Lascaux cave painting from 30,000 years ago

Tools

Watercolor is a natural place to start the study of painting materials and techniques. It has been around longer than paper and easily predates watercolor brushes. Some people consider that the cave paintings at Lascaux might be the first watercolor, since earth pigments were mixed with water and applied directly without any binder save perhaps saliva. In that way, the cave paintings might also be called the first air brush painting, since a hand stencil image was left on the wall when water and dirt(or earth pigment) were spit around the hand.

Watercolor paint semi- liquid in tubes or dry cakes in pans are all made by combining dry pigment and gum arabic. Other gums have been used, but none work as evenly and consistently. The gum allows the pigment to go into solution with an even dispersion of almost all pigments in water. Gum arabic is the magic glue that puts it all together.
It is the constant in other watercolor based media: gouache, casein & egg tempera. The first egg and oil emulsions exploring oil as a medium, included small amounts of gum atabic.

Watercolor paint especially in tubes, is a good foundation for our future media exploration. The gum does not hamper or affect experiments in acrylic painting.

Materials
Watercolor paper

Color page link

Stretching paper *, materials choices, making your own, punching up color. English technique, American or contemporary, pure watercolor, mixed media, playing with color, palettes. Marking your materials and equipment. Flattening a warped or buckled paper.

I would like us to produce two kinds of homework: a painting outside of class, and WC sketches in the sketchbook. Try to do the paintings and sketches every two or three days to develop your eye-hand coordination – rather than doing them all at once. Someone who draws and paints every day or two will accrue twice the benefit of the person who does them at the last minute before class. You may show or not show the companion exercise. Select and send only one image per homework assignment. Either sketches or fully developed images will be acceptable. Try to show the pleasure you found in doing the work.

This is my process:Begin with a careful drawing, erase as much as possible before using color, the gum arabic in the watercolor paint prevents further erasures without destroying the paper surface. Another alternative is to make the layout drawing using a blue watercolor pencil, no erasing will be required.

Begin and practice drawing from life. Two eyes see better than the single eye of a camera, and it is easy to shift your viewpoint as you work. If you must work from a photo, make sure it is a good value study, but be willing to deviate from the reference image to benefit the painting. It is not the point "to accurately copy", but to use a photos strengths to benefit the work. Always work from your own photos to avoid problems.

an interesting maple leaf - find your own!	rock sample painting & subject

tales

Pigment page link

Technique

dry pigment

[Our First Homework: a leaf or two and a rock] I believe in simple images, and I believe that each of us should choose our own combination of subjects and composition. Even in beginning classes, I require that the artist take responsibility for the image from the start. I may propose a subject or provide a still life, but the graphic composition selection is of primary importance, and the interest in the work is directly related to each of us making our own selection. Do what interests you even when it is not the image under consideration. With each of our exercises this will be the first consideration. Try to give a sense of scale in your composition, and select items interesting to you. You may also provide subject photo images to accompany homework submissions, but the point is the painting. The subject is only the starting point and the excuse for making a painting. As I receive the images, I will build a homework page for this first class.

a sample rock

* An additional page link on watercolor paper and stretching.

Links:
Brush manufacture,http://www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/brush1.html
Paper making: http://gort.ucsd.edu/preseduc/papermak.htm
http://42explore.com/papermaking.htm
http://www.infostuff.com/kids/paper.htm
http://laceimports.com/michelle/projects/paper_instr.html

Pigment Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigment

Art Material suppliers:
Dakota Art Store,http://www.dakotaartstore.com/
Daniel Smith Inc.,http://www.danielsmith.com/
Utrecht Art Materials, http://www.utrechtart.com/cat_request/dsp_request_catalog.cfm
Cheap Joe's http://www.cheapjoes.com/store/navigation.asp
Dick Blick http://www.dickblick.com/

Books:

"The Artist's Handbook" by Ralph Mayer
"Formulas for Painters" by Robert Massey
The Craftsman's Handbook: "Il Libro dell' Arte" by Cennino d'Andrea Cennini
"Creative Discoveries in Watermedia" by Pat Dews
"Splash" series
"Master Class in Watermedia: Techniques in Traditional and Experimental Painting" by Edward Betts