Watercolor

Painting
Albrecht Durer
Born in Nuremberg, Dürer established his reputation
and influence across Europe when he was still in his
twenties due to his high-quality woodcut prints. He
was in communication with the major Italian artists
of his time, including Raphael, Giovanni Bellini and
Leonardo da Vinci, and from 1512 he was patronized
by Emperor Maximilian I.

Dürer left for Italy, alone, perhaps stimulated by an

outbreak of plague in Nuremberg. He made
watercolour sketches as he traveled over the Alps.
Some have survived and others may be deduced
from accurate landscapes of real places in his later
work.
Winslow Homer
Homer was an American landscape painter and
printmaker, best known for his marine subjects. He is
considered one of the foremost painters in 19th-
century America and a preeminent figure in
American art.

Largely self-taught, Homer began his career working

as a commercial illustrator. He subsequently took up
oil painting and produced major studio works.. He
also worked extensively in watercolor, creating a
fluid and prolific body of work, primarily chronicling
his working vacations.
Georgia O’Keefe
One of the first female painters to achieve
worldwide acclaim from critics and the general
public, Georgia O'Keeffe was an American painter
who created innovative impressionist images that
challenged perceptions and evolved constantly
throughout her career.

Alfred Stieglitz, her future husband, was a successful

photographer and modern art promoter who owned
the 291 Gallery in New York City. He was struck by
the sincerity within her work and organized her first
solo show in 1917, composed of oil paintings and
watercolors completed in Texas.
Cecily Brown
Brown is a British painter born in London, England in
1969. Her style displays the influence of a variety of
painters, from Francisco de Goya, Willem de
Kooning, Francis Bacon[1] and Joan Mitchell, to Old
Masters like Rubens and Poussin, yet her works also
present a distinctly female viewpoint.

Brown's paintings combine figuration and utter

abstraction. When she begins a painting, she
generally doesn't have an exact idea of what she is
trying to achieve, but she lets the final painting
reveal itself as she works. Sexuality and attraction
are important themes in her work, which she
explores through semi-figurative and abstract means.
Janet Fish
Janet Fish was born in Boston, Massachusetts, into
an artistic milieu. Both her mother and uncle were
sculptors, and her father taught art history. But Fish’s
more obvious connection to an artistic heritage can
be traced to a personal relationship with the
paintings of her grandfather, noted American
Impressionist Clark Vorhees, whom she never knew.

Perhaps growing up in sun-kissed tropical Bermuda

amid the canvases of her grandfather—the noted
American Impressionist Clark Vorhees—is what
fueled Janet Fish’s passion for painting how the eye
captures energy and light. Hence her motto: Painting
is an act of gesture and color.
Techniques
Color Drag 1. Load your brush with a good amount
of pigment. Lay it down on paper.

2. Remove some of the pigment with

water and use the color you’ve laid
down to drag it forward.

3. Repeat step 2 and move further.

4. Wash your brush completely and use

only the paint left after step 3 and
drag forward.
Watering
Down 1. Load your brush with a good amount
of pigment. Lay it down on paper.

2. Add some water to your brush and

use the color in the brush to make
lighter areas of color

3. Repeat step 2 and move further.

Graded Wash
1. First, get enough pigment on your brush and
make a stroke.
2. Next, rinse out your brush with water. Press
down and drag the pigment on the paper while
it’s still wet. The color travels along with the
water creating a subtle texture
Color Drop
1. First,lay down enough pigment on paper. The
ratio of pigment to water should be greater by a
considerable amount.

2. Rinse out your brush completely. Take an

accent color(Complementary color) and add
drops while the paint is still wet. The paint
starts to spread out and it’s mesmerizing to
watch.
Color Drop
(Washed Down
Colors)
1. Lay down a transparent wash of the
complementary color used in the previous
example first. The ratio of pigment to water is
considerably less in this scenario.

2. By using an accent color and increasing the

transparency, drop in a few dots. The purpose
of this exercise is to show how different the
effect is when few factors are changed.
Pigment blending
1. This is similar to exercise 1 but instead of
blending with water, use another full pigment
to blend. Lay down good amount of pigment on
paper.

2. Rinse your brush out completely. Take a good

amount of another color and blend with the
previous color while still wet. Press and drag
down. You’ll see the previous color seeping in
and blending.
Color Drop on
Water
1. Use water to wet the paper first. While still wet,
dab a few drops of color. The colors will travel
with the water creating soft and hard edges.

Wet two areas to prepare for the

next technique
Color drop on
water
(damp surface)
1. This is exactly like the previous exercise but
after wetting the paper surface, wait for a while.
When the water is not pooled on paper but is
still damp, drop a color. You’ll notice in the
image below that the color travels far less as
compared to the previous one.
Controlled
Blending
1. Paint a couple of lines with your brush. Please
use a cool color and a warm color here. The
direction in which you drag your brush can
control the flow of paint

2. Take the warm color and paint horizontal lines

while the paint is still wet. The colors travel
within these lines and form different textures
and patterns.