smmms^m^

''•} ^^>.^^:v:j^^:",r^:,^^;i';.'^ :.;i;'>

-!'/ ^•.' '»!';' *^^^^
'^•"''^'v' 'if'
Creative watercolor Techniaues
Creative
watercoior
Techniques
By zoitan Szaiio

WATSON-GUPTILL PUBLICATIONS/NEW YORK

PITMAN PUBLISHING/LONDON
GENERAL PUBLISHING/TORONTO
Copyright© 1974 by Watson-Guptill Publications

First published 1974 in the United States by Watson-Guptill Publications,

a division of Billboard Publications, Inc.,
One Astor Plaza, New York, N.Y. 10036

Published simultaneously in Great Britain by Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons Ltd.
39 Parker Street, Kingsway, London WC2B 5PB
ISBN 0-273-00812-9

Published in Canada 1974 by General Publishing Company Ltd.,

30 Lesmill Road, Don Mills, Ontario
ISBN 0-7736-0033-7

All rights reserved. No part of this publication

may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means— graphic,
electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping,
or information storage and retrieval systems— v^ithout
w^ritten permission of the publishers.

Manufactured in U.S.A.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Szabo, Zoltan, 1928-
Creative watercolor techniques.
1. Water-color painting— Technique. I. Title.
ND2420.S92 751.4'22 73-22234
ISBN 0-8230-1119-4
First Printing, 1974
As we dream, our subconscious mind borrows images
from When an artist paints, he chan-
real experiences.
nels his dreams to flow back into reality through his
brush and become a work of art. This transfer is part of
a creative process that an artist must recognize, re-
spect, and utilize.
When dream, dream of nature. try to paint na-
I I I

ture as dream it. When each painting is born, another

I

dream comes true. I invite you, my fellow dreamers, to

share my dreams— and I dedicate this book to you.
Acknowledgments
My most sincere gratitude to the Audio Visual Depart-
ment of Sault College, and to Neil MacEwan, for their
far-reaching cooperation involving photography es-
sential to the completion of this book. And to all my
friends who encouraged and helped me through the
problem months of production, particularly Nadean
Leonard and Wendon Blake, many, many thanks.
Contents

Introduction, 8
1. Starting with a Deliberate Accident, 11
2. Painting onWet Paper, 17
3. Graphite Wash Technique, 23
4. Using Opaque Watercolor, 28
5. Using Transparent and Opaque Watercolors Together, 33
6. Using Acrylic Paint as Watercolor, 35
7. Using a Painting Knife for Watercolor, 40
8. Using Salt and Sand, 47
9. Deliberate Backruns, 50
10. Impressing Real Objects into Watercolor, 52
11. Turpentine and Spray Fixatives with Watercolor, 59
12. Starch and Watercolor, 66
13. Sponge and Watercolor, 69
14. Watercolor and Japanese Papers, 74
15. Aquagraph Prints, 113
16. Mixed Media, 115
17. Watercolor on Smooth Paper, 117
18. Soap with Watercolor, 119
19. Watercolor on Translucent Materials, 122
20. Watercolor Collage, 124
21. Watercolor with Hard (Bristle) Brushes, 131
22. Wash and Line, 136
23. Liquid Dyes and Colored Inks, 138
24. Opaque Watercolor on Dark Paper, 140
25. White Paint and Transparent Watercolor, 142
26. Watercolor on Prepared Canvas, 144
27. Watercolor with Paper and Cardboard Strips, 149
28. Watercolor with Rollers and Squeegee, 154
29. Using Oil Paint Washes as Watercolor, 159
30. Watercolor on Plaster, 164
Bibliography, 171
Index, 173
Introduction

The word watercolor implies any painting medium

which is soluble in water. For example, transparent
watercolor (as perfected by the British), opaque water-
color or gouache, casein tempera, egg tempera and
even acrylic all dissolve in water. In this book I have
dealt with various media, using other than the tradi-
tional methods usually associated with watercolors.
However, all such unconventional approaches still
share one watercolor characteristic in common-
spontaneity. They are all quite fun to do and require
an open and curious mind.
The variety of effects achieved with these paints is
virtually limitless. You can use them separately, mix
them before or during application, or overpaint with
them. In fact, you can do anything with them that your
imagination may demand! The behavior of these
paints is influenced by their environment, as well as
by your personality. These factors include the air tem-
perature while you work, the humidity, the proportion
of moisture mixed into each brushful of paint, and
your working surface.
It doesn't matter how well you master the technique

of watercolor, you can never be sure if your next

painting will be a fresh work of art or a spoiled mess.
The temperament of these aquatic media (as all water-
colors are called), guarantees the final result will al-
ways be as unpredictable as it is challenging. The con-
stant between painter and media offers an
battle
exciting reward for a persistent artist: a successful
painting. Never let the ruined attempts lower your mo-
rale. Remember that your learn every time you paint.
When a watercolorist is hooked, he is hooked for life—
for a very exciting life!
Here are some of the tools and materials you might use to improvise your own wotcrcolor techniques. Later, in

each chapter, / wiJJ give you further details on specific papers, brushes, and paints.
1. Starting with a
Deliberate Accident

The accidental approach to watercolor painting is par-

ticularly useful when you're in a hesitant mood, when
you're eager to paint but can't decide on a subject or
approach. Your brushes, paint, and water are ready to
/ /^ W"
go and soft music purrs in your ears, putting you in a
creative mood. Then, a glaringly clean sheet of your fa-
vorite paper stares up at you and whispers, "Don't you
dare touch me. I am immaculate and beautiful. Why
don't you go and watch TV instead?" When this hap-
pens, it's time for action.

Materials

1. Your usual tubes of transparent watercolors.

A. ACCIDENTAL BLOB
2. Watercolor brushes.

3. Handmade watercolor paper.

4. A piece of flat cardboard or wood.

In addition, you'll need ideal studio conditions: I

strongly advise youallow no distractions; total con-

to
centration is necessary to do a good job.
You have to create an element of accident in order to
stimulate a fresh, new approach. Any unintentional
start will be helpful. The following examples illustrate
how this can be done.

"Accidental" Printing

Select a piece of board with a smooth surface; card-

board, wood, or even a sheet of paper will do the job.
Apply a few quick blobs or brushstrokes of your fa-
vorite color to the surface of the board. Before the
paint has a chance to dry, turn the board over so that B BLIND BRUSHSTROKE
the painted side touches and transfers some of the
paint to the surface of your watercolor paper. To make
the transposed image still more "accidental," move the
board around in a haphazard manner while it's still in
contact with the surface of the paper. Then lift the
board and look at the outcome (A). The resulting ab-
"Blind" Brushstrokes
stract smear may look like a mess at first glance, but try
to relate it to something meaningful, as you do when Make few brushstrokes on your paper in complete
a
you discover familiar objects while looking at clouds. darkness. Don't try to make your mark resemble any-
You can repeat this procedure until an idea clicks. As thing, just let your hand go free for a few seconds (B).
soon as you see a possibility, develop it into a finished Turn the light back on and look for an idea; when you
painting. find one, complete your painting.

11
Rolling Wet Tissue
You can start way by making a small ball of
another
wet and saturating it with watercolor.
facial tissue
Place this wet ball on your paper and roll it back and
forth by tilting the paper in different directions. The
resulting line pattern can be exaggerated if you use
several balls, separately or simultaneously, saturated
with varying colors (C).

Beads of Paint

C.
s
WET TISSUE
Splash a heavily overloaded brushful of pigment onto
your paper to create a deep pool of paint. Blow hard at
this puddle at close range until a little bead of paint
starts running away. Blow in several directions until
the blob of paint takes on an interesting form. You'll
add interest if you do this several times, using different
colors and making them partially overlap some of the
earlier shapes (D). Try adding new colors while the
previous ones are still wet, or let each puddle dry be-
fore introducing a new one.

Another Approach

The sequence E-H shows yet another approach. First,

I wet my paper (300 lb., medium-rough) because wet
paper makes accidents even more unpredictable and
exciting (E). I load my 1" flat brush with one of my fa-
vorite colors, warm sepia. I hold the loaded brush
about 10" above my paper and pinch the bristles so
that the paint splashes onto the wet surface of the pa-
D. BEADS OF PAINT
per. The paint starts to spread rapidly. The abstract
shapes remind me of clusters of weeds; since I love
weeds and grass, I'll pursue the suggestions of my acci-
dent.
Iadd a few more splashes of related warm colors
and tilt the paper to force the wet paint to flow in a di-

rection that complements the composition being

shaped (F). When the wet paint begins to spread more
slowly, use a bunched-up tissue to wipe off the excess
I

water that has accumulated on the edges of the paper.

For the following strokes, I use more paint and less wa-
ter in my slanted bristle brush. These strokes remain
soft but begin to keep their form. I continue with this
approach, avoiding mechanical symmetry and build-
ing my composition a little further with each touch.
After the shiny, wet surface of the paper begins to
dry and turns dull, I reach for my small painting knife
and squeeze the slim strokes of paint off the damp
paper with a firm motion like that used to spread but-
ter (G). These light strokes represent light, sharp weeds
among the dark, soft ones.
I add the final sharp details after the paper is com-
pletely dry (H).

12
E PAINT SPLASHES F DIRECTING THE FLOW

/ ^>SC

G. SCRAPING WITH A KNIFE H. ADDING DETAILS

13
^-*S'

Starting with a Deliberate Accident

Step 1. (300 lb. D'Arche's cold-pressed handmade paper.) 1 make an impression

with a richly loaded natural sponge by vigorously pressing it on dry paper.

14
Step 2. Avoiding the sponge mark. wet the surrounding space. Using
I
a soft 1"
brush, sweep gentle blue washes on the top area. With a bristle brush, apply
I
I

the mass value of weeds at the bottom. A few scrapes with a pocketknife point
on the damp paper supply some details.

15
Step 3. I few darker sponge impressions and turn the circular sponge
add a
mark A few branches and apples on the tree as well as fine
into a tree shape.
lines hinting of loose weeds complete the mood. The little leaf caught in the
weeds adds final interest to the composition.

16
2. Painting on Wet Paper

Seeing watercolor respond to wet paper is one of the You should never paint in direct sunlight; the drying
most thrilling experiences a painter can have. This will be instantaneous, and the blinding glare from
process of applying wet watercolors to wet paper is your paper will distort your value and color judgment.
sometimes called the wet-in-wet technique. Because Find shade, or turn so that the sun is behind you and
you must work quickly to apply your washes before your body creates the necessary shadow.
the paper dries, this technique will certainly help you Extreme outdoor conditions are the exception
loosen up in your work. hope you have exciting re-
I rather than the rule. However, if the elements prevent
sults when you try it. you from painting wet-in-wet on location, use another
approach; do your wet painting later, in your studio
where you have more control over atmospheric condi-
Materials
tions.
1. Two large containers of water: one with clear water
used only for wetting the paper and clean brushes, the
Horizontal Painting Surface
other with water in which to clean your brushes.
The law of gravity effects the behavior of watercolor
2. A fist-size sponge and lots of paper towels or tissues on wet paper. If you place your shiny wet paper on a
with "wet strength" to grab as you paint.
horizontal surface— a table, for instance— the water-
3. Brushes: a large, soft, flat brush at least 2" wide; a 1" color paint will spread evenly in all directions as soon
flat brush; and your other favorite watercolor brushes. as you apply it (A). Gravity forces the excess water in
the paint to spread and combine with the water on
4. Handmade watercolor paper.
your paper.
5. A palette of your usual transparent, tube watercolor
paints. Tilted Painting Surface

Because so many different types and qualities of wa- If you tilt your wet painting surface in any direction—
tercolor paper are available (machine-made as well as either before, while, or immediately after you apply
handmade), and because working conditions include paint— the paint will rapidly flow downward as the re-
virtually unlimited variations in air temperature and sult of gravity (B). The steeper the slope of the paper,
humidity, impossible to set out firm rules for using
it is
the faster the paint will flow. You can control the flow
the wet-in-wet technique. Your own experience is the of the paint by rotating your paper either clockwise or
only guide you can depend on. However, the following counterclockwise as you hold it at the same angle.
are several factors you should keep in mind as you
make your first attempts.
Diluted Paint

Outdoor Working Conditions The degree of definition your brushstrokes have when
applied to wet paper is also effected by gravity. Even
As the minutes go by, the surface of your wet paper though you may not be conscious of the reason, the re-
will change; it some of the water as the ex-
will absorb sult will be obvious. The thinner the paint on your
cess starts to evaporate. The rate of drying will depend brush, the further it you apply
will spread as it (C).
on the temperature and the amount of humidity in the Consequently, the less diluted the paint, the less it will
air. On a cold day when temperature is around the 35° spread and the more definition it will have.
mark, your drying period will be so long that you may
have to speed it up by artificial means— for example,
Accidental Scratching
by placing your paper near your car heater. Dry, hot
air, on the other hand, will speed up the evaporation When watercolor paper is wet, its surface is easy to
process. mark, either accidentally or on purpose. Such marks

17
A. WATERCOLOR ON WET PAPER B. TILTED SURFACE

C. LIGHT AND HEAVY WASHES D. ACCIDENTAL SCKA CMINc,

I

E. CREATIVE SCRATCHING F. RE-WET AND RETOUCHED

18
are permanent and cannot be corrected or removed. Retouching a Dry Painting
Your fingernail can leave a scratch that will ruin a
The greal(!St advantage of using the wet-in-wet tech-
painting. When a sharp object scratches the wet paper,
nique is its resulting looseness and freshness. You
it tears the smooth surface. The paper along this dam-
should try to discipline yourself to work at the appro-
aged line acts like a soft blotter, absorbing water faster
priate speed for the; drying time of your paper, so that
than the untouched surface areas. During the process,
you can make all th(^ necessary brushstrokes while the
an extra amount of pigment is trapped in the damaged
paint is still wet. However, if the paper should get
area, making the line appear darker than the washes
ahead of you and dry before you've finished, put down
around it (D).
your brush and wait until the painting dries com-
pletely. Then use a soft, wide brush to re-wet an area at
Creative Scratching least three times as large as the area you want to cover
with your brushstroke. This re-wetting must be done
Scratching wet paper is actually another creative tech-
with a clean brush, clear water, and in one sure sweep
nique; you can use the sharp point of your brush
over the painted area. Don't try to apply two strokes or
handle to draw on the wet surface of the paper.
you'll smear the moist pigment that your first wet
Whether you do your drawing right after wetting the
touch has already loosened up. Onto this newly wet
paper with clean water and apply paint over it or first
spot, paint your missing brushstroke just as if the
apply a color wash and then scrape your lines in, the
same (E). The latter method is safer, whole surface were wet. In illustration F, the area of
result will be the
cloud in the left center was an afterthought; added it
I
because it allows you to see your dark lines instantly
using the procedure just described.
and therefore have more control over your composi-
tion. Remember, however, that the lines can't be
erased.

19
n

Painting on Wet Paper

1. (300 lb. D'Arche's cold-pressed handmade paper.) A quick sweep

Step with a
edge the and a hint of the misty sky. I use
soft, wide brush establishes the of hill

a bristle brush well loaded with pigment on the saturated paper surface to in-
dicate the misty forest at the edge of the hill.

20
Step 2. While the paper is still wet, 1 brush in the warm colors of the stump and
the fuzzy weed seedlings. As the paper loses its shine, I begin to paint crisp
details onto the stump.

21
--^.—^z- rvw It «•!

Step 3. 1 continue to paint the crisp details, here in the stems of the weeds. I re-
wet the area at weeds with a single, quick pass of a soft, wide
the bottom of the
brush loaded with clean water. While the paper is wet, paint blue hints of
I

snow "dimples" at the base of the weeds and at the foot of the stump. After this
dries, a few fine brushstrokes showing leaves on the weeds finish the job.

22
3. Graphite Wash Technique

One disadvantage of watercolor is that it can't be used fireor sparks anywhere near your working area. The
outdoors cold weather. Water freezes; con-
in fumes of either solvent can ignite very easily. Remem-
sequently, watercolor freezes on your paper as you ap- ber: Using graphite washes is an outdoor process, so
ply it. To paint in watercolor the lovely landscape sub- use them only outdoors.
jects winter offers, you must paint indoors from When you're ready to begin painting, pour about an
references. However, the techniques involved in using ounce of solvent into the metal dish, tray, or similar
graphite washes are the closest I've found to those of utensil.
watercolor, and graphite washes won't freeze even in
sub-zero temperatures.
Using Graphite Sticks
Graphite washes will give you tones and textures
characteristic of watercolor, but in only one hue— gray. Dip your brush into the solvent and rub it on the 2H
In a sense, such paintings have the same reference graphite stick until the brushis loaded with the dis-

value as pencil drawings, except that they also offer solved graphite mixture. Transfer the mixture onto
the subtle tones and watercolor characteristics that your paper in one or two brushstrokes. Repeat this
pencil drawings can't duplicate. Because of the incred- procedure with the 2B and the 6B sticks as well. You'll
ibly fast drying quality of the solvents used, you notice that your brushstrokes look like gray water-
should keep your graphite-wash sketches small. On color brushstrokes (A). The softer the graphite stick
large surfaces, work on one small area at a time and you use, the darker the brushstroke will be. Don't be

move from one area to the next. upset if the solvent evaporates almost instantly. You
have to act fast to keep pace with the drying time when
you use graphite washes.
Materials
4I5
1. A sheet of very fine sandpaper.

2. 2H, 2B, and 6B graphite pencils (these are ordinary

writing pencils, which are often mistakenly called
"lead" pencils).

3. 2H, 2B, and 6B flat graphite drawing sticks (these

come in 3" x V2" x V4" pieces).

4. A flat, 1" watercolor brush, and a firm, short-haired

bristle brush.

5. A pint of turpentine, benzol or benzine solvent and

a small metal dish to hold it (don't use plastic, because
the solvent will dissolve it); I prefer to use turpentine
because it dries a bit more slowly than benzol.
6. Any high-quality, smooth drawing paper. If you A GRAPHITE STICKS
want the color of the paper to remain permanent, buy
a paper with a 100% rag content. Pulp papers are
cheaper, but they turn brown with age. Your painting Using Graphite Dust
procedure will be the same, regardless of the type of
If you can't get graphite sticks, or if you want very rich
paper you use.
washes, use the sandpaper-and-pencil method. Fasten
Turpentine, benzol, and benzine liquify graphite, but a 4" x 9" piece of fine
sandpaper to a hard, smooth sur-
the latter two are highly toxic and cxtramoly f]am- face to keep from sliding around. Draw a wide line
it

mable. Use them only outdoors. Do not smoke or use with each of your three pencils as if you were sharp-

23
ening their points. Keep your lines separate from one
another. Then use the accumulated piles of graphite
dust to mix your gray washes, just as you used the
sticks (B). The advantage of using this method is that
you can pick up the graphite more quickly, making
your mixture before the solvent has a chance to dry on
your brush.

Wet-in-wet Using Solvent

You can achieve the subtle effects of v^^et-in-wet paint-

ing by slapping a generous wash of solvent on to your
paper and immediately applying graphite washes to it
(C). Manipulate your brush as if you were working
with watercolor, but work much faster. If the solvent
dries too fast on your brush, just dip it back into your
tray and continue painting. You can blend and smooth
out your darks by applying more solvent, making
changes until your sketch has all the subtle tones you
want. If you use a firm bristle brush, it will give you a

strong gray tone; using a softer brush will result in

lighter brushstrokes.
After you complete a graphite-wash sketch, you can
create accents by using a graphite pencil to add
sharper finishing touches (D). However, try not to
overwork your sketch; preserve the soft look of the
B. GRAPHITE DUST washes at any cost.

C. SOLVENT WASH D. GRAPHITE PENCIL DETAILS

24
Graphite Wash Technique

Step 1. lb. D'Arche's cold-pressed handmade paper.) First, using a bristle

(300
brush, Isaturate the paper with a solution of 4-B graphite and turpentine. Next.
1 wash in the sky, using vigorous horizontal brushstrokes. Onto the drying sur-
face,with more graphite and less turpentine on the brush, I paint the distant
islandand its faint reflection. A hint of the rocky shore and of water in the fore-
ground complete my preliminary sketch.

25
Step 2. Still using a bristle brush, I elongate the island and add the smaller hut,
the telephone pole, and their reflections to help balance the composition.
Then, using a bristle brush richly loaded with a solution of 6-B graphite and
turpentine, I stroke on the sloping shoreline and a few rocks in the shallows. I
indicate the gravel beach with a few drybrush strokes.

26
Step 3. For the finishing touches, I add a few boulders to the shore, the boat,
and its reflection, and a lightpost.

27
4. Using Opaque Water color

Opaque watercolor, also known as designers' colors Opaque pigments are quite stubborn to clean out of
and gouache, is sold in jars, in individual tubes, and in brushes, and soap is necessary to do a good job. Any

sets of tubes packed metal boxes. The behavior of

in paper will do as a painting surface, but a high-quality
opaque colors is similar to that of transparent colors. paper will give you the best results. Now let's explore
Because they're both soluble in water, transparent and the characteristics of this opaque medium.
opaque watercolors can be called "sister" mediums.
Opaque colors are usually made of the same pigments Adding White and Black to Opaque Colors
as transparent colors, with the same gum medium as
binder. To render them opaque, the manufacturer The only time you should use water with opaque
adds chalk or Chinese white, both of which tend to watercolor is when you want to thin the paint as it
make opaque colors somewhat chalky. When thickly comes from the tube— and then you should be careful
applied, light opaque colors are capable of covering not to dilute your colors so much that they become
dark ones completely. transparent. To raise the value or lower the intensity
of an opaque color, you should use white paint rather
than water. For example, if you add white paint to a
strong red, you can raise the value of the red— create a
Materials
paler tint of the same color— as well as lower its inten-
1. Your regular watercolor brushes will work very well sity.

with opaque watercolors. The infinite variety of tints and values that can be
created by the addition of white paint to opaque colors
2. A high-quality white in your palette of opaque col-
suggests exciting new painting possibilities. On a
ors, preferably titanium white, which mixes well with
foggy day, for example, when there is little contrast of
any color without dirtying the color.
value and colors have relatively low intensity, you can
3. A white palette or a plain white porcelain plate to suggest these effects by adding a touch of white to ev-
serve as a mixing surface. ery brushful of pigment you apply, or by using a large,
soft brush to quickly slap a white wash over a com-
4. Lots of scrap paper to test your paint on.
pleted dry sketch.
5. A generous container of water. Like white, black is another color that most artists
refuse to use with transparent watercolor, but which is
6. Tissues.
very useful with the opaque medium. It's a good neu-
7. A small cake of any soap to clean your brushes after tralizer— that is, it can be used to equalize value con-
your use them. trasts—and it produces a variety of greens when mixed

28
with different yellows in various proportions.
Black and white combine to produce a cool, bluish
gray. You can warm this gray by adding a touch of yel-
low ochre or a bit of brown to it. The amount of color
you add is crucial, so be very cautious and begin by
adding very small amounts.
Try adding a little black and a mixture of black and
white to each of your pigments and observe the re-
sults. (See Color Chart A on page 81.)

Mixing Light and Dark Opaque Colors

Another property of opaque watercolor shows up

when you mix light colors with dark ones. (See Color
Chart B on page 81.) The light color will produce the
same results as those obtained by adding white— it will
raise the value and lower the intensity of the dark
color. The wash will be a little chalky, but
resulting
this is only when you compare these
noticeable
opaque washes with transparent washes. Experiment
by mixing light colors with dark before you apply
them to an actual painting.
LEFT SIDE IS WET, RICIHT SIDE DRY

Drying Characteristics of Opaque Colors

Opaque pigments dry much lighter than they appear

when wet (see illustration). Don't be upset about this;
simply prepare your colors so that they look a little
darker as you apply them and they'll be just right when
they dry. With practice, you'll automatically allow for
the change.

29
Using Opaque Watercolor

Step 1. (300 lb. D'Arche's cold-pressedhandmade paper.) By brushing heavy

washes of browns, blues, and greens onto the wet paper surface, suggest the
I

mass value of tall weeds and establish a background for the weeds to come. At

the bottom of the painting use

I more blues to indicate early morning shadow.

30
Step 2. While the background is still wet, use a small sable brush loaded with
I

a heavy consistency of white paint and a touch of yellow to establish the frost-
bitten weeds in the foreground. As the paint hits the damp paper and spreads,
the frostlike irregularities happen naturally.

31
step 3. Using a thickly loaded, fine brush, I paint the blue-shaded, frost-cov-
ered weeds in the foreground of the still-damp paper. When the surface is com-
pletely dry, I sketch fine, grassy "whiskers" with light or dark colors to indicate
strong light and dry shadow.

32
5. Using Transparent and Opaque
Watercolors Together

To use transparent and opaque watercolors together

successfully, you must take advantage of the natural
qualities of both. For example, while light transparent
colors won't cover dark colors, light opaque colors
will. Once you've learned how to use these two very
compatible mediums together, I'm sure you'll find
many opportunities to combine them creatively.

Materials

1. Any high-quality handmade watercolor paper.

2. Two or three soft, round pointed brushes; a soft flat,

1" brush; and a small painting knife.

3. One palette for mixing transparent colors and one

for mixing opaque colors. A. TRANSPARENT WASH

4. Lots of tissues.

5. Two containers of water, one for cleaning brushes

and the other to hold only clean water. Keep the water
in the second container clean at all times, so that it will
be ready to use as you work quickly.

The most natural approach is to start by applying your

transparent colors. Don't go back and forth between
transparent and opaque colors because you'll drag
opaque pigments into your transparent colors, thereby
changing their nature somewhat. Proceed with your
painting without too much concern about light ac-
cents, for which you can use opaque pigments later.

Painting a Distant Forest

dark transparent wash is

Just a simple, slightly varied,
enough edge of a forest (A). After this
to represent the
wash dries, you can use opaque colors to apply as B OPAQUE OVERPAINTING

many trees as you wish over it (B). For these strokes,

dilute your opaque paint with enough water to give it a
heavy, sour-cream consistency.
branches at this stage. When you're satisfied with the
values and design of your transparent painting, and
Painting the Interior of a Forest
you're sure that the painting is completely dry, you can
Let's look at another practical case— the interior of a begin using opaque white to add the snow on the trees.
forest,wtih trees freshly laden with snow. First use Use a thin white wash for the distant patches, so that
transparent watercolor to paint the trees, suggesting the paint will dry slightly transparent and the dark col-
the structures of all the branches to indicate the den- ors beneath will show through just enough to make it a
sity of the forest. Ignore the fluffy snow on the bit darker than pure white. On the closer branches, use

33
This means that you can take advantage of after-
thoughts. For example, you can paint playing children
into a completed landscape or street scene which lacks
a strong center of interest, and several freely gliding
sea gulls can bring to life a well done watercolor
sketch of a seaside fishing village. When painting with
opaque you can place such forms wherever
colors,
your composition needs them, regardless of what col-
ors you have to paint over.

Mixing Transparent and Opaque Paints

Mixing opaque paint into a wet wash of transparent

pigment creates unpredictable "oozes," or streaks of
opaque paint. The opaque color tends to dominate the
transparent wash after it dries, particularly when a
C. TRANSPARENT AND OPAQUE
light opaque color is added darker transparent
to a
wash. This is an exciting process that lends itself to
quick, brave brushstrokes to apply thick white fresh "accidents." To avoid dirtying the colors on your
washes, leaving the sparkling areas of drybrush that palettes when you mix the two mediums, use one
occur here and there as the paint begins to dry on the brush for the transparent color and another for the
brush. Use the same techniques with thin and thick opaque paint.
washes for the blown snow at the bases of the distant If you want to experiment with this approach try
and closer trees (C).
painting a huge sky filled with clouds made from
transparent-opaque mixtures.
Adding "Afterthoughts"
For the demonstration of Using Transparent and
It'simportant to remember that you can apply opaque Opaque Watercolors see the color plates on pages
paint on top of other colors, transparent or opaque. 82-83.

34
6. Using Acrylic Paint as Watercolor

The endless possibilities provided by this untamed Drying Time

medium, which can be used both as watercolor and as
Although acrylic paint dries very rapidly, I'd like to
oil paint, make it easy to fall in love with. In this book,
dispel the myth that it dries too fast. It doesn't have to.
I simply don't have the space to do more than intro-
You can now regulate the drying time of acrylic paint
duce you to the essentials. However, if you wish to which made
by adding a small amount of retarder, is
learn more about the medium and its uses, strongly I
specifically for thispurpose and is available at artists'
urge you to buy a good book on the subject, such as
supply stores. You should try painting with and with-
Wendon Blake's Acrylic Watercolor Painting, which out the use of retarder to determine which you prefer.
I've listed in the Bibliography at the back of this book.

Overpainting with Acrylic

Materials
Acrylic paint water soluble when wet, but it dries to
is
1. About a dozen tubes of acrylic paint.
form a tough,waterproof film. Unlike watercolor,
2. A plastic, porcelain, or metal palette for mixing acrylic paint can't be softened with water and then
paint. wiped off the painting surface. However, this charac-
teristic willallow you to paint one thin wash over an-
3.A small bottle of retarder to slow down the drying
other that has dried completely to create an almost in-
time of the paint.
finite variety of translucent, overlapping colors
4. A bottle of acrylic painting medium. without disturbing or diluting the previous wash (A).

5. A flat, soft, wide bristle or nylon brush; three round

sable brushes, each a different size (Nos. 4, 8, and 12
will do).

6. A palette knife.

7. Any high-quality paper, though handmade paper

will produce the best results.

8. A fist-size sponge.

Keep an open and receptive mind as you experiment

with arcylic painting techniques. The medium is so
new that many approaches to it are yet to be discov-
ered, and you may be the one to stumble onto one or
more of them.
You can use acrylic paint to create almost all the ef-
fects of transparent and opaque watercolor. The fol-
lowing experiments illustrate the many advantages of
using acrylic:
I must give you one warning about using this me-
dium: before you touch acrylic paint with your brush,
be sure to moisten your brush with water. If you don't,
the acrylic emulsion will stick to the dry bristles and
will gradually build up a stiff film that will ruin the
brush. A ACRYLIC OVERPAIN TINC,

35
Wet-in-wet Painting with Acrylic

Using the wet-in-wet technique with acrylic is a very

rewarding experience. Wet your paper and touch it
with a brushful of paint. The edges of the brush-
strokes will run with great speed, but if your paint isn't
too thin the brush mark will retain its streaky charac-
teristics (B).

"Glazing" with Acrylic

The surface of acrylic paint usually dries while the pa-

per still feels damp beneath it. This means that you can

paint new layers of thin washes on top of your first

washes as soon as they dry but before the paper dries
completely. This "glazing" technique creates effects
somewhere between those created by overpainting on B. ACRYLIC WET-IN-WET
dry paint and those that result from the wet-in-wet
technique. That is, while colors tend to blend, they re-
main more distinct than they would if they were ap-
plied wet-in-wet (C).

Using Acrylic as Opaque Paint

After or instead of using transparent acrylic washes,

you can paint on opaque or even thick impasto
touches (D). Acrylic paint remains flexible after it

dries, so you don't have to worry about the thick layers

chipping off as they might with opaque watercolor.

C, ACRYLIC 'GLAZING"

D ACRYLIC WriTI IMPASTO

36
Using Acrylic Paint as Watercolor

Step 1. (300 lb. D'Arche's cold-pressed handmade paper.) I use a nylon acrylic
brush to paint the dense colors of the forest's edge, mingling blues and browns
on the wet surface.

37
\

Step 2. As the paper dries, I paint the old fencepost— light at the top and dark at
the bottom, with soft shadows hinting at deep snow. On the dry surface, I dry-
brush some final details into the fencepost.

38
Step 3. Using a painting knife. add scrawny twigs and some odd loaves to the
I

young The last touch is the barbed wire protruding from the; snow.
trees.

39
7. Using A Painting Knife
For Watercolor

The possibilities provided by applying watercolor take off the last trace of grease and your knife will be
with a painting knife haven't yet been truly exploited. ready to paint with.
When used with watercolor, the behavior of a fine
steel blade is so unique that I consider it a must to at Begin as with a Brush
least introduce you to it in this chapter.
The most unnatural effect created by a painting knife
is a soft wash. The sharp metallic edges of your knife

Materials can damage the surface of your paper. You have to

avoid scraping the wet painting surface with the knife
1. Your favorite transparent or opaque watercolor
edges. Begin just asif you were painting with brushes,
paints. My choice for the experiments to follow is the
using a firm watercolor brush to mix a convenient size
transparent medium.
pool of the necessary color on your palette. The paint,
2.One small and another, longer painting knife (A). even the dark colors, must be of liquid consistency for
Make sure the handles of the knives you use have ideal results. Wet your paper using your sponge or
crooks in them; these will prevent your fingers from wide brush. Dip your knife into the just mixed paint,
accidentally touching the paper while you paint. Also submerging the blade completely.
be sure your knives don't have very sharp points,
which would constantly catch on the texture of the pa- The Gentle Touch
per, causing the knife to flick paint everywhere and
Hold the loaded knife horizontally while you move it
generally creating a nuisance. A fine round point is
over your paper to prevent surplus paint from drop-
ideal.
ping where you don't want it to. To apply the paint,
3. A piece of high-quality rag paper with a tough fin- touch the wet surface of the paper gently with the flat
ish. back side of the knife's tip and at the same time drag
the knife with an even, gentle contact in the direction
4. A sponge and/or a large, flat brush for wetting your
of the handle (B). Move quickly but with light pres-
paper.
sure. The exciting results of this stroke will make the
5. A palette with lots of flat surface area for mixing. first few frustrating exercises worthwhile.
6. A firm, medium-size brush to pre-mix your washes
Creating Texture
with.
Building texture in a wet wash is where the knife
7. Plenty of clean water and tissues.
really can show off your skill. Press your knife's edge
Ifyou've just bought a new knife or if you want to use down firmly where you already applied paint in one
an old one that you've used before with oil or acrylic, direction and move itopposite direction with a
in the
you must treat it so that it will accept water. If you motion like spreading butter. When one edge touches
have a thin layer of varnish on a new blade or old the paper, move toward the right, and vice versa (C).
dried paint on an old one, you must scrape it off. The The pressure of your hand most of the
will squeeze
greasy quality of steel repels water so your paint will paint off the surface until you your knife. The extra
lift

bead and roll off. To make the blade accept water paint you've moved ahead of your knife will run into
evenly you have to remove the surface grease. One or the untouched wet area and slightly darken it. It won't
two applications of household cleansing powder usu- go back where your knife squeeze-dried the surface.
ally do a very efficient job. However, if the paint still You can do this back and forth to achieve beautiful
doesn't stay evenly on your knife, stab the knife into a patterns that are impossible to imitate any other way,
lemon and leave it in the fruit over night. The acid will as, for example, the texture of distant rocks.

40
A. PAINTING KNIVES B. DRAGSTROKES

C. SCRAPING FOR TEXTURE

41
E. BRANCHES
D. TREE TRUNK

/' //^
F, TWIGS AND WEEDS

42
Painting Tree

The most natural way to paint tree trunks and

branches is your painting knife on dry paper.
to use
Let's start with the dark lower trunk. Use broad strokes
of dark but liquidy pigment. Squeeze the barklike tex-
ture into the still wet paint as before (D). Continue un-
til the branches become too fine for the side of the

knife.

Putting in the Branches

For the heavier branches, hold a lightly loaded knife in

an upright position allowing the paint to accumulate
at the tip. Your fingers should hold the handle at the
fattest point. Drag the knife with light pressure and a
jerky motion, imitating the characteristics of branches
(E). Don't lift the knife until it runs out of paint. As the

knife loses its load, the line will become thinner and
thinner and gradually stop. At the points where you
have changed directions, you start new branches.

G. TELEPHONE LINE
Adding Twigs and Weeds
To do the distant fine twigs that you see in the winter,
hold the knife as if you were to cut thepaper with the
tip. Connect these fine lines to the heavier ones (F).
This technical stroke is equally useful to paint soft, tall
weeds or any fine line. It can provide you with an ex-

tremely thin though unremovable line if you apply

your knife dry to a wet painted surface— for example,
painting a telephone line on a wet sky (G).

Painting the Foliage

To get a drybrush effect for lacy details, use a coarse,

rough, cold-pressed paper. Hold the loaded knife in a
manner similar to the one you used for a soft wash (H).
This time, however, you paint on dry paper. To force
the paint to behave exactly the way you want it to,
wiggle the knife left and right as you drag the paint.
This stroke is extremely useful in painting foliage on
trees, for example, or in building a weathered texture.
My final advice is just a reminder: learn to apply the
correct amount of pressure to mix your paint to the
correct consistency. The rest is a matter of practice. II DRYHRUSH EFFECT

43
Using a Painting Knife for Watercoior

Step 1. (300 D'Arche's cold-pressed handmade paper.) On a haphazardly

lb.

wet paper, I in a light sky, using the flat, rear, side of a painting knife and
wash
letting the paint blend freely. I wash in the foreground grass the same way,
dragging the strokes into the dry areas. The yellow washes in the left back-
ground establish the color for the tamarack trees.

44
Step 2. Using a ric;hly loaded painting knife, paint the evergreens in the mid-
I

dleground with sharp, vertical contact strokes. The dense pine cluster on the
right uras produced by dragging the knife horizontally across the paper. Simul-
taneously. Iadd the treetops and thin, sharp grass for definition and balance.

45
Step 3. Finally, I paint the tall, scrawny, dry trees in the foreground by holding
the loaded painting knife upright and dragging its tip over the paper. I move
the knife rapidly for the trunks and slowly for the dry twigs.

46
4
8. Using Salt and Sand

Salt and sand can be useful when you are after un- Tilting the Paper
usual textures. use these because of their relative
I
If you introduce lots of salt at one spot into a flowing
compatibility with regular pigments. Both are natural
wet wash and tilt the paper gently, you will end up
materials, and time has proven their stability and per-
with a flow of discolored salt solution that creates an
manency.
edge something like that of jungle vegetation (C). The
more you tilt the paper the further your salt will
Materials spread, giving you endless opportunities for abstract
patterns. When using salt, do not use a fan or hair-
1. Your usual transparent watercolors, brushes, and fa-
dryer to speed up the drying process. Their blowing
vorite handmade watercolor papers. force will roll the salt uncontrollably on the wet sur-

and coarse pre- face, giving an impression of sloppiness. I found that

2. About a tablespoon each of table salt
serving salt.
natural drying time gives me the best results.

3. Clean sand.
Painting with Sand

For another unusual texture, use sand. I found the

Dropping in "Stars"
common, coarse building sand the most useful. Sand
As you know, salt dissolves in water. It also has the should be sprinkled onto your wet wash while your
ability to absorb water and a lot of pigment with the paper is in a horizontal position. Allow the paint to dry
water. To demonstrate this quality, paint a brushstoke naturally. After it is dry, brush off the sand granules

of any color on your paper with a medium wet brush. and you'll have a grainy texture. Your timing in apply-
Keep your paper in a horizontal position. Just before ing and drying the sand, as well as the size, quantity,

the wash loses its shine, drop one or two salt crystals and nature of the sand particles, will give you a slight
into it and watch a little "star" form around each grain variation. Extremely fine sand doesn't offer a striking

as the salt soaks up the paint solution (A). The size of enough result to justify the effort in using it.

each little star will depend on how wet your wash is at

the time of application. The wetter the wash, the larger Experimenting for Different Results
and fainter the star will be, because the salt granule
I have prepared a few swatches of examples (D). As
not only absorbs water but dissolves itself. These
you can see, different colors and their consistency of-
forms have a delightful resemblance to snowflakes.
fer different results. I find the more transparent colors
and light washes leave more clearly defined patterns.
Creating Flowers Experiment with salt and sand until you make sure
you are using them in combinations compatible
If you use one dye color and one earth color, you can
enough to protect the permanency of your pigments.
create the effect of small flowers. For example, sap
green and sepia alizarin crimson and sepia, or Prus- For the demonstration of Using Salt and Sand see the
sian blue and warm sepia offer a variety of gardens (B). color plates on pages 84-85.

47
A. SALT STARS

B. FLOWER GARDEN

C. [UNGLE VEGETATION

48
\ 49
9. Deliberate Backruns

Controlling backruns— the most abstract of watercolor surface, however, the water will move downward
accidents— is like taming a tornado. What is a back- toward the lowest point of your paper (B)
run? I fabricated this term to define the result of one
fresh brushful of watercolor running back into an-
other wash that is in the process of drying. Though you Using Different Colors
can never control this action, you can certainly take If you use a color for the wet stroke different from the
advantage of its result. one you used for the drying pigment, you'll get some
interesting effects. If on the edge of a blue-gray wash,
Materials like a forest in winter, you add an elongated stroke of
burnt sienna, it will dry back to look like distant
1. Your transparent watercolors and brushes.
shrubs (C). This color play is particularly effective if
2. High-quality paper. your cool bluish hues are applied against warm
browns or reds.

Timing the Backrun

What happens in a backrun is that after the fresh Pushing Back Non-Dye Paint
brushful of watercolor has run back into the drying Should your first wash be a mixture of a dye pigment-
wash, an uneven hard edge results. This edge occurs such as sap green— and a non-dye color, your second
where the wet wash stopped because it ran out of the wash will push back the latter for the simple reason
surplus water that had forced it to spread. To estimate that non-dye granular paint just sits on top of the sur-
the dryness of the first wash is the most difficult part of face. The dye color will stay, however, because it has
the game. Your best timing for the fresh paint is a little stained the paper.
before the first wash dries enough to lose its shine.

Shaping the Runs Experimenting with Papers

The shape backrun depends on the shape of

of your Backruns behave differently on different papers. They
your spreading brushstroke. For example, a drop of will diffuse fartheron smooth paper than on rough.
water or a drop of thin paint with a high water content The slower the paper absorbs water the farther will
will cause a circular backrun. Several of these droplets your backrun spread, and vice versa. Illustration (D)
will create many circular runs blending softly where shows similar experiments on hot-pressed, cold-
they touch each other but drying unevenly. The result pressed, and rough handmade D'Arches paper. No

is a circular edge that looks like fluffy cumulus clouds

two papers react the same way, so you'll have to ex-
periment with many backruns before you can begin
to tame these tornadoes.
Tilting the Paper

Water drops will radiate evenly in all directions if For the demonstation of Deliberate Backruns see the
your paper is on a horizontal surface. If you tilt this color plates on page 86-87.

50
A-

A. BACK RUN B. BACKRUN ON TILTED PAPER

C. DIFFERENT-COLORED BACKRUNS HOT-PRESSED COLD- PRESSED .U v,i; i;,\:..jM,\DE

D. BACKRUNS ON DIFFERENT PAPER TEXTURES

51
10. Impressing Real Objects
into Watercolor

Of all the special ways of creating a watercolor paint- laying a tissue on the surface of the paper where I wish
ing, pressing real objects into wet paint can be truly to avoid undesirable smears, I press on the painted ob-
exciting— providing discipline to use them wisely. The ject until the paint is transferred from it to the paper.
more sophisticated your choice of objects and colors The surfaces of some objects— feathers, the fuzzy side
are, the more unusual the result will be. of a maple leaf— repel water, so before I dip these into
my wash I paint them with a quick coat of soap. They
then work nicely. This procedure is illustrated with a
Materials
few examples (A). mix a quantity of powdered starch
I

1. Your usual brushes, watercolors, and paper. into my wash and repeat the printing procedure with
another maple leaf; the swatch and the print after dry-
2. A can of acrylic spray. ing is shown in sketch B. In illustration C, paint I

3. A number of objects with a relatively flat side, con- directly onto the leaf and print it as described above.
venient for printing.I have used tissue paper, leaves,

and juniper twigs, but almost any object will do. Impressing Tissues
4. A cake of soap. Illustrations D and E show some uses for ordinary
5. Some powdered starch. household tissue. The impressions are made with a
tightlybunched up tissue squeezed between my
You do not need a press. The pressure of your hand is
thumb and two fingers dipped into a wet surface. Be-
all that's required. cause of extremely absorbent quality the tissue re-
its

moves a good deal of paint from

a wash, leaving an in-

Choosing the Right Paper terestingly textured shape. It transfers very little paint,
however, in spite of heavy pressure. You can improve
You must select the right kind of paper for maximum the printing quality of an absorbent surface by cov-
results. Smooth or hot-pressed paper gives the cleanest ering it with an acrylic spray. Wait a few minutes until
print, but medium-rough or cold-pressed paper offers the spray dries and then proceed as before. You'll see a
a better chance to paint on top of the printed image noticeable improvement, as my example E with tissue
simply because the paint doesn't loosen as easily as it indicates.
does on smooth paper. Experiment on small swatches
of different paper before making a final choice for a
Applying a Bamboo Handle
painting. Take notes on these swatches to help you re-
member later how you achieved particular effects. My The cut end of a bamboo or soft, wood brush handle
illustrated samples are done on D'Arches cold-pressed has enough absorbent quality to remove the paint
paper and on 100% rag hot-pressed commercial paper. from a wash when you press it into a rich, damp sur-
face. In illustration F,have painted a quick wash on
I

smooth paper. The flower petals are done with the end
Using a Maple Leaf
of my bamboo brush handle, the leaf with the edge of
To illustrate the impressing technique, I will choose a the wood handle. To get a relatively uniform tone, the
few objects with interesting shapes— a maple leaf, a tis- brush handles are cleaned of surplus paint between
sue, the cut end of a bamboo handle— and then paint a each rapid contact with a tissue in my left hand.
wash on a flat surface and immediately press the ob- Further experiments with impressing real objects
ject into the wet paint. The paint-covered article is will offer you an endless number of ideas. Discipline
placed carefully on the clean dry paper. After gently and good taste should guarantee your success.

52
'•V',-//'.

» -^•—

lUNIPER TWIG

MAPLE LEAF

A PRINTS KROM DlPPI-.n OBIECTTS

53
B. STARCH WASH (LEFT), MAPLE LEAF PRINT (RIGHT)

C. LEAF PAINTED IN STENCIL EFFECT (LEFT). PRINTED (RIGHT)

.-^^

'*' ' .*'"!''?**•.

' •'
^* '-^r

Q^^^ru^:^rr j^ ^,
4^-..^...,-.'^;
^:
^
*V^

D. TISSUE IMPRESSION (LEFT), TISSUE DIPPED INTO WASH (RIGHT)

54
^^•'v

%.:
^'^

SPRAYED TISSUE

UNSPRAYEn TISSUE

E TISSUE IMPRESSIONS (LEFT), DIPPED INTO WASH (RIGHT)

F. BAMBOO HANDLE IMPRESSION

55
\?.^^\
''Fir
X
/'

Impressing Real Objects into Watercolor

Step 1. (300 lb. D'Arche's cold-pressed handmade paper.) After brushing soap
on both sides of a little feather, I paint a rich coat of blue-gray color on it. I
place it carefully on dry paper and with a double-folded tissue press it to the
surface. This process is repeated over and over again. This illustration shows
the actual wet feather in place before impression.

56
Step 2. By repealing Step 1 many times, I create the form of a chicken. A dab of
paint on the rubber tip of a pencil makes the eye. A h;af fold(;d in half for the
beak and opened flat for the wattles below, help me to define the head.

57
y

X^A-^^^^^^^^

Step 3. Leaves dipped into bright red help me indicate the chicken's running

feetand its tongue. press on a large wing feather with black paint to add di-
I

mension and humor.

58
I
11. Turpentine and Spray Fixatives
with Watercolor

When wet, spray fixatives and turpentine resist water. Mixing a Solution
Both are made to protect pigments, so you can be sure
Another more limited, but very exciting use of turpen-
of their compatibility with watercolor paint. Many
tine is mixture of diluted watercolor (B). The wa-
in a
other water-resistant chemicals are available, so by all
tercolor will collect in large beads in the mixture. If
means experiment with them. Learn all about them,
you shake the solution vigorously, you'll reduce the
however, before you use them on paintings.
beads to tiny blobs, but they will stay separate. With a
soft brush, paint on this mixture of different size

Materials beads, and you'll see that watercolor remains intact on

top of the turpentine-soaked paper. As the turpentine
1. Your regular transparent watercolors, brushes, and dries the paint will stick to the paper surface and dry
handmade watercolor paper. in the same place it was in when wet.

2. A small bottle of turpentine.

Using Varnish
3. One can of damar varnish spray.
You can get a similar result if you use damar varnish in
4. One can of letraset matt fixative.
much the same way as turpentine (C). Spray varnish
5. One can of glossy pastel fixative. and bottled varnish are both good. However, please re-
member that the varnish will penetrate the paper and
6. One extra brush to be used in turpentine only— the
will stay there; it will not evaporate. Use it sparingly.
bigger the better.

Applying Acrylic Sprays

Painting over Turpentine
Acrylic sprays behave similarly, and if your timing is
Of these materials, turpentine gives the most definite right offer a rich, wet-looking texture (D). I have used
and predictable result. But because it evaporates rap- Kem Higloss acrylic spray enamel under a wet wash as
idly you must have your watercolor mixed, ready to well as letraset matt fixative (E). The results shown are
paint before the turpentine dries. You may apply tur- self-explanatory, though it must be noted that the let-

pentine on pure paper as well as on top of dried raset spray on top of a wet wash gives a very super-
washes (A). You may use it two or three times in the ficial effect and is easily damaged. (F).
same area as long as you allow each wash
dry com-
to
pletely before applying the next one. Once the turpen-
A Word of Caution
tine is absolutely dry, you can proceed to brush on a
wash in the usual way. In your search for a variety of I would like to repeat a word of advice: avoid exces-
textures, you'll find that the exciting beading effect you don't your paintings
sive use of these fhemicals. If

that turpentine creates under a wash has a million will become gimmicky. Use them when you need
uses, such as for rock, bark, and concrete surfaces. them, but only when you need them.

59
WASH INTO WET
TURPENTINE

WASH INTO PARTIALLY

WET TURPENTINE

SECOND WASH OVER

DRY TURPENTINE

SECOND WASH OVER WET

TURPENTINE ON DRY WASH

A. WASHING INTO TURPENTINE

60
•
r
.
• • • • • ^n ^r '^i
•A'-
,—,rs.' -. -;•

i«
i^llPS^^--^
B. WATKRCOLOR AND TURPKNTINE

'Tpyifvi-iT^jr?^'. rr^i

C. DAMAR VARNISH

61
D. SPRAY ENAMEL

LETRASET MATTE F. DAMAGED LETRASET

E.

62
Turpentine and Spray Fixatives with Watercolor

Step 1. (300 lb. D'Arche's cold-pressed handmade paper.) 1 soak my paper with
turpentine washes until it is shiny wet. Using a soft, flat 1" brush, slap the wet
I

brush across the foreground to show the gravel beach. (Since the turpentine
dries rapidly, I have to wash to keep up with it.) Onto the dry paper, paint the
I

base tone for the funny rock formation.

63
Step 2. Using a similar sable brush, I better define the boulders and add an-
other, smaller rock. Again with the soft, flat brush, put the blue-gray shaded
I

dip to the left of the rocks and add a few drybrush hints of the lazy waves to
come.

64
Xmy. ^J PIM. V.
'

Step 3. With quick horizontal strokes, making two or three passes with light
blue washes over the turpentine-dampened paper, paint the waves at the top.
I
12. Starch and Watercolor

The effects that starch provides in its use with water- Changing the Value
color are positive. The technique, however, is more
In my next illustration on smooth paper you can detect
troublesome to the artist than the viewer can judge
the value change (B). Inthe top right corner I show you
from looking at the finished product. Again, you're
the value of warm sepia and green before I add starch
urged to use restraint.
to it. is much lighter. The starchy wash is
The sketch
responsive to modeling because the brush or dab
Materials marks survive much as they do with oil paint.

1. Your usual palette of watercolors, brushes and pa-

per. Using a Loaded Brush
2. One small bag of laundry starch in powder form. When I paint into a wet clear starch wash using a well

3. One can of spray starch. loaded bristle brush, the paint does not spread out as
fast and as far as it does on wet paper that has no
4. A small pan or plate for mixing. starch on it. (C). The irregular edges and the crackled

The more starch you mix with your color the lighter texture are unpredictable bonuses.

and more opaque it will become. Always mix your

washes in a separate pan by adding clean paint to the Applying Starch Paste
starch and not the other way around.
Starch paste mixed with watercolor should be used on
a solid surface, such as illustration board or Masonite,
Varying the Consistency
to which a white or green latex undercoating has been
In my illustration A you can see a regular wash, a wash applied to prevent cracking if the surface is bent (D).
with starch powder mixed into it for a creamlike con- This paste can give you a drybrush effect even on
sistency, and a wash with lots of starch to form a paste smooth paper. It'll show every hair mark of your brush
with the consistency of thick sour cream. as you apply it (E).

A. STARCH PASTE (LEFT). STARCH WASH (CENTER), REGULAR WASH (RIGHT)

66
tB^
B. STARCH WASH DABBED AND BRUSHED

''
• ^'<^r:

C PURE PIGMENT INTO STARCH WASH D. STARCH PASTE APPLIED WITH KNIFE

y^^t^Ki^^

E. STARCH PASTE APPLIED WITH BRUSH

67
Working with Spray Starch
Spray starch behaves in the same manner as starch
powder, except that with spray starch your consis-
tency is already established. You can only use it in
washes, it is to thin for paste. In my little illustration F I
have sprayed the top of the paper (above the pencil
line) with spray starch. I then immediately paint the
heavy washes into this surface, dragging the strokes
onto the dry surface of the paper (below the pencil
line). As this wash starts to dry and loses its shine, I
give a quick squirt of spray starch to the damp paint,
thereby creating the white matted effect.
Starch is compatible with watercolor. Use it with
safety, but use it only if you have a creative reason for
doing so.

For the demonstration of Starch and Watercolor see

the color plates on pages 88-89.

F. WASH INTO SPRAY STARCH (TOP).

SPRAY STARCH OVER DAMP WASH (BOTTOM)

68
13. Sponge and Watercolor

Sponges are old friends of the watercolor painter. Emphasizing Differences

Their conventional use is to wet and scrub the paper in
To build up strength and character in your impres-
preparation for stretching or painting. In this chapter I
sions, apply three layers but use various sponges (D).
will deal with some of the more productive uses of this
First paint on a dark color, and then three different col-
versatile tool.
ors to emphasize the difference (E).

Materials Choosing Possibilities

1. Your usual watercolor paint, brushes, and paper. In the illustrations of glacial rocks in F and G, I show
two practical applications chosen from an endless ar-
2. One egg-size natural sponge.
ray of possibilities. In one I apply a simple, fast, damp
3. Several synthetic sponges varying in size from a ci- wash and gently press a large, flat, thirsty, synthetic
gar box to a wallet. sponge onto it. In the other I let the basic wash dry and
then dab on the texture, using first a fine and then a
coarse synthetic sponge.
Getting the Feel of Sponges

You'll get the best response from your sponge if you Painting for Effects
moisten it before use. Its dampness is ideal for trans-
I have begun the two approaches to wooden fences in
ferring paint or for blotting, just to get the feel of your
H and I by brushing on the board shapes quickly. In
sponges, mix a heavy load of dark color on a flat din-
the darker one I drag a clean, thirsty sponge over
ner plate or the top of a washable plastic table or on a
damp, dark paint, and this results in a grainy texture.
sheet of glass. You need a fairly ample flat surface for a
In the lighter illustration I paint the grain on top of the
palette.Dip each one of your sponges into this pre-
first light wash with a darker brown on my sponge and
pared wash and then make an imprint on clean dry pa-
with just enough pressure to make a mark. The grass
per by pressing the paint-covered sponge genfiy. The
effect is achieved by using the same sponges as you
result will show you the exact natural pattern that a
would a drybrush.
sponge can offer (A).
hope you'll remember not only when but when not
I
In the same manner make additional printings with
to use a sponge. It must remain a creative tool, not a
dabbing motion, using each type of sponge sepa-
a soft
crutch.
go over it a
rately as before (B). After this pattern dries,
second time with the paint-laden sponge (C). The sec- For the demonstration of Sponge and Watercolor see
ond application will result in a stronger tone. the color plates on pages 90-91.

69
> M

^i*r: ^^^:' %.
^.-im^

^^v^^
H.?,Wl»,

A. SPONGE PATTERNS; NATURAL (LEFT). COARSE SYNTHETIC (CENTER). FINE SYNTHETIC (RIGHT)

v^ '' ••''.
v.^.*; " -s •
/. .-

\* -ii-.. .^.. .; , > trf-::*-v • ,

*

•<'-'.•-'•'': »«''•-*
i "14, .• .

xr^v^^

B. ADDITIONAL SPONGE PATTERNS: NATURAL (LEFT), COARSE SYNTHETIC (CENTER).FINE SYNTHETIC (RIGHT)

M^£# - ^i

C. TWO APPLICATIONS: NATURAL (LEFT). COARSE SYNTHETIC (CENTER). FINE SYNTHETIC (RIGHT)

70
D SYNTHETIC AND NATURAL SPONGE IMPRESSIONS

E. SYNTHETIC AND NATURAL SPONGES DIPPED INTO COLOR

71
/

F, BLOTTED WASH

G, DABBED-ON WASH

72
H. DRY SPONGE BLOTTING OFF DAMP WASH

''M'Hrt,

I SPONGED-ON PAINT OVER DRY WASH

73
14. Watercolor and Japanese Papers

The Japanese paper industry has reached such a high

standard in the production of quality papers that I

would like to introduce you to the fun of experi-
menting with them. Many are made from rice, and any
paper importer can advise you about their basic quali-
ties. Only you, however, can tell which
paper is suit-
able to your particular painting requirements, and you
can best determine that by buying some samples and
trying them.

Materials

1. Regular watercolor paints.

2. One wide and two or three smaller sable brushes.

3. One bristle brush about %" wide.

4. Painting knife.

5. A variety of Japanese papers.

6. Some wet-strength tissue.

Practicing on Wet Tissue

Fortunately, most Japanese papers are inexpensive.
But because they are so delicate, you may have diffi-
culty experimenting with them freely. To break down
your timidity and to give you a basic idea of what it is
to
like to work with these beautiful papers, try first
paint on a wet tissue. The surface of wet tissue is also
very and a few brushstrokes on it will give you an
frail,

approximate idea of what to expect when you paint

on the soft Japanese papers. Of course, not all Japanese
papers are soft. Some have a hard, smooth surface.
They also offer a greater variety in color, from pure
white yellowish grays. The assortment of their tex-
to
ture is endless as well. I'll now introduce you to some
of my favorite papers and show you have they behave
under the brush.

Painting Wet-in-Wet

Jyo is a warm white, paper on one side

softly textured
and a little smoother on the other. I have used the wet-
in-wet technique on the mottled side (A). The paper
gives a dreamlike, soft diffusing effect to the paint that
A, WET-IN-WET ON lYO (ROUGH)
speaks for itself.

74
Applying the Knife Using Different Brushes

On the smoother, dry reverse side, I have drawn some Musci is a blue-white, thin, hard-surfaced paper. It re-

knife lines (B). After they dry, I again wet the surface sembles the North American bond in texture and be-
with a soft brush and apply the touches of color. As havior on one side. The reverse side, however, is rough
you can notice the dark knife lines do not run from re- and coarser.
wetting the paper. This surprising quality suggests in- 1 use the rough side first. apply the paint with a soft,
I

numerable possibilities for line and wash techniques. wide, 1" sable brush and the thin edge of my small
With such encouragement, now apply a straight
I painting knife (D). The same side of the paper behaves
palette knife to the rough side after the paper has dried violently when wet. I paint with a heavy load of pig-
(C). I drag, scrape, squeeze, and wiggle the knife, and I ment on a bristle brush (E). The paint spreads out fast
can tell you this paper can take it. The colors stay and far, going slightly out of control. The color dries
brilliant and clean, and they blend well and can be ma- paler than usual but the scrape marks from the brush
neuvered beautifully. handle survive well enough to give a touch of line

B PAINTING KNIFE ON lYO (SMOOTH) C. PAINTING KNIFE ON lYO (ROUGH)

75
E. DAMPENED MUSA (ROUGH)
D. DRY MUSA (ROUGH)

76
complement. The little star shapes are a total surprise.
Quite possibly, the manufacturer used salt in the pa-
per to increase its permanency in tropical climates.
Neither the wet-in-wet nor the bamboo knife tech-
nique show any sign of the stars on the smooth side of
the Musa paper (F).
Yok is a hard, smooth, blue-white, thin paper. It
buckles badly, and is hard to control. The sample
sketch G should tell you about its unusual qualities.

Painting Rapidly

Okawara is my favorite of the Japanese papers that

I'm listing for you at this time (H). It is heavy enough to
resist buckling, yet its creamy color and beautiful tex-
ture make it feel like cloth. It absorbs paint so fast that

you can expect the second brushful to survive while

the first is still damp. It is fun to use, possessing unique
qualities for the speedy application of watercolor. Col-
ors dry subtly, complementing the tone of the paper.
Kitakata is a smoother and much thinner brother of
Okawara (I). It has the same creamy color, absorbs
paint about as fast, and colors on it dry similarly. But
because it is delicately thin paper, the edge of your
painting knife can cut it under even the slightest pres-
sure.

Using a Workhorse

Last but not least of my preferred Japanese papers is

the old Sumi-e workhorse rice paper (J). It comes in a

variety of thicknesses and shades. Resembling a blot-
ting paper in behavior, Sumi-e has a lovely texture and
is extremely absorbent. Colors survive rich and clean.

Of all the Japanese papers that can be used with water-

color, this one is the easiest to purchase and usually
the least expensive.
I hope papers as stimu-
that you'll find these lovely
lating to use as I do. Somehow
they permit you to look
into the oriental spirit— and to appreciate dreams even
more.

For the demonstrations of Watercolor and Japanese

Papers see the color plates on pages 92-93. F. MUSA (SMOOTH)

77
H. OKAWARA
G. YOK

78
mk*^
#i

I. KITAKATA

79
i>i<()|K(;i' 1

PURE COLOR COLOR CCJLOR CHAR T li

COLOR + BLACK + BLACK

+ WHITE

COLOR CHART A. INFLUENCE OF BLACK ON C;OLOR

PROIECT 23

OVERPRINT CHART A SPEEDBALL COLORED INKS

^
SECONDARY CONVENIENCE

VALUE CHART OF SPEEDBALL COLORED INKS

MORE COLOR CHARTS ON PAGE 112

81
Using Transparent
and Opaque Watercolor
Together (Project 5)

Step 1. (300 lb. D'Arche's cold-pressed handmade paper.) Starting on wet pa-
per, with a bristle brush and transparent watercolor, I vigorously stroke in the
dark, distant forest.

-e"

Step 2. I follow with applications of varied colors and transparencies, hinting

at soft weedy values.

82
Step 3. When tho paper is dry, I use thin touches of opaque watercolor to paint

the small shrub in the middleground. its branches, and some of the fine weeds.
Then splash on sparkling yellow and red
I falling leaves with thick opaque wa-
tercolor, defining the closer leaves better. The larger leaves landing on the
weeds offer a finishing touch.

33
Using Salt and Sand
(Project 8)

,-» *

mi

Step 1. (300 lb. D'Arche's cold-pressed handmade paper.) To paint the fresh
outdoor atmosphere. I mark out with masking tape the space visible through
the broken window. I wet this area of the paper and paint the misty, snowy
landscape onto the wet surface. As the paint dries and before the shine disap-
pears, I sprinkle on a few grains of salt which dry to look like snowflakes.

.^•^1*.

=---~^~*si6* i#acKai

Step 2. After the snow scene dries, I remove the masking tape and brush off the

salt. Then mask the inside edges of the broken window, including a glass chip
I

at the bottom. For the old glass pane, stroke on a generous wash of various
I

colors: cerulean blue, yellow ochre, sepia, and french ultramarine (ultrama-
Onto this, sprinkle
rine blue). I dry, coarse building sand. When this dries, I

remove the masking tape.

84
Step 3. Using a bristle brush, I paint the window sill a rit;h, warm brown wash
to establish the value and color of the old wood. Adding the textural details of
the wood grain finishes the job.

85
Deliberate Backruns
(Project 9)

Step 1. (300 lb. D'Arche's cold-pressed handmade paper.) On a wet surface, I

use a bristle brush loaded with rich browns and grays to paint the suggestion of
a forest in the background and the tall weeds in the foreground. I add touches
of alizarin crimson for the tall fireweed blossom, just as the shine disappears
from the paper, I drop touches of clear water onto the lower edge of the forest,
causing backruns.

^ 1

Step 2. When the surface is dry, I add definition to the flower and to the tall

grass.

86
Step 3. With a few knifestrokes, I add the young trees above the backruns so
that they now look like rich foliage on shrubs.

87
Starch and Watercolor
(Project 12)

Step 1. (300 lb. D'Arche's cold-pressed handmade paper.) I spray the whole sur-
face with spray starch and brush it even with a wide housepainter's brush. Us-
ing a soft, flat 1" brush, I paint the somber, stormy sky, the distant hill, and the
mass value of the foreground weeds. As the drying paint loses its shine, I

scratch in the lightning with the tip of a pocketknife.

Step 2. While the paper dries, I add definition to the leaning grass and weeds.

88
Step 3. For a finishing touch, I add some knifescrapes for the whitened blades
of grass.

89
Sponge and Watercolor
(Project 13)

Step 1. handmade paper.) I wet the bottom

(300 lb. D'Arche's cold-pressed
third of the paper. With a large brush, I define the boulder sharply on top and
softly at the bottom where the paper is wet. With brisk brushstrokes, I paint in
the lush grass at the bottom of the composition.

Step 2. 1 wet the top third of the paper and whisk in a light wash to indicate the

sky. After the wash dries to a dull finish, I gently press a damp clean sponge
down on the rock, lifting off some of the paint. After completed drying, I dab
the sponge, full of strong color, on the mossy stone to add to the mottled effect.

Using a small sponge, I also add some blue in the grass.

90
Step 3. Strong sponge-dabs of browns and reds above the rock indicate the

shape of the tree. With a painting knife, draw in a few branches for definition.
I

Using a fine brush, finish the blue flowers and the fine, tall weeds which com-
I

plete the painting.

91
Watercolor and
Japanese Papers
(Project 14)

Step 1. (Heavy-grade rice paper.) With a soft, wide 1" brush, I stroke in several
hazy washes for the sky. With a painting knife, I paint a hint of the distant ever-
greens as well as my center of interest, the spruce tree.

Step 2. With a smaller brush, I add more distant trees and finish the larger

spruce. Following this, I drybrush the thick weeds next to the spruce and wash
in some light blue dips in the middleground snow. Using a painting knife, I add
some larger weeds to the foreground.

92
Step 3. A few light, soft brushstrokes give form to the unifying shadows in the
foreground snow. The addition of some weeds finishes the job.

93
Aquagraph Prints (Project 15)

Step 1. is done on
(140 lb. D'Arche's hard-finished print paper.) All the painting
a sensitized offset plate. First wet the surface of the plate, then I apply the
I

paint for the moody cloud effect and for the red hair of the sleeping goddess of
the volcano. I also paint the black volcano w^ith red lava flov^ing out of its
mouth. After the plate dries, make the first impression with the press on a
I

limp, presoaked paper. With a damp sable brush, carefully wipe off the face
I

of the goddess. Each time I touch the plate with my brush, I blot off the resul-
tant moisture with a tissue held in the other hand. do this until all the paint is
I

removed from her face.

Step 2. remove the plate from the press, it has enough color left on it to
After I

show it was in Step 1. This allows me to work in perfect register

the image as
for each step. add a sparkling halo about the goddess" head and leaping
I

flames to the mouth of the volcano. Last, I darken the already angry-looking
sky. I repeat the printing process using masking-tape guides to re-align the
plate with the first impression.

94
Step 3. After carefully studying this impression on the paper, connect the vol-
I

cano and the sleeping goddess with a few touches of flame, including her eye-
lash. After the paint dries on the plate again, I print one more impression to
finish the work.

95
Mixed Media (Project 16)

Step 1. (300 lb. D'Arche's cold-pressed handmade paper.) First I wet the paper.
Then using a bristle brush, I establish the misty, forest-covered shore hills. Af-
ter this wash dries to a dull finish but damp, I scrape out the three tree
is still

shapes with a pocketknife, pressing it hard and holding it as if were spreading

I

butter.

Step 2. Loading my painting knife with opaque watercolor, I paint the other
flooded trees. Using a medium-size sable brush, I paint the trees' reflections
with a diluted wash. For the rough bark on the three dead birches, I use thick,
opaque watercolor.

96
Step paint the large stump and add final touches to the trees with a pastel
3. I

stickdipped in water. wet the paper and then draw in the little green spruce
I

growing out of the dead stump. Both the damp pastel stick and the pastel
drawn on wet paper produce a soft, slightly blurred effect. Finally. paint in
I

the remaining reflections.

97
Watercolor
on Smooth Paper
(Project 17)

>WWW>I*>I>I '' ' l »*» 'i»» .j»«».,^'

Step 1. (300 lb. D'Arche's cold-pressed handmade paper.) I start on dry paper.
Using a flat, soft 1" brush, I apply loads of browns and blues to the sky area,
allowing the washes to blend freely. With similarly vigorous strokes but fewer
colors, I paint the choppy water in the foreground. To prevent the paint from
blending at the horizon, I simply use less moisture in my brush.

Step 2. With a small painting knife, I rough in the little island and the rocky
shore in the foreground.

98
Step darken the waves around the island and add final details to both the
3. I

closeand distant rocks. For the sun's rays, moisten the dry paint with a single
I

brushstroke of clear water and then blot up the damp paint. The direction of
the brushmark indicates the angle of the sun's rays.

99
Soap With Watercolor
(Project 18)

Step 1. (300 lb. D'Arche's cold-pressed handmade paper.) Using a flat, soft 1"
brush, I apply some light washes of mixed greens to the wet paper. I rub a soap

bar with a 1" bristle brush and then pick up a rich load of paint, mixing it well
into the soapy brush. I apply this mixture to the wet surface for the tall, grassy
weeds; as you can see, the paint doesn't ooze away but stays where I put it. I
repeat this process until the grass is clearly established. I even pull a few light
knife strokes into the damp paint for the whitened grass blades.

Step 2. I paint in the fencepost for my center of interest, using a dark wash.
After it dries, I brush on the wood texture and the moss. For further definition,
I add some fine grass to the composition.

100
Step 3. Last comes the windblown wire for a touch of storylike quality.

101
Watercolor on h 'i

Translucent Materials
(Project 19)

Step (Heavyweight, good-quality tracing paper.) Using a painting knife, I

1.

draw young trees. I align the bottoms of the trees with a loose paper
in the
mask; the resulting outline serves as the edge of the distant hill. I also sketch
some weeds into the foreground.

Step 2. Still using the painting knife, I add a few more trees along the hill line, a
large tree in the middleground, and more weeds in the foreground. With a

small sable brush, I sprinkle the dry leaves on the trees and a few on the grass.

102
Step 3. turn the paper around and paint a heavy blue wash above the hill's
I

edge on the backside of the paper, using the bottom of the trees as a guideline.
After this wash dries, I turn the paper around again to the front. The blue wash
on the reverse side now looks paler and just right.

103
Wash and Line (Project 22) ttp.

n ^r iiW"^^

Step 1. (300 lb. D'Arche's cold-pressed handmade paper.) I wet the paper. Us-
ing a bristle brush, I paint the edge of the distant forest with a light wash. Then,
using the tip of the brush handle, I scrape a few trees into this area. While the
paper is still wet, I stroke on soft, rippling washes to indicate deep snowdrifts.

Step 2. Using my painting knife, I carefully draw the old, half-buried fence. I
brush on a deeper blue wash to further define the foreground snow drift. Again
using the painting knife, I accent the distant drifts with a few light lines and
also draw some more young trees into the background.

104
Step 3. Using a rounded sable brush, I rough in the larger tree. For a last
touch. I
use my painting knife to add detail to the tree as well as to sketch in the
bent,
frozen weeds.

105
Liquid Dyes
and Colored Inks
(Project 23)

Step 1. (300 lb. D'Arche's cold-pressed handmade paper.) First, I mask out the
sun with liquid latex. After it dries, I wet the paper. Using a flat, soft 1" brush
richly loaded with blue, red, and orange inks, I stroke in the brilliant sky.

Step 2. After Step 1 dries, I peel off the latex mask, exposing the white circle
which will be the sun. With quick strokes of strong red ink, I paint over the
lower edge of the sky, right through the sun. A stroke of brown madder across
the glowing red sun indicates a passing cloud.

106
Step 3. To complete the composition, shade in the foreground with rich, dark
I

washes, and silhouette some lacy trees against the horizon.

107
Opaque Watercolor
on Dark Paper (Project 24)

Step (Dark brown, heavy mat board.) With a richly loaded, soft 1" brush, I
1.

wash in the sky and water area. To optimize the influence of a dark paper back-
ground, I use well-diluted opaque watercolor. I give careful attention to paint-
ing the land just visible on the horizon.

Step 2. Using a painting knife and drybrush strokes, I paint the little island. For

the island's lazy reflection in the water, I use a large, flat, soft brush and short,
sidewise strokes.

108
Step 3. To increase the three-dimensional illusion, I stroke in the dark blue
waves in the immediate foreground and also add the distant promontory on
the left of the horizon.

109
White Paint and
Transparent Watercolor
(Project 25)

Step 1. (300 lb. D'Arche's cold-pressed handmade paper.) For the background, I

use my painting knife to draw several leafless trees standing in deep snow.

m m

Step 2. After Step 1 dries, I use a wide, soft brush to gently wash well-diluted,
opaque white watercolor across all the trees. I blot some of the white paint off
the larger trees to make them look closer.

110
Step 3. To complete the illusion of color perspective. I include a few well-de-
fined trees in the foreground that are richer in color than the distant treses. For a
final touch, I drybrush in the grass.

Ill
PROIECT 23 (CONTINUED)

OVERPRINT CHART B. WET PROCION DYE WASH OVER DRIED DYE WASH

OVERPRINT CHART C. TWO COLORS. WET-IN-WET. AND DOUBLE- VALUE PROCION DYES

PROJECT 25

1 W 1 + W 1-1-2 l-(-2-(-W 2 W 2+\N 2-1-3 2-1-3-fW 3 W 3 + VJ

1^^,
™ 1:

2:
BURNT SIENNA

WINSOR BLUE

3: RAW SIENNA

LIMITED PALETTE CHART A. WHITE WASHED ON DRY AND INTO WET PAINT

PROJECT 26

1-l-W 3-l-W 2 +W

1: RAW SIENNA

2: WINSOR BLUE

3: BURNT SIENNA

LIMITED PALETTE CHART B. TRANSPARENT WATERCOLORS ON CANVAS BOARD

112
15. AQUAGRAPH PRINTS

rhe term "aquagraph" is not a particularly original Smooth the sharp edge with a file or sandpaper so the
)ne, but does express the nature of a process very
it plate wont cut your finger or damage the paper under
veil; the execution of a print in an aqueous medium— the pressure of the press.
vatercolor. Instead of painting on a sheet of paper, The plate has a shiny side and a matt side. Paint on
^ou paint metal plate and make a single print
on a the matt side, which is designed to hold moisture.
rom that plate on moist paper. The aquagraph is done
n several steps. First you apply color to the plate and
Visualizing Your Picture
)rint the color on the paper with the aid of an etching

)ress. Then you apply more color to the plate and pass Bear in mind that the printed image on the paper will
he paper through the press again. You repeat the proc- face in the opposite direction from the image you paint
tss until you have the finished picture— which is the re- on the plate. If you have difficulty visualizing the final
ult of a series of impressions or color transfers from picture as you paint, place a small hand mirror to one
)late to paper. side of the plate and periodically look at the mirror to
Because you get only one print, you might ask why follow your progress.
)aint on the plate and transfer the color to the paper? The safest procedure is to work from light to dark
/Vhy not paint directly on the paper itself? If you paint and from cool colors to warm. Apply your palest and
Iwatercolor in a long, elaborate series of layers, you coolest tones to the plate first. Let the plate dry. Place it

un the risk of ending up with an overworked, muddy on the bed of the press, face up. Make marks with a soft
ness. Each layer may disturb and possibly dissolve the pencil on the press bed, indicating the location of the
;olor underneath it. The aquagraph process allows four corners of the plate; you'll then be able to put the
'ou to apply many separate layers of color to paper plate in the same position each time you add color.
vithout dissolving the dry color already on the sheet.

Preparing Your Paper

Materials
Now prepare your paper for printing. Cut the paper
.. Your transparent tube watercolors. brushes, large enough to allow a generous border around the
md watercolor paper. printed image, let's say 3" larger than the plate all the
way around. Soak your paper in cold water. The sink
!. A 72 lb. paper or less will do. Any
Lightweight paper.
will do for small pieces of paper; you use the bathtub
printmaking paper— the kind used
ligh quality, all-rag
for large sheets.
or etchings and lithographs— also works well.
While the paper is soaking, make marks on the press
t. A piece of aluminum litho plate to paint on. bed to indicate where the paper will fit. Assuming that
the paper is 3" larger than the plate on all sides, you
[. Masking tape.
can draw lines on the press bed denoting these mar-
). A sheet of cardboard. gins. Stick a strip of masking tape along the top line
and another strip along one side; be sure that the tape
). An etching press.
is outside the 3" border, not within it. This will give

\ny commercial offset printer will give you a used you a large, inverted L into which you can fit the paper
Dlate. The largest practical size for an aquagraph is for each impression.
ibout 16" X 20", though your own plate size will de- Take the paper out of the water and lay it on an ab-
Dend upon the size of the press you have available. sorbent pad, composed of a stack of newspapers with a
Dbviously. some press beds are larger than others. paper towel on top. Carefully remove the excess water
To cut the plate to the exact size you need, use a from the surface of the paper by dabbing it with a
leavy knife-like a Stanley mat knife-and a straight cleansing tissue until the shine disappears. Do the
jdge. Score the plate in a line several times until it is same thing to the other side of the sheet until the sur-
:ut, very much as you would cut heavy cardboard. face is no longer wet, but damp and limp.

113
Placing the Paper Repeating the Process

Now you are ready to print. Hold the sheet at an angle Repeat the printing process I have just described. Use
above the press bed so that the paper does not touch the masking tape guides when you replace the paper
the plate until the edges are firmly fitted inside the on the press. Use a fresh, dry cardboard to protect the
tape.Then place the top edge and one side of the paper paper each time you go back to the press. You now
against the inside of the inverted L of the know the basic procedure. Continue to add color-
masking tape. Hold the paper edge down beside the working toward your warmer and darker tones.
tape with one hand and use the other to guide the pa-
per down over the plate. Be sure that neither the paper Keeping the Paper Moist
nor the plate moves from this position.
If you go back to the press more than three times with
the same sheet of paper, the sheet will begin to dry up.
Turning the Crank
To keep the paper moist, place it face down on an im-
Put a sheet of medium-weight cardboard over the pa- maculately clean, dry surface, and spray the back with
per so that the metal roller of the press will not touch a light mist of clear water from an atomizer. Watch the
the wet sheet. Turn the crank of the press and run the water as it soaks into the surface and make sure no
plate, paper, and cardboard through together. One shine develops; if it does, you've applied too much wa-
pass through the press is enough; a second pass will ter. When that happens, wait until the shine disap-
squeeze too much moisture out of the paper. Remove pears before you pick up the paper for painting.
the cardboard and then peel away the paper. Place the If the paper is too dry when it goes through the press,

paper between sheets of plastic, foil, or glass to keep it not enough color will be transferred from the plate.
moist while you are adding more color to the plate. Check for dryness by peeling back the corner of the
Remove the plate from the press bed. Using a wet paper from the plate before you remove the entire
cleansing tissue, wipe away the
color that is still on the sheet. If the paper has picked up too little color,
plate. A faint residuefrom the first color application moisten the back of the sheet— while it's still in posi-
will remain as a guide for your additional color appli- tion on the press—with the atomizer and then pass
cations, but it when the plate is returned
will not print plate, paper, and cardboard back through the press.
to the press. Begin to add your middle tones, both
For the demonstration of Aquagraph Prints see the
warm and cool, with more detail.
color plates on pages 94-95.

THE GHOSTSH/P OF MAHONE BAY. N.S.. AN AQUAGRAPH PRINT EXECUTED WITH REGULAR WATERCOLOR PIGMENTS AND WATERCOLOR PAPER

114
16. Mixed Media

When you work mixture of medias, the princi-

with a
pal thing to keep in is order. You must know
mind
what ideal sequence is to achieve the best technical re-
sults. The most important advice I can give you here,
however, is to use only those materials with which you
are familiar. Knowing their individual qualities will
save you time that you can use to better creative ad-
vantage.

Materials

1. Your transparent and opaque watercolor tubes.

A. WATERCOLOR AND PASTEL
2. Soft-haired and bristle brushes.

3. High-quality rag paper.

4. Two acrylic brushes.

5. A few acrylic colors.

6. A smaJJ set of soft pastels.

7. Matt finish acrylic spray.

8. A small bottle of acrylic media.

9. Tube of Aquapasto watercolor painting medium.

Starting with Pastels

I'd like to start you with ordinary pastel sticks because

these pigments mix well with water. You can't use oil
pastels the same way because their oil content repels
water. Work
with either the round, soft, pastel sticks
or the square ones made for layout work. In illustra-
tion A, I've used the latter, which are a little harder B. CASEIN TEMPERA

and less crumbly. I have wet part of the paper and,

with firm pressure, drawn a line starting from a dry
Using Casein Tempera
area and continuing into the wet space. The sketch of
the apple tree shows how compatible pastel is with Opaque watercolor and casein tempera usually mean
watercolor. The foliage and the grass are painted with the same thing. Except for their opacity, they behave
transparent watercolor, and while the paper is still very much like transparent watercolor. If you use
saturated with water I draw in the trunk, branches, casein tempera in a thick consistency, you can paint
and the apples. Because the pastel is crumbly, it will white on black if the black is dry. In my illustration B,
dry back to its original consistency— and smear if you you can see how well the light colors survive over the
touch it. As a precaution, therefore, you must spray dark ones. It also shows how well casein tempera
your work with a protective acrylic fixative. The fix- spreads on wet paper. If you use it in a thin consist-
ative won't affect your watercolor, but it will stabilize ency it can look and behave exactly like transparent
the pastel. watercolor. It even wipes off after drying.

115
Painting with Aquapasto means you must plan your modeling make sure your to
acrylic paint doesn't dry too soon. can be applied to
It
Only recently, Winsor & Newton came out with a new
practically any surface— including surfaces covered
product called Aquapasto. It is a water-soluble, color-
with pastel or watercolor (D). You can work pastel on
less gel designed to mix with transparent watercolor.
top of acrylic, but you can't apply watercolor to dry
If you use it with a brush, it'll leave brushmarks (C).
acrylic. It won't adhere.
With your painting knife it spreads beautifully, leav-
ing a thin or heavy impasto depending on how you
hold your knife and how much pressure you exert on Planning Your Approach
it. Aquapasto will stay transparent even when thick,
After you have familiarized yourself with these
and you can rework it after it dries by simply wetting graphic materials, work with them in combination
it. In short, it's great fun to work with. with one another. Plan your approach carefully and
try to leave acrylic to the end. Use a mixed technique
Experimenting with Acrylic as a complement to, not a substitute for, watercolor. Be
subtle. The finished result must be an esthetic unit, not
Acrylic paint is a powerful medium of its own, as I'm
a hodgepodge of unrelated bits of color.
sure you're aware. Using it in combination with other
media will demand a little experiment. Remember For the demonstration of Mixed Media see the color
that after acrylic dries it will no longer dissolve. This plates on pages 96-97.

C. AQUAPASTO WITH BRUSH (TOP). WITH KNIFE (BOTTOM) D. ACRYLIC OVER PASTEL (LEFT), PASTEL OVER ACRYLIC (RIGHT)

116
17. Watercolor on Smooth Paper

Most commercially made papers are relatively

smooth. For experimental purposes, any one of them
should give you an opportunity to learn. However,
they all differ slightly in behavior. Cheap pulp papers
will not stand up to a painter's treatment. Buy all-rag,
hard-surfaced paper. For the following illustrations, I
have chosen DArches 300-lb.. hot-pressed paper. Its
performance is superb.

Materials

1. Your usual transparent watercolors.

^ --

A. DRY SMOOTH PAPER

2. Bristle and soft-haired brushes.

3. A painting knife.

4. Heavyweight, high-quality smooth paper. It should

be 100% rag, hot-pressed paper. DArches, Strathmore,
and Crescent are a few popular names in papermak-
ing.

Here are a few hints about paper characteristics: the

smoother your watercolor paper is, the stronger your
color will remain after it dries. Rough watercolor
paper is soft and absorbs a lot of water; hot-pressed pa-
per, on the other hand, is hard and not very absorbent.
Also, you can remove the paint from the surface of
smooth paper a little easier than you can from rough B WET SMOOTH PAPER
paper. All you have to do is wipe it— either while it's
damp or after it has dried. One further hint: the
smoother the paper the faster it dries. Even so. be on smooth surface dries quite rapidly. As your wash
your guard about large washes collecting in pools; starts drying, you'll probably notice that the grainy

pools increase the risk of hard edges (backruns) form- colors tend to separate, creating a lovely pattern. This
ing on their borders. pattern helps to add interest to an otherwise monoto-
nous wash. Lighter washes tend to show patterns bet-
ter than darker ones because the more water the wash
Starting on Dry Paper
contains the greater the flowing action it creates.
Begin watercoloring on smooth paper by trying a di-
rect approach of washes on dry paper (A). Don't worry
Using Both Sides
about accidents! They'll happen every time. Accidents
are part of the charm of watercolor. and they indicate If you've been drybrushing your edges, you must find
a degree of daring on your part. other methods on smooth paper (C). You have to de-
fine foliage and other lacy edges a little more carefully
with the brush. Paint the fiext exercise on both sides of
Working on Wet Paper
the same paper, remembering, of course, that the front
Now wet the next paper thoroughly (B). Apply your and back side of every paper behave a little differ-
wet washes without hesitation because the paper's two strips from my paper, turned one
ently. I've cut

117
back to front, and placed it adjacent to the other one,
and taped them together on the reverse side. I want to
illustrate for you the behavior of the knife (D). The
birch trunks are scraped off v^ith my pocketknife and
the blades of light grass with my painting knife. hold I

them both as though I'm spreading butter. I use my

little painting knife exclusively to paint the single
birch tree on the right side of the illustration. As you
can see, the dry surface of the paper responds beau-
tifully to the knife techniques.
You'll achieve fine results quickly on smooth paper,
but you won't have time to hesitate. Take all the time
in the world to plan your steps, but once you begin you
must paint rapidly to obtain freshness.

For the demonstration of Watercolor on Smooth Pa-

per see the color plates on pages 98-99.

C. DETAIL ON SMOOTH PAPER

D. KNIFE ON GRAINY SIDE (TOP PART OF ILLUSTRATION). ON SMOOTH SIDE (BOTTOM PART)

118
18. Soap with Watercolor

Soap has a limited usefulness for a watercolor then onto a piece of wet, smooth paper (B). Observe
painter— but it does a few wonderful things. Its essen- how well the brushmarks survive— along with the acci-
tial function to me is to make wild wet washes behave. dental little bubbles. You won't see much difference
between the two papers, but there'll be some nonethe-
less.
Materials

1. Your transparent watercolors and brushes.

Achieving a Texture
2.At least one sheet each of cold-pressed and hot-
pressed handmade watercolor paper. You can dab soapy paint into a wet wash just as easily
as you can paint in a brushstroke. The resulting tex-
3. One bar of colorless soap. Pure castile soap is best, ture is hard to identify, but very useful for certain ef-
but any household soap will do the job. fects (C).

For the following exercises I suggest you use a Vz" wide

bristle brush for quick results. Soap softens the color
Testing for Adhesiveness
value somewhat, and a bristle brush picks up more
concentrated pigment than a soft one does. It also Paint a dark wash on your paper and then next to it,
leaves more exciting, better defined brushmarks. After using the same pigment, do a dark soap wash (D). After
all, texture is a vital factor in watercolor. they dry lay two strips of paper on top of each wash,
leaving a gap between the pairs of strips. With a bristle
brush scrub the exposed surfaces until the pigment
Experimenting with Soap
looks wet and loose. Remove the paper strips and
Don't mix soap into your regular colors on your quickly blot up the loose paint. A light line will result
palette; it's a nuisance to clean it out later. Use a sepa- on each wash, but you should note that the same
rate washable surface for mixing. Put plenty of wet amount of scrubbing will remove more paint from the
pigment on your brush first, and then scrub the soap regular wash than from the soap wash. This difference
bar with it to allow the soap to mix with your paint. suggests that soap has an adhesive quality that can be
Make a brushstroke or two on a dry part of your paper. very useful.
Then pick up more soapy pigment and paint it into a Soap washes, for example, can serve the purpose of
wet area. Note that your soap wash doesn't spread masking. First, paint a thick soap wash of light color
wildly, the way a wash would with just straight paint over an area on your paper that you want to leave
and water. Now cover a fair size area of your paper light. After it dries, paint your dark wash right over it.
surface with a rich, dark, regular wash. Sepia will do When that dries, gently apply clean water with a soft
fine. Load your brush with a lighter soap wash— burnt brush over the soap-covered surface and blot up the
sienna, for example— and quickly brush it into the wet, loose, wet surface paint with a tissue. Repeat this proc-
dark wash. You'll see that your light color will survive soap-masked area is just right.
ess until the tone of the
without oozing too far and that the dark color immedi- Note the bottom part of the No Trespassing sign; the
ately next to the light wash will turn lighter, creating a top half shows a dried dark wash on top of a soap wash
halo effect. This, too, is the nature of the soap tech- (E).
nique (A). After you finish your picture, don't forget to wipe
your soap bar clean with a wet tissue. It's a handy ob-
Comparing Washes and Paper ject to have ready for use.

After you complete this experiment, brush a light and For the demonstration of ?)OQ\i w/fh \N QleTco\ov see
dark soap wash onto a piece of wet, rough paper and the color plates on pages 100-101.

119
LIGHT SOAP WASH
INTO WET.
DARK WASH

SOAP WASH ON DRY PAPER

A, SOAP WASHES

B. WET ROUGH PAPER (TOP), WET SMOOTH PAPER (BOTTOM)

C. SOAPY PAINT DABBED INTO WET WASH

SOAP WASH (RIGHT) E. MASKING EFFECT OF SOAP WASH

D. REGULAR WASH (LEFT),

121
19. Watercoloron
Translucent Materials

When you work on a translucent surface, you must

concentrate on creating a refined balance of delicate
vaJues. Your paint is transparent, and now the paper—
or the parchment, or the glass— is too. How good your
painting will be depends on how successfully you are
able to control light tones.

Materials

1. Your regular watercolors and brushes.

2. A few sheets of good tracing paper, the heavier the
better. A. WASHES ON FRONT AND REVERSE OF TRANSLUCENT PAPER

3. A small sheet of Mylar. Mylar feels like paper, but

it's a plastic product. Companies that supply tracing
papers for draftsmen usually stock it.

Because you're using a translucent paper, you can

paint on the reverse side without interfering with the
front side. The value of your color on the reverse side,
Painting Two Landscapes
however, will be lighter because of the fogging quality Paint a simple landscape with two colors (B). Use them
of the paper. The more transparent your paper, the on the reverse side of your translucent paper as well.
stronger the color will remain. When the water on Wherever the two paintings overlap, you'll have an in-
your brush comes in contact with the paper, you'll also teresting combination of values. The more complex
be confronted with buckling, of course. To minimize your paintings, the more varied will be the outcome.
this wrinkling, use the heaviest tracing paper avail-
able.
Using Your Knife
To give your finished work more of a light-reflecting
quality,you must display it with white paper behind You can also have a lot of fun using your painting
it. you want your painting to present a dull mood,
If knife imaginatively on the front of your white tracing
however, simply place it on a darker background. paper (C). If you feel the need of a soft background
complement, turn it over after it dries and paint on the
required washes.
Testing for Transparency

Now take a piece of your tracing paper and paint a

Working with Mylar
smooth cover wash of one primary color on the front
of it and another on the reverse side, partly behind the A highly transparent material— called Mylar— is now
first wash. Let them dry. The overlapping area should available. It has the unique quality of remaining flat

be a dull secondary color. I've used yellow and blue even after being rolled up for a prolonged period. Be-
and got green (A). On the front side paint a wash of the fore you paint on it, make sure you wash it clean of fin-
second color over a dry part of the first one. This, too, gerprints or any other marks. Experiment with Mylar
will result in the same secondary color. It will be by painting your watercolor washes on it when its sur-
stronger, though, because the paper is not between the face is wet and dry (D). Use both the front and the re-
two colors, diffusing the one on the back. With this verse side. The colors will appear very close in value
exercise you can demonstrate visually how trans- because the film between the two sides is much more
parent your paper is— before you start working on it. transparent than that of tracing paper.

122
Now try a little design, using your painting knife on Trying Other Materials
Mylar. The action and behavior of the paint, though a
Try painting on parchment and frosted glass. They're
temperamental, will offer you some fresh results.
little
but two more of many usable surfaces. Experiment
Again, take advantage of the reverse side for an added
with other materials as well, choosing the one most
complement to your composition. To protect the paint-
suitable to your need.
ings on these smooth materials, you can spray them
with acrylic fixative (E). For the demonstration of Watercolor on Translucent
Materials see the color plates on pages 102-103.

^
B. LANDSCAPE ON TRANSLUCENT PAPER C. PAINTING KNIFE ON FRONT. WASH ON REVERSE

r
^r

D. MYLAR FILM E. PAINTING KNIFE ON MYLAR

123
20. Watercolor Collage

A watercolor collage can be interpreted in several my finger over the cloth, making a gentle impression. I

ways. For example, your painting can give the effect of use my brush for the support poles and the bird.
a collage, or fragments of material can actually be ad-
hered to the picture's surface. In this chapter, I shall
Transferring a Print
discuss both the effect and the actuality.
To transfer a print, dip your textured material (cloth)
into a prepared wash, place it on top of your painting
Materials
surface, painted side down, and press on it gently with
1. Your familiar palette of watercolors, brushes, and a your hand or a small, hard roller. Maintain pressure
sheet of watercolor paper. until the paint shows the strength you want.
2. Pieces of fabric: cotton, linen, raw silk, burlap.

3. A can of spray fixative. Pressing the Brush Handle

4. J-cloth (Handi-Wipe, or any of the strong, "waffle"- I wooden edge of

create a line pattern by dipping the
textured paper towels used for dishwashing and my brush handle wet paint and pressing it into my
into

cleaning purposes). paper. print the flower, one petal at a time, with a
I

triangular shaped piece of paper (D).

5. Textured and thin Japanese paper.

6. Lots of tissue paper.

Rolling a Handle
7. One small, hard-surfaced roller, for convenience.
Another combination of approaches is employed in
sketch E. The clouds are done with a bunched-up tis-
Using the Surface of Fabrics sue. I dip the tissue into paint and stamp it vigorously
on the surface of the paper until the texture looks
Impressions taken from the woven surface of fabric
right. To get the "industrial" effect I rotate the cylindri-
offer a wonderful variety of patterns. have used a few
I

cal handle of an etching tool in a wet wash, and then

common types to show you what I mean (A). If you dip
roll it onto my paper. As the wash loses strength it
the dry cloth into a prepared pool of color and transfer
pushes little beads of paint further along, creating a
it to paper, you'll get a weaker impression than if you
granular effect. This requires hard pressure. The lower
brush the paint onto the material with a bristle brush
"drybrush" impressions are done in the same way but
and then transfer it the same way.
using a different color and less pressure. To get the
smokelike wiggles, I drag the wet blob at the end of
Holding Strips of Paper each stack with the corner of a soft strip of paper.
Another way of creating a watercolor collage is to hold
loose strips of paper, which will act as masking mate-
Removing Paint
rial on your painting surface and brush your paint
around them. Don't move the paper while you paint or You can achieve on a wet wash by ei-
a collage effect
it will smear the edges of your painted area. You can by removing paint from
ther transferring paint to it— or
hold two strips of paper beside each other, and in the it. In illustration F brush on a dark wash and remove
I

narrow gap between brush on your watercolor. In my the light mountain peak by blotting off the surplus
illustration B, am using one color in several layers
I color with a soft tissue. Similarly, I remove some of the
and a strip of paper. The stipple effect was achieved paint behind the fence with a damp J-cloth; after the
with a sponge. paper dries, I use dark blue paint to transfer a print
In my next exercise, for the painting of trees (C), I with the same J-cloth. I use the edge of my brush
brush dark brown watercolor onto a strip of J-cloth, handle for the poles and roll-print the dry brush at the
press the damp surface over the fence area, and rub bottom with the same round handle.

124
TRANSFERRED BRUSHED ON

If'

LINEN

*-ii'~-^..-.^'»^> -"-J

A. IMPRESSIONS FROM FABRICS

B. ONE COLOR IN SEVERAL LAYERS

125
Adhering Pieces of Material

The approach to developing a watercolor collage

third
is adhere pieces of water-receptive mate-
to actually
rial to your painting surface, thereby creating texture.
You can follow this process either before or after you
apply paint. If your material is light enough— tissue or
rice paper, for example— the glue in your watercolor is
usually enough to keep it stuck to the paper. If you find
the material uncooperative, use a compatible adhe-
sive. I prefer starch or thinned-down mucilage or gum
arable.
In the top part of my little illustration G, I stick torn
pieces of textured Japanese rice paper into a wet wa-
tercolor wash. I dip the bottom piece into paint and
put the wet paper in position to dry. To place the white
V-shaped tissue spray the whole surface with
on top, I

starch for adhesion. I transfer the color of the wires to

the paper by dipping a thread into paint, placing it
tightly on the surface, and pressing it down with a tis-
C. I-CLOTH IMPRESSION
sue. I use the edge of my brush handle for the pole and
paint the birds with quick brushstrokes.
For a collage, you must be daring and test the ex-
tremes of your imagination. Anything goes— if it looks
right and stays permanent.

*«;
jm 1^ miiWr 111 Jr t "
'**^ * -** " T ry-.. --' - - y » ;- • •

D. BRUSH-HANDLE IMPRESSION E. BRUSH HANDLE ROLLED

126
F. I-CLOTH BLOTTED

G. COLLAGE

127
Watercolor Collage

Step 1. (300 lb. D'Arche's cold-pressed handmade paper.) On a wet paper, I

rough-brush in the distant misty rocks and the fisherman's hut. After this wash
dries, I add still more texture to the background by dipping paper into paint
and touching up the rocks. Using a ruler with paint on its edge, I print dark
lines for the net-drying poles. To print the nets, I cut out crescent-shaped holes
from wrapping paper and lay it loosely over my painting. Wherever the paint-
ing is exposed, I press on a piece of paint-soaked }-cloth (Handi-Wipe), contin-
uing this process until the overlapping nets look right.

128
step 2. I paint in the muddy foreground with pieces of
paper dipped in paint
ind then pressed and smeared on the paper. I sketch in
the tall weeds
with a
Dainting knife.

129
Step 3. I add the finishing touches to the nets, and the watercolor collage is

completed.

130
21. Watercolor with Hard
(Bristle) Brushes

Bristle brushes are firm but springy. They can pick up

more concentrated paint faster than any soft-haired
brush. For the vigorous application of watercolor, a
bristle brush will serve you well.

Materials

1. Your watercolors.

2.One Vi" and one 1" No. 1146 Grumbacher bristle

brush or similar size oil-painting brushes.

3. Handmade watercolor paper.

4. A new No. 2 and No. 5 short-haired, oil-painting

brush.

ON DRY PAPER
Making Essential Brushstrokes

First, I'd like to introduce you to one of my favorite

painting tools: a crudely finished, inexpensive bristle
brush made exclusively by Grumbacher— catalogue
No. 1146. It's made with a slanted edge that is just right
for making three essential brushstrokes. Illustration A
shows you the shape of the brush as well as the three
brushstrokes done on dry and wet cold-pressed
D'Arches paper. The three numbers identify the side ON WET PAPER
of the brush that made these strokes, and the arrows
A. SLANT-EDGE BRISTLE BRUSH AND BRUSHSTROKES
show the direction in which I pulled the brush.

Pushing the Brush

If you keep your paint dry in the wells of your palette
like I do, the bristle brush will offer you instant action
because it wets and picks up paint fast. In my sketch
I've painted the forest with its variety of values with a
%" slanted brush on wet D'Arches cold-pressed paper
(B). After the paper dries paint the "drybrush" grass
I

not by pulling the brush naturally but by pushing its

hair in the opposite direction from the handle.

Scrubbing with a Paintbrush

The small No. 2 oil-painting brush serves as a scrub-

ber. It's capable of loosening dry paint. All you have to
do is scrub the dry paint with the damp point of the
brush and blot up the loose, moistened paint with a
soft tissue. That's exactly what I do on the snow-cov- B BRISTLE BRUSH ON WET (IN TREES) AND DRY (GRASS)

131
ered roof in illustration C. For the sharp white of the half on a curved line.I place one half with the curved

moon I use a paper mask, cutting the shape of the edge where I want the weed to be located, hold it in
moon from a piece of paper. I hold the mask in posi- position with my left hand, and put the other half
tion while I use my brush to scrub briskly the exposed down just a hairline away, holding it in position with
moon-shape area. Lifting the mask quickly from the my left thumb. With the two pieces of curved paper
painting, I immediately blot off the loosened paint. For forming a mask, I then scrub away a light line for the
the faint circular continuation of theshaded side of weed in the same way I scrubbed away the moon in
the moon, I make one pass with the same damp scrub- (C).

ber and blot it up again. As you remove dry paint with your brush, some wa-
ter isbound to seep under the edge of your paper
mask. Don't worry about it. It's only sitting on top of
Using a Slanted Brush
your paint. If you act quickly when you blot the
In the last illustration (D), I brush on the stump of the loosened pigment, your tissue will soak up this surplus
tree and then use my
slanted brush for that seem-
Vz" water and it won't leave any mark. Don't press the tis-
ingly insignificant weed. The important consideration sue too hard and don't dillydally. As soon as you put
here is the removal of the dark paint where the thin down your scrubber, blot immediately. Speed is im-
weed is in front of the stump. I cut a strip of paper in portant.

C. SCRUBBING WITH BRUSH

D SCRUBBING AROUND MASK

132
Watercolor with a Bristle Brush

Step 1. (300 11). D'Arche's cold-pressed handmade paper.) I use a slanted-edge,

1" bristle brush on dry paper to rough in the rich washes
of grass and the basic
value of the discarded boards and barn wall. To get that mottled effect in the
grass, I use strong brushstrokes with lots of paint and little moisture: for the
wispy grass in the foreground, I use light drybrush strokes.

133
..^
#

Step 2. I add more drybrush definition to the grass and boards for texture.
These improvements are subtle but extremely vital.

134
Step 3. Finally,
I wet the sky area on the top left and stroke in a few blue hints
of windswept clouds. After this dries, silhouette some broken fence logs
I

against the light sky to break the harsh edge of the grass.

135
22. Wash and Line

When most people think of wash-and-line watercolor

technique, they think of transparent watercolor and
India ink. But this is only one of many wash-and-line
techniques. To me, it involves any line complementing
watercolor. The technique is a combination of blend-
ing wash tones and solid lines that set off each other.

Materials

1. Your regular watercolors, brushes, and handmade

paper.

2. One HB pencil.

3. One old-fashioned writing or drawing pen (nib and

holder).

4. A painting knife.

5. One bottle of India ink.

A. WASH AND INDIA INK
6. An ordinary pocketknife.

7. A nail clipper.

Watercoloring with Pen

If you take a close look at the most common wash-and- K,_

line techniques, watercolor and India ink, you'll notice
that the black of the ink contrasts best, and acts as a
greater unifying force, when it's used with light value
washes. Never try camouflage or weaken this con-
to
trast. I've drawn A with a play-
the lines in illustration
'"m^-j^
ful application of a drawing nib. After the ink lines
dry, I slap on the light washes with similar friskiness.
You can take even greater advantage of your lines if
you use well diluted watercolor in your nib instead of
India ink. You don't have to dip your pen in the water-
color; you can pick up the paint with a brush and
brush it onto your nib. And you can use several colors.
There's also another advantage in making lines with
diluted watercolor: after they've dried, you can soften
them and add tone value by simply brushing over the
lines with clear water (B).

Making Lines with Your Knife

Pen nibs are not the only tools you can use for drawing
lines.Your painting knife is one of the best little help- is. WATERCOLOR WITH PEN NIB

136
ers you'll ovor nood. Not only can you use it for varied
colors and tones, but you can paint your lines in differ-
ent widths. In sketch C, I am using the broad side of my
knife for the wide lines and the thin edge, pushing up-
ward, thinner lines, like the edges of the
to paint the
trunk. I drag the knife point over the surface of the pa-
^^
per for the branches and clouds. To paint the little
grass blades. use the edge of the knife tip as though
1
1

were slashing with For the "drybrush" touch on the

it.

trunks, I use a thick paint and then smear it with the

back, flat part of my knife.

Wiggling the Tip

Your knife is also capable of making loose lines on top

of dry paint. In sketch D. 1 paint a rather vaguely de-
fined forest on wet paper. It would be too indefinite

without the dark trees and green touches in the fore-

C. PAINTING KNIFE ground. To achieve these rich lines I hold my knife by
the end of the handle and drag it backward, touching
the paper only with the tip. hold the handle lightly
I

enough to allow it to wiggle as the tooth of the paper

dictates. As the knife is loosing paint, the lines get thin-
ner and finely fade away.
You can make effective lines not only on dry paper
but on wet paper as well. You can draw into a wet
wash with any firm tool, and as soon as it touches the
wet paper a line will develop of a dark density. This
line willdry even darker, so bear in mind that it can't
be removed because you've damaged the surface of
your paper. To draw the dark tree trunk on the left in
illutration E,I use the tip of a nail clipper handle over

a wet wash. The sharp point of my brush handle does

the thin branches, leaves, and green blades. On the
right side, I get a light-line effect by squeezing the
paint off the same wash when it is no longer dripping
D. DRAG STROKES wet. For this use a pocketknife as if spreading butter,
I

but I very hard.

press it

As you can see, line can be an essential part of wa-

tercolor. Don't be afraid of taking full advantage of it.

For the demonstration of Wash and Line see the color

plates on pages 104-105.

E. SCRAPING WITH KNIFE

137
23. Liquid Dyes and Colored Inks

Because of the liquidy qualities of liquid dyes and col- browns that are very difficult to distinguish. In the
ored inks, the advantages of these chemically made Overprint Chart A on page 81 I illustrate the over-
pigments are transparency and brilliance. In most printing qualities of these inks.
cases their permanence is questionable though rela-
tively good, except for the aniline-base dyes. Before
you use any of them, inquire about their qualities from Blending Colors
the dealer or manufacturer. Artists are known to care
A few years ago on Hawaii I had the good fortune to
about the chemical properties of their material.
little
witness the breathtaking color display of a distant
You should be an exception; it pays many dividends. erupting volcano. My little sketch shows how well the
bright reds blend with the darker, subtle blue-grays.
Materials The resulting dramatic impact is worth the fight to
achieve.
1. One set of primary and secondary colors. It should
include colored inks. I use speedball inks in my illus-
trations.
Getting Maximum Transparency
2. An inexpensive, children's v^atercolor set with Some Procion dyes are more brilliant than others, but
These are usually made with aniline
briJJiant colors. they are all extremely transparent and fairly perma-
dyes. Recently, the Japanese sets have been the least nent. They are designed to stain textile materials, and
expensive and the most brilliant. consequently they behave in similarly permanent
3. One set of batik dye Procion colors. You can pur- fashion on rag-content paper. I described above how
chase these in powder form at any craft supply house. you can make these dye liquids yourself; to achieve
maximum transparency, use only the clear liquid on
4. One wide flat and two smaller round, soft brushes.
stir up the sediment
top of the settled solution. Don't
5. Your favorite handmade paper. unless you want your wash to have a grainy quality.
Overprint Chart B on page 112, shows the trans-
To your powdered Procion colors, which can
liquify
parency and the overprinting qualities of these dyes.
be accomplished easily in jars, follow this recipe: to
The staining power of Procion dyes is so rapid that
one part dye, two parts non-iodized salt, and one part they show a definite overprint shape (see Overprint
washing soda, add four ounces of warm water and stir. Chart C, page 112) even if they are washed into one
When the solution settles you are ready to paint. other when wet.
These water-soluble liquid colors are not substitutes
for watercolors. They have their limitations, but their
usefulness, particularly for commercial illustration, is Achieving Transparency with Brilliancy
unquestionable.
To illustrate maximum transparency with brilliance, I

have prepared this sketch of a difficult subject: a bright

Comparing Ink and Watercolor sunset. It is impossible for these dyes to become

Colored inks, whether transparent or semi-opaque, are opaque, so everything stays brilliant. To get dark defi-
always brilliant. In the Value Chart on page 81 I've nition on the scarecrow, I scrape into the wet surface
chosen a semi-opaque ink made by the Speedball with my painting knife.
Company. The behavior of these inks is close to trans- In experimenting with bright and highly transparent
parent watercolor, as you can see. They mix well with colors, use an inexpensive watercolor set with an ani-

each other, run on wet paper, dry with a slightly grainy line-dye base. These colors have a strong staining
texture, and wipe off a little when they're dry. power and are extremely bright. They are fugitive,
however, and will fade, unlike Procion dyes. Paint
with them accordingly.
Mixing Browns
If you mix the three primary colors, the three sec- For the demonstration of Liquid Dyes and Colored
ondaries, or all six combined you'll end up with three Inks see the color plates on pages 106-107.

138
COLORED INKS

LIQUID DYES

139
24. Opaque Watercolor on Dark Paper

Just as the natural virtue of transparent watercolor is painting knife— one with a broad scraping motion, the
its transparency, so the natural virtue of most tempera fine ones with the edges of my knife.
paint is its opacity. Light opaque paint will partially
cover a dark background if it is diluted; it will com-
pletely cover it if the paint is thick. For this exercise,
Working on a Wet Board
therefore, think in terms of light tones on top of dark. Using a wet dark brown board in sketch B, I paint in
light color washes. When they start to dry, I am able to
Materials give some by scraping away the
definition to the ferns
paint and exposing the dark background. I add the few
1. Some opaque watercolors. The best ones come in touches of thin weeds and flowers at the end.
jars or tubes. Designers colors, made by most paint
manufacturers— Pelikan, Winsor & Newton to name
just two— are the same thing. Buy a jar or tube of each Painting on a Dry Mount
primary and secondary color plus white.
In my illustration C, I chose the same dark brown
2. Your watercolor brushes. board again, but I used it dry. I make the entire sketch
with my painting knife. The opaque paint is of the
3. A painting knife.
thinnest consistency for the clouds, a little heavier for
4. One sheet of black paper or board. the evergreen tree, and the thickest for the rock.

5. Your choice of one other dark-color paper or board.

Because a heavy layer of opaque paint can crack if

Using Two Techniques

bent too far, you should paint on heavy board or In sketch D, I take advantage of both techniques. I

mounted paper. brush on a pale blue wet wash for the background and
then use my knife for the stark light trees.

Illustrating their Qualities you work from a dark background to light values
If

with opaque watercolor you can create a strong sense

Your opaque watercolors will work in ways similar to of drama. But don't turn this striking effect into a
your regular watercolors. I've prepared a few sketches painting crutch that keeps you in a rut. To know how
toshow you their essential qualities. In the first (A), I
to achieve certain results is good. But to be a slave to
mounted three strips of dark mat board. Across the one particular technique is deadly. Let common sense
three surfaces brushed one stroke of thick paint, one
I
be your safeguard.
and a third line of thin paint.
of slightly diluted paint, I

am using white and yellow for these brushstrokes. For the demonstration of Opaque WatercoJor on Dark
Directly below them I apply a few strokes with my Paper see the color plates on pages 108-109.

140
A. threp: kinds of dark mat board B. LIGHT WASHES ON WKT BOARD

C. I'AINTINC, KNire ON DRY BOARD D BOTH WET AND DRY TECHNIQUES

141
25. White Paint and Transparent
Watercolor

When you use white paint with transparent water- Covering a Dry Wash
color, you're invalidating, in a sense, the nature of the
In sketch B, I paint the same background area with just
watercolor medium— transparency. And there's only
straight transparent watercolor. I darker
paint it much
one reason to justify doing so. It is creativity. The most
than in sketch A in preparation for a layer of white
commonly used white watercolor in this technique is
wash to be applied on top after it has dried. For this
Chinese white, which is made to complement trans-
procedure I cut a paper mask in a shape that exposes
parent watercolors. However, you may use any fine-
only the distant bay. Then I dip one corner of a wet. 1"
grained white paint with a water base.
flat, soft brush into white paint and spread a thin film

of it over the entire exposed background. The heavily

Materials loaded corner of the brush leaves a thicker layer of
white at the bottom. After it dries this chalky wash
1. Your usual watercolors, brushes, and handmade
acts as a filter, hiding many of the sharp details on the
paper.
boat. I paint the two seagulls with pure white paint on
2. A tube of Chinese white watercolor. a fine brush. I purposely left the wooded area unfin-
ished in order to show you the edge of the white paint
3. One or two other types of water-based white paints.
and how it differs from the value of the wash under-
neath.
Softening with White

The purpose of using white paint with your water- Splattering Opaque White
color is to You can achieve this result
soften the colors.
You can also use white paint very effectively in an-
either by mixing the white into your color wash before
other way— if you're discriminating. White in its
you apply it or by painting a wash of white on top of
opaque form can be splattered on top of a dry painting.
your color wash after it has dried.
In illustration C, I use a bristle brush loaded with a
prepared a limited palette of three colors: (1)
I've
heavy consistency of white paint. hold the brush
I
burnt sienna, (2) Winsor blue, and (3) raw sienna and
about 3" from the painted surface and flick the hair
two greens resulting from a combination of either
several times with my thumb. For the lower, white
sienna with the blue. (See the Limited Palette Chart A
part of the picture, I mix a little blue into the white be-
on page 112. This chart also shows the same color with
fore I splatter again. The result is a reasonable impres-
a thin white wash on top of them after they're dried
sion of falling snow.
and as mixed into a wet wash.)
Let me give you another hint. Don't use opaque
white extensively with transparent watercolor. Limit
Contrasting with Warm Darks it to small areas— dots, lines, small shapes, and so forth.

Used carefully, white should be a happy compromise

One practical example of using a white watercolor is
between transparent and opaque watercolor and
shown in sketch A, where mix it into the misty back-
I
should be difficult to detect on the finished work.
ground. You can see the cooling effect it has on the pig-
ments. This cooling effect contrasts nicely with the For the demonstration of White Paint and Trans-
strong,warm darks on the wood structure in the fore- parent Watercolor see the color plates on pages
ground. Details on the distant boats are just visible. 110-111.

142
A. WHITE PAINT INTO MISTY BACKGROUND

B. WHITE WASH APPLIED OVER DRY WASH

C. WHITE SPATTERING OVER DRY WASH

143
.

26. Watercolor on Prepared Canvas

Let's deal for a moment with a painfully unnatural ap- Coating with Starch
plication of watercolor. Artists are a curious group of
Transparent watercolor is much easier to work with
individuals, and the unusual is almost always an irre-
on a compatible canvas base. In sketch A, I paint on a
sistible challenge. This one's a real dandy for you.
canvas board coated with powdered starch and water
mixed with gum arable. When this surface dries, you'll
Materials find watercolor easy to maneuver, but note that it will
leave brushmarks as you paint similar to those you get
1. Your transparent watercolors, brushes, and a paint-
ing knife.
from a thin oil wash. I've added a little crispness here
with the painting knife. Don't have your paint too wet
2.One or two small pieces of prepared canvas, either on the knife or it will run into the wash around it, just
canvas board or canvas cut and stretched from a roll. as if the surface were wet.
3. One tube or jar of Chinese white or powdered
starch. Using Opaque Watercolor

4. One can of damar varnish. Opaque watercolor adheres better to canvas than does
transparent watercolor, but it covers up the grain of
5. One small bottle of mucilage (gum arable).
the canvas. Presumably, the only reason you would
You must make the surface of your canvas receptive to bother to paint in watercolor on canvas is to take ad-
water. You can do this by painting on white latex wall vantage of its texture. To use opaque watercolor on
paint, acrylic gesso, regular gesso, or ordinary laundry canvas, therefore, would defeat your purpose.
starch I use liquid spray starch. Powdered starch A limited use of opaque paint with transparent col-
mixed with white crumbles after drying on the sur- ors can, however, be an advantage. For the falling
face; if you use powdered starch, therefore, you must snow and for the white hump under the snow fence, I

add 4 drops of gum arable to 1 fluid ounce of starch use opaque sketch B. The pale blue was flicked on with
and water. my bristle brush, but you may use an old toothbrush if
you have one.
Working on Unprepared Canvas
Protecting Your Surface
Just toshow you what happens when you apply water-
color to canvas that has not been made receptive to No matter what method you use for applying water-
water, I've made up a limited palette chart of raw color to canvas, you'll end up with a delicate surface
sienna, Winsor blue, and burnt sienna, both clear and that very vulnerable to humidity and scratches. You
is

with white mixed into them. (See Limited Palette Bon must protect it. If you don't want to cover your surface

page 112.) The greens are a mixture of each brown with glass, spray it with a protective coat. Damar var-
with the blue. Note the tiny holes that showed up as nish is ideal, but remember that it will slightly deepen
the paint dried. They're caused by air bubbles trapped the colors. You can use acrylic sprays, too, but damar
in the grain of the canvas as the wet brush slipped over gives you the toughest finish. Whichever you chose,
them. try it on a scrap of canvas first

Though I've purposely limited this chapter to a dis-

cussion of watercolor on canvas, let me note that
acrylic paints work much better on canvas.

144
A. TRANSPARENT WATERCOLOR ON STARCH BASE

OPAQUE WATERCOLOR ON STARCH BASE

Watercolor on Prepared Canvas

Step 1. (Commercially prepared canvas board.) I wet the surface of the canvas
with clear water. Using a flat, soft 1" brush, I stroke on a soft, windswept sky.
Switching to a bristle brush loaded with concentrated paint, I paint in the
rocks and clumps of grass.

146
ma'^

Step 2. I drybrush on the pebbly foreground.

After the surface dries, give clar-
1

ity to whole composition by adding such details as blades of grass, shad-

the
ows and moss on the rocks, and scattered pebbles among the grass.

147
Step 3. I paint some seagulls above the rocks, using opaque white watercolor
where the sky is dark and using gray watercolor where the sky is light. The
gulls add vertical interest to an otherwise horizontal landscape.

148
27. Watercolor with Paper
and Cardboard Strips

This exercise is a terrific loosener-upper. Crude tools

dictate a simplified procedure. If you decide to paint
unfamiliar subjects, and you feel the need of a fresh
approach, try this watercolor technique— just for fun.

Materials

1. Your transparent watercolors and handmade paper.

2. One firm 1" bristle brush to transfer heavy washes to
a spacious flat surface.

3. heavy cardboard, about V4" to 4" wide and

Strips of
long enough for you to get a good grip. The cardboard
is your painting tool.

Using the Edge

Transfer your paint with a firm brush to a flat, wash-

able surface, such as a dinner plate. Hold your card-
board firmly between your thumb and fingers. Dip the A DRY PAINTING EDGK ON DRY PAPER
edge of your cardboard strip into the pool of color and
you are ready to paint. Drag the painted edge on dry
paper toward your thumb, pressing firmly but evenly.
This scraping action will give you a thin wash, straight
at the starting point, but turning irregular as the board
loses paint.You can create a straight line by just touch-
ing the paper with the freshly dipped edge of your
painting strip. The corner will serve as a simple line-
drawing point. For sketch A, I use one 2", one V2", and
one Wstrip of mat board.

Working on a Dry Surface

For my next illustration I use cold-pressed paper with
a dry surface (B). I lay a wide strip of ordinary writing
paper into a pool of paint, lift it onto my painting sur-
face, and press it down gently with my fingers. Note
the sky texture the paper creates. For the boats, water,
and boardwalk, I use cardboard strips. The masts are
painted with the edges of my cardboard.

Scraping for Values

When you transfer paint with your cardboard strips to

wet paper it will spread and flow as if you had used a B. WET PAINTING EDGE ON DRY PAPER

149
brush. In sketch C, I am using both a wet and dry sur- Adding Details
face—wet for thebackground and dry for the lines in
In my I start with wet paper, adding
last illustration,
the foreground. I scrape off part of the dark wash on
details as thepaper dries (D). I use the corner point of a
the banana leaves while the paint is very damp; in this
strip of cardboard to draw in the swaying palm
way I am able to achieve the light values on the leaves.
branches and the birds.
The scraping technique works best with staining col-
Try many types of paper and cardboard and with a
ors.
variety of cut and torn edges. You'll find this technique
sharpens your power of concentration.

. %-*.

C. SCRAPING A DAMP SURFACE

;j ADDING DETAILS

150
Watercolor with Paper and Cardboard Strips

Step 1. (300 lb. D'Arche's cold-prosscd handmade paper.) I cut up several scrap

pieces of mat board. After dipping one board into a pre-mixed pool of water-
color, I use the board's edge to sketch the dry weeds in the foreground. I use the
same method to outline the trees in the distant forest, smearing the edge
slightly to create the vague blue shadows between the trunks.

151
\^^

Step 2. Next, I outline the larger birch in the foreground, using another, smaller
scrap of board to paint the peeling bark and other details on the trunk.

152
Step 3.break up the sharp horizontal division in the composition by adding
I

trees and weeds to the middleground. Carefully controlling the corner of a new
scrap of board, paint in the scattered leaves and the hint of yellow foliage still
I

left on the trees.

153
28. Water color with Rollers
and Squeegee

The use of rollers with watercolor is also fun. They'll more and you're ready to go again. Next try a rectangu-
further demonstrate the versatility of the medium, too. lar wash by rolling and pressing the cylinder on its
Moreover, rollers will polish your sense of design be- broad side. If you just touch the broad side of the roller
cause of the bold simplicity they offer. You can't get it will leave a heavy swath.

bogged down with details. The limitations of the tools

won't let you. Your design must carry the composition.
Using Both Rollers

I have painted sketch C using both rollers. The sky is

Materials
done with broad sweeps of the hard roller, and for the
1. Your watercolors. texture of the weeds I use the soft corner roller. The
sharp edge of the hard roller is made use of to indicate
2. One firm 1" brush.
the wires and thin weeds over the dark fence posts.
3. Handmade paper.

4. A 3" hard plastic or wooden burnishing roller. Varying the Pressure

5. One soft, narrow wall-paint corner roller. For illustration D the hard roller only is employed. The
6" wide. paper is dry. For the sky I apply gentle pressure to get
6. One rubber squeegee about
the texture. In the lower area I press hard to obtain a
solid coverage of light blue. Into this wet wash I roll
Testing the Soft Roller the light brown and let it blend with the blue. After
Make few impressions with your new painting tools
a these washes dry, I roll on the dark linear definition,
what they'll do. Let's start with the rollers. If
to find out including the birds, with the sharp edge of the roller.
you press lightly on the soft, fluffy corner roller, it will
make an impression on the surface of your paper very Painting with a Squeegee
much like a sponge (A). Press harder and you'll have
what looks like a wash with an irregular, rough edge. For a rubber squeegee you can use the edge of your
The variation and repetition of these roller marks on windshield wiper or a silk-screen squeegee. Dip your
dry or wet paper will give you a good number of tex- squeegee into a pool of watercolor and make an im-
ture combinations. pression on your paper by pressing and pulling the
edge in the same direction several times, partly over-
lapping the strokes (E). You can make fine, straight
Conditioning the Hard Roller
lines with the edge of the rubber blade. And you can
Before you can use a burnishing (hard) roller for paint- gain variation if you make one stroke in one direction

ing, you must condition it. The usually smooth wood and a second stroke crossing over the first.
or plastic surface will repel water, so rub it with fine
sandpaper until the glossy finish turns dull. Now
Removing Surplus Paint
you're ready to test it. With the help of your firm 1"
bristle brush, make a pool of watercolor on a large, flat I have painted the small sketch F with a rubber
surface. You must have enough room to move the squeegee. It shows all these strokes. Pressure on the

roller freely back and forth. Now bathe the roller in rubber edge removes the surplus paint at the top edge
the paint until the entire surface is covered (B). Roll of the water to show a distant horizon line under the
the edge on your paper in a straight line and then curve distant round hills. I've drawn the bird with the corner
it a little. When your roller runs out of paint, pick up of the rubber blade.

154
^I'u
:^/

:\U'' fw^m.

A. CORNER ROLLER B. HARD ROLLER

C. CORNER AND HARD ROLLERS D HARD ROLLER DESIGN

E. SQUEEGEE F. SQUEEGEE DESIGN

155
Watercolor with Rollers and Squeegee

Step 1. (300 lb. D'Arche's cold-pressed handmade paper.) Using liquid latex, I

mask out the ends of the logs. After it wet the bottom edge of the paper
dries, I

and use a soft roller to spread on the base washes for the scruffy grass.

156
r./\*M ^-V'

*' W^

Step 2. After Step 1 dries. I use the same soft roller to establish the dark bark of
the logs and to add definition to the grass.

157
Step 3. After removing the latex masks, I paint the exposed ends pale orange.
Using the corner of a rubber squeegee and light brown opaque watercolor, I
outline the growth rings on the ends and the bark on the trunks. These details
add crispness to the whole composition.

158
29. Using Oil Paint Washes
as Watercolor

One of the most practical reasons for a watercolor

painter to reach for his oil paint is cold weather. Paint-
ing with oils diluted with turpentine is similar to
painting with watercolor. Their advantage is that you
can paint with them on location in sub-zero weather-
when your watercolor will freeze if you don't.

Materials

1.Small tubes of oil paints: cadmium yellow pale, raw

sienna, burnt sienna, Prussian blue, and titanium
white are sufficient.

2. Two firm nylon brushes. Those made for acrylic are

particularly suitable.

3. One 2" wide wetting brush.

4. Two sheets of high-quality rag paper. The same kind A. OIL WASHKS
you use for watercolor is fine.

5. A bottle of turpentine and a small cup to hold it in. Using a Turpentine Wash
6. One mixing palette. For the next exercise, brush your painting surface
with a rich wash of turpentine until it looks wet. If you
7. A roll of toilet tissue.
paint into this surface with a soft brush you'll get a
For experimenting— and painting— with oil washes, slight spreading effect— as in the sky of sketch B. For
you can use the thinnest paper available because tur- my illustration, I splatter clean water on the dry paper
pentine, unlike water, won't cause the paper to buckle. first. let it soak in for a couple of minutes while
I get I

Like water, however, turpentine is transparent and my blue-gray oil-and-turpentine wash ready. With a
colorless, and it will dry just as completely. Though it tissue up the surplus water beads and immedi-
I blot
dries as fast as water to the touch, turpentine takes ately slap on first a wash of turpentine and then my oil-
about a day to become altogether dry. It doesn't matter and-turpentinc dark color. Where the water spots re-
what type of brush you use with oil and turpentine as main, the turpentine wash is repelled. This procedure
long as the oil paint is well diluted to resemble a pool must be executed very quickly, while the surface of
of watercolor wash. Don't leave chunks of thick, un- the dampened spots is still wet enough to reject the
dissolved paint on your brush. oily wash.
After the first wet wash, 1 paint the rest of the softer

Experimenting for Values details with a smaller brush. As the paper is drying I
add more of the finer details. I paint the little weeds
Now try a little painting experiment on dry paper. last with a small, soft-haired brush.
Keep the paint fresh and free flowing. In my sketch A, I

have painted a simple design to show you how light

Working on Dry Paper
and how dark your values can be with thin, dissolved
oil washes. The better your quality of paint, the more For a better illustration of the water-masking tech-
transparent your washes will stay because the pig- nique. I've waterbrushed the shape of the sign and the
ments are ground finer. post (C). For a clearer result, I do not paint on a clear

159
turpentine wash. Instead, I apply the blue oil-turpen-
tine wash directly to the dry paper after blotting
up the
surplus water. The shape of the sign and post survives
almost pure white. Later I paint the warm brown color
on the sign to make it look like wood. The drybrush
strokes hinting about a blizzard are next and the little

weeds last.

Painting Light on Dark

If you're careful you can paint a light color on top of a

dark wash (D). You can do by mixing your light
this
color just a little you did for the wash and
thicker than
by applying it when the paper is no longer dripping
wet. You can use a soft brush because the paint should
still be thin enough for easy handling.
One more characteristic of the oil-turpentine wash
technique is that your colors, unlike watercolor, do not
B, OIL-AND-TURPENTINE WASH
dry darker. They'll keep their value. The only excep-
tion to this rule occurs when you paint thin light
washes on top of dark. A little practice with oil paint
washes will tell you a great deal about the nature of
this exciting technique.

C. WATER-MASKING

D. LIGHT COLOR ON DARK WASH

160
Using Oil Paint Washes as Watercolor

Step 1, (High-quality watercolor paper.) I soak the paper with turpentine. Us-
ing a bristle brush, I stroke in a background of soft, undefined vegetation. I

paint my focal point, the spruce branch, and add some colorful dry leaves on
the ground.

ifil
Step 2. As the paper starts to dry,
I add further details such as more leaves and
the woody spine of the spruce branch.

162
Step 3. For a finishing touch, I paint the fallen red leaf caught in the branch.

163
30. Watercolor on Plaster

Plaster has a porous, smooth-textured surface— ideal Applying Strokes Quickly

for water-based paints. The achieved from ap-
result,
plying watercolor to plaster, can easily resemble a gen-
1 am now ready to proceed with my painting. I use my
regular transparent watercolors and soft brushes with
uine fresco. I want to explain the watercolor-on-plas-
good points. Because the watercolor soaks into the
ter technique to you in case you ever have the
porous plaster immediately, I apply each brushstroke
opportunity— a challenging one— to work on a wall sur-
very quickly (C). For the white snow on the branches, I
face.
scrape off the painted plaster with a pocketknife blade
after the paint is dry.
Materials (for practice)

1. Your usual watercolors and brushes. Adding a Few Hints

2. A %" piece of 12" x 16" Masonite or any other board I would like to add a few general hints about the wa-
with a coarse surface. tercolor-on-plaster technique. Because the water is

soaked into the plaster as soon as it hits it, you can't

3. About 2 lbs. of plaster of paris. To paint on a plaster
blend colors together on the surface so don't try. Each
wall you must prepare your colors in volume. For this
brushstroke survives as it touches the plaster surface.
the best materials are dry pigments for color and ca-
Colors lose a lot of their strength because much of
sein painting medium for a binder.
the pigment is quickly absorbed below the surface.
You can check how deeply the pigment seeps in by
Preparing Your Surface scraping off the surface. You'll have to remove three
Because your watercolors behave so differently on layers or so of plaster before it will be white.
If you paint on a wall surface that is now new, wash
plaster, you should prepare yourself a small surface to
it down with a vinegar solution (Vs vinegar, % water).
practice on. This is how I do it: I pick a piece of %" Ma-
sonite board and place it on a table with the reverse The solution will remove any grease from the plaster.
(coarse) side up. I make a crude receptacle of mat-
board pieces and tape them to the Masonite with Using Casein Tempera
double-sided masking tape, leaving a center section
exposed (A). I then mix a cup of plaster runny enough
To maintain a consistent painting quality on large
walls, and for economic reasons, you should use ca-
to pour into the center space surrounded by the mat
sein tempera. You can mix your paint in jars or as you
board. I let the liquid plaster flow naturally to the
advance with the painting. Buy pure pigments (colors)
edges. You could use a wide squeegee to flatten the
in jars and mix them with prepared casein painting
surface completely. I choose to leave it uneven.
medium. This casein tempera mixture will behave
very much like transparent watercolor when you ap-
Simulating a Wall ply it, but the colors will have a greater tendency to
I let the plaster set and dry overnight. The next day I
stay on the surface and you'll find they'll survive bet-

remove the cardboard and my plaster surface is ready ter.

to paint on (B). It is as thick as the mat boards that had

surrounded it. The thickness is unimportant as long as
you have enough body to the plaster to simulate a wall
surface.

164
A. PREPARING THE PLASTER

B. YOUR PLASTER "WALL" READY FOR PAINTING

mimiM

C PAINTING ON PLASTER

165
Watercolor on Plaster

Step 1.(A slab of plaster with a coarse surface.) Using a soft 1" brush, I estab-
lish the basic texture of weatherbeaten wood. Because the paint soaks in very
fast, I slap on each drybrush stroke very rapidly.

166
Step 2. I add more detail to the wood grain and paint the axe marks as well as
the large cracks on the old wood.

167
Step 3. 1 scrape off the wood texture where I intend to put the rusty nail. In the
exposed white space, I paint the nail and then add its shadow right on top of
the nearby wood texture. The result is quite believable.

168
Bibliography

Blake, Wendon. Acrylic Watercolor Painting. New O'Hara, Eliot. Watercolor with O'Hara. New York:
York: Watson-Guptill, 1970. Putnam, 1966.

.Complete Guide to Acrylic Painting. New York: Pellew, lohn C. Painting in Watercolor. New York:
Watson-Guptill, 1971. Watson-Guptill, 1970.

Brandt, Rex. Watercolor Technique, 6th ed., revised. Pike, John. WatercoJor. New York: Watson-Guptill,
New York: Reinhold, 1963. 1973.

.The Winning Ways of Watercolor. New York: Reid, Charles. Figure Painting in Watercolor. New
Reinhold, 1973. York: Watson-Guptill, 1972.

Guptill, Arthur, edited by Susan E. Meyer. Watercolor .Portrait Painting in Watercolor. New York:
Painting Step-by-Step. New York: Watson-Guptill, Watson-Guptill, 1973.
1967.
Schmalz, Carl. Watercolor Lessons from Eliot O'Hara.
Kautzky, Ted. Painting Trees and Landscape in Wa- New York: Watson-Guptill, 1974.
tercolor. New York: Reinhold, 1952.
Whitney, Edgar A. Complete Guide to Watercolor
.Ways with Watercolor, 2nd ed. New York: Rein- Painting. New York: Watson-Guptill, 1965.
hold, 1963.

Kent, Norman, edited by Susan E. Meyer. 100 Water-

color Techniques. New York: Watson-Guptill, 1968.

171
Index

Accident, starting with a deliberate, 11-16 {demon- on plaster, 166-168; watercolor on prepared canvas,
strated, 14-16) 146-148; watercolor with hard bristle brushes,
Acrylic paint: as opaque paint, 36; using as watercolor, 133-135; watercolor with rollers and squeegee,
35-39 (demonstrated, 37-39); drying time of, 35; 156-158
"glazing" with, 36; overpainting with, 35; wet-in- Demonstrations (color): aquagraph prints, 94-95; de-
wet, 36; with watercolor, 116 liberate backruns, 86-87; liquid dyes and colored
Acrylic sprays with watercolor, 59 inks, 106-107;mixed media, 96-97; opaque water-
Aquagraph prints, 113-114 (demonstrated, 95-95) color on dark paper, 108-109; salt and sand, 84-85;
Aquapasto, 116 soap with watercolor, 100-101; sponge with water-
color, 90-91; starch and watercolor, 88-89; trans-
Backruns: deliberate, 50-51 (demonstrated, 86-87); parent and opaque watercolor, 82-83; wash and line,
shaping, 50; timing, 50; using different colors in, 50; 104-105; watercolor and Japanese papers, 92-93; wa-
using different papers with, 50 tercolor on smooth jjaper, 98-99; watercolor on
Black and white added to opaque watercolor, 28 translucent materials. 102-103; white paint and
Boards, dark mat; painting on dry, 140; with opaque transparent watercolor, 110-111
watercolor, 140; working on wet, 140 Diluted paint on wet paper, 17
Brush, slanted-edge: brushstrokes with, 131; scrubbing Drying characteristics of opaque colors. 29
with, 131-132 Dyes: liquid, and colored inks, 138-139 (demonstrated,
Brushes bristle, watercolor with, 131-135 (demon- 106-107); transparency of, 138
strated, 133-135)

wash technique, 23-27

Graphite, dust, 23-24; sticks, 24;
Canvas: opaque watercolor on, 144; prepared, water- (demonstrated, 23-25); wet-in-wet, 24
color on, 144-148 (demonstrated, 146-148); prepar-
ing the surface of, 144; transparent watercolor on,
Impressing real objects into watercolor, 52-58 (demon-
144; working on unprepared, 144
strated, 56-58)
Cardboard: painting on dry paper with, 149; painting
Impressions: brush handle, 52, 124; fabric, 124; leaf, 52;
on wet paper with, 149-150; painting with the edge
on different kinds of papers, 52; sponge, 69; tissue, 52
of, 149; strips, watercolor with paper and, 149-153
Inks: colored, liquid dyes and, 138-139 (demonstrated,
(demonstrated, 151-153)
106-107); mixing and blending, 138
Casein tempera, 115
lyo (paper), 74-75
Collage, watercolor. 124-130 (demonstrated, 128-130)

Japanese papers, 74-79: lyo, 74-75; Kitakata, 11\ Musa,

Dark paper, opaque watercolor on, 140-141 (demon-
7b-77\ Okawara, 77\ Sumie-e, 77\ watercolor and.
strated, 108-109)
74-79 (demonstrated, 92-93); Yok. 77
Deliberate accident, starting with a, 11-16 (demon-
strated, 14-16)
Deliberate backruns, 50-51 (demonstrated, 86-87) Kitakata (paper), 77

Demonstrations (black and white): acrylic paint as wa-

tercolor, 37-39; deliberate accident, 14-16; graphite Line, wash and, 136-137 (demonstrated, 104-105)
wash technique, 25-27; impressing objects into wa-
tercolor, 56-58; oil paint washes as watercolor, Masking: with paper. 124. 132; with soap. 119; with wa-
161-163; opaque watercolor, 30-32; painting knife ter, 159-160

with watercolor, 44-46; painting on wet paper, Mixed media, 115-116 (demonstrated, 96-97)
20-22; turpentine and spray fixitives with water- Musa (paper), 75-77
color, 63-65; watercolor collage, 128-130; watercolor Mylar, 123

173
Objects, real, impressing into watercolor, 52-58 (dem- Slanted-edge brush: brushstrokes, 131; scrubbing with,
onstrated, 56-58) 131-132
Oil paint washes as watercolor, 159-163 (demon- Smooth paper: characteristics of, 117; dry, 117; paint-
strated, 161-163) ing knife on, 117-118; watercolor on, 117-118 (dem-
Okawara (paper), 71 onstrated, 98-99); wet, 117
Opaque watercolor(s): adding white and black to, Soap: masking with, 119; washes, 119; with watercolor,
28-29; drying characteristics of, 29; mixing light and 119-121 (demonstrated, 100-101)
dark, 29; mixing transparent and, 34; on dark paper, Solvents, using. See graphite wash technique.
140-141 (demonstrated, 108-109); over transparent Sponge(s): and watercolor, 69-73 (demonstrated,
washes, 33-34; with transparent watercolors, 33-34 90-91); blotting with, 69; impressions, 69; types of, 69
(demonstrated, 82-83); using, 28-32 (demonstrated, Spray(s): acrylic, 59; fixitives with watercolor, turpen-
30-32) tine and, 59-65 (demonstrated, 63-65); starch, 68
Squeegee, watercolor with rollers and, 154-158 (dem-
onstrated, 156-158)
Painting knife: creating texture with, 40; drybrush ef-
Starch: and watercolor, 66-68 (demonstrated, 88-89):
fect with, 43; drawing lines with, 137; with water-
spray, 68; paste, 66; wash, 66
color, 40-46 (demonstrated, 44-46); how to hold, 40;
painting trees with, 42-43
Sumie-e (paper), 71
Surface(s), painting: horizontal, 17; tilted, 17-18
Painting on wet paper, 17-22 (demonstrated, 20-22)
Paper(s): and cardboard strips, watercolor with,
Tissue: impressions, 52; rolling wet, 11
149-153 (demonstrated, 151-153); dark, opaque wa-
Transferring paint, 125
tercolor on, 140-141 (demonstrated, 108-109); Japa-
Translucent materials, watercolor on, 122-123 (dem-
nese, 74-79; smooth, watercolor on, 117-118 (demon-
17-22 onstrated, 102-103)
strated, 98-99); wet, painting on,
Transparent and opaque watercolors together, using,
(demonstrated, 20-22)
33-34 (demonstrated, 82-83)
Pastels with watercolor, 115
Transparent papers: characteristics of, 123; using both
Pen nib,drawing lines with, 136
sides of, 122-123
Plaster: casein tempera on, 164; preparing the surface
Transparent watercolor, white paint and, 142-143
of, 164; watercolor on, 164-168 (demonstrated,
(demonstrated, 110-111)
166-168)
Turpentine: and spray fixitives with watercolor, 59-65
Prepared canvas, watercolor on, 144-148 (demon-
(demonstrated, 63-65); mixed with watercolor, 59
strated, 146-148)

Varnish with watercolor, 59

Removing Paint, 124
Retouching a dry painting, 19 Wash(es): and line, 136-139 (demonstrated, 104-105);
Rollers: and squeegee, watercolor with, 154-158 (dem-
graphite, 23-27; oil paint, 159-160; soap, 119; starch,
onstrated, 156-158); hard, 154; painting with, 66; turpentine, 59
154-155; soft, 154 Wet paper, painting on, 17-22 (demonstrated, 20-22)
White: and black added to opaque colors, 28; contrast-
Salt: and sand, using, 47-49 (demonstrated, 84-85); ing dark colors with, 142; covering a dry wash with,
"stars," 47 142, and transparent watercolor, 142-143 (demon-
Sand: creating texture with, 47; using salt and, 47-49 strated, 110-111); softening colors with, 142; spatter-
(demonstrated, 84-85) ing with, 142
Scratching: accidental, 18; creative, 19
Scrubbing with a slanted-edge brush, 131 Yok (paper), 11

174
Edited by Claire Hardiman
Designed by Robert Fillie
Printed and bound by Halliday Lithograph Corporation
Color printed by Sterling Lithograph
BOSTON PUBLIC LlBRf«J„

9
3 9999 00729 330

Boston Public Library

DtDLEY STREET
BRANCH LIBRARY
NC2A2C
,SS2

2242fc713A2

The Date Due Card in the pocket indi-

cates the date on or before which this

book should be returned to the Library.

Please do not remove cards from this

pocket.