Tuesday's Tips and Techniques for Watercolor Painting

Stuck On Color

Ever find yourself painting with one particular color all the time? Always have a favorite go to color that you use way to often? A certain color that is in all of your paintings? An over used color?

Perhaps it is time to switch it up a bit! If you paint with watercolors fresh from the tube, take that tube of paint out of your regular stash. Move it from your paint box, your drawer, wherever you normally keep it and set it somewhere out of the way. If you paint with your colors dried in your palette cover that well with a few swatches of masking tape. This way if the color is out of reach or hidden, you will not be tempted to use it.

Encourage yourself to try new color combinations. Explore the other colors in your palette.

Tuesday's Tips & Techniques for Watercolor Painting

Staining Colors & Lifting Dried Colors

Here is a simply way to figure out which colors in your palette are staining colors and which colors are easy to lift. Why is this something you may want to know ahead of time? If you are doing a painting and you make a mistake and you have a created this handy little chart you will know if you should go through the troubles of trying to lift the color out. Some colors do stain the paper and no matter how much time you spend lifting the color, it will not come out. Some colors will lift easily and you will be back to the white of the paper.

For this chart, I created about a 2 inch long swash of each color in my palette. I allowed the paint to completely dry. Then using an old brush and clean water, I scrubbed a small spot on each swatch. One color swash at a time, scrub with the old brush and clean water, blot with a clean dry tissue occasionally. This process can be repeated over and over on each individual color.

You will notice some colors have lifted out completely allowing the white of the paper to show again. Other colors are staining and no matter how many times you repeat the process, the color has sunk into and stained the paper.

Tuesday's Tips & Techniques for Watercolor Painting

Learn Your Palette - Color Mixing Chart

This chart is an excellent resource to have on hand. It is great for learning how the various colors in your own palette mix and react with each other. It also shows you the numerous colors you can create at a glance. I have created one of these charts for each of my palettes.

On a quarter sheet of watercolor paper (11 x 15") you can easily create a chart for 10 to 14 colors. Count the number of colors in your palette and create a grid that has one extra square across and down. If you have 10 colors in your palette you want your grid to be 11 squares across and 11 squares down. Place an X in the top left square, this square will remain blank. Outside the grid label each color in either rainbow order or the order you have them on your palette starting with the second block. Place a swash of clean color next to the coordinating names. Then mix each color evenly on your palette with each of the other colors and place them accordingly on the grid.

Remember the game Battleship? Plot your course in a similar fashion.

For a 10 color palette, I created a grid 8.25" x 8.25" of 3/4" squares 11 across and 11 squares down. I drew 2" lines for the names of colors. All done in pencil. I also added the brand name of the paint and the type of paper to the bottom corner. I used a 1/2" flat wash brush to mix and paint the colors into the grid. For the 14 color palette, I created a grid 7.5" x 14.75" with the squares being 1/2" high by 3/4" wide.

Tuesday's Tips & Techniques for Watercolor Painting

Choosing Colors

Choosing colors for your watercolor palette can be fun for some and frustrating for others.  Keep it simple.  A warm and a cool of each of the primary colors, plus 2 neutrals and 2 hard to mix colors green and purple.

For my classes, I suggest starting out with 10 colors: 

Warm Red - Crimson Lake

Cool Red - Primary Red Magenta

Warm Yellow - Indian Yellow

Cool Yellow - Permanent Yellow Lemon

Warm Blue - Ultramarine Blue Deep

Cool Blue - Primary Blue Cyan

Two Neutrals - Burnt Sienna & Payne's Grey

Purple - Permanent Violet Bluish

Green - Permanent Green Deep

The brand of paint I use for my classes is MaimeriBlu, an Italian superior artist quality paint.  Most of the colors are transparent.  Two are semi-transparent and also sedimentary, burnt sienna and ultramarine blue deep.  Different brands may have slightly different names for colors.  Plus colors with the same name may appear and act differently in the various brands.

Watercolor Houses

 I have done a bunch of commissioned house portrait paintings in watercolor and the majority of the time they are to be gifts.  I love it when someone asks "Will you paint a picture of .... it will be a gift for ..." and of course I say yes.  I paint the painting and I am so happy and delighted when it is completed and I would love to show it off, but I can't.  I have to wait.  I would never want to spoil someone's surprise gift by accident.  Here is a painting I did several months ago.  It was a Christmas gift and now I can finally show it off.  

If you're interested in having a watercolor painting of your home, former home, vacation home or would like to have one painted as a gift for someone else, please contact me for more information.  I would be delighted to create a one of a kind present that would be cherished for years to come!

You can view other homes and buildings I have painted on my website: http://rasquier.com and there are also a couple of listing in my Etsy shop (http://squier.etsy.com) for commissioned house portraits.