Painting 1

Watercolour Practice

© Open College of the Arts

2010
 Level HE4 – 40 CATS

Copyright images courtesy of the Bridgeman Art Library.

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Front cover
Duck Eggs and Spring Elizabeth Jane Lloyd

2 OCA Painting 1: Watercolour Practice

Contents

Times are given here as a guideline: you may want to spend a lot more. Your research and writing time to produce
a study, time for reflecting on your learning and logging your learning are built into the guideline times below.

Approximate time in hours Page

Introduction 5

History of watercolour painting 7

Characteristics of watercolour 9
Choosing materials and equipment 11

Part one Making a start 70 19

Projects Mixing and applying watercolour 21
Laying washes 29
Resist techniques 32
Making marks in different ways 38
Assignment 1 Your first watercolour painting 45

Part two Painting from observation 70 47

Projects Drawing and watercolour 49
Light and tone 55
Tone and composition 62
Colour 67
Assignment 2 Still life with watercolour 81

Part three Painting outside 70 83

Projects Where to look and how to select 86
Preparation and practice 95
Using photographs 106
Assignment 3 Landscape painting from mixed sources 113

OCA Painting 1: Watercolour Practice 3

 Part four Landscape elements 90 115
Projects Linear perspective 117
Aerial perspective 122
Painting sky 127
Painting water 132
Pictorial interest 138
Assignment 4 A landscape painting 148

Part five Widening your options 100 149

Projects Working on different coloured grounds 151
Working with mixed media 157
Towards abstraction 165
Themes and series 176
Assignment 5 Series of five paintings 189

Appendix
Guidelines for submission for formal assessment 180

4 OCA Painting 1: Watercolour Practice

Introduction

Learning new skills in painting and drawing in any media requires time and practice. It is
important to approach a new medium with an open mind and an experimental approach to
techniques.

Watercolours have a special place in the development of British (especially landscape)

painting as exemplified in the work of four artists Cotman, Cozens, Girtin and Turner. These
artists are regarded by many as the greatest practitioners of watercolour painting and it
follows that there is an especially English affection for the medium. Watercolours’ attraction
to both experienced and new artists often lies in their particular association with our
immensely atmospheric landscape and the varied weather conditions we experience.

While sometimes considered limited or constricting, watercolours have great versatility and by
their nature can create effects in just moments that can capture fleeting sights and
experiences with both power and simplicity. Techniques and effects can be learned and
certain problems avoided but the aim of this course is for you to develop your own individual
means of expression and to avoid the pitfalls of ‘rights and wrongs’ in the often formulaic
approach to watercolour adopted by many books, courses and teachers.

Watercolour has a great tradition and many fine artists for you to study and learn from. The
history of watercolour is well worth exploring and a section of the Introductory Course
Information booklet is devoted to it. You should explore this further in your own individual
research. But try to keep an open mind about what you wish to achieve with this versatile,
unique and fluid artists’ medium.

Time: You should spend at least 10 hours a week on this course, mostly on practical work.
There are also references in the course to research (Research Points). These involve you in
looking at paintings to inform your practical work, develop your judgement and your level
of achievement as a painter. If you only have 10 spare hours per week, set aside one of
those hours for research. If you spend this amount of time each week on the course you
should finish it in about 10 months.

OCA Painting 1: Watercolour Practice 5

 Course aims
This course will help you to:
• explore the different ways in which watercolours can be used and the effects they can
create
• develop your visual awareness and ability to analyse and interpret what you see
• develop your ability to use tone and colour effectively
• develop your experimental capabilities and confidence in the use of watercolours
• increase your knowledge of the history of watercolour painting and significant artists
who have used this medium.

By the end of the course you should be able to:

• use colour theory and tone skillfully and have a sound understanding of pictorial
composition
• investigate a wide range of visual ideas using a breadth of media
• demonstrate a developing knowledge of the history of drawing and painting and
research skills
• reflect perceptively upon your own learning experience through the use of your learning
log.

6 OCA Painting 1: Watercolour Practice

History of watercolour painting

In historical accounts of the development of watercolour different writers have seen things in
different ways and as such they emphasise a variety of aspects of watercolour painting.

Some authors take the view that watercolour painting really started in England with Paul
Sandby (1730-1809). Watercolour painting existed well before the eighteenth century but
English watercolourists of that century were so widely acclaimed that watercolour painting
became known as the English Art and Sandby is often credited with its invention. However
the German artist Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) had painted hundreds of watercolours more
than two hundred years previously. The watercolour illumination of manuscripts was a major
art form for almost a thousand years before Dürer. Illuminations that have been painted in
what can only be described as watercolour have survived from the sixth century AD.

A Road Through Windsor Forest Paul Sandby

Britain in the 18th and early 19th centuries
The kind of painting Paul Sandby produced in the eighteenth century was often called
‘tinted drawing’. Writers on British watercolour often point out that during the Regency
period painters such as Thomas Girtin (1775-1802), John Varley (1778-1843), John Sell
Cotman (1782-1842) and one of the greatest of all watercolourists, J M W Turner (1775-
1851) moved from a tinted drawing technique to the use of pure watercolour alone. You can
get a very good idea of what this means by comparing the Paul Sandby with the painting of
Venice by Turner. Interestingly, the Chinese have a word for watercolours done without ink
drawing; the technique is called mogou – ‘no bones’.

OCA Painting 1: Watercolour Practice 7

 Venice J M W Turner
Victorian times to the present
Although in Victorian Britain there was a huge interest in all kinds of watercolour painting,
watercolours were widely used elsewhere. When Japan was opened to foreign trade in the
1850s it had a native tradition of watercolour painting almost as ancient as that of the
Chinese. And there were many sides to watercolour painting in India in the nineteenth
century. For example, sophisticated traditions of court painting combined opaque
watercolour and transparent paint. These court paintings sometimes depicted foreigners, who
had often brought European watercolours and paints to make topographical records.

In America, Winslow Homer (1836-1910), Thomas Eakins (1844-1916), Edward Hopper

(1882-1967) and Andrew Wyeth (1917- ) all produced distinguished watercolours; Paul Klee
(1879-1940), who was born in Switzerland but studied and worked in Germany for many
years, painted extensively in watercolours. In England in the twentieth century major
watercolourists included Paul Nash (1889-1946), David Jones (1895-1974) and Edward Burra
(1905-76).

Towards the end of the twentieth century there was something of a resurgence of interest in
watercolours as a ‘serious’ painting medium, and artists such as Elizabeth Blackadder and
Norman Adams have shown that watercolours can be used in a personal and expressive way
and have given the medium a new lease of life. Contemporary artists such as Andy
Goldsworthy have also used watercolour methods on occasion.

8 OCA Painting 1: Watercolour Practice

Characteristics of watercolours

There are a number of different kinds of paint that are water-based. These include poster
paints, gouache and acrylics. They are water-based in that water is used to thin them.
However the properties of these paints are very different from what we shall be referring to
as watercolours. While the paints listed can be diluted so that they can achieve a certain
transparency (some pigments more than others) they are fundamentally opaque, whereas the
chief characteristic of watercolour is its transparency. The paint when moistened with plain
water creates a transparent stain which is then applied to white or tinted paper. The classical
English method is to use the white ground of the paper as the lightest tone and to apply
varying loads of pigment or layers of transparent washes in order to achieve gradations of
tone and colour.

All paints have three constituents – first, coloured pigment particles; second, a medium
which, when mixed with the pigment, binds the particles together to make the particular
kind of paint; and third a diluent (sometimes called a vehicle) which is a liquid of some kind
which allows the artist to thin the paint to the required consistency. In the case of
watercolours the pigment is ground very finely into gum arabic (the medium) which comes
from the acacia tree. The gum is easily dissolved in ordinary water (the diluent) and when
the paint is applied by a brush to paper, it adheres firmly to the surface. The gum also acts
as a light, thin varnish and gives the colour greater brilliance.

Road to Capel Curig John Sell Cotman

OCA Painting 1: Watercolour Practice 9

 Gum arabic was originally used on its own as the medium but later when artists’ materials
manufacturers set about producing paints which were consistent and reliable, substances
such as honey, glycerine and syrup were added to the medium to give greater transparency
and retard drying. More recently other additives have been used, some of which are added to
the water which the artist uses to mix the paint to aid a particular watercolour technique.

It is worth pointing out here that in the context of painting the word medium has more than
one meaning. It can mean the kind of paints used – the medium of oils or the medium of
watercolours, for instance. As explained above, it can also mean the substance which is
mixed with the pigment to bind it together. To further complicate things, if you look through
artists’ materials catalogues you will see lists of ‘mediums’ for mixing with paints, for
example, to obtain special effects or accelerate drying.

Watercolours are available in pans (small ‘cakes’ of colour in rectangular white containers) or
tubes. You will learn more about this in ‘Choosing materials and equipment’.

Although often considered limited and constricting, watercolours in fact have great
versatility. Their chief characteristic is their transparency. The paper on which they are
painted shines through the thin transparent layer of paint and gives it a sparkle and
brilliance of colour that cannot be achieved by any other painting medium. Once on the
paper however, watercolours cannot easily be changed. Changes are possible, as you will
discover, which is contrary to a myth about watercolours; that alterations are impossible. The
difficulty in making alterations to a watercolour painting is, nevertheless, one of the reasons
for such a strong emphasis being put on painting to a predetermined formula, leaving
nothing to chance. It is also why watercolour painting is often approached so tentatively.

The formality and mystique surrounding watercolours can be intimidating and prevents an
understanding that the medium can be exciting to handle. The true fascination of
watercolour painting lies in its unpredictability – chance if you like. You can exploit and
enjoy this uncertainty. Often the paint itself, if you let it, will do things you would never have
dreamt of. What you have to do is recognise and retain happy accidents.

The paper on which you paint plays an important part in watercolour painting and because
of the transparency of the paint, any marks on the paper tend to show through. The actual
surface texture of the paper is therefore important and lines drawn on the paper with pencil
or ink, for example, can be painted over and still seen through the layer of paint. Other
effects can be created by, for example, scratching the surface of the paper with a knife or a
sharp point, or drawing on it with a material which will resist the paint, such as a wax
crayon.

10 OCA Painting 1: Watercolour Practice

Choosing materials and
equipment
Paper
Because watercolours are transparent and the surface they are painted on shows through the
paint, the kind of paper used, and its surface texture play an important part in any
watercolour painting. Levels of absorbency are also important and the way that pigment
sinks into the surface of the paper giving important pictorial effects. Though it is not
impossible to paint successful watercolours on cheap smooth paper, generally it is essential
to have good quality paper and the weight of the paper is vital as lighter papers will wrinkle
or buckle in drying. This is the reason for the procedure of stretching watercolour paper, it is
not however always necessary. The paper regarded as the best is hand-made and expensive.
It is identified by the maker’s watermark.

There are also mould-made papers, which are machine-made papers which look very similar
to hand-made papers. There are three standard grades of surface to these papers:
• Hot-pressed – a smooth, glossy surface
• NOT (which means not hot-pressed) – a medium rough textured surface
• Rough – a highly textured, almost crinkled surface.

The NOT surface is suitable for most uses, though with experience other surfaces can be used
to good effect. Mould-made papers are very good and much cheaper than hand-made ones.
There are other machine-made papers which are cheaper than mould-made but some have a
monotonous surface texture and if they are too light they tend to buckle (form bumps and
hollows) when wet.

Paper is available in different weights and sizes. The weight indicates the thickness of the
paper. Papers of 300gms (gram per square metre) or 140lbs (meaning 140lb weight per
ream of 500 sheets) and over can be used for painting without any preparation. Lighter
papers usually need to be stretched before you can paint on them. If you work on larger
pieces of paper you will find a greater degree of buckling at this weight so if you wish to
work larger than A2 a 200lb or heavier paper is recommended. We will be asking you to use
paper which does not need to be stretched.

It does not follow that the most expensive paper will give the best results. Once you have
some experience of watercolour painting and have an idea of the approach to painting that
interests you, you will be able to find the best paper for your style of painting. It is no use,
for example, buying expensive absorbent hand-made paper if your way of working involves
rubbing and scratching the paper surface, as this will only cause it to become battered and
woolly. A much harder paper will be more suitable.

OCA Painting 1: Watercolour Practice 11

 For this course you will need:
• Two white watercolour pads to start: one A4 size and the other A3 size. These must
contain paper of at least 300gms (140lb). The paper should have a NOT (i.e. not hot-
pressed) surface. A4 size is 210mm x 297mm and A3 is 297mm x 420mm.
Don’t skimp on paper. If you prefer instead of purchasing a pad you can buy a
watercolour block where the paper is stuck down on all edges unlike the loose sheets of
a pad. Many art shops have offers on lighter cheaper papers which can be bought in
large quantities at a fraction of the cost of papers mentioned. These are useful for
experiments and colour testing.

• For some of your assignments you will need sheets of watercolour paper in order to
make large paintings. These can usually be found at your local art shop where you can
buy individual sheets. The sheets come in the same grades and qualities as you will find
in a pad and vary slightly in size. A good quality paper is recommended for your
assignment paintings and a NOT surface is usually suitable for all but you may use
other surfaces if you prefer them.

• Two or three sketchbooks: an A4 size and a small one (A5 or A6) which will go in a
pocket or bag and can be taken everywhere. You may find that you also want a much
larger sketchbook as your work increases in size. Sketchbooks don’t have to be of
watercolour paper and the paper doesn’t have to be 300gms in weight. You won’t be
using watercolours all the time in your sketchbooks and if the paint causes slight
buckling on a few pages it doesn’t matter. Don’t however buy sketchbooks with very
thin smooth paper. These are not suitable for the kind of work you will be doing. In
general the smaller the format the lighter the paper you can get away with using.

Early Spring Anemone

Elizabeth Blackadder

12 OCA Painting 1: Watercolour Practice

Paints
• Watercolour paints are made by all the major artists’ materials manufacturers. Different
manufacturers produce slightly different ranges of colours with differences in
consistency, colour strength, hues and handling qualities. Different brands of
watercolour paints are compatible and can be mixed together.

• Watercolours are available in two kinds: Artists’ and Students’. Artists’ quality
watercolours are generally more finely ground, are purer pigments and are the best
available but Students’ watercolours are cheaper and could be used for this course. The
best paints will not necessarily produce the best paintings!

• The choice is yours to decide whether to buy pans, half pans, or tubes of watercolour
paint. Pans are neater to store and good to take with you when you are working
outside. Tubes, on the other hand, are preferred by some artists as they can provide rich,
intense colour more quickly than pans.

• Pans are available in two sizes, pans and half pans. You will probably be familiar with
the traditional watercolour paint box made from enamelled metal with a lid which
doubles as a palette when opened out. These watercolour boxes have divisions in which
to place pans or half pans and clips to hold them in place. Watercolour boxes can be
bought fitted with paints, or empty for you to fill with your own choice of colours. If you
decide to use watercolour pans you will need a suitable box for them, so if you haven’t
already got one, buy a box of a size which will hold the number of colours we suggest
you have, plus a few extra which, no doubt, you will wish to add to your range of
colours later. Similar boxes with lids which can be used as palettes are also available for
watercolour tubes. You could use any small, strong box, for example a small ice cream
tub to hold your paints and have a separate palette.

• Tubes also come in different sizes and it is economical to buy larger tubes of most used
colours.

• You can be sparing in the amount of paint you squeeze out from a tube but try not to
let economy dictate what you do and don’t be too conscientious about cleaning
palettes – residues can always be used again.

• It can be useful to include an opaque water-soluble paint such as gouache or Chinese

white with your colours. Some paint boxes include Chinese white as standard. Chinese
white has a softer off-white look in comparison with white gouache which dries to a
hard white finish. Opaque colours are sometimes used as an integral part of watercolour
technique. Watercolour can be mixed with gouache and Chinese white.

OCA Painting 1: Watercolour Practice 13

 • The following colours would provide you with a good range to start with:
Lemon yellow
Cadmium yellow (not Cadmium yellow pale)
Cadmium red
Alizarin crimson
Viridian (to be used with caution)
Sap green or Vivid green
Cobalt blue
French ultramarine
Prussian blue
Cerulean blue
Burnt umber
Burnt sienna
Yellow ochre
Neutral tint (Only available in Artists’ quality watercolours)
A tube of Chinese white or white gouache

Almost all painters and painting tutors have their own ideas about the most useful colours to
buy. In the end the choice is yours and you may wish to experiment with additional colours
as the course proceeds.

The Mansard Roof Edward Hopper

14 OCA Painting 1: Watercolour Practice

Brushes
The sizes of brushes are not critical but you will need small, medium and large ones. The
quality of the brushes is however very important. Sable brushes are without doubt the best
but they are expensive and need to be cared for if they are to last. This means avoiding
‘scrubbing’ with them and always washing and drying them at the end of each painting
session. To dry them, first shake off any water, carefully reshape the brushes – restoring the
points to pointed brushes – and then stand them (with the hairs upmost) in a jar to dry.

There are excellent substitutes for sable on the market, including brushes which combine
sable with synthetic hairs. These brushes are considerably cheaper and you will find by
experiment which ones suit you best. One test you can carry out in most art shops is to dip a
pointed brush in a pot of water before you buy it. If it comes to a good point when you draw
it out, you will probably have a useful brush for watercolour. Your tutor may have advice
about brushes too. If you have access to the internet you will find companies offering
reasonably priced sable brushes which you can order online.

The most important features of watercolour brushes are their ability to hold paint and water,
and their keeping a good point. Natural hair or synthetic bristles each have different qualities
and it is a good idea to try a range of brushes if you can to find the ones which suit your
needs the best.

You will need the following brushes to start with:

• a pointed round sable (or good substitute) size 4
• a pointed round sable (or good substitute) size 10 or 12
• a large wash brush which will hold a good amount of water – this can be a brush with
synthetic hair, or a squirrel mop brush (usually a fraction of the cost of a sable brush). It
can have a square or a round end – but you may find a round-ended one more flexible.
It should be at least 3cm (over an inch) across at the end.

Optional extra brushes:

• a few round sable brushes (or good substitutes) of different sizes, from example size 8
to size 1 or 2
• a flat square-ended synthetic brush at least 13mm (half-inch) wide
• a small hog’s hair bristle brush of the kind used by oil painters – you will find this
useful for mixing larger amounts of pigment or scraping out highlights
• A set of cheap square hair brushes.

You can make a start with only three brushes but as you progress through the course you
may find you need more, so that you do not have constantly to clean them before using
another colour.
OCA Painting 1: Watercolour Practice 15
 Palettes
If you don’t have a conventional watercolour paint box, a large white saucer, a white enamel
plate or an old white dinner plate could be used as a watercolour palette but you will have
to be cautious about where the colours run into each other. You may also wish to have a
palette in addition to using your paint-box lid. If you have already completed one of our
other painting courses you may well have one of these already which has been used as a
palette for acrylics. There are various kinds of palettes available for watercolours at artists’
materials shops. The most common are chinaware ‘saucers’ with divisions for different
colours. There are many cheap plastic or aluminium alternatives; either round or oblong with
wells for mixing. Whatever you use, it must have space for you to squeeze out your paints, if
you are using tubes, and also plenty of space for mixing colours. If you are using pans you
only need space for colour mixing. Once you have tried out your paints you will soon have a
good idea of how much space you will require.

Masking fluid
Art masking fluid is sometimes used to protect areas of your paper from washes of colour. It
is essential for some projects, but you only need a small bottle. It is important to read the
cleaning instructions if you choose to use masking fluid as it can be difficult to remove from
a brush especially when it starts to dry. It is a good idea to use a cheap synthetic brush with
masking fluid or a stick. If you use a brush you will have to wash it quickly with warm soapy
water before the latex solidifies.

Note: some makes of masking fluid come with a special fine nozzle which can be more
effective to use than a brush.

Drawing board, pins and clips

You will need a drawing board of approximately 45cm x 60cm to which you can attach your
paper for drawing and painting. It must be smooth surfaced. A piece of plywood, blockboard
or MDF (medium density fibreboard) approximately 15mm thick will be satisfactory.
Chipboard isn’t suitable. Hardboard is possible but the thin hardboard normally available
tends to be too flexible. Drawing boards of various kinds are available from artists’ materials
shops.

Bulldog clips, drawing pins or masking tape will be needed to fix your paper to your board.
The type of clips needed will depend on the thickness of the board.

16 OCA Painting 1: Watercolour Practice

Easel
An easel provides a support for your drawing board and you may already have one. But
unless you can tilt it to a very shallow angle you will have your watercolour running straight
off which may not be an effect that you want! You can sit with one edge of the board on
your knee and use the table or a chair-back to prop up your board at a suitable angle, or rest
the board on a table with the top edge on some books.

Water pots
These could be glass jars; for example jam jars or smaller glass containers. With glass jars it’s
easier to see when the water is getting dirty and needs to be changed. If you paint outside,
plastic pots or cut off water or milk bottles make a lighter alternative. The more pots you
have the better. Sometimes it’s worth keeping two or three by you to avoid crossing too many
colours as you keep dipping and mixing.

Landscape at Fulmer, Buckinghamshire Paul Nash

OCA Painting 1: Watercolour Practice 17

 Other materials
You will also need at various stages in the course:
• a small sponge (you can buy natural sponges from art shops)
• masking tape
• a range of graphite pencils: H, HB, 2B and 6B, as a minimum. H and B indicate the
hardness or softness of the lead. HB is a medium grade and 6B is softer and blacker
• rags and kitchen paper or toilet roll for some artistic activities and for wiping brushes,
cleaning your palette and mopping up
• a camera.

You may also wish to buy the following:

• items such as a folding stool, or kneeling mat for work outside, a bag for your materials
and a container for carrying brushes for working on location
• a folder or portfolio in which to keep your work
• a hair dryer will be most useful for drying your work more quickly. Be careful, however,
not to hold it too close to any one area for too long, or the paper will buckle.

You should also start collecting from now on:

• postcards or other reproductions (coloured or black and white) and photographs of
works of art, buildings, places etc which interest you
• catalogues from exhibitions you visit
• cuttings of interest from newspapers and magazines
• objects (if you have somewhere to store them) which you may like to draw or paint.

A note on art materials: The course can be done with two sorts of paper (140lb NOT
watercolour paper and sketchbook paper), a few brushes and about a dozen watercolour
paints plus a handful of additional materials.

18 OCA Painting 1: Watercolour Practice

Watercolour Practice

Part one
Making a start

A page from the Moroccan sketchbook, Meknes Eugene Delacroix

 In this part you will build your experience of handling watercolours in different ways and
experimenting with other media alongside watercolour. You will be building a portfolio of
your experiments, exercises and studies to help you keep an open mind about the
possibilities of the medium and to help you to assess your progress at this early stage. While
there is no assignment as such for this introductory section you can submit experiments that
you feel especially interested in and a piece of work that reflects your progress so far. Your
tutor will be able to give you useful informal feedback at this stage.

To start you need to learn to use the basic materials – brushes, paper and paint. Working
with new materials poses a challenge to all artists and takes time and patience. Remember
as you begin that everything you do will help to build up your knowledge and experience,
even the mistakes are important stages in your learning about watercolours and how they
behave.

Take time in between the projects to consider what happened during the process of painting
and assess how the end result turned out. Write your thoughts in your learning log to record
your progress and reflect on how you could improve your technique in the future. Look back
at earlier work and assess your progress noting in your learning log any areas that require
greater practice.

Try out the projects several times to make the most of your experience. You can try all sorts
of things in your sketchbooks which may come in useful later on. Try new colours, unusual
brushes, painting over collage or textured paper made from gesso or paste, for example. Be
adventurous and explore what watercolours can offer you.

Still Life of Peaches and Figs Paul Cezanne

20 OCA Painting 1: Watercolour Practice

Project 1 Mixing and applying
watercolour
Before you embark on any further exercises it is worth getting familiar with mixing and
handling watercolour. These initial exercises will help you to grasp some basics about loading
the brush and controlling the way that you apply the paint.

Materials: It is best to work on watercolour paper but if you have cheap sheets of light
absorbent paper you should use this now. You will need a range of brushes but begin with
size 6 – 10 and use a single colour each time.

Exercise: Loading the brush

In this exercise you will need to concentrate on two things – the mixing of the colour and the
amount of paint to apply with the brush to achieve an even effect. These are two important
skills in watercolour painting to learn.

Always add the paint (from your tubes or pans) to the water and not the other way round.
This gives you control over the strength of the colour in the mixture and ensures it is evenly
mixed. If you add water to the paint you cannot always tell how strong your colour will be
when you start brushing it on your paper.

Make a small pool of water in your palette using your brush and add a small amount of your
chosen colour to the water. Give it a good mix until the pigment has dissolved in the water.
Continue to add paint, a little at a time, until you have the desired strength of colour you
require. Test the mixture by painting a few patches on a scrap of watercolour paper. Spread
the paint thinly to see how light or dark your mixture is. You should not make a puddle of
paint but a smooth, thin layer which can dry quickly.

If your mixture is too pale when it dries continue adding paint to your mixture as above. If it
is too dark you can dilute it with a little more water but be careful not to add too much at a
time – a little goes a long way.

Once the colour is as you want it apply it in the following ways using a large watercolour
brush (size 6 or larger):
• Load the brush so that it is dripping with paint. Try to paint a small even patch on your
paper. What happens?
• Dry the brush and dip only the tip in the paint and attempt another small patch. Is this
easier?
• Load your brush again but this time it should not drip but still hold its point. Paint a
small even patch. How does this compare to the two previous attempts?

OCA Painting 1: Watercolour Practice 21

 You should, with practice and time, be able to judge how much paint is on your brush and
the effect it will give you.

Too much paint on your brush may result in flooding the painting and will take a long time
to dry. This can be resolved if you respond quickly to correct the situation. All you need to do
is lightly touch the paint puddle with the tip of a dry brush and allow the paint to soak up
into the brush. Don’t try to move the brush in the puddle – you will get a patchy layer. If the
brush is full lift it off the page and dry it and return to the paint to soak up more of the
paint. Continue as necessary.

Look at the areas of colour you have painted and assess what you have learned about the
handling of watercolour. Make notes in your learning log.

Sunset J M W Turner

22 OCA Painting 1: Watercolour Practice

Exercise: Fading tones
Put out one colour from a pan or tube and once again take the colour to the water pool that
you’ve made with your brush. Now make simple marks across your sheet of paper (this could
simply be a print of the brush mark). Begin by mixing the strongest deepest shade of your
colour with the greatest concentration of pigment but beware of any solid paint in your
brush marks. Gradually dilute the paint so that you achieve a graduated sequence of marks.
Your sheet should show a gradual fading from the deepest and most saturated tones through
to the faintest and most transparent stains.

Try this exercise several times and each time try to control the gradual fading with greater
accuracy.
• What happens when the paint dries?
• Does a drier brush make fainter marks?
• Did you notice any progress in controlling the fade?
• At what stage do you need to add more water?

Make sure that you wash your brush carefully before continuing. You must be meticulous
with washing brushes and change your water frequently. Single colours such as the yellows
pollute very easily.

Repeat this exercise with a different contrasting colour. Do you notice any change in how the
paint behaves? Some paints leave greater residues as they dry.

Once your exercise sheets have dried out, work over the top of the brush marks that you’ve
made. Repeat the exercise overlapping on some of the dry marks. You could simply turn the
paper around to help you focus on your new sequence of fading marks.

Notice the way in which you have achieved tonal variation and how the transparent stains
combine to produce new shades of different colours.

Much of the skill involved in watercolour painting concerns both the controlled and
accidental combining of transparent layers of colour and allowing the white paper ground to
illuminate the colours and provide tonal contrast.

OCA Painting 1: Watercolour Practice 23

 Exercise: Random marks
In contrast to the last exercise you can make random marks and still assess the effects of
tonal variation and colour mixing by layers.

Put down some newspaper to protect your table or floor– this is a messy exercise. You will
need a large, at least an A3, sheet of paper.

Load your brush so that it is dripping with paint. Flick this across your paper a few times.
Allow this to dry or use a hair dryer to speed things up. What do you notice?

With a thoroughly clean brush repeat the exercise with a contrasting colour. How does the
colour mixing vary from the more controlled used of the brush in the previous exercise?

Once dry, using a large wash brush paint a faint but even wash of a third colour across half
the sheet of splash marks. What do you notice about your increasingly complex mix of tones
and shades of colour?

Less controlled application of

watercolour can produce
dynamic and exciting effects.
Don’t be afraid to experiment.
Use any of these simple
exercises and build on them,
making notes as you progress in
your learning log.

Blue Monday Dreaming Mark Ari

24 OCA Painting 1: Watercolour Practice

Exercise: Fish and leaves
This exercise introduces you to some fundamental techniques in watercolour painting;
creating simple shapes; washing off; layering tones; and simple washes. Don’t worry about
the quality of your brush drawing at this stage; you are finding out a bit more about how
watercolour works. The aim is to produce simple effects which can be built on as you move
through the course.

Take a single A3 sheet of paper from your watercolour pad and fix it to your painting board
using drawing pins, bulldog clips or masking tape. Make sure you have a clear work surface
so that nothing is in the way when you are working. Set out your paintbox and at least two
good-sized containers of water so that you do not have to stretch for them.

For this exercise, as for most others, work with your board at a shallow angle so that the
paper is easy to see. You could use an easel or rest the top edge of your board on books or
some other support, or you could put the board in your lap and rest it against a table or
chair back, whichever is most comfortable. Don’t have your board at such a steep angle that
the paint runs down the paper.

Fish
Take a no. 10 or 12 sable or similar brush. Decide on a blue from your tubes or pans and
take water on your brush to the paint. Mix up enough paint on the palette or a saucer to be
able to make plenty of brush marks. Try a few shapes on scrap paper first if you like, but
don’t spend much time doing this.

Paint a single, simple blue shape that looks like a fish. Any fish will do, but keep it simple.
Paint your fish in one half of the paper, as you will be using the other half for the next
exercise.

Try to let the brush help you make the shape of the fish. The curved side of the brush can be
used as well as the point. A single brush mark may do the trick for the body, depending on
the size of your brush; if not, move the watercolour around to get a good shape with a more
or less uniform colour. You will probably find it easier to work from the inside, pushing the
fluid paint outwards to make the body edge; this edge can then be extended with the brush
point to suggest fins. If these suggestions don’t suit you, use the brush in whatever way you
like to get a reasonable looking fish.

However you work, be quick and don’t alter the shape once it is made. Now paint more fish
shapes around your first fish. Paint each quite quickly, but try to improve on their ‘fishness’ as
you go. Stop when you have a little shoal.

OCA Painting 1: Watercolour Practice 25

 There should be little detail. Detail
is unlikely to help you make a vivid
impression here; it is the freshness
and simplicity of the brush mark
combined with the general outline
that counts.

Use a hair dryer to speed drying if

you wish. When everything is dry,
look at what you have done. Some
shapes will be more successful than
others. Make a mental note of how
you did the ones that worked best
and try to develop this approach in
the following exercises.

Leaves
Now choose a green from your box and mix up enough paint to make another group of
shapes. This time make the shapes look like leaves. Paint leaves on the other half of the same
sheet of paper. Once again let the brush help you create the shape of the leaves. It is always
better to work ‘with the grain’ of your materials if you can. Group your leaves together to
make a simple plant or branch. If two wet leaf
shapes touch, you may get paint running from
one leaf into the other. Don’t worry about this.

When your leaf shapes are dry, look at them

carefully and compare the most successful ones
with the most successful fish shapes. Can you see
how a successful representation can be made
from quite simple paint marks?

If you are new to watercolour you may find that

only a few shapes pass as fish or leaves. Don’t
worry about this; watercolour depends so much
on confident execution and an aim of this course
is to build that confidence. Look at and
remember the best bits and build on your
successes, step by step. Make a note of your
response and assessment of this exercise in your
learning log.

26 OCA Painting 1: Watercolour Practice

Painting, washing off and painting again
Take a sheet of A3 paper and decide which of the two themes to use, fish or leaves, and
again choose a single colour – you might like to try a different blue or green.

Working quickly, paint fish or leaf shapes across the entire page. Try to make your fish look
like a shoal, or your leaves something like branches or plants, but leave some spaces between
the shapes for more shapes later on.

When everything is completely dry, take the paper and put it under the tap. Wash off the
paint until the fish or leaves look quite faint. You can help this along by brushing the paint
gently as you run the tap over it. Let the paper dry completely.

Mix up some blue paint using plenty of water – perhaps a different blue if you already have
blue fish. Paint over half the shoal or branch or plant, as in the following illustration.

Cover half your objects with a second

colour. Let this wash dry completely.

Now paint some more fish or leaves

using your original colour across the
entire page, so that they seem part of
the whole scene, as in the illustration.

Considering your results

When the paintings are dry, make some brief notes in your learning log in answer to the
following questions:
• Did accidental effects help you in any way at any stage?
• How would you describe the effects of washing off?
• What did the wash layer add to your picture?

OCA Painting 1: Watercolour Practice 27

 Durham Cathedral John Cartmel Crossley
In this painting of Durham Cathedral the building was painted first and the sky washed over the whole.

You have now, in this sequence of activities, experienced two of the main ways of picture-
making with watercolours. You have made coloured marks on the paper and you have also
applied a wash, a layer of paint covering a larger area. You have also seen the value of
removing a colour.

Objects and marks – an interplay: It can be helpful to think of the relationship

between paint marks and the things they represent as an interplay. You can see a patch
of paint, but at almost the same time you can see the thing it represents. There is an
interplay between the two which seems to keep the picture alive. Look out for this
interplay between paint and object in the work of other artists; look, for example, at the
marks that stand for clothes in Delacroix’s sketchbook shown at the start of this part.

28 OCA Painting 1: Watercolour Practice

Project 2 Laying washes

In these exercises you will begin to use watercolour in broad bold washes of colour. This is a
fundamental technique common to most watercolour paintings and an essential one to
master at an early stage. It helps you get to know what the paint can do on wet and dry
paper, how the colour dries, and how much paint to load the brush with to achieve large
areas of colour.

Big areas of wash are useful for flat skies, large areas of plain colour on which to build more
detail later, and as a base for an entire painting. They can also be used to unify a painting
by adding a pale coloured wash over the whole thing once the final layers have dried.

Washes do not always have to be painted as large areas of colour and small patches of paint
can also be termed as a wash. These are used to build up your painting in stages. The
patches of colour you will use in the following projects are an example of this.

Washes
This section deals with carefully controlled washes. These are usually made with a soft wash
brush but can also be made with a piece of sponge. You need something that will carry a fair
amount of paint. John Sell Cotman’s wash technique demonstrates exceptional delicacy and
control. Broad areas of colour have smaller secondary colour shapes nested within them, so
that each larger area is both simple and rich. In spite of the complexity that Cotman
achieves, his pictures are often made up from just one or two simple wash techniques.

Brignall Banks on the Greta John Sell Cotman

OCA Painting 1: Watercolour Practice 29

 Exercise: Plain washes
Start by trying a wash with a single, evenly distributed colour.

Take a sheet of A3 paper. Mix up enough paint with a generous amount of water in a saucer
to cover an area equivalent to your sheet. You can choose how light or dark you want to
make this wash and what colour you will use. It can be a good idea to use a bristle brush to
mix a large amount of paint like this.

Choose a large soft brush – either round or flat will do – and charge it with plenty of paint.

Paint across the top of the page. Use the gentle slope of the board to help you keep a
continuous line of wet colour forming at the lower edge of the wash. Use your brush to move
the accumulating paint at the lower edge of the wash smoothly and evenly across and down
the page. You should be aiming for a flat featureless surface.

When the wash is dry, paint a simple shape in a dark colour in one area. Now assess the
simple pictorial possibilities of a shape on a coloured ground.

Digging Lavere Hutchins

Exercise: Tonally graded washes

Take another sheet of paper. Mix up a saucer of colour – any colour will do, but it should not
be too pale or you will not see the effect intended. Now lay in a wash in the same way as
before, only this time, as you proceed down the page, add a little water to your mix each
time you load your brush. Plan ahead so that by the time you reach the bottom your wash is
almost colourless.

30 OCA Painting 1: Watercolour Practice

Exercise: Mixed-colour washes
Mixed-colour washes can be made from any number of colours. In this exercise you will make
washes from two basic colours and a third by mixing these together.

Take a sheet of paper and the same large soft brush, but mix half the amount of paint used
before. Then in a second saucer mix a similar amount of a second colour. In a third saucer
prepare a mix, in equal quantities, of the two colours you have already chosen.

Now using your first colour make a continuous colour wash from the top down about a third
of the page.

Work quickly, while the first colour is wet and continue the wash down through the middle
third of the page using your prepared mixed colour. When there is about a third of the page
to go, change to your other pure colour to complete the wash.

With practice you can control the

banding effect to make the
transitions between colours more or
less noticeable.

Consider your results Look at the

three types of wash you have made.
Some areas will be more successful
than others.

Try to repeat this exercise only this

time use a sponge to lay your wash.

Make notes in your learning log

about why you feel the best bits
worked well and any differences you
find between brush and sponge
washes.

Building in the Sun Alan Durman

Don’t forget your tutor is there to help and advise you at all stages of your course and a
quick phone call or email may encourage you to carry on even when you think you have
made little progress.

OCA Painting 1: Watercolour Practice 31

 Project 3 Resist techniques

Using resists in watercolour opens up a lot of possibilities and extends your control over the
medium. A material that resists water and can be painted over and around can help you to
plan a composition with what are sometimes called reserved shapes.

The absence of paint or a lower level of paint layers can represent an object or be an
abstract feature. Allowing the white of the paper to shine through in a controlled area can
also represent the lightest tonal area in a composition.

The Marl Pit John Sell Cotman

Look closely and you will see that not only is the lightest light of the cloud created by the
surrounding blue paint representing the sky, but many other objects are created in the same way.
Look at the goat. It is created by the even darker goat behind and its own shadow. The shape of
the goat is less obvious than that of the cloud because it is a dark within a dark. There were
already washes of colour in place inside the goat area before Cotman added the really dark
surround to bring the shape out.

32 OCA Painting 1: Watercolour Practice

Wax
Exercises: Reserved shapes from resists

Plain areas with wax

Take a stick of clear candle wax, or any other
kind of clear wax, and draw a household
object such as a cup or jug on a page in your
sketchbook. If you find this tricky, lightly draw
in the outline of your jug in pencil first, then
fill in with the wax. Next, paint a rich dark
colour over the whole drawing. Your object
should appear amidst a swirl of paint, just like
the cup here.

On a new page lay down continuous colour

over an area larger than the object just
painted. When the paint is dry use wax to
draw a teapot over the dry paint. If it helps
use a pencil outline as a guide. Now choose a
very different colour from your first colour and
paint a second layer over the entire area
covered by the first layer. When you have
finished you should see your teapot in the
colour of the first layer, picked out in the combined colour of both layers.

Patterns with wax

On another page use wax to draw a
pattern or texture loosely taken from a
textile: a carpet, a dress, a tie. Again,
lightly draw in the pattern first if you
wish. Paint over your design with any
colour or with more than one colour.
Shapes should appear, this time
aggregated into a texture or pattern.

OCA Painting 1: Watercolour Practice 33

 Now draw a pattern or texture over a first, dry layer of colour. To make the effect as clear as
possible your second colour should be quite different from the first. When your second layer
is laid down you should see a two-colour pattern, with coloured shapes picked out by a
coloured surround created by two layers of paint. The following shows the result of laying
one dark wash (blue) over the initial wax pattern, using more wax to increase the pattern size
and then laying down a second dark wash (green).

Exercise: Lines with wax

Draw an object such as a winter tree in wax. Use pencil
first if you wish. Using plenty of wet thin paint, paint a
cold blue sky across your tree, and maybe dark earth
beneath to make a little landscape.

As with the two previous exercises, now try a

winter tree on a dry coloured layer. Try to
make the second colour work with the first
to produce a landscape.

34 OCA Painting 1: Watercolour Practice

Candle resist can be added over any dry colour to preserve it and its effect relies on the
pressure you apply when drawing it on your painting and the texture of the paper. A rough
paper will give a much more broken effect than a smooth one. It can be very difficult to see
where you have drawn the candle wax so you must be confident that you have thought out
its effect before you apply it. Oil pastel can be used in similar ways and can be used for
varied effects with watercolour.

Try these exercises again, this time with a coloured wax crayon or pale coloured oil pastel. Try
to make the relationship between crayon colour and watercolour pigment a feature of your
little pictures.

Pink and Green Sleepers

Henry Moore
Henry Moore uses wax
resist to create a rich
textured surface; you can
see this on the blanket in
the foreground.

Masking Fluid
Masking fluid is a white or sometimes tinted rubber liquid which can be used for highlights,
keeping the paper white or creating shapes like the ones you have just made using wax. The
fluid is painted on with a brush or any other implement. When it is dry you paint over it.
When the paint is dry it can be easily rubbed off with the finger, leaving a sharp shape
where the rubber has been.

You will find tinted fluid easier to see against white paper; if you use white fluid on white
paper you can see the fluid more easily if you angle the paper so that light reflects on it
while it is still wet.

Brush care: This is very important when using masking fluid. Never use a good quality
brush as the latex may damage it. You need to wash your brush in warm soapy water
immediately after using the fluid. If you are not sure about this, do the exercises using a
stick to apply the fluid – the effect will be good enough to demonstrate the basic point.

OCA Painting 1: Watercolour Practice 35

 Exercises: Techniques
Plain areas
Lightly sketch your object, then paint over it with masking fluid, filling the shape so that no
paint can get on to the part intended to be solid. When the fluid is dry, paint over with any
colour you like.

Put some colour down and let it dry completely. This time, try painting your object directly on
to the dry colour without the help of a preliminary pencil sketch. You should be able to see
the object materialise because the background will be darker than the object you are
painting. When the fluid is completely dry paint over the whole area again, this time using a
darker colour. When this second layer is dry, gently rub it off with your finger (or a cloth).

Textures or patterns with masking fluid

Make a dense pattern or texture using masking fluid on white paper. Draw in pencil first if
you like. Wash over your masking fluid with a strong colour.

Paint over an area of paper about the same size as the previous pattern with a wash of a
strong bright colour. Let the paint dry and then use masking fluid to draw a texture or
pattern over the first paint layer. When the fluid is dry, paint over the whole area again using
a rich dark colour. You should now have a two-colour pattern. If the pattern is not very clear
keep adding washes as each layer dries until it is.

Line drawings
Use masking fluid to make a line drawing of a linear subject: try electric pylons, a crowd of
stick men or anything using only lines. Sketch the scene with a pencil first if you like. When
you have something you think will look reasonably obvious when painted over, cover the
picture with a coloured wash.

If you were to have two colours to make a little picture like your previous scene what would
they be? There will be one colour for the lines (your first wash) and a second colour for the
rest of the picture, made from the colour of the first layer plus the overlaid colour of the
second. Try to predict a picture using these elements. Then proceed as in the previous
exercises.

36 OCA Painting 1: Watercolour Practice

There are many other materials that can be used to create resist effects, all of which produce
slightly different results. Two often used are gum arabic and gouache. Both these materials
have to be physically washed off the paper after applying them, so that paint layers
surrounding them become weakened. However this wiping out can, with practice, be
controlled to produce subtle effects.

If you have time you could experiment in your sketchbook using either or both of these
materials. Try some exercises based on the ones you have just done.

River Avon, Bath

Anna Teasdale
In this painting the
clean lines of the
foreground plants
have clearly been
masked out and the
painting built up over
the top of them. The
white of the paper
has been preserved
after the masking
fluid has been
removed.

OCA Painting 1: Watercolour Practice 37

 Project 4 Making marks in
different ways
There are many ways that watercolour can be used to create textures and effects. Texture is
important in watercolour painting, adding more dynamic and expressive qualities to
whatever subject you paint, which is not to say that all watercolour paintings need to include
textural brush work or effects.

You may decide, once you have experienced some of the techniques in this exercise, that you
wish to work further on certain textures and effects. Watercolour can be used in many varied
ways to help you express your ideas.

You have already seen something of how different brushes produce different effects. But
there are many other ways to put paint on paper. If you have a range of methods to choose
from you will be able to make more effects, both observed and imagined.

The following exercises give you the chance to experiment with some of the options
available to you. You will need several sheets of A4 and A3 paper. You will also need:
• A small clean sponge or fragment of sponge
• A clean absorbent rag
• Some kitchen paper towel
• Two or three brushes which you did not buy for watercolour painting – a house-
painting brush, an old toothbrush, a hairbrush; any brushes will do as long as they
are clean.

On the Tees at Rockcliffe John Sell Cotman

The simplified areas of wash in this watercolour by Cotman would be lost if texture was built on top.

38 OCA Painting 1: Watercolour Practice

You will need quite large amounts of fairly dark paint. Because you need more paint than
usual, pre-mix one or two colours in separate saucers. A bristle brush breaks down the
pigment more easily.

Exercise: Unusual brush marks

Different sizes and shapes of brushes make different marks and sometimes even the most
rough brushes can produce marks of great interest and expression.

As well as your regular watercolour brushes try to find some other type of brush from around
the house – an old tooth brush or house painting brushes for example. Using as many
different brush types as possible have a go at painting tree shapes and clouds. Use simple
colours at this stage so that the brush mark prevails.

Try making some of these effects on two different types of paper – one smooth (hot pressed
watercolour, or a thick cartridge paper for example), the other with a rough texture. What
happens?

Old Sarum John Constable

In this painting Constable has made a rich variety of brush marks to indicate the broad
fleeting clouds and the textures of the landscape. Compare this painting to the landscape by
Eric Ravilious, an English artist from the early twentieth century.

OCA Painting 1: Watercolour Practice 39

 New Year Snow 1935 Eric Ravilious
Like the Constable painting on the previous page, this watercolours depicts a landscape with a dramatic sky.
Can you identify how Ravilious used his brush marks in a different way to Constable?

Earth Sky John Nash

Ravilious used a dry brush technique which can also be seen in this painting by John Nash. It is
achieved by using a rough textured paper and very little paint on the brush. The brush is
scraped over the paper with a swift, firm gesture allowing the raised texture of the paper to pick
up the paint leaving the depressed texture clean. Nash has used the texture to represent the
rough furrows of a ploughed field. Why do you think he has called his painting Earth Sky?

40 OCA Painting 1: Watercolour Practice

A note on brushes: There are brushes for particular effects such as a fan shaped brush
which can be used to paint grasses. John Glover (1767-1849) developed a split hair brush
like a comb that he used to paint foliage, but you can paint effectively without highly
specialised brushes.

Exercise: Using various brushes

Take an A4 sheet of paper and use one of your non-specialist brushes. Use premixed colour
to make a pattern that combines at least two different kinds of mark. Don’t be afraid to push
the brush hard on the paper to see what kind of marks the bristles make under pressure.
Cover the sheet with your pattern. While the paint is still wet, quickly press down on the
surface of half the page
with a dry paper towel and
lift off half the pattern. This
example is made with a
toothbrush.

On a second sheet of paper,

use a premixed colour and
a different non-specialist
brush to make a different
kind of pattern, perhaps by
holding the brush absolutely vertically, or in some other way different from before. Cover a
good area of paper. While the paint is still wet, lift off half the area using a dry paper towel.
Compare the effects of brush mark and lifting off.

Soak a clean sheet of paper in water so that it is wet

through. Leave it in a sink or bath for at least ten minutes.
Dry off any surface water and, choosing a third non-
specialist brush, make a further pattern. When the paper is
covered, lift off half using a dry paper towel. This example
was made using a house painting brush.

Compare dry and wet versions. Notice the softness the damp
paper usually produces.

OCA Painting 1: Watercolour Practice 41

 Exercise: Other tools for watercolour
Blotting and wiping
Cover a sheet of paper with a fairly even layer of blue paint and while it is still wet use a dry
sponge to make some clouds in the top half. When the paint is dry, lay another layer of the
same blue across the bottom third of the picture; you now have a simple seascape. You could
go on to see the effect you get by removing blue sky with a damp sponge.

You can experiment further by adding blue layers and sponging out until you have a very
dark blue seascape with dramatic clouds. Remember you are just exploring what the paint
and sponge will do – not making a picture for exhibition. Lifting off (as this technique is
called) will be explored further in Part 3.

Colour can be lifted off your paper while it is still wet, or damp, with a cloth, sponge or
kitchen paper. Experiment with different effects such as dabbing with a scrunched up tissue
or rag to lift out cloud effects from a sky, or wiping away colour in a random texture to make
a foundation for your later painting.

The Monastery of St. George David Bomberg

The first layer of colour may have been achieved using a rag, sponge, brush or a similar kind of tool. You can see
the wiped effects quite clearly and they contribute to the spontaneous feeling of the painting.

42 OCA Painting 1: Watercolour Practice

Surfaces and textures
Clingfilm
Cover the paper with a layer of colour and press crumpled clingfilm onto the surface. It is
then left to dry for several hours. Don’t be tempted to lift the clingfilm before the paint is dry
or the texture will be lost. Describe the effects you have made in your learning log. How
could you incorporate these effects into a painting?

Salt Crystals
Sprinkle rock salt over a wet wash of colour and leave it to dry. When the crystals are
brushed away see what pattern remains. Again how could you employ these effects?

Scarifying, scraping and texturing

Changes can be made to the surface texture of the paper by scratching with a craft knife
across or making deep marks with a hard pencil. Abrasions can be made to the paper either
before painting or working on the dried paint with sandpaper or even fingernails. This will
make the paint absorb differently, creating interesting textures and tonal variations.
Scarifying can also be a way to reintroduce light tones into a painted area.

Squall at Reiff Christine Gregory

This list of techniques is by no means exhaustive and you will most likely discover many more
as you explore painting in watercolour. If you are feeling really inventive you may find new
materials and equipment to make a whole new range of effects. At this stage try out as
many techniques as possible in your sketchbook and on watercolour paper to see what
difference the paper surface contributes to the effect.

OCA Painting 1: Watercolour Practice 43

 The Old Kitchen Garden at Lannock James Willis
In this example an old tooth brush has been dipped in a strong mixture of Gamboge and splattered over the
semi-dry grass layer to give a soft variation of colour and suggest the texture of flowers in the grass.

Research Point
Before you start your own watercolour painting using some of the techniques outlined above,
try to get to see watercolour pictures in galleries and exhibitions, or look up some from
different periods and in different styles in books or on the internet.

Try to identify different techniques used by a variety of artists. Study the effects and assess
what the impact of these have on the style or mood of the picture. Make notes in your
learning log. Make a few sketches in your book to record your observations and try to
incorporate your findings in your own work.

Considering your results: Look through the experiments you have made. Can you think of
other (perhaps unexpected) ways in which watercolour paint can be laid on and
manipulated?

44 OCA Painting 1: Watercolour Practice

Assignment 1
Your first watercolour painting
This first assignment is about introducing yourself so that your tutor can get to know you,
your interests and your work better. This assignment is not submitted for formal
assessment.

Think of the exercises that you have most enjoyed and start to consider how you might apply
techniques you have learned in painting a particular subject.

Choose from one of the following optional subjects:

• Imaginary landscape or dreamscape
• Simple landscape – a view from the window
• Simple interior – a corner of a room where you live
• Still life of either household objects, fruit or vegetables
• Flower painting – either a single flower, a bunch in a vase or a group in the garden

Make a number of small studies in your sketchbook using just pencil to help you to decide on
the arrangement of your picture. Half close your eyes and assess the light source, noting
where the light falls and where the deepest shades are. Do a simple drawing that shows
where the broad tonal areas fit together.

Working on a sheet of at least A3 watercolour paper do a preliminary watercolour study in

which you explore some possible colour combinations and perhaps try out some of the
techniques used so far.

Now start your painting on another sheet of A3 paper. If it makes you feel more confident
you may wish to make some pencil marks to guide you before you begin to paint. But try to
work loosely and with a free hand, adding in or taking out colours. Make sure that you have
used at least two of the techniques and effects explored so far as your tutor will be looking
to see how you have experimented with the techniques in this part.

Put your name and student number on the back of the painting and send it together
with any of your portfolio work that you feel is especially effective, sketchbook pages
and learning log to your tutor.

Alternatively, with their agreement, you can photograph your work, learning log notes
and sketchbook pages and email them to your tutor. The aim of this initial assessment is
to open a dialogue with your tutor and to obtain some early feedback.

OCA Painting 1: Watercolour Practice 45