subject
Monochrome or few colors can be used to make poignant pictures
Splatter technique adds to abstract paintings..
Like everything else, practice improves mastery over this art technique.

Like all form of craft, impressive watercolor paintings requires decent tools.......

As I am trying to improve my own grasp over this form of painting, here are some of the tools in my kit box....and lessons learnt from mistakes..

#I started with a local brand of color (Art Advantage)  set and Strathmore cold press paper...

While the paper was pretty good, the color was not up to expectation...

*I found tubes tougher to use. They tend to dry and mixing is difficult. Colors got wasted. Also, the brand of color generated dull effect.

*Cold press paper is bumpy. Some people like it that way. It creates better texture, but I found it difficult to handle.

#Then I bough Winsor and Newton brand of pan color set and Fabriano hot press paper...

*This combination worked great for me. 

*The color brand is easily among the top for watercolor paints, creating vivid effects. The pan-style color blocks are super easy to use and they are safe in a plastic case.

*The hot press paper was more convenient for me.

Once I got the right color and paper, it is time to get a good array of brushes and accessories.

#I have about 20 brushes of various sizes (0-10) and shapes (round, liner, flat, square, glaze, angle, rigger), from different brands, some are made of animal hair, some are synthetic. I might need a few filbert, fan, triangle,  dagger,  stippler brushes.  
Well, I bought those too......

Also, I have some water-proof fine ink and gel pens  (Pentel brush pen, Pigma Microns, Sharpie Pen) for crisp lining and creating contrast with loose watercolor paintings. 

I have 3 palettes for mixing colors.  I have a bunch of pencils (various sizes) for drawing. water color pencil set, which I use seldom. Also, I have a few sponge brushes, which create nice abstract paintings. 

Once you hoard the right tools, its all about letting the creativity and  imagination go wild...