Beginners Guide to

The World of

Watercolor

Created exclusively for Craftsy

by Antonella Avogadro

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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Meet the Expert

Types of Watercolor Paper for Perfect Paintings
Basic Watercolor Palette Colors
Color Transparency
Color Value
Color Temperature
Color Intensity

ANTONELLA AVOGADRO
Antonella is a fashion designer and freelance illustrator, with a soft
spot for art history. She spends her days juggling her three passions:
drawing, sewing and drafting patterns, while sharing her creations on
her blog Stardust Soul (www.stardustsoul.blogspot.com).
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2 TYPES OF WATERCOLOR PAPER

for Perfect Paintings

No matter what kind of painting suits your fancy, painting with

watercolors is an enriching and fun experience. With this medium you
never really know what the outcome will be, and it allows mistakes
to become happy accidents. You can achieve very unexpected
paintings by letting the water and colors speak to you and guide you
through the painting. But, in the case of watercolors, using the right
(or wrong) type of watercolor paper can truly make or break a painting.

Because watercolors are so easily affected by the canvas they are

painted on, it is very useful to know the types of paper available and
which one will best fit your needs. The type of watercolor paper
you use will influence the final style of the painting, and it can also
determine its longevity.
Heres a quick rundown of the main types of watercolor paper, based
on texture and weight, plus some extra tips!

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Watercolor Paper: Texture

The three main types of paper vary depending on the roller used
to press it during production. Lets take a look at what determines
the texture.

HOT-PRESSED PAPER
This type of paper is pressed using metal rollers, which create
a smooth surface and an even texture. Hot-pressed paper is great
for mixed media work. When combining watercolor with other
media, even ink and graphite will glide smoothly over its surface.
Hot-pressed paper will also allow you to create a lot of detail. It offers
a sleek finish. Plus, the smoothness of the paper is great for creating
subtle color gradients, which is very useful when painting things like
flowers, skies, skin and clothes.

COLD-PRESSED PAPER
This type of paper presents a rougher texture than the hot-pressed
paper. When you glide your brush over it, some of the paint settles
on it while skipping the indentations of the grainy texture, leaving
them blank. This creates a beautifully textured brushstroke, perfect
for representing all kinds of sparkling bodies of water, such as lakes
and oceans, among many other subjects. Cold-pressed paper is great
for beginners and is also a favorite among many artists.

ROUGH PAPER
As the name indicates, this is a paper with a very textured surface,
making it very different from hot-pressed paper. It is not ideal for
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painting a lot of detail, but it creates expressive brushstrokes that can

provide a painting with a lot of character and emotion. This is a fun
texture to work with, as you never really know what the results will be.
No type of paper is inherently better than the other. It all depends on
your needs, your preferred watercolor techniques and what look you
are going for in your painting.

Watercolor
Paper: Weight
All three types
of watercolor
paper come in
different weights.
If you are practicing
or sketching with
watercolors, you
might want to
go for one of the
thinner papers, like
90 lb or 140 lb,
since they are less
Mixed media (watercolor and ink) sketches
expensive. Keep in
mind that the thinner paper should be stretched before
you start painting, otherwise you will end up with a warped
and buckled painting.
If you are creating a more important piece, or you simply use
heavier washes when painting with watercolors, you will want to use
something thicker. Try looking for something like 260 lb or 300 lb
paper, which will absorb more water and wont buckle.

Side-by-side comparison of rough watercolor paper and regular drawing paper.

EXTRA TIPS FOR CHOOSING WATERCOLOR PAPER

Stretch your watercolor paper before getting started to prevent
warping. There are blocks of paper available that come pre-stretched,
meaning the pages are glued together on all four sides, ready to be
painted on. Once you are finished, all you have to do is let it dry on the
block, and then carefully separate the sheet from it.
Look for acid-free paper if you want your painting to retain its color
and quality through time. Acid-free paper will yellow significantly
less with age.

All three of these papers can seem a bit pricey if you want to sketch
or practice in quantity without worrying about ruining it. What I like
to do in these instances is use smooth, regular drawing paper. It wont
work so well if you are using heavy washes or painting wet on wet,
but its a good cheap alternative for sketches and allows for a lot
of practice work if you use dry-on-dry or wet-on-dry techniques.

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BASIC WATERCOLOR

Palette Colors
Whether you are just starting out with watercolor painting or youve
been at it for a while, it is very convenient to set up a basic color
palette with the most useful colors and your go-to ones, depending
on your preferred subjects. For instance, if you usually paint flowers
and natural sceneries, youll probably include a wider variety of greens
than say, an urban sketcher.

GETTING TO THE KNOW THE BASICS OF WATERCOLOR

PALETTE COLORS
The Cotman watercolors from Winsor & Newton are my favorite. They
are more affordable than their pricier artist-grade paints, yet they are
still good quality and mix together nicely.
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THE BASIC COLORS

These are the colors I have found work best for either a beginners
palette or even a travel-sized palette for plein air painting:
BLUES:
Ultramarine Blue
Phthalo Blue
Cerulean
GREENS:
Viridian
Phthlo Green
Sap Green
YELLOWS:

Lemon Yellow
Cadmium Yellow
New Gamboge
Yellow Ochre

REDS AND ORANGES:

Cadmium Red
Alizarin Crimson
Permanent Rose
BROWNS:

Burn Umber
Burnt Sienna
Sepia
Raw Umber

SWATCHING YOUR COLOR PALETTE

Whenever I get new paints, I like to swatch them on a sheet
of watercolor paper alongside the rest of the colors on my palette.
This helps you see what the color really looks like, since it can vary
from the color on the tube. Its also nice to have this swatch page
for future reference. This way, you can have a look at what colors
you own, how they look next to each other and keep track of new
additions to your palette.
To get started swatching your palette, youll need:

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Watercolors (either pans or tubesI use a few of both)

A paintbrush
Water
A sheet of watercolor paper
Paper towel (to wipe off your brush)
Ruler and pencil (optional)

Artists tip: Use two different water containers. One for cleaning your
brushes (this one will have dirty water very early on) and another one
with clean water to pick up new paint.
You can choose to swatch each color by doing simple brushstrokes
on the page. This can be quick and easy. But, personally, Im quite
detail-oriented, so I like to draw a grid with equally sized rectangles
and plan where I will place each color, organizing them from coolest
to warmest (bluesgreensyellowsreds and browns). I also make
sure to leave extra empty spaces for future additions to my palette.
I keep these pages as reference for whenever Im painting, so I like
them to be neat.

With this exercise, one of the many things I was able to notice is that
the color Cadmium Red Pale and Cadmium Red are awfully similar
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on paper. You might be saying well duh, they share practically the
same name! However, they do look quite different in their pans than
they do once you are painting with them.
With this knowledge I can now take one of them out of my palette and
make room for my beloved Phthalo Blue, which didnt have a spot in
there before. From your swatches, you will also be able to compare
things like hue and temperature, which well discuss later on.

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COLOR TRANSPARENCY

Just like any other type of paint, watercolors are defined by their own
set of properties. In the next sections, we will explore some of these
properties, doing some simple exercises to get to know our colors and
how they react to each other. Lets begin with color transparency.

LETS EXPLORE COLOR THEORY IN WATERCOLORS,

BEGINNING WITH TRANSPARENCY.

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The spectrum for this property is made up of three types of watercolor

paint: transparent, semi-transparent and opaque. Each of them
cover the surface of the paper to a different degree, letting more
or less of the light reflected from the paper through the pigment.

It is very convenient to understand transparency and have a sense

of the degree of each colors transparency in our palettes, so we can
gain a bit more control over the final results of our paintings. Well,
we want as much control as possible with watercolors, as they can
be very unpredictable. However, thats often the fun part!
TESTING TRANSPARENCY
This method will not only test each colors transparency, but it will also
reveal how the colors on your palette interact together.

To get started, begin by painting a long and thick horizontal stripe with
one of your colors. Allow it to dry completely. Then, paint vertical lines
over it, using the rest of the colors on your palette. Some colors will let
more of the underlying pigment through than others, while showing
how each color is affected by the rest of them.
Repeat this exercise with all the colors on your palette. You can label
the brushstrokes and save this page as future reference. Revisit
it whenever you need to know what the resulting color will be when
you overlay any two given colors.
If you only want to test your colors degree of transparency without
testing how they interact with each other, you can do the same
exercise with one minor change: Use black India ink to create the long
horizontal line. Let it dry completely and proceed as indicated above.
The paint you place over it will react in one of three ways: It will
either disappear completely, partially cover that area or something
in between. This reaction will determine whether the paint is
transparent, semi-transparent or opaque.
Try out this exercise to get more acquainted with your palette.
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COLOR VALUE

Lets move on to color value. When we speak of color value in art,

we refer to the levels of darkness and lightness of any particular color.
Watercolors are very versatile when it comes to value. Depending
on the amount of water you use to pick up a color, you can achieve
a very saturated brushstroke, a very sheer brushstroke or anything
in between.
When you are starting out with watercolors, one of the more
frustrating issues you may encounter is diculties with not knowing
how much water to use with your paints. I am going to show you
a simple exercise that will help you gain control over the amount
of water you use to mix a color that, in turn, will help you get the exact
value you want when painting.

How to master color value in your watercolor paintings!

What you will need:

Watercolors
A paintbrush
Water
A sheet of watercolor paper
A clean palette

STEP 1:

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For this demo, I am using Phthalo Blue and Permanent Rose, both
in tube form, so I begin by putting some paint onto my palette. If you
are using a color in pan form, you want to do the same by picking
up a generous amount of watercolor and placing it on your palette.
We will be gradually watering down this color until its practically clear
in order to create a gradient of all its possible values. First, lets make
the value gradient for Phthalo Blue.
STEP 2:

Using your brush, pick up your color of choice (in this case Phthalo
Blue) in its most saturated form and paint the first swatch of your value
scale on the sheet of watercolor paper.
STEP 3:

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After you paint the first swatch of the gradient, add a small amount
of water to the color on your palette to slightly water it down and
create the next value on the scale. Continue mixing in more and more
water to your palette after you paint each new rectangle. It will begin
to look something like this:

For the first three or four swatches, the difference in value will be
barely noticeable but dont worry, this is OK. After you keep watering
down the color, the gradient will advance and begin to look lighter.
STEP 4:
Keep repeating this simple process for a few more rectangles, until
the color on your palette is completely watered down and almost
clear. Usually, youll reach this point after about 14 or 15 swatches
of the same color. Remember to let it dry!
Now you can repeat this exercise with any other of your most used
colors, like I did with Permanent Rose.

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COLOR TEMPERATURE

Using the property of color temperature in art can build depth and
mood in your watercolor paintings. Color temperature refers to the
level of warmth contained within any certain color. The way we classify
colors based on this property is either as warm or cool. The very basics
of this type of classification are very straightforward and in tune with
the way we usually perceive colors in the real world, and what we
associate them with. For example, we associate red with things like fire
and the sun, making it a warm color; and blue with ice and the ocean,
making it a cool color.

Hot & Cold:

Discover the World of Color Temperature in Art
TEMPERATURE AMONG DIFFERENT COLORS
In this broad sense, different hues are compared and contrasted against
each other and classified depending on their temperaturered
is warm, blue is cool. The placement of colors on the color wheel
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is based precisely on this premise, with reds, oranges and yellows

together on the warm side while greens, blues and purples are
on the cool side.
But, if we peel off this initial level of classification and dig a little deeper
into color temperature, we find that different red hues can be classified
as cool and blue hues can be classified as warm. This is where things
get a bit more subjective and relative.
TEMPERATURE BETWEEN VARIANTS OF THE SAME COLOR
When comparing two or more variants of the same color, like the blues
above, we need to look at their undertones. The blues containing
a red undertone (leaning toward a violet hue) are classified as warm
and the others as cool. That being said, classifying colors by their
temperature is subjective and artists sometimes have different views
on this topic.
So, nothing is set in stone when comparing the temperature of similar
hues. It all depends on what you are comparing the color to. A blue
can be classified as cool color when compared to a red, but it could
also be classified as a warm color if it contains slight red undertones
and is being compared to a cooler blue.
STUDYING TEMPERATURE
Since these are not absolute rules, I recommend not getting too
caught up in this. Simply having an understanding of this concept

can go a long way when mixing colors or creating an eye-catching

composition. Temperature can play a huge part in setting up
a particular mood in a painting and conveying a feeling.
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You can get more acquainted with this property by swatching different
variations of the same color and making them slightly warmer or cooler
by mixing in reds or blues into your hue. For example, adding yellow
to an orange will result in cooler orange hues. In the same way, adding
more red to an orange will create warmer shades of orange, and so on.

Katharine, 10 x 8 oil on linen by Craftsy member Brian Neher

Lets take a look at some great examples using temperature

in paintings from members of Craftsy fine art community.
Notice how the subject pops right out of the painting thanks to the
use of a muted and contrasting cool background. Warm colors tend
to be perceived closer by the human eye while cool colors tend
to be perceived farther away.

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Similar to the technique used in the above painting Katharine,

the poppies are painted in a very warm hue and contrast against
the cool green in the background, making them the main focal point
of the painting.

Sunset Poppies via Craftsy member Steve Butts

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Transition by Craftsy member kolorama1662292

I love the
beautiful hues in this piece entitled Transition. Look at how the
orange sections of the clouds take front and center while the purple
and blue areas seem to be far, far away. The wonderful use of
temperature here creates a lovely mood.
If you wanted to, you could extend the gradient even further by mixing
the pure color with a dark neutral tint like blackthis will create darker
tones without changing the hue of the color.

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COLOR INTENSITY

No one wants a dull painting, but dont underestimate the great power
of mixing muted and dull colors. These seemingly boring tones will
help your paintings reach a whole new level of depth and realism.
Having an understanding of color intensity in art is an important skill.
Heres an overview on color intensity to help you create beautiful,
realistic watercolor paintings.

WHY IS INTENSITY IMPORTANT?

In my experience, I have found that having a strong grasp of what
intensity is all about and knowing how to mix colors with lower
intensity helps a huge deal in making paintings look more realistic.
In real life, the colors we see around us, especially in nature, tend
to be muted versions of the colors in our paint tubes. Painting the
leaves of a palm tree, for example, with an intense green hue can
make it look less realistic and flat, unless you are consciously painting
a high intensity piece with vibrant hues. Keep in mind that too much
color vibration and intensity can be hard to look at.
WHAT IS INTENSITY?
Again, when we speak of the intensity of any given color we refer
to its brightness or dullness. The intensity scale is made up of hue
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and tone. Hue is when a color is fully saturated, meaning it has not
been neutralized by its compliment. We can call these colors that have
the highest possible level of saturation pure hues.
CREATING MUTED TONES WITH COMPLEMENTARY COLORS.
By looking at the color wheel, we can select
pairs of complementary colors to create our
study of intensity.
We can begin by painting an intensity chart of
blue-orange, two complementary colors. First,
begin by swatching blue and orange in their purest
hue, straight from the tube or pan, at either side
of your scale. Then, slowly begin to incorporate
small drops of orange into the blue on your palette
to create the gradient. Even the smallest drop
of orange will create a slightly muted blue tone.
Notice in the scales I created how the hues that
are closest to their true complement on the
color wheel tend to mix into a more neutral gray.
RYB color wheel via Wikimedia commons
In theory, mixing the exact opposing colors on
the color wheel in equal parts will result in a neutral gray. Something
worth remembering whenever you are painting.

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You can repeat this with other pairs of complementary colors, such
as red-green and purple-yellow. Dont underestimate the power
of this simple exercise. Even if you already have plenty of experience
with watercolors or other mediums, it is always worthwhile to revisit
the basics every now and then to gain a new perspective, overcome
an artistic block or simply to discover new colors mixes that you
hadnt explored before.

Remember that with colors, the key to achieving realism is pure

observation and knowing when you need a vibrant hue and when
the atmosphere calls for a muted tone.

This is truly just the beginning. Dive deeper into the world of watercolor
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