Introduction to Watercolor - Paint Characteristics
There are several characteristics of watercolors that the painter needs to be familiar with in order to make an
informed decision about which palette or group of colors to use for a particular painting. These properties are:
transparency/opacity, tinting strength, staining quality, granulation/sedimentary quality, and color temperature
(warm/cool bias).
You can use inexpensive, lightweight (90 lb) watercolor paper or “scrap” watercolor paper for all color tests/
exercises, but it is suggested you do these test on the paper that you intend to paint on most of the time, as
paper influences the results due to differences in sizing,
surface and other factors.
Exercise 1:
Make a 1/2” wide line on cold press or rough watercolor
paper with a permanent, waterproof (Sanford “Sharpie” or El
Marko) felt-tip pen (or with waterproof India Ink). Make sure
the line is completely dry.
Paint a saturated* color swatch of paint over your black
line and let it dry. Label each swatch with the color name
and manufacturer as you paint them. Do this for each color
on your palette. Let each swatch dry. Then look at where the color goes
over the black line. If you see no “color” where it goes over the black, label
that swatch “Transparent”. If there is just a little color showing on the black,
label it “Semi-Transparent”. If the color nearly covers the black line, label the
swatch “Opaque”. You may add a “semi-opaque” category if you wish. I use
the abbreviations T, ST, SO and O to label my paints. Why is this important?
If you want to glaze or layer watercolor, you want to use only transparent
or semi-transparent colors. The opaques and semi-opaques do not glaze
successfully, nor do pigments that contain a large amount of granulating
particles.
Exercise 2:
This test gives you information on how staining a particular color is. Why is this important? If you want to lift
out white or light areas from parts of your painting after the paint is dry, then you want to use the least staining
pigments you can. Staining pigments do not lift easily or completely. They will also stain all other hues below
them when used as a glaze, particularly if the glazed layer is
at all saturated with pigment.
Again paint a saturated swatch of each of your colors on
watercolor paper. Label each swatch as you go with the color
name and manufacturer and let the swatches dry completely.
Then using a synthetic bristle brush or toothbrush moistened
with clean water, scrub back and forth over each swatch.
Blot each swatch with paper towel or kleenex and rinse your
brush between color swatches. Use the same number of
scrubbed back and forth strokes for every swatch, so the test
will be consistent (I count out 20 strokes). Note that if you
soak and stretch your watercolor paper prior to painting, any surface sizing will be diluted or removed, and your
paints will not lift as easily when dry.
* Saturation has to do with the pigment to water ratio. ANY pigment will appear transparent if there is a lot of water relative to the pigment, so
make your swatches with enough pigment so that the mix is more like espresso, not weak tea.
Introduction to Watercolor: COLOR PROPERTIES
The properties of color include HUE, VALUE and INTENSITY.
HUE is the name of a color, like red or blue
VALUE is the relative lightness or darkness of a color (tints are light values; shades are dark values)
INTENSITY—sometimes called chroma—is the relative brightness or dullness of a color.
The uses of color in painting include:
• Creation of deep or shallow spacial illusions
• Creation of a particular “mood” or “feeling”
• Creation of symbolism or cultural associations
• Possibilities for personal expression and visual impact
• Identification of objects through use of local, descriptive color
• Pictorial organization through manipulations of color value, intensity, hue, dominance, etc.
How we use color in painting:
We work with color in the following ways, all of which have to do with CONTRASTS:
• We use a change in hue to contrast one color with another (red & blue for example)
• We use a change in value to contrast a light color with a dark one
• We use a change in color temperature to contrast a warm color with a cool one
• We contrast intensity (bright/saturated vs. dull/unsaturated)
• We contrast a color with its complementary (opposite) color
• We contrast the relative appearance between colors
• We contrast the quantity of one color with another
The first 5 of these contrasts are fairly straightforward, easily discernable and fairly easily manipulated. The
last 2 are mainly of concern to painters whose primary interest in their work is the relationship between
colors, although they can also be used to fine tune a painting that doesn’t quite achieve harmony or unity.
Color Harmony
Color harmony or unity is achieved when the colors in your painting work well together, when the greatest
contrasts help highlight your focal point, and when your color choices relate to the subject matter.
There are limitless possibilities for choosing and mixing colors, so it is up to you to limit your choices to the
colors that will work best for the idea that you have in mind, and that reflect your own preferences in terms
of how the painting looks, and the feeling the color generates. Some people prefer strong, saturated colors
with strongly contrasting color schemes. Others lean toward “color neutral” schemes, using lots of earth
colors in almost a monochromatic way. And some watercolorists prefer “close value” paintings, with all
their values in a similar range whether light, medium or dark.
Color Keying and Pigment Compatibility
Beginners should probably limit themselves to 3-5 colors per painting. Doing so will guarantee a more
harmonious color result, and force the artist to use a more complete range of values and intensities for
each of the three or four colors chosen.
Introduction to Watercolor: NEUTRALIZING COLORS
To orchestrate your paintings, you will usually have one area that contains the purest, most intense colors,
surrounded by other colors that have been subdued in intensity, or neutralized. You neutralize a color
by adding some of its complementary color (the one opposite it on the color wheel). The more of the
complement you add, the more neutral the color becomes until it is either a grayish or brownish hue.
Generally, these are the basic color complements:
Red & Green Blue & Orange Yellow & Violet
Red Orange & Blue Green Blue Violet & Yellow Orange Yellow Green & Red Violet
Why is this important?
Most beginners don’t have any difficulty making muddy colors, so you are probably wondering why it’s
important to learn to make these low intensity, neutralized hues. And the answer is: Neutral doesn’t
mean muddy, chalky or necessarily opaque. Neutrals can be wonderful, subtle colors, and can serve as a
foil to the brighter, clear, intense ones in your paintings. Learning to make “good” neutrals will help you
orchestrate your colors, and as a result, create stronger paintings.
PURE COLOR NEUTRAL PURE COLOR
Hansa Yellow Lt. Perm.Aliz.Crimson +
or Winsor Lemon Ultramarine Blue
Perm.Aliz.Crimson +
Ultramarine Blue
New Gamboge or
Transparent
Yellow
Quinacridone Red Thalo Blue GS +
or Perm.Alizarin Hansa Yellow Lt. or
Crimson Winsor Lemon
Organic Vermillion
or Scarlet Lake Cerulean
Blue
Organic Vermillion
or Scarlet Lake Thalo Blue GS
Note that the strongest darks are made from colors that are already darker in value right out of the tube.
The difference is apparent when you compare the neutral made from cerulean and organic vermillion with
the one made from the same red, but using thalo blue.
Exercise 3:
Make a chart similar to the one on the previous page, using your six primary colors. Where Cerulean Blue
is used in the example, you are to use French Ultramarine Blue, and your mixtures will look different than
the ones shown. The goal of this exercise is to begin to get comfortable with estimating the proportion of
each color to use in the mix.
ALWAYS start any mixture with the lightest of the two colors, and add the darker one to it a little at a time.
For example, the first row starts with Winsor Lemon or Hansa Yellow Light in your palette - a small puddle
of fairly saturated color. In a SEPARATE puddle, mix a clear purple by starting with Quinacridone Red or
Permanent Alizarin Crimson and adding the Ultramarine Blue to the red until you have a clean purple. Then
you will start adding the purple to the yellow, a little at a time. For this exercise, you only have to make
three mixtures - many more steps between yellow and purple are possible. Try to get your middle swatch
halfway in between the yellow and purple, both color wise and value wise.
Repeat the exercise with the other color combinations.
What did you notice?
Too much water dilutes both value (light/dark) and intensity (bright/dull). Make sure you have enough pig-
ment in your mixtures.
Some colors are stronger than others in mixtures (we call this tinting strength). You need far less of them in
any mixture to affect a noticeable change in hue/value/intensity.
Value and intensity matter just as much as hue does when working with watercolor (see the examples
below and their equivalent B/W versions) Your intent, as the artist, helps you decide which will dominate –
hue, value or intensity.
Exercise 4:
Every color has a corresponding value. Learning to see that value, regardless of color, will help you or-
chestrate your paintings to take full advantage of both the white paper, and all the values between light
and dark. Use or paint a 5-7 step white to black value scale, and then, for each of your 6 primary colors,
create a corresponding value scale. Paint your swatches on scrap paper so you can choose the ones
that best match up to the gray scale. Hint: You can use black to darken many, but not all colors. If you add
black to any pigment with yellow in it, the results will be “greenish”. Try a darker color in the same family or
the color’s complement. Use clean water to lighten the pure colors for the steps toward white paper.
Note that the
pure
pure hues
aren’t in the
same place
on the value pure
scale.
pure
We use the strongest light/dark contrasts of value to help focus attention where we want it to be (center
of interest), to define or lose/blur edges of objects, and to make many small shapes/areas “read” as a
single large shape.
Exercise 5:
Use this drawing, or lightly draw one of your own with the same simplicity of form (just outlines). Using
only three primary hues (a red, a yellow and a blue), paint the image, mixing any secondary or tertiary col-
ors you need from your primaries. Leave some part of your painting unpainted white paper (for the lightest
light). Vary the pigment to water ratio with the rest of your mixtures so that some areas are very dark, some
mid-value and some light-value.
