Watercolour

the watercolour is a pictorial technical using, following the example Lavis, water as medium but by the use of Couleur S. It is different from it generally applies to thick paper. One of its principal properties is the transparency. One of its main advantages being speed of execution. One of its principal disadvantages is the difficulty.

Description

One generally finds the watercolour in the form of pastilles (cups, half-cups) or of tubes, but also of pencils called pencils aquarellables.

The watercolour is made up:

Of a Binder, mainly the Gum arabic, generally resulting from the Sap of Acacia or sometimes of Cherry tree. The binder is sometimes mixed with Miel or glycerin in order to prevent that it does not harden.
Of Pigment S of origin Mineral E or organic (synthetic or natural), which is generally the same ones as those used for the other techniques (acrylic Peinture, Gouache, Oil-base paint or Pastel).

Other elements can use its composition to improve its qualities of dilution.

The tubes of watercolour contain the same product exactly as the cups. It is thus possible to fill the cups emptied with tubes, cheaper, those will harden while drying. It is however recommended to proceed in several layers.

Applications

The watercolour is used according to the technique of the Lavis, i.e. diluted with more or less of Eau, more or less giving him transparency, and various effects according to paper.

The watercolour lends itself well to work Esquisse and the notebooks of voyage, as the famous notebooks of Eugene Delacroix show it because easily transportable, it makes it possible to quickly assemble color a beforehand crunched image with the pencil or the Indian ink. (Attention ink in refill of the pens feathers is not Indian ink and is diluted in water after drying).

The watercolour is however also used for paintings very thorough and very long to implement, like one shown Albrecht Dürer, William Turner, Jean-Baptiste Isabey and so much of others.

Since the 19th century and still today, it is one of the techniques most used in the Illustration S, it meets for example a great success in the books for youth, in particular for the possibility of softness of its treatments.

The watercolour also is very much used for the realization of decorations of cartoons in traditional animation.

Its simplicity connects in fact a tool very attracting for the beginners but the real difficulty (very little possibility of repentance, as with the Lavis) does of them one of the techniques most difficult to control and can very quickly weary them.

History

Prehistory and Antiquity

The Cave painting which one can still nowadays observe in different Caverne S around the world, is certainly the first trace of watercolour, the binder was there generally the Salive of the painter and the pigments limited to Ocre and Noir.

In Egypt the watercolour is used since at least -1250, it was used to cover the walls in the Pyramide S with the Pharaon S.

In the Chinese Civilization, the watercolour is appreciably related to the invention of the Papier approximately 2000 years ago.

The Middle Ages and rebirth

One finds the use of the watercolour during the Moyen-âge in East Africa and all the Asia of the the Middle East to the the Far East (where it will be often mixed with the Lavis) while passing by the Central Asia, as in Iran where the Iranian art left many watercolours.

It will also accompany art by the Enluminure in Occident.

In occident, Albrecht Dürer (1471 - 1528) is certainly one of the first large Masters of the watercolour, it will develop it with a large smoothness, often mixed with Encre and Gouache.

The Miniature S and the Portrait S will be two elements very much used in the development of the watercolour.

The ease of transport of the watercolour will make it possible to represent the discoveries of the Nouveau world then Western colony S.

Technique

Various tools

The principal tool is, obviously, the Pinceau with watercolour, but one can also use other brushes (those Ci must be able to contain a great quantity of water which one calls the tank), of the sponge S, the Coton, the Chiffon S, or even a Brosse with tooth to project droplets. For work in workshop on large sizes, one can sometimes use the aerographer.

The brush with watercolour

Like his/her cousin, the Brush with washing Chinese, the brush with watercolour forms a cone when it is wet and used good manners. It also allows like that Ci to obtain from a gesture an active feature of very fine with very thick with a little usually. It generally consists of hairs of Small-gray or sometimes of Poney (best and thus the more expensive consist of hairs of marten kolinski).

See the article brush with watercolour.

The support

The support is often paper with watercolour.

Paper with watercolour is generally:

a blank paper or clear because in pure watercolour, work is generally by darkening.
(at least 200g/m ²) for a good behavior with humidification.
Absorbent in order to prevent that the pigments are spread on the sheet with a too great loss of control.
Textured, the Texture of paper remaining very visible in finished work, and influencing the deposit of the pigments.

Texture can be granulous or more Textile, it will influence the behavior of the pigments during the demounting of those paper, thus influencing largely the so typical final effect textured with the watercolour.

Preparation of paper

There exist several manners of working with the watercolour:

on dry or wet paper,
with watercolour or pencil aquarellable,

but it is very important to have a paper tended after humidification to prevent that it gondole. Hollows in paper would more concentrate the pigments which the bumps, that would reduce control by the painter in watercolours of the properties of the medium.

It is thus necessary initially to humidify paper using a sponge on the two with dimensions ones, then to tend on a board preferably out of rough wooden (nonvarnished) using bands of kraft gummed. This makes it possible to prevent that paper gondole.

In the case of the pencils aquarellables which apply sometimes dry before being diluted, it is necessary to let paper dry (time of drying more or less of an hour).

Application

The Lumière is expressed by the Blanc Papier which one always starts by preserving. It is possible for that to apply gums of reserve, which are generally presented in the form of liquid blanchâtre conditioned out of bottle.

One of the main features of the watercolour is the transparency of the Couleur.

There is several way of working; to start, it is often better to work by successive stages, of Couleur S very diluted by increasing the concentration of color gradually, but not to use that this technique amounts being deprived of the infinite possibilities suggested by the watercolour.

It is possible to take many Pigment S with a very wet Pinceau, in order to obtain surfaces with the very intense colors. It will be then possible to also mix by “fusion” the colors by adding to it one second color in a mixture where water and the pigments are important in order to obtain various effects of matters (Nervure S, Nuage S, Dégradé S…).

When the brush is very charged out of water, the transparency and possibility of fusion are higher, but the precision is some decreased.

On a good paper with watercolour, the color will remain captive of the wet surface on which the brush will have passed. If the brush crosses an already wet zone, the pigments have all the chances to be spread there.

The wetland will generally form a light aureole with more opaque contour and, on the contrary, at the interior zone near to this contour more transparent.

It is one of the techniques which requires the most dexterity, for certain techniques of speed and more generally of comprehension of the theory of the colors and the effects of the interaction of the mixtures between them and with the support according to their component.

A watercolour can accept only few repentances and final improvements: it is difficult to clear up a zone if one wants to preserve the freshness and the spontaneousness of the technique of the watercolour. It also should be known that the watercolour clears up while drying and to hold account lasting of it work.

See too

Canadian Company painters in watercolour

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