Watercolor Lessons
Watercolor Lessons TIPS & Techniques and Definition of Terms for the beginning watercolorist.
Carol Santora, PSA, is a contemporary pastel animal portrait artist, with vast experience and awards in watercolor and other painting media. Santora resides in Kennebunk, Maine, and specializes in the art and paintings of horses, cows, dogs, cats, domestic and farm animals, wildlife, bear, moose and the great cats.
TIPS & Techniques:
- do a light pencil drawing
- work light to dark
- use fewer colors for control
- wet-into-wet: light ---> middle-tone ---> dark
- mass big shapes, large flat washes
- ways to work:
background ---> middle ground ---> foreground
foreground ---> middle ground ---> background
- details last
- note light source and shadows
- always have a test strip to test colors
- colors dry lighter
- leave white of paper next to watercolor, colors reflect & are brighter
- loosen up: hold brush at top end = freer, more expressive strokes
Definition of Terms:
- wash - lots of water
- dry brush - paint with no water
- test strip - to test colors
- graded wash - starts dark, add water to lighten color
- wet-into-wet - wet paper first then add color; or lay down wash and add color; have little control
- layered wash/glazing - paint fairly thin then let it dry thoroughly, paint over it with another color (lightly so as not to disturb first layer).
- Work light to dark, not more than 3 layers of color.
- loose drawing - outline drawing for shape; then draw with brush around edge, go back while still wet with clearer water to decrease the hard line-edge to create a gradation.
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© Copyright 2000-2011 Carol Santora
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