Watercolor is a soul unraveled

Our first acquaintance with watercolor is still in childhood. "Masterpieces" of children's painting are drawn by these unpretentious colors. School years, too, can not do without drawings watercolor.

Probably, for this reason, we treat it like a child, not serious. But after seeing the watercolor drawings created by the artists, we freeze in contemplation of this beauty. And we are surprised how it is possible to create such splendor with simple, familiar from childhood watercolor paints.

A bit of history

From ancient times people know watercolor. This is the first paint that a man has learned to make, along with ocher. Egyptian pharaohs painted watercolor on papyrus. As the technique of drawing with such paints was laborious, it was forgotten for a long time. Basically used a tempera or oil paint.

In ancient Rome and Greece, watercolors were used for backgrounds or for registering contours when creating frescoes. And in China it became popular only after the invention of paper. Connecting watercolors with black and colored ink, in Japan, painted silk fabrics. And Chinese artists have learned to paint portraits and landscapes with watercolors.

In Europe, watercolor painting did not take root long. And only in the 18th century, when artists began to apply loosening of contours and feathering, it became strong and spectacular. A striking example of this is Albrecht Durer, who has already become a textbook "Hare".

Watercolor painting in Russia

The first artist of watercolor painting in Russia was Pyotr Fedorovich Sokolov. It was he who widely applied watercolor in his works. He painted landscapes, portraits, genre paintings. Thanks to his works you can find out what were the life and customs of the distant past of our ancestors.

In the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, when there were no more photographs, watercolor enjoyed great success among Russian people. The easy technique of applying paints and quick execution left in the past tedious and long hours of posing. And the transparent and airy color fell to the liking of Russian society.

Watercolor portraits were ordered by all the members of the royal family, the nobility and the middle class, ministers, diplomats, secular beauties. To have a collection of watercolors in a home arsenal was prestigious and fashionable. His paintings in the future, wrote such famous artists as K. Bryullov, M. Vrubel, V. Serov, I. Bilibin.

Modern artists, beyond recognition, improved the technique of working with watercolors. Drawings are realistic and accurate. Artists of our time sweep away all the textbook techniques and ways of working with these colors. And they receive amazing drawings filled with transparent light, gentle tones and as close to reality as possible.

Composition of watercolor

So what is watercolor? These are pigments, finely mashed, vegetable-based glues that dissolve rapidly in water. Usually it is gum arabic and dextrin. To keep the moisture added honey, sugar, glycerin. To watercolor well spread, and not collected in drops, it introduces bovine bile. In order for the material not to become moldy, phenol is introduced.

What are the colors watercolor

There are several types of watercolors. Each kind is good in its own way, but there are drawbacks to all. Watercolor is produced in several forms:

• Liquid paints in a tube.
• Soft paints in cuvettes.
• Solid paints in tiles.

Each type of watercolor has its advantages and disadvantages. Liquid watercolors are perfectly diluted with water, do not get dirty during work and during storage. The disadvantage is that they quickly begin to separate and dry up.

Soft and hard watercolor is contaminated during operation and is 10 times less soluble in water. But they are not subject to separation and do not dry out during storage. And yet, this paint can not take on the brush as much as necessary. What can not you say about liquid watercolors.

Quality of paints

What should be the quality watercolor? These are strong layers after drying, which do not stain hands, do not wipe and do not crack. Qualitative watercolor paints - it's an even layer, without all sorts of spots, streaks and clots of paint. A good watercolor is a color transparency and easy flushing of water from a paper.

Beginner artist

The most suitable watercolor for beginners is a school honey. Paint is ordinary, it is cheap, the quality is good. The composition includes honey as a plastic base. All the rest are synthetic substances that dissolve well in water.

Professionals are advised to take expensive materials for work. But for a beginner, it's financially expensive, given the quality of the drawings. School honey watercolor is an ideal option. You can take only paper and brushes of higher quality.

These watercolors are sold in a plastic pallet with cells. The cell is filled with paint, it is not possible to change the used cuvette, as in professional sets. You need to change the whole box, or you have to buy another one. This is inconvenient, but economically more profitable than buying expensive prof. paints.

From domestic paints, "Sonnet" and "White Nights" have proved to be a perfect solution for those who take watercolor lessons for the first time. These paints fit well on paper, they have the property of mixing well with each other. The color spectrum is calm and saturated. The paints do not fade for a long time, they are resistant to light.

What is not worth saving, so it's on paper. It should not be smooth, but rough. Otherwise, the colors will simply drain away, and not go to beautiful smears.