Often it is said that watercolor painting is not for everyone. Even with advanced watercolor techniques, it is still a scary and a hard to handle medium. Watercolor streaks, leaks, create a mess, unpredictable and impossible to change once the color is applied and to top it, watercolor buckles the paper. Nothing is farther from the truth. Watercolor is a challenging medium. That much could be said but difficult? No.
This is how it starts. It all starts with the manner at how things are approached. Unlike other mediums, the beauty of the watercolor is its unpredictability. With it go the uniqueness and the surprise. That is why no two watercolor paintings are totally alike. Other mediums could be manipulated and tweaked by the artist for the most part. With watercolor, the artist typically goes where the water goes. Manipulations are done but the water generally dictates the phase, and then he proceeds to create art that are totally different from those that preceded it.
Do not let the moment pass. To put it another way, watercolor painting is something like jazz music. You will jam and create music this moment and if the spirit hits you, you will never be able to replicate the same music a second time, similar maybe but not quite. As with jazz, when working with watercolor, you go with the flow. It could be tweaked yes, redirected yes, but the water and the pigment will not wait. Once the moment and the creative eye escape you, it escapes forever, or you anticipate another one because usually it does.
Let Loose. The best artworks ever created by man are those whose final results are not totally anticipated. Of course there is always the general idea. The final outcome is an idea too. But to be fixated on a final outcome is to create art that is too rigid and too frozen. The best poets and writers will tell you anytime that to write well is to start with an idea and then let the characters do the job and keep on writing what hits you at the moment. Use less of your brain and think with your guts. That way unexpected results happen. Beautiful results, because art is an emotional thing. Masterpieces were done that way. In watercolor it is the same thing if not more so.
But first you must work. It is the knowing and mastering of the rules first that will enable you to break the rules with appropriateness and masterful art. It is the constant practice. Masters of the art developed the passion not because the passion was always there. It is the constant desire to create better that immersed them in the discipline that made them good. When the time spent is sufficient, the eye and the hand coordinate more freely that judgments in proportions, colors, and styles are developed.
Watercolor painting like all mediums of art has its own challenges and difficulties. But with the mastery come the reward and the satisfaction that always happen sooner if not later. Watercolor a hard medium? Not actually just different.
Brushes are made from nylon, animal hairs, and other synthetic hairs that approximate the characteristics of natural hairs. Watercolor is a transparent medium and is not as viscous as acrylic paints and oils. Watercolor for best application will need brushes that could hold the liquid more. For this reason, watercolor brushes preferred by artists on this medium prefer bristles that are softer with denser tuft. Although recent application of technology made possible the designing of brushes that simulates the behavior of hair on water, natural hairs are still preferred.
Brush choices vary from one artist to the other. This is largely defined by the personal style and the genre that the artist is working on. All artists have their own work tools and discipline and may come up with entire works using only two or three brushes. There are however general purpose brushes that have to be included in the artists tools these are:
Round brushes - These are the most common brushes used for many different applications. Round brushes are rounded at the ferule tapering as the tuft reaches the tip. A #4 round brush is good for detailing and dry brushing while the #8 round brushes are good for wider lines and washes.
Flat brushes – are composed of tufts flattened at the ferrule. The tuft appears rectangular with a perfect edge. The variety of flat brushes are the "bright" mostly used as one stroke brushes that will form a uniform line width and the wash brushes that is similar in appearance to the house brushes. Wash brushes are used to paint wide areas as the brush could hold water more.
Mops –Mops are usually made from hairs of squirrels and tied with copper at the ferrule. Since these brushes are made from animal hairs only, mops could carry huge quantity of watercolor for their size and are best used for wet on wet watercolor painting. A size #12 mop is a must have as they are excellent at washes and wicking.
Filbert – filberts too are made only from animal hairs. It is shaped like a cats tongue with a straight flat edge rounded off at the tips. Filberts are for special shapes and special brush strokes.
Fan – these are flat brushes that are narrow near the ferrule and flays out like a fan. Whether made from animal hairs, nylon or synthetic hairs, fans are handy at hatching, texturing and painting irregular lines.
Acrylic – This a flat brush made from nylons beveled at the tips. Its main purpose is for scraping and scouring. Acrylic brushes are also handy at scrubbing the paints before lifting it from the paper. Size ½" acrylic brushes are also used for mixing and dissolving paints.
Round brushes are normally designated by numbers ranging from 0 to 24, while other brushes are designated by its width. Different manufacturers use different methods at sizing their brushes. The idea though is to have different watercolor brush sizes to best cover every application that you would need and select from there your favorite tool.
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