The watercolor technique is quite diverse, but at the same time complicated. Paints need to be diluted with water, due to this they become more mobile. In turn, this allows you to use various techniques: to work out thin parts, perform wide fillings, pour one smear into another.
Learning to draw, it is useful to perform watercolor studies. It is very important to see the work holistically and to feel the picturesque environment.
Tips
- Do not be afraid to draw. Everyone can portray vegetables, fruits or landscapes, the main thing is to believe in yourself and find inspiration in yourself.
- The quality of watercolor paper plays an important role, and the final result depends on it. It is necessary to try out all the varieties of sheets encountered in order to choose the perfect paper for yourself. It is necessary to make notes on the sheets (paper weight, its grade and what the result is).
- When visiting a park or other picturesque place, you need to take a camera with you. After all, photos in the future will be able to inspire the creation of new works. Starting to create new watercolor sketches, it is the pictures that will remind you of how they should look.
- To remove excess moisture from brushes, you will need napkins or paper towels.
Watercolor studies: fruits and vegetables
Watercolor painting is taught in stages. They start with simpler tasks, and only then move on to more complex ones. For starters, you can use any kind of fruit or vegetables as a nature. The main task in this case is the transfer, tones, and drawing of the volume of objects using the background and falling shadows.
At the first stage, it is necessary to draw the outlines with a simple pencil. It’s better not to use the eraser, but simply draw a thin, slightly noticeable, refining line. In order not to forget about the shadows, you can slightly shade the necessary areas.
Further, leaving glare in the right places, fill the entire surface of the picture with the lightest shade. When the raw backing is ready, start writing the selected vegetable or fruit. The first should be a semitone, then, starting from it, write shadows and light. In conclusion, it remains to clarify tonal solutions.
Having mastered the sketches of vegetables, watercolor will no longer be a problem, and then you can move on to the image of several vegetables or fruits, then a jug and a still life.
How to draw a landscape in watercolor
The atmosphere of watercolor studies is just one instant, a fleeting state of nature that the watercolor artist managed to capture.
Starting to draw sketches in watercolor, the landscape first needs to be imagined in your head. The artist must determine how much space on the sheet will occupy the sky, and how much - the earth. Often the horizon line is lowered slightly below the middle, and this is compositionally true. A watercolor sketch begins to be depicted from the sky, especially if the artist chose a wet technique.
At the second stage, landscape planes are drawn. The tones of dark areas are amplified. At this stage, it is necessary to concentrate not only on the planes, but also on the individual details. The final stage is work with thin brushes, they draw small details and make the picture complete.
Sketches of flowers in watercolor
When a novice artist begins to draw a bouquet of flowers, the first thing he sees is a lot of small twigs and flowers. However, do not be perplexed. Taking up work, the first thing is to harmoniously arrange the flowers in the right order. Small flowers create the background, they are depicted further and they should be smaller.
3-4 cm should be retreated from the edges of the sheet - this will be a frame that cannot be stepped over. The preliminary picture should be sketched with a pencil, while you should not press on it so as not to deform the paper. The composition should resemble a geometric shape (triangle or oval).
Working with paints, on the palette it is necessary to prepare a selection of the necessary cold and warm shades that will be present in the picture. Start work with the background, initially working with light colors, and then darken areas with a shadow.
Then proceed to the drawing of flowers. Initially, light shades are outlined, and after that, shades on the petals are added with a glaze thin layer. You need to pay attention to the fact that in the background did not appear a lot of small details.
Watercolor sketches should be written in a generalized way, it is better to do it “raw” so that one color smoothly transitions to another. This is how unique shades are created, and the picture turns out to be alive. It is only necessary to finish the small petals and stems with a thin brush.
Interesting
Watercolor is very similar to gouache, so they can be used together. The difference between these colors in transparency. Watercolor is more transparent than gouache. It is this property that determines the final result. However, these two techniques are based on similar techniques.
Creating watercolor sketches, it is necessary to control the amount of water in which you want to dilute the paint. The liquid not only dissolves the paint and makes it more transparent, but also determines the degree of clarity of the future pattern. Therefore, it is best to study watercolor technique with determining the required amount of water.