Watercolor Tutorial #1 - Tools and Materials

Hi There...

Still remember my last post about watercolor experiment? if not you can read it here watercolor-experiment-for-children-book. Many friends asked me to give some tips and tricks using watercolor as illustration or painting. Ok then, I will post several tips in watercolor painting and I will post it in several parts. This is our first part. So keep on following.

"nothing quite compares with the transparancy, luminosity and sheer beauty of well-painted watercolor" (William Newton)

Watercolor is really difficult to learn for some people. As people always says, Practice make perfect ^^. I will write this post (and next posts) based on my own experiences.

To make a beautiful watercolor painting we have understand our tools and materials first.
1. Paints (cat air)
watercolor available in tubes and pans, I prefer to use tubes since it is wetter and easy to mix.

2. Pallets (palet)
Pallets is really useful to mix some colors. I use to mix every colors with yellow ochre to get a nice color scheme.

3. Brushes (kuas)
Yes, brushes definitely is a very important tools that you cant ignore. Never pick a wrong brushes, it will cause failure in panting. A good quality brushes will hold water very well and joy to use.

a. Cotman from Winsor Newton
I pick Cotman form Winsor Newton. It is quite expensive since it cost over IDR 27000-45000 in 1998. But It will give you a very excellent results. 

 b. non branded
synthetic brushes are also enjoy to use and relatively inexpensive. It is only IDR 5000 (in 2013).

c. Flat Brush

I need flat brushes to lay a wash, to wet the paper or to apply sky.

4. Papers (kertas)

watercolor paper is quite different with other papers. It is made in different kind of thicknesses and texture. I use Canson for average usage and Fabriano for advanced usage. I prefer fabriano than canson.

5. Fresh Water (air)

It is important to have two bowls of fresh water. First bowl for washing your brush and second for dilute your paints. Adequate water will determine best result. Remember, always keep your brushes clean.

6. Pencil and eraser (pensil dan penghapus)

I use sketches pencil B or 2B for drawing outline. Keep your drawing light. 

For guiding you to learn more about watercolor i suggest you to read some books about watercolor, one of them is Painting with Watercolours (William Newton)

I think it is enough for today... will post second part soon.

(to be continued)

warm regards'

Dini