WaterColor Class: Textures 1

Instructions for

WC Textures #1

RULE #1:

Always paint on very dry or shiny wet paper. Nothing in between.

Check dryness by touching your finger to unpainted paper, then

touching the painted section. If the paint feels cool or damp to the touch,

it is not dry enough to paint on. If the painted section is still shiny, you

can still add more paint to it.

Divide your paper into four rectangles using masking tapes. The tape

is just there to keep paint of one practice from bleeding into another.

You only need three paints, one of each primary: yellow, blue, red.

Make puddles of each color. (When you put the paint on the paper, the

color will be a medium value, not puddle-y, not thick, but not too thin

and watery. You want it to stay transparent. ALWAYS TRY TO HAVE

YOUR PAINTS DILUTED AND READY so you are not at a critical

point and have to stop to mix paint.

In this picture you see the first section salted; second saran wrap; third straw blowing; fourth spattering. When the paint dried, I lifted a picture of a dog and a circle into the salted section.

Wet the first section with your brush. (You can use a spray bottle to

wet it, since we are using the whole section wet into wet.) Brush in

paints loosely, at least a medium tone. (too light will not show effects)

Apply kosher salt on half of the paint, PAINT MUST BE SHINY,

NOT PUDDLE-Y, and apply popcorn or table salt

to the other half. (To apply salt, take a small pinch, hold about 12”

from the painting, and gently sprinkle. Too much salt will be a pain

to remove.) LET THIS DRY ON ITS OWN. As time goes on, the

salt keeps reacting.

USES: snow, a kittens fur, beards, small white flowers in a field, sand.

On the second section, apply paint wet-into-wet as before. This time,

Crinkle saran wrap and lay it over the wet paint. Weigh it down. Let it

dry on its own.

USES: fast flowing water, reflections in glass, rock, leaves, flowers.

On the third section, make a quarter-sized puddle of paint. Blow it with a straw.

Make another puddle of a different color and blow it with a straw. See how

Many spidery webs you can make with this.

USES: wild grass, jelly fish, just for fun.

On the fourth section, make a wet clean stripe down the center. You

Will be spattering the entire section, but spatters will look different on the

Wet section. To spatter, load your brush (probably a round one) with paint,

Then smack it against your finger or another brush. Use several colors.

On one of the dry sections, lightly spray water to move the paint just a bit.

It will look softer, but not as soft as the wet area.

USES: distant flowers or foliage; rocks or gravel; speckles on an animal,

Rusty metal, old wood.

 After all was dry, we used a stiff lifting or scrubber brush to lighten an area.