Watercolors

by Peart, Fiona

• ISBN13: 9780061491825
• ISBN10: 0061491829
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-05-07
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publications

Summary

Create beautiful watercolors in just 30 minutes!Do you want to paint beautiful watercolors quickly and easily? This handy, practical guide encourages fast and simple learning. By working with just a few materials and focusing on key techniques, you can create successful watercolors in no more than half an hour. With clear, easy-to-follow instructions, original color illustrations, and expert advice from a leading artist, Watercolors provides excellent ideas, projects, and techniques for quick and easy art. The ideal book for today's busy amateur artists.

Excerpts

Watercolors (30 minute ART)

Chapter One

Essential Equipment

What makes an artist is not sophisticated, expensive equipment, so you should not feel that you have to spend a fortune to create successful pictures. Using only minimal equipment will also help you to keep things simple and make the most of limited time.

You can buy paints in either pans or tubes. When you are using the latter, squirt the pigment into an empty pan so that you can easily dip into the color. To avoid wasting time fiddling with the tops of the tubes, make sure you have enough paint in your palette so that you can enjoy painting without interruption.

Paints

Paint comes in a variety of brands and types. Student colors are great for the beginner and are a cost-effective way of seeing whether you will enjoy watercolor painting before you spend more on artist's-quality pigments. However, once you have decided you are serious about painting, artist's-quality paints are the ones to buy for the best results.

Remember that while you can tone down colors, you can never make them brighter. Consequently, buying bright colors in the first place will give you the widest range to use in your paintings.

Palettes

Most paint boxes have their own palettes, but for mixing subtle colors, the fiat, smooth porcelain surface of ordinary ceramic tiles is excellent because you can see them clearly. However you will need deeper wells for washes—it's important not to of paint in the middle of a wash.

Paper

For small paintings, 200-lb. (380 gsm) watercolor paper is ideal. Begin with an inexpensive paper, such as Fabriano Artistico, and stick to it until you feel confident—it's best to have as few variables as possible at first so that you quickly learn what your paints can do.

Brushes

You don't need to buy a lot of brushes to start with, and in fact you can get by with just a No. 10 round brush. When you want to expand your kit you will probably find, like most people, that you basically need a fine, a medium, and a wide brush to cover all the techniques you might want to use. All of the paintings in this book have been done using a No. 10 round sable brush, a No. 1 rigger brush, or a 1½-inch hake, sometimes in combination.

Other items

If you like to draw your subject before you begin painting, use a 2B pencil and a very soft kneaded eraser if you need to lighten or remove your lines. Press this against the surface to lift the lead instead of rubbing vigorously on the paper.

Accessories you will need include two big water containers if you're painting indoors, a big plastic bottle of water if you are painting on location, and some absorbent paper towels. Masking tape is useful for attaching the paper to the board, as well as for masking the area around a painting to create a clean edge. A hair drier is handy to help you speed up the drying process where necessary.

Watercolors (30 minute ART). Copyright © by Fiona Peart. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

---

Excerpted from Watercolors by Fiona Peart
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.