Watercolour painting is one of the most well-liked hobbies in the United Kingdom. This can largely be attributed to the exquisite effects of depth, consistency and brightness, which can be obtained through soft washes. Watercolour is also appealing due to it's portability - all you need is a paint-box, brush and a sheet of card. Often we find that artists will apply their watercolour methods to birthday cards and this commentary provides all the information required to beginning to painting in watercolour.
Getting Going:
To begin painting in watercolour, you require three simple things;
· Some decent beginners' materials
· An object to paint
· A basic technique
Equipment Needed
A beginners paint tray of water colours can consist of the following colours:
· Lemon Yellow Hue
· Cadmium Yellow Pale Hue
· Cadmium Red Hue
· Permanent Rose
· Alizarin Crimson Hue
· Ultramarine
· Intense Blue
· Viridian Hue
· Raw Umber
· Yellow Ochre
· Burnt Sienna
· Chinese White
Supplementary Supplies
· 4 main brushes
· Paper
· Pencil & Eraser
· Board or Hard Surface
· Roll of Masking tape
· Water pot or container
· Flat Plastic Palette/Tray
· Reasonable size board for your Birthday cards
What to paint - Discovering a subject:
Many artists don't find it easy to be stimulated by the regular everyday subjects. Nevertheless, true artists can turn the very ordinary thing into something special by just looking at it innovatively. It may be a landscaping, a building, an interior scene such as a bedroom, or still life like vases or bottles. If you feel really positive you may wish to try a portrait (of the loved one you're giving the birthday card to), botanical painting or maybe even an abstract. Your painting does not have to be precise or perfect, remember art is in the sense of the painter not the critic.
Painting a Watercolour Landscape:
Landscapes are believed to be the easiest for beginners and the following fundamental technique should be applied. 4 general rules are valid while colouring a landscape.
Your View - As an artist you will be looking to create a visual portrayal of your preferred setting, it's not a duplicate but an illusion of what you're painting. Remember, it is how you see it and paint it that makes it a unique piece of art for your birthday cards and even canvas.
Aerial Perspective - Take time to have a look at the landscape you want to paint and 4 different aspects should be evident. Initially the items far away will look smaller. Second, the distant objects won't be as detailed. Third, colours become less vivid the further away they are. Fourthly, as objects diminish their tones become paler and less contrasted.
Composition - Making use of your pencil, lightly sketch the outline of the landscape. Ensure you set out a horizon, middle and foreground within your landscape. Ordinarily, this works as the horizon being the background of the painting with the horizon line being about one 3rd from the bottom of the page. Several novices begin drawing the horizon half way down the page - but our eye line only sees 30-40% of the "surface matter" in any given scene and the remainder is sky.
When you have sketched the necessary out line of your scene, your picture is now ready to have the colour applied.
Picking a paint tray of colours:
The common practice is to retain a broad palette of around 12 colours and add to it for special necessities. For example, you will find that numerous birthday cards are generally bright in colour and therefore you may wish to include some brighter contrasts to your painting.
When you have obtained the initial palette, the subsequent thing is to locate a suitable board.
Which board?
Watercolour board is mould made board and could be acid free giving it an extensive life with no wear and tear. The board is pre-sized allowing the artist to sponge and erase (if necessary) without causing any damage.
Basic Technique:
Squeeze a small amount from your water-colour paint tubes or dab a damp paint brush into your watercolour pan - best to begin with 3 primary colours - a red, blue and yellow.
Use a round brush and start putting some blue on the sky, before dabbing the colour with a wet tissue to make cloud shapes by lifting out the pint.
After that, work onto the distant horizon line using muted colours (i.e. weak blue, grey and yellows mixed with water) then onto the onto the middle ground section using more blues and green ahead of moving onto the forefront using yellowy-greens and more powerful, more vivid colours - not thinned with too much water. Note: In case you are colouring a medium sized birthday card, you may wish to downgrade the size of the outline before commencing to paint.
When you have built these colours you could then develop a sequence of layers to suit your style. If you are extremely adventurous, you might wish to try the wet-into-wet method. This is where the colors merge whilst they are still wet. This makes stunning, subtle tones for your birthday cards and is excellent for moody, atmospheric paintings so as to lighten up the cards for the person having the birthday.
One more technique, is generating a water-colour wash, which offers numerous special effects like, graduation, granulation and flecked. Avoiding being too technical, a wash is in fact where a colour adjusts as a consequence of the water content mixed with the pure colour. Such effect is formed by starting at the top of a dried out sheet of board. Paint a band of dark colour (ultramarine blue), then add additional water to the brushes and create a second band underneath the initial one. Continue doing this until you have a graded wash i.e. the colour goes from dark to pale and in some cases transparent. Whilst painting birthday cards, you don't need to be concerned about adding the greeting 'happy birthday', as the message can be written on the inner side the card with the front showing off your artistic abilities.
Some Closing Suggestions:
DON'T - fiddle around with the painting; once the birthday card is complete, do not add extra touches thinking you will make it better.
DON'T - Let your palette become overly wet.
The colour should be allowed to dry in between stages of application unless you are employing the wet-into-wet technique. Maybe use a hairdryer to improve the drying process.
Consistently refer to the object you are painting and to your piece of art.
Start painting from the topmost of the card.
Always wash your equipment with cleaning soap and water.
Paint loosely; don't get hung up on precision. Remember that it's a painting and not a photocopy.
Mark has experience in producing water colour paintings and enjoys this activity. there are many watercolour birthday cards available at http://www.cardly.co.uk/
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