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Watercolour Tips
source: https://www.johnlovett.com/watercolor-tips-for-beginners (edited)
note: below is an edit of the source website - go to the above link for the full illustrated version.
Link to John Lovett 'Painting Lessons' - (over 70 lessons)
Tip 1. Saving White Paper
Watercolour is transparent, it relies on untouched paper for the clean, crisp whites. This means you must decide from the very beginning where the areas of white will be in your painting and plan ahead to preserve these areas.
Clean, white paper contrasting with strong dark tones give impact.
The process for successful watercolour painting, is to avoid the areas to be left white and apply the lightest washes first, gradually working your way towards darker washes. Try to cover large areas fairly loosely in the early stages of the painting, applying tighter detail towards the end. Here are a few points to keep in mind...
Tip 2. Thumbnail Sketches
Small thumbnail sketches allow you to shuffle your subject around and adjust the composition before you start to paint. Having a plan to work to makes it much easier to avoid problems, particularly when it comes to arranging tonal (light dark) contrast. Break your thumbnail sketches into about four different tonal areas and shade them in. This lets you manipulate the lights and darks so the maximum contrast occurs at the centre of interest.
Tip 3. Colour Harmony
Of all the watercolour tips for beginners, maintaining colour harmony is one of the most important. There are a few simple things to remember to maintain colour harmony throughout your painting.
Limit your palette
Dipping into twenty different colours spread around your palette is tempting but usually results in a discordant, muddy work. Limit your colours to just two or three, particularly in the early stages of a painting. Your subject will dictate which ones to choose. For buildings, landscape etc. starting with washes of earth colours - Raw Sienna and Burnt Sienna plus a little Ultramarine or Indigo, depending on what sort of atmosphere you’re after, gives a tight harmonious foundation to work on. More intense colours can be carefully introduced later if necessary.
Tip 4. Foreign colours
How often do you look at a painting and see an area of colour that doesn’t seem to fit? A group of trees in an out of place green, a discordant blue river or a purple flower that seems to jump out of the bunch. The remedy to this problem is simple, introduce more of the discordant colour to the rest of the painting.
Tip 5. Tie up colour
A few fine calligraphic lines in a harmonious colour will usually tighten up a disjointed colour arrangement.
Use a #1 or 2 liner brush or pen and ink. It is important to use just one colour for these lines or you run the risk of adding to the confusion. If you use ink, a fine spray of water quickly after the ink is applied, will soften the lines and create some interesting feathering effects.
Tip 6. Dark Tones
Avoid neutral darks - a painting will have more life and character if the darks tend to either warm or cool. To mix a rich strong dark don’t use an opaque Yellow. Windsor & Newton Quinacridone Gold or Rowney Indian Yellow work best. Most other yellows make muddy darks. As well as a transparent yellow, you will need lots of pigment and very little water. It's a good idea to dip straight from one colour to the next without rinsing the brush in between. Rinsing only dilutes the mix and moves it away from a strong dark.
Tip 7. Centre of Interest or Focal Point
A focal point or Centre of Interest is an area of your painting that captures and holds a viewer’s attention before letting it wander off to other regions of the painting. As well as an interesting part of the subject, the centre of interest should contain the maximum tonal contrast and strongest region of colour.
For a painting to be successful the centre of interest should be obvious and well positioned. Avoid placing the centre of interest in the middle of a painting (either horizontally or vertically) unless you are after a static, formal composition.
Keeping the centre of interest an unequal distance from each side helps position it correctly. Breaking the horizontal and vertical axis roughly in the ratio of 1:2 will also help to place the centre of interest
Tip 8. Don't Overwork Your Painting
A painting filled with carefully laboured detail from one edge to the other can be difficult to look at. If you like to work with fine detail, consider including some areas of relief.
source: https://www.johnlovett.com/watercolor-tips-for-beginners (edited)
note: below is an edit of the source website - go to the above link for the full illustrated version.
Link to John Lovett 'Painting Lessons' - (over 70 lessons)
Tip 1. Saving White Paper
Watercolour is transparent, it relies on untouched paper for the clean, crisp whites. This means you must decide from the very beginning where the areas of white will be in your painting and plan ahead to preserve these areas.
Clean, white paper contrasting with strong dark tones give impact.
The process for successful watercolour painting, is to avoid the areas to be left white and apply the lightest washes first, gradually working your way towards darker washes. Try to cover large areas fairly loosely in the early stages of the painting, applying tighter detail towards the end. Here are a few points to keep in mind...
Tip 2. Thumbnail Sketches
Small thumbnail sketches allow you to shuffle your subject around and adjust the composition before you start to paint. Having a plan to work to makes it much easier to avoid problems, particularly when it comes to arranging tonal (light dark) contrast. Break your thumbnail sketches into about four different tonal areas and shade them in. This lets you manipulate the lights and darks so the maximum contrast occurs at the centre of interest.
Tip 3. Colour Harmony
Of all the watercolour tips for beginners, maintaining colour harmony is one of the most important. There are a few simple things to remember to maintain colour harmony throughout your painting.
Limit your palette
Dipping into twenty different colours spread around your palette is tempting but usually results in a discordant, muddy work. Limit your colours to just two or three, particularly in the early stages of a painting. Your subject will dictate which ones to choose. For buildings, landscape etc. starting with washes of earth colours - Raw Sienna and Burnt Sienna plus a little Ultramarine or Indigo, depending on what sort of atmosphere you’re after, gives a tight harmonious foundation to work on. More intense colours can be carefully introduced later if necessary.
Tip 4. Foreign colours
How often do you look at a painting and see an area of colour that doesn’t seem to fit? A group of trees in an out of place green, a discordant blue river or a purple flower that seems to jump out of the bunch. The remedy to this problem is simple, introduce more of the discordant colour to the rest of the painting.
Tip 5. Tie up colour
A few fine calligraphic lines in a harmonious colour will usually tighten up a disjointed colour arrangement.
Use a #1 or 2 liner brush or pen and ink. It is important to use just one colour for these lines or you run the risk of adding to the confusion. If you use ink, a fine spray of water quickly after the ink is applied, will soften the lines and create some interesting feathering effects.
Tip 6. Dark Tones
Avoid neutral darks - a painting will have more life and character if the darks tend to either warm or cool. To mix a rich strong dark don’t use an opaque Yellow. Windsor & Newton Quinacridone Gold or Rowney Indian Yellow work best. Most other yellows make muddy darks. As well as a transparent yellow, you will need lots of pigment and very little water. It's a good idea to dip straight from one colour to the next without rinsing the brush in between. Rinsing only dilutes the mix and moves it away from a strong dark.
Tip 7. Centre of Interest or Focal Point
A focal point or Centre of Interest is an area of your painting that captures and holds a viewer’s attention before letting it wander off to other regions of the painting. As well as an interesting part of the subject, the centre of interest should contain the maximum tonal contrast and strongest region of colour.
For a painting to be successful the centre of interest should be obvious and well positioned. Avoid placing the centre of interest in the middle of a painting (either horizontally or vertically) unless you are after a static, formal composition.
Keeping the centre of interest an unequal distance from each side helps position it correctly. Breaking the horizontal and vertical axis roughly in the ratio of 1:2 will also help to place the centre of interest
Tip 8. Don't Overwork Your Painting
A painting filled with carefully laboured detail from one edge to the other can be difficult to look at. If you like to work with fine detail, consider including some areas of relief.