I am sure we have all had the experience in childhood of trying to paint with watercolor. I remember how much fun it was to try, but the overall result was less than satisfying. The color went everywhere, and even if I thought I was pretty good at drawing what I wanted, I had to admit that my finished watercolor painting looked as if a baby had made it. There were no sharp edges and the water flowed over everything. It was a mess!
In my teens, I took some classes in acrylic painting, and I came to feel that this was my medium. I could control the paint. I could layer it. It dried very fast, and I could paint light layers over dark layers and vice versa. It was versatile.
A few years ago, my daughter gifted me with a creativity set that included markers, colored pencils, crayons and watercolors. It was a nice gift, but I put it aside, convinced that acrylic painting was my only medium, and that anything I tried to do with watercolor would look like a baby painting, all splotches and no form.
But recently I have begun to follow other artists on YouTube who do magical things with watercolor. My own experiments with coffee painting made me see how a water based medium has unexpected bonuses, in the blooming that water creates on the page.
Cleaning out my closet, I rediscovered the creativity set, with its built in water colors. At first, I decided I would use it for flowers. I had this gorgeous photo of the phlox from last summer. Would it be possible to reproduce it with watercolor, however sloppily?
The result was not that wonderful, but it was not as awful as it could have been.
By the time I had gotten around to painting my favorite subject, my daughter, with watercolor, I devised the following method that contrasts neatly with my normal practice with acrylics:
- I create the structure for watercolor with a pencil sketch, whereas in acrylics the structure is painted along with the color.
- Light areas in watercolor have to be shielded from paint application, whereas in acrylic you can paint light on dark.
- Blending of colors can occur on the page, but with watercolor dark always overwhelms light.
- In watercolor, accidents need to be embraced, whereas in acrylics they can be fixed.
There is something fun and magical now for me in painting with watercolors. Very little need be done to accomplish much. So when I am taking a hiatus from acrylics, I can play with watercolors and enjoy both the process and the result.
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