Watercolor paint composition. Watercolor paints

Watercolors are artistic paints based on vegetable glue, soluble in water. It lays down in a thin translucent layer, which is its feature. Watercolors were first created in China in the 2nd century AD. Watercolors are painted on special watercolor paper, which differs from the usual thickness, density and texture; soft brushes are usually used - squirrel or kolinsky. Before applying watercolor to paper, it is diluted with water; after drying, it can be stored for quite a long time.

WHAT IS THE ARTICLE ABOUT?

Composition of different colors

Do you know what watercolor paints are made of? For their production, aniline, mineral and plant components are used. However, the aniline substance is used least often, since it gives a stable saturated color, soaking the paper through without being washed away by water, which eliminates the most important feature of watercolor paints - translucent application.

One of the most common components is mineral. Its advantage is durability and low cost. So, to make watercolors, crushed color pigments mixed with water are combined with a binder and the resulting mass is packaged in tubes, cuvettes or pressed into a cake shape.

Fish or cherry glue, gum arabica, candy sugar, gelatin and others are used as a binder for all components. The highest quality watercolors are made with the addition of gum arabica, sometimes with an admixture of candy sugar (from 20 to 40%), as well as wood glue or dextrin in various proportions.

Different types of minerals correspond to a specific shade of watercolor.

Lead white with a large amount of heavy spar admixture gives White color. The snow-white shade is obtained from the highest grade lead white - Kremzerweiss.

Yellow color is made from crown yellow - chrome-lead salt, and yellow carmine, ocher, cadmium sulfide, etc. are also used. These paints vary in shades from light yellow and lemon to rich orange and ocher. The peculiarity of yellow paints is the change in shade by sunlight. If the watercolor is made on the basis of crown, it should be taken into account that it cannot be combined with paints that contain sulfur, i.e. with blue shades.

Red shades are made from lead minium - a mineral paint that has a bright red color, the highest grade is Mignorange. The finished shade of watercolor depends on the degree of grinding of the particles: the finer, the brighter the color.

The color red is also obtained from carmine. However, its origin is not mineral, but animal, which gives such color specific property– insolubility in water.

Shades of blue are made from artificial ultramarine. Its shades range from sky blue to dark blue. More light color obtained from the mineral components of a fine fracture.

Also Prussian blue blue is the basis of blue watercolor paints, its color is dark blue.

Indigo - dark Blue colour with a copper-red tint, perhaps of mineral or plant origin.

Green shades are obtained by mixing blue and yellow paints or they are made from crown green, verdigris, cinnabar green, chrome green, ultramarine green, etc.

Manufacturing process

How are watercolors made? The process of making watercolors begins with selecting the desired shade of mineral paint. You can choose it from ready-made raw materials or by mixing several colors. If the shade is too saturated, it is weakened by adding white.

Most important point in production – careful grinding of mineral raw materials. Since mineral paints often do not dissolve in water, coloring occurs due to the attachment of paint particles to the paper surface.

• Primary mineral raw materials are produced in pieces or coarse powder.
• Next, the mineral paints are crushed in a paint grinder, runners, ball mills or a stone mortar if it is made by hand. The finer the particles obtained, the higher the grade of watercolor paint.
• Then the resulting mass is combined with a binder, for example, gum arabic. So for the red color, made from carmine, only a candy solution is suitable, and a dextrin solution is used for emerald green and chrome color.
• The amount of binder depends on the mineral raw material; white and black colors require it the least, and ocher shades require the most.
• After combining the mineral paint with an aqueous solution of a binder, a clay-like dough is obtained and rolled out to a thickness of 5-8 mm, after which it is left to dry for 12 - 20 hours.
• If the watercolor is subsequently packaged in a tube, then in addition to the binder, non-crystallizing liquid honey or glycerin is added.
• Depending on the release form, liquid watercolor is packaged in a jar, semi-liquid watercolor in a tube, solid watercolor in a cuvette or tile.
• When the watercolor has hardened enough, it is formed into the chosen shape. The finished mass is cut into appropriate pieces and glued to the tile with wood glue or fish glue.

Second cooking method

Glycerin is poured into the reactor with additional binding elements. Next, a coloring pigment is added to the bowl (special bowl), and the entire resulting mass certain time is mixed. Then, in a thin stream, the watercolor blank enters a paint grinding machine designed for a specific color and is ground. Next, the mass enters vats, from which it is poured through special hoses into a packaging machine, where the colors are packed into ready-made containers for sale, and then the watercolor is dried for two days.

An example of making blue paint

Prussian blue mineral paint is finely ground, mixed with water and hydrochloric acid and then bring to a boil. After which the paint settles, the excess liquid is drained. Gum arabic and glue, which is previously dissolved in water, are added to the resulting mass and heated at a measured temperature until a paste of thick consistency is obtained.

CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF WATER COLOR PAINTS

WATERCOLOR PAINTS

Abstracts of lecture 5.

Subject message.

Organizational part of the lesson.

Lesson structure

Lesson 5. Lecture 2.

Questions to reinforce learned material

Appendix 1

Summarizing

Summarizing the material (questions to reinforce the material – addendum 1)

Teacher__________________________

1. what brush techniques do you know;

2. what parts does the brush consist of?

3. brush shapes;

4. types of hair bundle of the brush;

Topic 2. Classification of paints for graphics. Paints – water-soluble (watercolor, gouache), tempera (oil-casein, egg, polyvinyl citrate, etc.), acrylics. Materials for oil painting.

Target: introduction to the techniques of working with watercolor, gouache, tempera, oil, acrylic.

Literature:ʼʼAdvice from the experts. Painting and graphics, A.S. Zaitsev, Len., Artist of the RSFSR, 1979

ʼʼMaterials and drawing techniquesʼʼ, tutorial, V.A. Korolev, M., Fine Arts, 1987

“Painting technique”, G.B.Nikodemi, tools, materials, methods, M., EKSMO, 2002

Type of lesson: lecture.

Method: explanation.

Checking the presence of students in classes.

Classification of paints. Watercolor, gouache, tempera, oil, acrylic.

3. Motivation for educational activities:

Students should know: classification of paints, features of their use.

4. Lesson plan:

• classification of paints for graphics;
• water-soluble paints;
• tempera;
• oil;
• acrylic.

Watercolor paints belong to the group of adhesive paints. The name "watercolor" comes from Latin wordʼʼaquaʼʼ - water, since water is a solvent for this type of paint.

The binder for watercolor paints is vegetable transparent glues - gum arabic and dextrin, easily soluble in water. Watercolor paints also contain a plasticizer in the form of glycerin and invert sugar, which makes them plastic. Glycerin retains moisture and prevents paints from drying out and becoming brittle. The surfactant ‣‣‣-ox bile is also introduced into watercolor paints, which makes it easy to spread the paint on paper, since the bile prevents the paint from rolling into drops. To prevent the destruction of paints by mold, an antiseptic - phenol - is introduced into them.

Watercolor is the only type of paint that is distinguished by its special transparency, purity and brightness of color. This is achieved not only by the purity of the materials used, but also by the high dispersity of the pigments, obtained by special grinding of the powders.

In cases where opacity or dullness of the paints is required, use a mixture of watercolor paints with the corresponding gouache paints or the paints are diluted in a soap solution.

Light ocher*

The paint is a cool tone, transparent, but somewhat dull in color. The great advantage of light ocher is that when it dries, it merges with the paper and becomes silky.

Light ocher is a highly light-resistant paint. Light fastness - 5 points**. It is not recommended to dilute ocher in iron dishes; this causes it to turn green.

Cadmium lemon

Specific feature paint is its dullness in any layer of paint in intensity, approaching gouache, although in terms of transparency and color saturation the paint is not similar to gouache Light fastness - 4 points.

Cadmium yellow

The paint is similar to cadmium lemon, but more transparent. Light fastness ‣‣‣- 5 points.

Natural sienna

The paint is yellow-brown. It should be noted that its properties are similar to light ocher, but has greater light saturation. Light fastness ‣‣‣- 5 points.

Golden yellow "LC"

It is an organic dye. The paint is very transparent, warm in tone. It spreads well on paper. The paint is silky. When adding grass green or blue FC to paint, you can get a shade of Indian yellow. Light fastness ‣‣‣- 4 points.

Cadmium orange

The texture of the paint is similar to that of cadmium lemon and yellow, but is more transparent than those of these paints. A specific feature of this paint is the occurrence of agglomeration (agglomeration - binding of pigment particles to each other) with an excess amount of water. Pigment agglomeration makes it difficult to paint evenly. To prevent it, you should use a small amount of water to dilute the paint. Light fastness - 5 points.

Red ocher

The red-brown paint is highly transparent; in thin layers gives a soft yellowish-brown tint; spreads easily on paper and washes off well. Light fastness ‣‣‣- 5 points.

Burnt sienna and iron red. .

Both red-brown intense paints differ from each other in that burnt sienna has a warm tone, and iron red has a cool tone, which is especially noticeable in the thinnest paints. Light fastness ‣‣‣- 5 points.

One of the very transparent intense bright red paints has a warm tone with a cinnabar tint. Please note that this paint quickly saturates the brush when diluted. You should work with scarlet paint carefully, since intensely colored fields of paint are difficult to wash off from the paper. Light fastness - 3 points

Kraplak red

One of the very intense red-crimson paints. This paint is applied to the brush quickly and spreads over the paper in an even layer. The applied paint is difficult to wash off from the paper. You should work with kraplak carefully. Light fastness - 3 points.

A very intense red-crimson paint, transparent, cooler in color than kraplak. It should be noted that in terms of its properties, carmine is logical to red kraplak. Light fastness - 3 points.

Kraplak purple

Purple-red paint. It should be noted that in its properties this paint is similar to red kraplak. Light fastness ‣‣‣- 2 points. Violet kraplak acquires a brown tone under the influence of ultraviolet rays. Light fastness ‣‣‣- 2 points.

Ultramarine

The paint is from the blue group, the warmest tone. Specific feature

ultramarine is its tendency to agglomerate when diluted with a small amount of water. In this regard, when working with ultramarine, it is recommended to dilute the paint with rain or distilled water, which somewhat reduces its agglomeration. Light fastness.-"3 points.

Cobalt blue

Freshly applied paint has a delicate blue color, the paint is not intense; spreads unevenly across the paper; when strongly diluted with water, it is prone to slight coagulation with the formation of flakes. Over time, cobalt blue (both in light and in a dark place) is prone to greening and darkening, which causes yellowing of the paper.

Blue “FC” (phthalocyanine)

Very intense blue paint cold tone. With a light touch of a damp brush with diluted paint, the latter is quickly applied to the brush; spreads evenly across the paper. When applying saturated layers, it is recommended to work carefully, as the paint is difficult to remove from the paper. Light fastness - 4 points.

Emerald green and green herbal

Very intense green paints, characterized by high transparency. The paints are different in color, but similar in their properties. Both spread well and blur on paper. Their specific feature is incomplete washability, and therefore you should work with these paints very carefully. Light fastness - 4 points.

Permanent green

Very rich bright green paint, the warmest of the group green paints. It has high transparency and spreads evenly across the paper; washes off paper well; The brush picks up paint quickly. Light fastness ‣‣‣-- 4 points.

Umber natural burnt umber

Natural umber - cold (tobacco) shade; burnt umber ‣‣‣ - warm (chocolate) shade. The paints are translucent; satisfactorily saturates the brush and washes off the paper satisfactorily. The color and texture are somewhat dull. Light fastness ‣‣‣- 5 points.

Mars is brown

The paint is warm in tone, but cooler than burnt umber. The paint is transparent and intense; spreads, blurs and washes off paper well. Light fastness ‣‣‣- 5 points.

A specific feature of this paint is its non-color change. In a saturated layer it is dark brown with a cold tint, in thin glaze layers it is brownish-gray, it is washed out and spreads well across the paper. Light fastness - 6 points.

Lemon hansa, yellow hansa, orange litol

All paints have a bright pure color, shades from lemon yellow to bright orange. The colors are intense, translucent, and easy to apply to the brush; spread over the paper in an even layer. Light fastness - 4 points.

Cinnabar (imitation)

The paint is very bright and clean, the color is ‣‣‣-orange-red; It lies evenly on the paper (without stripes or flakes), which makes it possible to blur it with transitions from intense to very weakly colored layers. The paint washes off the paper well, leaving barely noticeable marks. Light fastness - 4 points.

Pink nail polish

Bright pink paint of a cool shade, characterized by purity and richness in tone. The paint is intense, transparent, and easy to apply to the brush. When applied in a thin layer, it should be diluted with plenty of water. The paint is applied evenly to the primer and paper. When washed off the paper it leaves a mark. Light fastness - 3 points.

Tioindigo red

The color of the paint is close to light red kraplak, but differs from it in its greater warmth of tone; intense, transparent. Light fastness - 4 points.

Purple nail polish

Intense paint of a cold tone, translucent, easily washed out and spread evenly over the paper; When washed off the paper it leaves a faintly colored mark. Light fastness - 3 points.

Anthraquinone blue"

Transparent blue intense paint of a cool shade; blurs well and spreads across paper; washes off satisfactorily. Light fastness - 4 points.

Intense transparent paint, colors from a bluish-black tint in dense layers of paint to bluish-gray in thin layers. The paint is easy to apply to the brush; spreads evenly across the paper; washes off paper satisfactorily. Light fastness - 2 points.

Iron azure

Intense, bright transparent paint in a deep blue tone; clearly blurred and spread evenly across the paper. It is not washed off from paper satisfactorily and leaves a faintly colored mark. Light fastness - 2 points.

Tioindigo brown

Intense red-brown paint; transparent, washes out well on paper. In dense layers, paint is prone to agglomeration of pigment particles, but without delamination. When washed off with water, it leaves a faintly colored mark. Light fastness - 4 points.

Neutral black

The paint is highly transparent, but does not have excessive intensity of gas soot*; has greater color saturation in dense layers than burnt bone. It blurs, spreads and washes off the paper well. Light fastness - 3 points.

Gouache(from the French "gouache" - water paint) - paints, as well as works of art made with these paints.

Gouache, like watercolor, belongs to adhesive water-soluble paints, but its qualities differ sharply from watercolor, although its composition (dyes and binders) is almost the same as, for example, honey watercolor. A distinctive feature of gouache is that it is devoid of transparency. This property is associated with a significant amount (relative to the content of the binder) of pigment and filler. At the same time, for greater hiding power, many gouache paints contain white (lead, zinc, titanium, barite), which makes dried paint somewhat whitish and at the same time gives it a matte and velvety feel.

Gouache is available in two types: artistic and poster. The first is mainly for easel painting, the second - for design work. Poster gouache has greater covering power and color saturation, which is achieved by replacing zinc white with kaolin, which whitens the paint less and makes it more dense, rich and sonorous.

Gouache is packaged in plastic, glass and metal jars of different capacities. At the same time, in recent years, high-quality gouache in tubes has appeared. Gouache is sold individually or in sets in cardboard boxes.

Gouache is an opaque, dense paint; As it dries, it acquires a matte velvety finish. Gouache can be used not only on paper, but also on primed (non-washable) canvas, fabric, cardboard, and plywood. Gouache consists of finely ground pigment, gum arabic binder, fruit gum, dextrin, glycerin, which serves as a plasticizer, a surfactant, which is a preparation of animal bile, alizarin oil and an antiseptic phenol.

The difference between watercolor and gouache is essentially that gouache includes a smaller amount of binder and a significant amount of pigment, in addition, for greater hiding power, many gouache paints contain white (lead, zinc, titanium or barite). This makes the dried paint somewhat whitish.

Gouache is mainly used by poster artists and graphic artists, as well as some easel painters. Gouache is widely used in decorative painting, when performing various sketches. It is often used for color sketches. Gouache is easy to use and, importantly, makes it possible to make corrections as you work. A medium-thick layer of paint dries from 30 minutes to 3 hours, depending on air humidity.

Poster gouache differs from artistic gouache in its greater covering power and color saturation, which is achieved by replacing zinc white with kaolin, which whitens the paint less and makes it more dense, rich and sonorous.

Fluorescent gouache paints are produced for decorative works and stage performances. Οʜᴎ are a suspension of fluorescent pigments, where the binder is adhesives with the addition of plasticizers and antiseptics (pigments are solutions of dyes and luminophores in organic condensation resins). These paints have the ability to fluoresce under the influence of ultraviolet and visible violet, blue and green rays. As a result, the light reflected and emitted by the pigment contains significantly more yellow, orange and red rays than there are in incident daylight, due to which the brightness and saturation of the colors increases two to three times.

Fluorescent gouache has the property of increasing its brightness when exposed to artificial lighting - irradiation with ultraviolet rays; this is used for decorative effects in the dark.

Gouache fluorescent paints are diluted with water. These paints have low covering power, therefore it is recommended to apply them on a white substrate - white primer, paper, etc. which makes them brighter, while they are applied in a thin layer. When this gouache is mixed with regular gouache, the brightness decreases sharply.

Fluorescent gouache is used only for interior work.

The difficulty of working with gouache paints is that when drying they significantly change color and lightness. Lighten: chromium oxide, cadmium, cobalt, light ocher, golden ocher, emerald green; darken followed by lightening: ultramarine, specks, natural sienna, burnt sienna; darken: Hansa yellow, orange.

When working with gouache, to determine the color obtained as a result of its drying, they use pre-prepared colors (paints).

Gouache should be stored at room temperature, protecting it from freezing. Dried gouache paint is diluted with water, while it retains its quality characteristics

Based on light fastness, gouache is divided into three groups:

The 1st group, in turn, is divided into two subgroups - A and B. Subgroup A includes completely light-resistant paints (5 points), indicated by two red stars; to subgroup B - light-resistant paints (4 points), indicated by two black stars

2nd group - moderately light-resistant paints (3 points), indicated by one black asterisk.

Group 3 - slightly light-resistant paints (2 points). There are no stars on the label.

The gouache paints produced by our industry are mostly light-resistant.

Tempera(from the Latin "temperare" - to mix) - painting with paints, which precedes oil painting, has been the main type of painting for many centuries.

Tempera paints are prepared on the basis of binders, which are a natural or synthetic emulsion, which determines the type of tempera paint, egg, polyvinyl acetate, oil-casein, varnish-oil, etc.

Tempera paint occupies an intermediate position between glue (watercolor, gouache) and oil paints. Like adhesive paints, tempera paints are diluted with water, but unlike them, after drying, the resulting film is not dissolved by water. Tempera differs from oil paint in its faster drying time and, unlike gouache - the most opaque of all paints - is quite transparent in thin layers.

Tempera can be written on any substrate: wood, stone, primed and unprimed canvas, cardboard and paper.

Tempera paints combine well with almost all materials used in fine arts, which makes them a very convenient and attractive material for both painting and design work.

Our industry produces two types of tempera paints: casein-oil and polyvinyl acetate (PVA).

Casein oil tempera is a water-soluble paint consisting of finely ground pigments, a binder (emulsion linseed oil in an aqueous solution of casein), emulsifier - alizarin oil, antiseptic - phenol.

When diluted with water, the quality of casein-oil tempera significantly deteriorates. In this case, cracking, peeling or chalking of paints may occur; therefore, removed paints are used to thin them. cow's milk, slightly diluted with water or a special casein-oil emulsion.

Like gouache, tempera changes its tone after drying.

Colors works made with tempera are enhanced by applying one of the topcoat varnishes - pistachio, acrylic pistachio, dammar, etc.
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The varnish is diluted with pinene in a 1:1 ratio (adding pinene reduces the shine of the varnish film).

Casein-oil tempera is sold in metal tubes, but its range is limited.

Polyvinyl acetate tempera- highly dispersed, paste-like water-based, quick-drying paint (1-2 hours in glaze (thin, transparent) layers and 3-4 hours in cabinet layers).

The PVA tempera binder consists of an aqueous emulsion, synthetic polyvinyl acetate resin with the addition of stabilizers and structuring agents.

These paints are diluted with water, they are more elastic and durable than casein-oil tempera. A distinctive feature of PVA tempera is that it does not turn yellow over time. Its disadvantages include the impossibility of using it with other water-soluble paints, since mixtures made with it do not spread well over the base, and the paints curdle.

The basis for working with polyvinyl acetate distemper is various materials: paper, cardboard, wood, concrete, glass, plaster, linoleum and a number of others. This explains its popularity, especially in decorative and applied arts.

As polyvinyl acetate tempera dries, it changes its color and tone.

When the tempera dries, the PVA becomes matte and the colors are slightly muted. To add sonority and richness to the color, PVA tempera is coated, just like casein-oil tempera, with one of the topcoat varnishes diluted with pinjene in a 1:1 ratio, but this leads to some darkening of the work.

Paints should be stored at room temperature and not below 0°C. Guaranteed shelf life 1 year.

Oil paints began to be used back in the 15th century and are currently the most commonly used in painting. They are prepared on the basis of mineral and organic dyes (finely ground powders), which have sufficient light resistance and a constant chemical composition. The binder is specially treated drying oils (usually linseed), from which the paints got their name. For whitewash and cold-color paints, a new penta-oil binder, obtained as a result of special processing of sunflower oil, has now begun to be used.

Oil paints have become so widespread due to a number of advantages compared to other paints. When dry, they do not darken or lighten, and they retain the brightness and color saturation both when applying body strokes and when glazing. Oil paints dry slowly, which allows you to make adjustments as you work, as well as achieve soft color and tonal transitions. The drying speed of paints depends on the type of pigment used (mineral or organic) and on its oil absorption. The use of some pigments speeds up the drying time (for example, lead white), while others, on the contrary, slow it down (kraplak, gas soot). The type of pigment used significantly affects the covering power oil paints. Some pigments (white, cobalt, cadmium, black paint, chromium oxide, etc.), even in a thin layer, can cover the dried layers of the underlying paint. Other pigments that form paints (wolkonskite, yellow and orange mars), as well as all paints obtained on the basis of organic pigments, are transparent in a thin layer. They also differ in their intensity: blue and green FC, kraplak, even in small quantities, greatly change the color of any other paint, and volkonskoite, even in large quantities, will only contaminate the resulting color.

When working with oil paints, it is extremely important to remember what to mix various paints, without taking into account their chemical composition, is dangerous, as this can lead to the appearance of various defects (discoloration, fading, cracking, etc.) For example, paints made from mineral pigments should not be mixed with organic ones. In general, it is not recommended to create complex mixtures consisting of more than three colors.

Our industry produces two types of oil paints for painting: artistic and sketch.

Artistic paints are packaged in metal tubes of different capacities: 9 cm 3 - tube No. 3; 18 cm 3 - tube No. 6; 46 cm 3 - tube No. 10 - and are used mainly for painting.

Sketch paints are produced in tin or plastic cans and are used for sketching and decorative design work.

Acrylic paints appeared about 50 years ago and immediately became very popular. The success of these modern paints is due to their ease of use, versatility and quick drying. Acrylic paints dissolve in water, but after drying they become completely insoluble. They have a base of an aqueous suspension of non-yellowing synthetic resins, to which natural and synthetic coloring pigments, coalescent substances and stabilizers are added. At the same time, they are very resistant to chemical and physical influences. Feature paints - quick drying, good light fastness, flexibility, elasticity. Acrylic paints adhere perfectly to any non-greasy surface: cardboard, paper, wood, plywood, plaster, faesite, clay, fabric. Can be applied with a brush, spatula, and when diluted, with an airbrush. Acrylic paints come in the most different colors and shades - from classic to fluorescent and pearlescent. Considering the speed of drying, you should close the paint immediately after work and wash the working tool. Various additives are produced for acrylic paints that slow down or speed up the drying process, and also give acrylic paints a shine, a matte appearance, like tempera, or a moiré effect, like watercolor (these additives are produced by the Spanish factory Ferrario and others.
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imported manufacturers Having many of the advantages of oil and watercolor paints, as well as a number of their own advantages, acrylic paints are versatile and easy to use. Whatever your painting preferences, it's worth trying acrylic paints. Οʜᴎ are based on plastic synthetic resin and can produce both the most exquisite glazes and the dense texture of painting.

Brushes with synthetic bristles are ideal for acrylic paints; brushes made of nylon are also quite suitable - natural bristles swell with moisture and become brittle.

Another difficulty when working with acrylic is color. The polymer binder has a semi-matte, milky tint; therefore, in the liquid state, the paint is lighter than after drying. You need to take this discrepancy into account when imagining what the color will be like in the future.

Acrylic paints have less shine than oil. To add or enhance their shine, it is extremely important to use a gel medium. It is a pure polymer binder that, when mixed with paint, adds gloss, creates transparency and slows down the drying process. There are also:

‣‣‣ gel for diluting acrylic and giving it better fluidity and spreadability;

‣‣‣ thickening gel that creates the effect of the corpus writing technique.

‣‣‣ A huge variety of means by which an artist can achieve convenience in working with acrylic paints.

CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF WATER COLOR PAINTS - concept and types. Classification and features of the category "CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF WATER COLOR PAINTS" 2017, 2018.

Term Watercolor(French aquarelle, English painting in water colors, Italian aquarelle or aqua-tento, German Wasserfarbengemalde, Aquarellmalerei; from Latin aqua - water) has several meanings.
Firstly, it means painting with special water-soluble (i.e. freely soluble in ordinary water) paints. And in in this case It is customary to talk about the watercolor technique (i.e., a certain creative process in the fine arts).
Secondly, it is used, in fact, to directly designate the water-soluble (watercolor) paints themselves. When dissolved in water, they form a transparent aqueous suspension of fine pigment, which is part of the paint base, thanks to which it is possible to create a unique effect of lightness, airiness and subtle color transitions.
And finally, thirdly, this is how the work itself is called, done using this technique with watercolors. Their distinctive features consist mainly in the transparency of the thinnest layer of paint remaining on the paper after the water has dried. In this case, white is not used, since its role is played by the white color of the paper, which shines through the paint layer or is not painted over at all.

In all the variety of existing paints, watercolors are rightfully considered to be one of the most ancient and most beloved by artists. different schools and directions.
Scientists know examples of works done in watercolors that are contemporary with Egyptian papyrus and hieroglyphs. IN Byzantine art Church liturgical books were decorated with watercolors. Later it was used for coloring drawings and underpainting on boards. Renaissance masters used watercolors to make sketches for their easel and fresco works. Many drawings, shaded in pencil and then painted with watercolors, have survived to this day. Among them are the works of such great artists as Rubens, Raphael, Van Ostade, Lessuer and others.
Due to their relative ease of use and relative availability, watercolor paints have become very widely used in the fine arts.

Composition of watercolor paints.
The basis of the composition of watercolor paints is finely ground pigment to which a small amount of various glues of plant origin (gum arabic, dextrin, tragacanthum, cherry glue, etc.) is added as a binder. The composition also includes, in certain proportions, honey (or sugar, glycerin), wax, some types of resins (mainly balsam resins), thanks to the addition of which paints acquire hardness, softness, plasticity, as well as other necessary qualities.
As a rule, watercolors can be hard - in the form of tiles, placed in special small containers (cuvettes) or soft - in tubes.

Russian manufacturers of watercolor paints
Of the largest and most famous manufacturers of watercolor paints in Russia currently existing, it is necessary to highlight two. These are Moscow OJSC Gamma and St. Petersburg ZKH Nevskaya Palitra. Both companies produce high-quality paint for both professional artists and amateurs, students, and schoolchildren.
The best quality watercolors among Gamma products can be called the Studio series (available both in cuvettes, 2.5 ml., and in tubes, 9 ml.).
Nevskaya Palitra has undoubtedly the best watercolors in its “White Nights” series (also available in cuvettes, 2.5 ml. and in tubes, 18 ml.). Personally, I prefer to work with these paints (I mainly use cuvettes), but each artist, naturally, has his own tastes and preferences.
In addition to “White Nights,” the Nevskaya Palitra ZKH produces watercolors from the “Sonnet” and “Ladoga” series, but both are noticeably inferior to the first.

As an example, I will give samples of the full palette (painting) of the Moscow “Studio” and St. Petersburg “White Nights”.
Watercolor painting by JSC Gamma (material taken from the Gamma website)

Coloring of Watercolors of ZKH "Nevskaya Palitra" (material taken from the site "Nevskaya Palitra")

In addition, ZKH "Nevskaya Palitra" also produces a series of paints "Sonnet". Their quality is slightly worse than the above-mentioned watercolors, and the palette is not as rich, but they are cheaper.

Foreign manufacturers of watercolor paints
Many world-famous foreign companies producing artistic paints produce watercolors. As a rule, each company presents its products in two lines. Usually one of them is expensive, high-quality watercolor paints made from natural pigments for professional artists. This palette contains a large number of colors and shades, and the paints themselves are very durable and lightfast. The other line is intended for students, students, and art lovers. These paints can be made on the basis of synthetic substitutes; their characteristics are close to natural paints, but they are still inferior to them in quality, making them much cheaper and more accessible. They are less durable and lightfast. The palette contains a correspondingly smaller number of colors (shades).

Dutch watercolors
The most famous manufacturer of watercolor paints in Holland is the Old Holland company, which dates back to the mid-17th century. Her watercolors are represented by a rich palette of 160 colors.

Another, no less famous, watercolor manufacturer is the Royal Talens company, founded in 1899. Its products on the modern market are represented by two lines:
"Rembrandt" (80 color palette)

"Van Gogh" (40 color palette)

English watercolors
One of the famous watercolor manufacturers in England is the Winsor & Newton company, founded in 1832 in London. IN currently her watercolor is represented by two lines:
"Artists Water Color" (palette of 96 colors)

“Cotman Water Color” (40 color palette)

Another English watercolor manufacturer is Daler-Rowney. Its products are also represented by two lines:
"Artists" Watercolour" (80 color palette)

"Aquafine" (palette of 37 colors)

Italian watercolors
The most famous Italian manufacturer of watercolor paints is the Maimeri company. Currently her watercolors are represented by two lines:
"Maimeri Blu" (palette 72 colors)

"Venezia" (palette of 36 colors)

French watercolors
The famous French manufacturer Pebeo, the company was founded in 1919. Today, its product range includes two lines of watercolor paints:
"Fragonard extra fine watercolour" (palette of 36 colors)

The basis of watercolor paint is a colored pigment, which is in high concentration in suspension, and during the drying process it is dispersed over the entire surface of the canvas, penetrating inside and coloring it. In industrial watercolor paints, natural materials such as gum arabic or propylene glycol are most often used as a binder. Each manufacturer has its own secrets for the unique composition of the suspension - this is the main (key) composition.

Watercolor paint is a water-soluble material; this effect can be achieved thanks to the binders and pigments in its composition; they do not dissolve in water. Pigments can be divided into several categories: natural inorganic (natural or metallic pigments from natural deposits), synthetic inorganic (natural or metallic pigments formed by combining chemical reagents and ores produced in industrial production), natural organic (pigments created on the basis of animals or plant materials), synthetic organic (carbon-based pigments (most often consisting of petroleum compounds). Today, there is a practice that artists who paint their canvases mainly for sale more often use materials based on synthetic pigments in their work. In in a broad sense It is by the amount of paint pigment that one can determine the difference between the masterpieces of professional artists and the works of students; in the paintings of painters one can observe a greater number of pigments. If you want to learn more about this topic, we recommend reading the article “How watercolor paints are made.”

Types of watercolor paint

There are certain types of watercolor paints that are mass-produced: paints in metal tubes, reminiscent of toothpaste in consistency, similar to small pies in a small plastic form; in order to make them suitable for work, you need to add a large amount of water and liquid paints.

Tubes and bowls

In the 17th and 18th centuries, artists extracted pigment from plants and minerals and tried to make it themselves from gum arabic, granulated sugar and water. The first set of watercolor paints was created at the end of the 18th century by Thomas and William Reeves, and in 1832 it was further developed by Winsor and Newton. They made the paints wetter and decided to replace the wooden box with a neat porcelain bowl wrapped in foil, making the paints more portable and thus easier to work with.

In 1846, paints in tubes first appeared: Winston and Newton introduced them as a more advanced version of oil paints, which the company first introduced in 1841. For more information about the invention of paint tubes and how it influenced Impressionism, see the article "Impressionism and Photography."

Liquid watercolor paints

Liquid watercolor paints are concentrated liquid substances that can range from 1 to 8 ounces (28 to 224 grams) or even smaller bottles, depending on the manufacturer's brand. They give a bright, deep color, which, when water is added, acquires some blurriness and pale shades. Such paints are more suitable for working with a spray gun than for the standard method of applying the material with a brush to canvas. The color intensity and thickness of the paint depends on the manufacturer, but based on their general characteristics, we can say that they are more suitable younger schoolchildren than professional artists.

Watercolor- These are water paints. The main properties of watercolor are transparency, softness, purity and brightness of color. The binder for watercolor paints is transparent vegetable glues - gum arabic and dextrin, which are simply soluble in water. Watercolor paints also contain a plasticizer in the form of glycerin and invert sugar, which makes them plastic. Glycerin holds water and prevents paints from drying out and becoming brittle. A surfactant is also introduced into watercolor paints - ox bile, which allows you to simply spread the paint on the paper, because the bile prevents the paint from rolling into drops. To prevent paints from being destroyed by mold, an antiseptic - oxybenzene - is introduced into them.

Paints are divided into two groups - warm and cool. Warm colors include yellowish, orange, reddish, brown, in other words, all paints that in their base contain one or another amount of reddish or yellowish color. The cool group includes blue, blue, greenish, violet, in which case they are dominated by coolish blue colors. Greenish, purple, grayish and dark colors can be either cool or warm depending on the characteristics of the shade and the influence of the environment.

The colors blue, yellowish, reddish are the main ones, others, acquired by mixing, are considered derivatives - warm or cool, depending on the composition of the paints. Even neutral colors such as grayish and dark contain countless aspects that are immediately difficult to find in color quality. If you take a group of warm colors, for example burgundy, and compare them with each other in terms of warm-coldness, it will be noticeable that in this group, in relation to each other, there are colors that are colder and warmer.

How many colors should be in the set?

The sets can contain from 12 to 36 colors, but not all of them will be used. Great amount It is absolutely not necessary to have paints in a set; moreover, it is simply awkward. It is better to try all possible paint compositions in order to know which combinations provide dirt and which ones - extraordinary colors, missing from the set. Less than 10 more commonly used paints are selected for work. In most cases, these are blue, cadmium yellowish, reddish and orange, ocher, umber, emerald green, dark neutral.

What properties should watercolor paints have?

Color according to the established sample. Great transparency, because all the beauty of a bright tone when applied in a narrow layer lies in this property, which is achieved separately by narrow grinding of dry pigments. The dispersion of paints matters, but this, on the one hand, is a question of the initial pigment material, and on the other, the individual preferences of the watercolorist. Finely dispersed paints “sit” very tightly on the paper, unlike coarsely dispersed ones, which are washed off from the surface of the sheet even more easily. It is clear that finely dispersed paints have the highest glaze characteristics. This type of paint should be easy to pick up with a moistened brush and simply wash away. The bright layer should simply be washed off with water from the surface of the paper or soil. Watercolor paint, diluted with water, should lie smoothly on the paper and not create spots or dots. When exposed to direct sunlight, the paint must be lightfast and not change color. After drying, give a strong, non-cracking layer. Don't leak on reverse side paper. Binders for watercolor paints must be of high quality: after drying, they simply dissolve in water, have a fairly the highest degree viscosity and adhesive ability, when drying to give a hard, non-cracking and non-hygroscopic film.

There are:

So, in the old days they only made solid tile paints. Currently, they are used to carry out drawing work, posters, and projects. Although the highest grades of these paints are also suitable for painting. Cheaper ones are designed for children and schools. The binding agent in such hard watercolor paints is cheap glue: animal glue, potato molasses, gum arabic, honey, tragantom are also used.

The colors in the tiles should be neither brittle nor soft. The huge amount of gum arabic in them makes them brittle; The fragility disappears when there is enough sugar. When the binding substance consists mainly of animal glue, then when there is some dampness, the paints wrinkle in the hands.

Paints in ditches Usually small works are carried out, for example, in the open air when making sketches. Because it happens, and quite often, that mixing takes more time than writing itself, and God knows how comfortable it is to wash paints out of cuvettes for large formats. Semi-solid watercolor paints in cuvettes should contain a sufficient amount of glycerin, honey, sugar or molasses, but not too much, otherwise the paints will lie poorly and unevenly on the paper.

For the manufacture of semi-solid paints in tubes, which are much easier to dilute with water than solid paints, use the same gum arabic and dextrin as a binder, to which a significant amount of honey is added. Instead of honey, glycerin is used to reduce the cost. The best types of paints are prepared using pure gum arabica, with a small amount (from 20 to 40%) of candy sugar added from time to time. Paints in tubes are great for creating large-format paintings; they actually don’t smudge against each other, because they are squeezed out to scale when necessary. But it should be taken into account that since watercolor in tubes is soft and is squeezed out onto the scale, with a rich painting the pigment is not always picked up moderately on the brush and also lies unevenly on the surface of the paper. When glazing, when paints are repeatedly applied to previous dried layers, these defects are not very noticeable, however, when working on a damp surface of paper using the Alya Prima technique of “painting on wet”, this is very disturbing, since uneven clumps of a bright layer are formed, which, when dried, destroys integrity of the applied stroke. Soft watercolors are more suitable for traditional painting, although with some experience working with these paints and using the raw technique, a watercolor artist can make excellent standards. It must be emphasized that such paints are not used for some time; separation of the pigment from the binder may occur.

Watery watercolor paints Perfect for working with an airbrush. They are produced in small jars and vials (from 29 to 35 ml) or in larger bottles. Suitable for use directly from jars or after dilution with water. The range of colors is very wide. The cork in the small bubbles has a dropper, which makes it convenient to maintain the appropriate proportion when dissolved in water. These colors are colorful, rich, mix well, and provide wonderful combinations. When working with an airbrush, you need to use distilled water; in this case, there is a high concentration of impurities in tap water. Perfect for regular watercolor work.

As another option watercolor technique there is an opportunity to see the implementation watercolor pencils and crayons- a unique transition between drawing and painting. You can draw with them like ordinary pencils or crayons, but when you start using water, the color will dissipate and you will get watercolor paints. But pencils have advantages over watercolors: they are more comfortable and easier to use and are relatively cheaper. Watercolor pencils contain pigment that disintegrates in water.

Water-soluble pencils are available in a wide range of colors, just like regular pencils. Watercolor pencils do not differ like graphite pencils - (from 9B, the softest, to 9H, the hardest), but their softness does vary between brands, so from time to time it is worth purchasing a standard pencil from different brands to see who to give preference to before than to buy a set. The softer the watercolor pencil, the easier it leaves a mark on the paper.

Watercolor pencils look the same as ordinary ones, but if you look closely at the inscription written on them, you will see a small sign indicating that the pencils can be washed out with water. As a rule, this is a small drop, a brush or the word “watercolor”. Well, of course, there is always the opportunity to check them on a piece of paper.

In different artistic works can be used pearlescent watercolor paints - the new kind watercolors made on the basis of colored pearlescent pigments. The paints are simply diluted with water, applied to a brush and laid on the paper in an even layer. As the paint layer dries, it becomes lighter and the pearlescent sheen intensifies. The basis for drawing can be paper, cardboard, wood, fabric, plaster and other materials.

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