Supply List for Mastering Colour with Watercolours

Michaela Davidson 

Arches brand paper is a preferable watercolour pad or stretched paper (no lighter than 140 lbs but 300 is a bit too heavy)  STRETCH PAPER ON STRETCHER FRAME OR TAPE DOWN WITH BUTCHER’S TAPE ON MASONITE BOARD or stapled. 

For this course bring a few pieces to be stretched overnight. 

Please bring WINSOR & NEWTON brand for the following colours:

Indian yellow, permanent rose new gamboge, Windsor blue, are MANDATORY for this course, but the following are optional good colours to have on hand. viridian, ultramarine blue, cadmium yellow.   

If you already have extra watercolour paints, please bring all your watercolour paints along as well, and Michaela will talk with each student regarding all their supplies on hand. 

Brushes:   Bring all the brushes you have, but be sure you have some of the following:

#8 round, (the size of your middle fingernail- not the 008 tiny brush),

#5 round, (a little smaller than the #8),

 #2 round,

 #8 flat, either squirrel or sable – whichever you can afford.

Miscellaneous items:

One Ice cube tray (for mixing colours (Mandatory)

One pallet tray or flat plate

Four or Five  500ml plastic containers with lids for water and glazes

One Long Ruler and/or small square

Palette knife with thin point (or painting knife)

Cheap sponge (the kind you get in kitchen supply store)

6 eye droppers (you’ll find them at Drug Store)

One roll of Masking tape

Hair dryer

Newsprint or light weight paper (for doing original rough  sketch) 

Tracing paper

Kneeded eraser

Note paper, soft pencils, pencil sharpeners, eraser

Small Sketch book for value sketches

Small hand held mirror

Removable Winsor & Newton Miskit or frisket

Small bar of hand soap

One roll of Paper Towels

Watercolours are difficult, but there are a few secrets, which will help you to overcome the obstacles they present.   

One of the most important things in painting with watercolours is to know your pigment groups thoroughly, and how they interact with each other.   

There are the three pigment groups:  Listed below are a few of their primary colours as well as their permanency.

1. Transparent:  Permanent Rose,  (A),  **Cobalt Blue,(AA) Viridian,(AA) ** Aureolin,(A) Indian Yellow (A)

Burnt Sienna, (can be mixed) (AA),

2. Opaque:        Cerulean Blue, (AA),Yellow Ochre,(AA) Cadmium Yellow(A)iii), Cadmium Red,(A)iii),  French Ultramarine,(A) ii)    

Lemon Yellow,(AA),  New Gamboge (A)

Indian Red, (can be mixed)(AA)

3. Staining Pigments:  Winsor Red,(A), Winsor Yellow,(A), Winsor Blue,(A) Cobalt Violet (AA) Winsor Green (A)

 * Winsor = Colours also know as the Pthalo group.                               

TRANSPARENT NON-STAINING PIGMENTS & HOW TO TELL THEM APART FROM THE TRANSPARENT STAINING PIGMENTS
Transparency is important in watercolours.  They are wonderful for use as glazes without staining the other pigments.  They can be lightened and removed easily by lifting.  The results of painting with a triad (red, yellow & blue) of these pigments will be a light airy delicate effect, which is very pretty, but sometimes lacks punch.

OPAQUE SEDIMENTARY PIGMENTS

REMEMBER 1+1 OPAQUE = MUD 
Opaque colours are dense, non-staining sedimentary pigments that cover and obscure the paper or underlying paint.  They appear heavier and are useful for areas of land, rocks, trees, etc.  They don't work well in glazing and are difficult to remove.  A triad of any of the opaque will certainly produce a heavy looking painting, (which you may wish to achieve for some subjects).   

STAINING PIGMENTS
These pigments are strong and powerful.  They will stain the paper and any other pigment they touch.  They will not remove easily.  On the plus side, they can be used to make wonderful darks.  If used carefully in a wet into wet technique stains can be used with the opaque and transparent in a very exciting way.  They are quite brilliant and make a strong and powerful statement.   

Staining pigments are good to use for strong contrasts. It is very useful to go through all your pigments and make a colour chart for yourself, labeling the Transparent, Opaque and Staining pigments. I have found it valuable to keep my palette separate in the pigment groups.  It is also useful to do a complete colour chart of wet into wet and a glazed overlay of each combination of pigments you have in your possession.  It’s a great reference tool and enables you quickly to see how one pigment behaves with another. 

EVERY COLOUR YOU EVER WISHED TO USE CAN BE MIXED FROM RED, YELLOW AND BLUE.  I RECOMMEND YOU SAVE YOUR MONEY AND NEVER PURCHASE GREEN, ORANGE, GRAY, PURPLE OR ANY OTHER SECONDARY COLOR AGAIN!!

The following are some of the reason I suggest this to beginners. 

DISADVANTAGES OF COMMERCIALLY MIXED PIGMENTS

You will achieve much more subtlety by mixing your own secondary colours, rather than using a commercially produced pigment. Commercially mixed secondary colours, i.e. green, brown, oranges, purples grays etc often have one or more opaque in the mixture, and when combined with other secondary colours, the effect produced is MUD. This is especially true of the darker pigments where the commercial brand will use black to darken the pigment, so that when you dilute or strengthen the colour, it ends up looking dead and dirty. 

You need not purchase these expensive paints because you can mix any of them from the three primary colors. 

For example, Aureolin, Permanent Rose, and French Ultramarine equal BURNT UMBER.   

The ever-popular PAYNES GRAY can be mixed with Aureolin, Permanent Rose, French ultramarine, and Winsor Blue. 

SAP GREEN – can be mixed from Aureolin, Permanent Rose, and Winsor

Green. 

Any green you ever wished for can be mixed from blue and yellow, a sometimes a touch of red, in varying amounts.

COLOUR WHEEL
Know your colour wheel.  Use a complimentary colour to enhance your work and to neutralize a strong colour or to develop many beautiful grays.

COMBINING PIGMENT GROUPS
All this takes time and experimentation.  A well-balanced watercolour painting has all three-pigment groups in one painting, or at least the combination of two of the pigment groups. The light airy glazing for a sky will be enhanced if you use an opaque pigment on the land.  If you choose to have a piece of machinery on the land a perfect choice would be one of the staining pigments.  You have to play with the pigments, keeping in mind their potentials and shortcomings.

THE THREE METHODS OF PAINTING WATERCOLOURS  

1.       GLAZING,

2.       WET-IN-WET

3.       DIRECT/DRY BRUSH 

All three of the above painting methods are usually necessary to complete a balanced and interesting painting.   

The preliminary washes or glazing is carried out after the initial drawing is completed and transferred to the paper.  You must be sure to dry the paper thoroughly between each paint application.  To ensure it is dry, do so by lightly putting your hand on the paper to feel the temperature of the surface.  If it is cool to the touch it is not completely dry.  A delicate touch is required for glazing, as you do not want to disturb the underlying pigments.   

The wet-in-wet technique is applied by using clear water over the glazed area and then lightly brushing or dropping in your colour. The direct painting or dry brush painting comes at the very end when you apply your darker colour, which is applied with a thicker mixture of your pigment.

MASKING FLUID   

Whenever you feel you should use Miskit (a masking fluid) to obtain a particular effect, always use your very best brush.  Wet the brush with water and then coat it thoroughly with bar soap then completely dip it into the Miskit.  If you have a large area to mask, be sure to rinse it out often and then repeat this process of reapplying soap and masking fluid.  I have always had good success with Winsor & Newton brand masking fluid

DO NOT RE-SOAP THE BRUSH AND DIP INTO THE MASKING FLUID, UNLESS YOU HAVE THOROUGHLY RINSED AND CLEANED IT FIRST, OR YOU WILL RUIN YOUR BRUSH.

 REMOVAL OF MASKING FLUID 

It is very important, to ensure that the paper is warm to your touch, both before you apply Miskit and before you remove it. When the masking fluid is completely dry, and the paper warm to the touch, use a piece of masking tape, wrapped around your hand in reverse (sticky side out) to remove the dried Miskit.  After removal of the masking fluid you will see why it is important that you use your best brush.  The masked area will show up as if you had painted it a bright colour, so you want it to look as good as possible.

A FEW EXTRA TECHNIQUES 

SPONGE – Great for trees and texture

WAX - apply between colours and then iron out later

SALT - apply when the shine is just leaving the paper

KNIFE WORK - great for rocks and logs or rough texture

SCRAPING - can be done with knife or end of brush when pigment is nearly dry

LIFTING - done with very clean brush, and very carefully when pigment is just losing its shine.

I hope you enjoy your workshop and that you will continue to enjoy painting with watercolours.  They are definitely not an easy medium, but I’ve found it to be one of the most exciting ones, mainly because of its unpredictability.  It loves to go in its own direction – and there lies the excitement!

Michaela Davidson