Before it
becomes paint, watercolour is first and foremost water. And as we embark on the
watercolour painting, we realise that we have no control over water and we can
not force it do anything (a scary feeling indeed… lol). However, we need to
learn to respect this property in it, and to handle it to our best advantage.
Wet-on-wet is
one of the most complex, but also most basic of the techniques. It requires a
lot of focus and quick action at every moment. In this technique you have to
manoeuvre the flow of paint as the water on paper meets the water in the brush (Figure 1).
A must-have
brush
To act more
spontaneously and without being interrupted, you need to adequately soak the
paper with water. This way, you wont be wasting time constantly supplementing
your water/pigment mixture. To wet the surface properly, you need a waterbrush
that can hold a substantial amount of water. A squirrel hair brush is ideal for
this . The fineness of its tip allows you to draw very accurately on wet as
well as dry paper using pigment that is suspended in water. You can also remove
extra water/ pigment from paper to tone down the colour.
Stretch the
paper
To begin with,
you need to stretch your paper over a broad frame to avoid wrinkling. They come
in all sizes. You can even use a stretcher designed for oil colour painting.
Add a border of 3cm so that it can be folded back. Make sure you do not confuse
the back of the stretcher with the front. As the water dries up, it will draw
on itself stretching like the hide of a drum. This whole process can be
recreated after each major wash and will make it easier to manage water flow
and increase /decrease in water density.
Wet the paper
Using a thick brush
spread plenty of water over the whole surface of paper. The paper needs to
absorb an awful lot of water to wet through. This prolongs its water drying
time and gives you more time to act. If you put too much water, you can remove
the access water by pinching the tip of your squirrel hair brush and using it
to remove water by drawing it up by capillary action (Figure 2). Even if you
want to paint wet on wet in the restricted area of your paper, you must still
wet beyond the area that is to be covered, otherwise, the blends created by the
suspended pigments will be blocked by the edge of the damp area.
The adventure
begins
Depending on
what results you are looking to achieve, you need to wait for the exact moment
to release the pigments from your brush. For pronounced area of colour
blending, where you want to paint skies or luminous atmospheres, you can paint on to a very wet surface (Figure
3). For less spread out shapes, you can paint on partially wet and therefore
matt surfaces (Figure 4). Alternately, you can also increase the density of
pigment in your brush by adding less water. I have done both in Figure 5. For
only slightly dispersed strokes, you can work on almost dry paper with just a
little amount of water retained, like the strokes indicated on the extreme left
and extreme right side of Figure 5.
My paintings
Figure 6: I
started this painting off just as an exercise- more of an experiment. I thought
I would play around with water and pigments to see how they behave, or
infamously misbehave lol. Since I didn’t plan to make any painting here, I
wasn’t all that scared to use large amounts of water. So I simply put a large
drop of water and started depositing the pigments in this pool with the tip of
SHB. I turned around the direction of pigments while still in pool, removed
some water here and there, by using the pinching-the-brush technique as
described above. I left out certain areas for the reflected light from paper.
And as the time passed the paper started drying, going from a shiny to matt
appearance. The spread of the paints also started becoming more controlled and
I started painting somewhat more defined, less spread-out structures. And
finally, as the paper was almost dry, I gave a few finishing touches, with bold
lines and increasingly dense pigments. And here, I created something that I had
not seen or visualized till I was 70% done. Here my focus was more towards
learning how the pigments and water behave, and what all I can do with
pigments, brush, water and my imagination. A good fun exercise to develop a
relationship with your medium and understand it better -highly recommended.
Don’t go by the artwork I created here. Just look at the strokes and techniques
and created your own abstract maybe. A great way to get rid of fear of using
lots of water in your paintings! Did the same with Figure 7 and Figure 8
paintings. These two look much-improved version of my previous experiment (Fig
6). I am less hesitant and more adventurous in using large amounts of water, an
act that seems to have paid off well.
-To change
colour tones on the wet surface, simply increase or decrease the pigment : water
ratio.
-Remember to
use more intense colours than the effect that you are looking to achieve,
because the colours are going to fade a little once the picture is dry.
The halo
effect
While
painting, accidents do happen. One of the most common ones with watercolour
painting is accidental fall of a drop of water from your brush onto a wet or almost
dry painting. This creates a halo effect with feathering on the edges (Figure 9).
This halo effect can however can be tackled or even turned to your advantage if
you master the skill of handling or even deliberately creating the halos for
those special effects in your painting.
To reverse the
effect of halo, you need to tackle the issue in two different ways depending on
whether the drop has fallen on the wet surface, or matt/almost dry surface. If
the wash is still wet, quickly pinch dry your squirrel brush, and then using
the tip of the brush lift out the water from the centre of your halo. This will
not only remove the pigment from the area but there is also a good chance that
the original pigments that were dispersed towards the edge of the halo (causing
feathering) would return to the centre, thus restoring the pigments to their
original effect (Figure 10). The halo is a bit more problematic if the wash is
almost dry, and the water spreads carrying with it the pigment that is still
fresh and therefore creates a very pronounced feathering effect (Figure 9). To
deal with type of halo, you need to wait till the paper is completely dry. Once
completely dry, moisten the paper again with plenty of water, taking care not
to press the brush or letting the paper weaken. Then lift out the surplus water
from the feathered edge. You will see a little de-pigmentation around the wash,
and even the light centre of the halo will remain, but its effect will be much
reduced. And finally, whatever happens, do not get discouraged. Once the
painting is complete, you will see that such small accidents add to the
character and life of the whole painting.
Halo can be
used as a creative tool as well. On a matt surface, if you gently touch the tip
of a drained brush, you can draw on the pigment without causing feathering. The
whiteness of the paper will make this drawing look like a halo that has been
deprived of water (Figure 11). If you want the halo to be brighter, repeat the
process of drawing on the painted surface by draining the brush one more time.
To draw in your halos efficiently, remember to be patient and wait until the
surface is partially dried and gives the paper a matt finish. You can use this
technique to show filtered light or for something like drawing the veins in a
leaf.
Do these three exercises for attaining
control over and making use of halo effect:
1. Draw random lines on a matt surface, by using the tip of a drained brush (Figure
11).
2. Prepare a pool of water in a matt and wash it with several pigments. Let
a small drop of water fall and draw it up immediately by pinching-dry the tip
of your brush, or by using a separate dry brush. The white of paper will
appear, which will darken because of the bleeding in of the pigments from the
surroundings. Repeat this exercise again by dropping and ifting a small drop of
water, till the light of desired luminosity is retained (Figure 12a,12b and 12c).
3. Draw the veins of a leaf by delicately directing the drop of water with
the tip of your brush (Figure 13).
Painting with
water
Painting with
water onto a wash that is still wet is a form of recreating the halo effect,
only in this case you are moving from simple forms to more complex shapes
(Figure 14). This technique requires a good amount of practice and a lot of
patience. Even if you do not get the desired results in first few attempts, you
will end up getting better with each new exercise, learning a bit more about
your medium and how to handle it, the precise moment to act, know when to
stop. Also, you will lose the fear
of using water and working on wet surfaces, and get better and better each day.
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