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Watercolor painting

For other uses, see Watercolor (disambiguation).
"Aquarelle" redirects here. For other uses, see Aquarelle (disambiguation).

An artist working on a watercolor using a round brush
Love's Messenger, an 1885 watercolor and tempera by Marie Spartali Stillman

Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also aquarelle (French: [akwaʁɛl]; from Italian diminutive of Latin aqua 'water'),[1] is a painting method[2] in which the paints are made of pigments suspended in a water-based[3] solution. Watercolor refers to both the medium and the resulting artwork. Aquarelles painted with water-soluble colored ink instead of modern water colors are called aquarellum atramento (Latin for "aquarelle made with ink") by experts. However, this term has now tended to pass out of use.[4][5]

The conventional and most common support—material to which the paint is applied—for watercolor paintings is watercolor paper. Other supports or substrates include stone, ivory, silk, reed, papyrus, bark papers, plastics, vellum, leather, fabric, wood, and watercolor canvas (coated with a gesso that is specially formulated for use with watercolors). Watercolor paper is often made entirely or partially with cotton.[6][7] This gives the surface the appropriate texture and minimizes distortion when wet.[8] Watercolor papers are usually cold-pressed papers that provide better texture and appearance with a weight at least 300 gsm (140 lb). Under 300 gsm (140 lb) is commonly not recommended for anything but sketching.[9][10] Transparency is the main characteristic of watercolors.[11] Watercolors can also be made opaque by adding Chinese white. This is not a method to be used in "true watercolor" (traditional).[12]

Watercolor paint is an ancient form of painting, if not the most ancient form of art itself.[2] In East Asia, watercolor painting[13] with inks is referred to as brush painting or scroll painting. In Chinese, Korean and Japanese painting[14] it has been the dominant medium, often in monochrome black or browns, often using inkstick or other pigments. India, Ethiopia and other countries have long watercolor painting traditions as well.

Many Western artists, especially in the early 19th century, used watercolor primarily as a sketching tool in preparation for the "finished" work in oil or engraving.[15] Until the end of the eighteenth century, traditional watercolors were known as 'tinted drawings'.[16]

  1. ^ "aquarelle". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  2. ^ a b "Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to the Stone Age when early ancestors combined earth and charcoal with water to create the first wet-on-dry picture on a cave wall." London (2021, p. 19)
  3. ^ "Ancient Egyptians used water-soluble translucent paints to decorate papyrus scrolls. They used such earth pigments as ochres and siennas, as well as minerals like reds, cinnabar, blue azure, green malachite, and so on, with gum arabic and egg white. Technically, these water-soluble colors were watercolors." London (2021, p. 19)
  4. ^ Ling (1991)
  5. ^ Waterhouse (1994)
  6. ^ "100% cotton papers are more absorbent in most brands, but there are papers that have only 50% cotton or even high quality papers, which have no blending with cotton." Viscarra (2020, p. 21)
  7. ^ Vloothuis, Johannes (2017-07-14). "Understanding the Different Grades of Watercolor Paper". Artists Network. Retrieved 2018-10-03.
  8. ^ "Watercolor Paper: How to Choose the Right Paper for Use with Watercolors". art-is-fun.com. Art Is Fun. Archived from the original on 2015-10-07. Retrieved 2015-10-06.
  9. ^ "I would not recommend a weight less than 140lb (300 gsm) to paint anything other than quick sketches." Mann (2016)
  10. ^ "a paper that weighs 300 grams x meter² (140 pounds), has more body and looks more like a cardboard or thin cardboard, which makes it better to support the use of water." Viscarra (2020, p. 17)
  11. ^ "It consists of a mixture of pigments, binders such as gum arabic and humectants such as glycerin, which together with other components, allow the color pigment to join and form the paint paste, which we know as watercolor. With regard to the colors, the quality of the pigments and their degree of concentration, it is what determines how good the watercolor is and also its price. A paint that has a high concentration of pigment, professional type, allows us to use it with a large amount of water without losing the intensity of color." Viscarra (2020, p. 47)
  12. ^ "Turner himself was of the same opinion; he declared to me [Munro] that water-colour painting would be totally mined, and lose all its individuality and beauty by the bad practice of mingling opaque with transparent colour." Redgrave & Redgrave (1866)
  13. ^ "With the discovery of paper in China around 2000 years ago, the watercolor media took a different route in which the color of the paper played an important role." London (2021, p. 19)
  14. ^ "Watercolors on silk were frequently used by Chinese and Japanese artists. Their artworks often included calligraphy as well as peaceful nature scenes, animals, and pictures of everyday life." London (2021, p. 21)
  15. ^ "What Is Watercolor?". collectorsguide.com. The Collector's Guide.
  16. ^ "They had a limited range of colours that did not replicate those found in nature and the colours were never applied at their maximum intensity. Moorby et al. (2010, p. 43)

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