Watercolor Painting for Dummies (20 page)
Read Watercolor Painting for Dummies Online
Authors: Colette Pitcher
Tags: #Art, #Techniques, #Watercolor Painting, #General
You can use a number of tricks to create some unexpected textures. It’s one of the endearing qualities of watercolor. Have an experimental attitude and you’ll make many fun discoveries. Many of the techniques in this section are like revealing surprises and presents at a birthday party. Most techniques are deceptively easy and quick. Not knowing the secrets, your audience will marvel at how difficult it was to complete your painting and how long it must have taken!
These texture techniques can add interest to an otherwise bland area, or they can create the illusion of depth. You may or may not want to use all your tricks in one painting.
The magic time for making these tricks and techniques work successfully is to do them just as the paint shine is about to leave the paper. You don’t want puddles of wetness or areas that are too dry. Shiny damp is perfect. The other challenge is even wetness. Things will work only in the damp area. If you have some areas in your painting that are damp, some wet, some dry, you’ll have a variety of effects too.
A little table salt sprinkled on damp paint creates a delicate flower-like spot. Each crystal of salt chases away the pigment to make a lighter area beneath it. You can use this texture to create a field of flowers, snow, or leaves on a tree. It also creates interest in a background or foreground where not much else is going on.
Figure 4-3 demonstrates the beauty that simple table salt can produce.
Figure 4-3:
The surprisingly delicate effect of table salt.
Using salt is an experimental technique. Salt doesn’t always work like you hope it will. It involves a formula of the right pigment at the correct dampness, and the paper and air to dry at the proper moment. Sometimes you just can’t predict what to expect, and that’s half the fun. But if you use the following steps, you should get an interesting result from salt. Cross your fingers and practice.
Try salt for some texture:
1.
Get a piece of 5-x-7-inch watercolor paper and wet it with clear water.
2.
Place the painting on a flat surface, and paint the area where you want to use the salt.
A variety of colors lets you see which colors work better with salt.
3.
Wait for the magic time when the paint is damp and shiny.
If the paint is dry, this technique won’t work. If the paper has puddles, pour them off or absorb the excess water with a paper towel corner.
4.
Add the salt.
Less is more. Take a small pinch of salt in your fingers and sprinkle a few grains rather than dumping a whole shaker on your painting.
5.
Let the painting dry without disturbing the salt.
6.
Brush away the salt after the paint dries.
If you apply the salt too thickly or add it when the paint is too wet, it tends to stick and not brush off when dry. The salt won’t hurt the painting, but it will give it some real texture and a little crystal sparkle.
Watercolorists become sponge connoisseurs. You already should have a cellulose sponge beside your water container to help you control the water (I talk about essential supplies in Chapter 2). You can also use a variety of natural sponges to apply paint or lift it off the paper. Figure 4-4 shows some of the sponges you can use to create fun effects.
Figure 4-4:
A squeeze of sponges.
A.
Cellulose sponges
are good for soaking up liquid, cleaning palettes, squeezing water onto dry pigments, and stamping sponge texture.
B. A
natural sea sponge
has a variety of hole sizes and can be a quick way to make foliage.
To make foliage, tap a damp sponge into paint on your palette. Choose several colors to load onto the sponge. Lightly tap the paper with the sponge to apply the paint. Repeat the tapping, turning your hand to make different patterns and shapes. Reload the sponge as needed. For a softer effect, spray water onto the colors while wet.
You can also use this sponge to layer colors. Apply one color of paint, let that layer dry, then apply a second layer over the top. Continue until you are happy with the result.
C. An
elephant ear sponge
is shaped like its namesake and usually is quite thin. You can wad up this sponge to apply paint and create a cool texture.
You can also use it to lift out clouds in a sky. Apply a sky color to your paper, say blue. Before the paint dries, take a dampened elephant ear sponge and blot up some of the blue paint. Turn your hand so the sponge makes different patterns. You are simulating clouds.
D. A
sponge on a stick
isn’t some new, deep-fried county fair concoction. It’s a sponge attached to a handle like a brush. A round sponge attached to a wooden handle is great to make circles quickly. Because these brushes come in a variety of sizes, you can use them to make everything from a bunch of grapes to a whole solar system. Try putting different colors on each side of the sponge and twisting it. Fast food! I made the grapes in Figure 4-4 by dipping one side of the round sponge in purple and the other side in green, stamping the brush onto the paper, then twisting to make the circle.
E.
Specialty shaped sponges
come in animal shapes, alphabets, cowboy boots, you name it. Put the sponge in the watercolor and use it like a stamp to make a quick image.
Here’s a great way to recycle all those plastic grocery bags. Actually any plastic will work: dry cleaning bags, kitchen food wrap, newspaper sleeves, and so on. The plastic is crumpled and pushed into wet paint. After the paint dries, the plastic is removed and leaves behind lighter areas and a textural pattern. This technique makes great texture for rocks and mountains. It can also be fun to just enjoy the interesting textures.
To use plastic in your painting, follow these steps:
1.
Tear or cut the plastic into a manageable piece and wad it up.
If you’re cutting sheets, about 6 inches square is a good size. Don’t be too precise — anything will work.
2.
Wet your watercolor paper and paint some colors onto the surface using a 1/2-inch flat brush.
You get to choose the colors. If you’re unsure of what might look good, try using three colors that are next to each other on the color wheel (analogous colors). Make the colors fairly dark and intense while still being transparent. The plastic will lift off some color so the paint will become lighter when it dries. If you use pale colors, the result will be subtle but still effective.
3.
Set the wadded plastic on damp paint applied to your paper.
The paint must be damp to make this work. Don’t bother applying plastic to any areas that are dry because nothing will happen.
You can manipulate the plastic on the paper. Use your fingers to pull it around until you like the shape. If you use clear plastic, you can see what’s happening. The plastic wrap makes a shape where it touches the paint. The paint is darker where the plastic is crinkled and doesn’t touch the paper. You want lots of crinkles for texture. Let some plastic touch and some plastic not touch to create little shapes all over. You can form leaf shapes or creases where you might want a rock. Or you can just put the plastic down at random. If the plastic won’t stay in contact with the paper, set something like a can or bottle on it to weight it down.
4.
Leave the plastic on the paper until the paint dries, then lift it off.
It takes a while for the paint to dry; after all, you covered it in plastic! The plastic leaves a shape behind wherever it touched the paper.
Figure 4-5a shows some plastic wrap textures. Check out the little circles on the top — recognize bubble wrap? Figure 4-5b was created by painting over some of the shapes again with another layer of darker paint.
Figure 4-5:
Close up textures from various types of plastic wrap and an abstract painting using the plastic technique.
