Welcome to
The Painting Lesson
by Linda Carson
big black pig studio
98 King St. N., Waterloo Ontario Canada
www.bigblackpig.com
Watercolour
As I say so often in the studio, "Paint is just coloured glue."
In watercolour paint, the glue is a plant sap (called gum arabic) that dissolves well in water. The closest material in your experience might be that syrupy mucilage you used in grade school to paste down pictures.
Watercolour works as much by staining the paper as by gluing down the pigment. It's quick-drying and it's usually applied in transparent layers. Get it right or learn to love your mistakes because, in watercolour, there's nowhere to hide.
|
For example: Here's a tiny watercolour painting of, well, water. What's with the weird brown stuff all around the edge? That's the brown paper tape that we use to hold the watercolour paper flat while we work. It's the same stuff the butcher used to use to wrap parcels of meat. In a finished painting, the tape would be cut away and all the edges tidily hidden behind a mat and frame. |
The appropriate support for watercolours is paper. There is usually no special priming or ground applied. The solvent is water. Watercolours dry in minutes. Don't varnish the finished painting. Do frame it under glass. Don't hang any painting in direct sunlight.
Back to the main lesson?Art & Text (C) Linda Carson 2002
Loosely translated, that means:
"Please don't copy this material or redistribute it
in some other form, for any reason.
This is my livelihood."