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| watercolor paints |
| how to choose watercolor paints |
| how watercolor paints are made |
| – paint ingredients
the backbone composition
pigment
brightener
binder
plasticizer
humectant
filler
other additives
water
handmade watercolors
– pigment types
natural inorganic
synthetic inorganic
natural organic
synthetic organic
– pigment manufacture
– paint manufacture |
| the material attributes of paints |
| – pigment & paint attributes
color appearance
particle size
lightfastness
tinting strength
refractive index
specific gravity
– basic paint tests
draw down sample
tinting test
dissolving test
sedimentation test
drying and rewetting test
black field test
microscopic examination
– test paintings
– making paint swatches |
| doing your own lightfastness tests |
| labeling, lightfastness & toxicity |
| – pigments, paints & "colors"
– the marketing romance
– paint ingredient information
– lightfastness tests
– lightfastness with a grain of salt
– artistic responsibility
– health & environmental issues |
| watercolor brands |
| – Art Spectrum
– Blockx
– Daler–Rowney
– Daniel Smith
– DaVinci
– Holbein
– Lukas
– Maimeri
– M. Graham & Co.
– Old Holland
– Rembrandt
– Robert Doak
– Schmincke
– Sennelier
– Utrecht
– Winsor & Newton
– Yarka |
| guide to watercolor pigments |
| – magenta
– red
– orange
– earth (brown, gold or ochre)
– yellow
– green
– blue
– purple
– black, gray & white |
| what the ratings mean |
| watercolor drying shifts |
| hue purity of watercolor paints |
| earth pigments tour |
| earth pigments map |
| daniel smith primatek™ paints |
| cadmium color key |
| 2004 lightfastness tests |
| tube, pan & liquid watercolors |
| – a brief history of watercolors
– tube vs. pan
– when to use
– paint tube tricks
– dry pan tricks
– liquid watercolors |
| gouache & bodycolor |
| interference paints |
|
| palettes |
| a basic palette |
| – related paint resources
– the keystone paints
– exploring the mixing strategy
– expanding the palette
– common palette issues |
| the complete palette |
| key to the palette scheme |
| palette types |
| – brand matters
– transparent
– opaque
– nonstaining
– staining
– saturated
– earth
– textured
– combining paints in a palette |
| palette paintings |
| – intro
– 1. value design palette
– 2. velázquez palette
– classical palette
– 3. "primary" triad palette
– chuck long
– marlies najaka
– 4. split "primary" palette
– nita engle
– michael rocco
– lucy willis
– mel stabin
– 5. artist's "primaries" palette
– charles leclair
– jeanne dobie
– trevor chamberlain
– dale laitinen
– liz donovan
– 6. secondary palette
– carol carter
– jim kosvanec
– 7. modernized paul signac |
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| technique |
| spirit of watercolor |
| the work place |
| watching yourself paint |
| plateaus and pits |
| saving your work |
| the sketchbook |
| drawing techniques |
| – the essence of drawing
– drawing materials
– drawing papers
– drawing technique
– drawing styles |
| aids to drawing |
| – not a new idea
– copying the image
– tracing the image
– documenting with photographs
– creative editing with photographs
– representing the world |
| modeling form with light & shadow |
| elements of perspective |
| – page 1: perspective in the world
– page 2: central perspective
– page 3: two point perspective
– page 4: three point perspective
– page 5: advanced perspective techniques
– page 6: shadows, reflections & atmosphere |
| composition and design |
| – principles of design
– elements of design
– a pattern vocabulary
– notan
– rules of "good shape"
– design & context |
| format proportions |
| – the key format proportions
– constructing the format proportions
– composing with the format proportions
– other format proportion schemes
– format proportions in western paintings
– are the proportions "real"?
– use what works |
| preliminary studies |
| – layout and proportion
– the value sketch
– color studies |
| color harmonies |
| – basic issues in color design
– theories of color harmony
– traditional hue harmonies
– introduction to full color harmonies
– a natural color harmony
– ruskin's last word |
| working with paints |
| – major palette types
– life without a palette
– rinse water & pure water
– work routine & storage
– mixing tube paints
– mixing pan paints
– brush mixing tricks |
| basic mixing method |
| an intuitive color study |
| – the guiding ideas
– color study principles |
| paint wheels |
| – why make a paint wheel?
– how to make a paint wheel
– three paint wheels
– lessons from a paint wheel |
| the secret of glowing color |
| – the luminosity myth
– techniques for glowing color
– "not black, not light"
– exploring dilution
– the range of paint appearance
– dilution and lightness
– mixing shortcuts
– technical data |
| the six levels of paint dilution |
| painting in neutrals |
| – neutrals in context
– near neutrals and color design
– seeing color value
– seeing hue bias
– mixing complementary paints
– the material qualities of paint |
| watercolor mixing complements |
| the brush and brushstrokes |
| – brushstroke attributes
– the swiss army brush
– how a brush works
– brush wetness & capacity
– brushstroke evolution
– brush technique
– the confident brush |
| the six degrees of brush wetness |
| other application techniques |
| – splattering brushes
– sponges
– sticks
– palette knives
– razor blades
– resist and tape
– water and air |
| steps in a painting |
| preparing papers for painting |
| – evolution of the paper surface
– to cockle or not
– how to not stretch papers
– how to stretch papers
– my fastening method
– how to cut or tear paper |
| the nature of water |
| the six stages of paper wetness |
| wet in wet (1) |
| – the balancing act
– flow, backrun & diffusion
– how wet is the paper?
– surface vs. inner wetness
– balancing wetness in paper, brush & paint
– four edge shaping techniques |
| wet in wet (2) |
| – an inventory of marks
– charging, blotting & shaping
– controlling backruns
– working with wet paper
– brushes & brush wetness
– paint & pigment attributes
– strategies for learning
– seven popular effects |
| monotype |
| laying a wash |
| – the setup, brushes & papers
– pigment types
– paint behavior
– tilting the wash
– wash brushstrokes
– to wet or not to wet
– wash strategies
– hints and guidelines |
| using glazes |
| resists and edge control |
| watercolor drybrush |
| texturing methods |
| lifting and fixing |
| signing, documenting and copyright |
| mixed media |
| painting outdoors |
| plein air paint kit |
| mixing green |
| – the green mixing system
– green mixing recipes
– pigment choices
– green mixing problems |
| painting portraits |
| painting the figure |
|
| color vision |
| light and the eye |
| – light: the spectrum we can see
– design of the eye
– three plus one light receptors
– trichromatic mixtures
– constraints on color vision |
| colorblindness |
| colormaking attributes |
| – measuring light & color
radiometry
photometry
colorimetry
– the geometry of light
luminous flux
luminous intensity
viewing geometry
illuminance
luminance
retinal illuminance
– the colormaking attributes
brightness/lightness
hue
hue purity
optimal color stimuli
are three attributes enough?
– painting saturation & value
how to judge saturation
chroma, lightness & saturation
the painters' "broken colors"
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| the geometry of color perception |
|
– newton's hue circle
color similarity
Newton's Opticks
the hue circle
the analysis of white
complementary mixtures
Newton's legacy
– Hering's opponent processes
Hering's Urfarben
Hering's opponent processes
the opponent functions
what are the opponent functions?
– from cones to colors
a geometrical color standard
cone excitation space
cone contrast space
perceptual opponent space
necessary additional transformations
– the geometry of colormaking attributes
response compression
luminance discrimination
hue discrimination
hue purity discrimination
color attributes combined
summary of color geometry
– individual differences in color experience
– color & language |
| basic forms of color |
|
– basic forms of color
– unrelated vs. related color
– self luminous vs. surface color
– local vs. veiled color
– plane vs. depth color
– summary of basic forms of color
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| adaptation, anchoring & contrast |
|
– luminance adaptation
– brightness, lightness & anchoring
– chromatic adaptation
– successive color contrasts
– chromatic induction
– luminance & color changes
– color constancy
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| additive & subtractive color mixing |
|
– additive color mixing
– subtractive color mixing
– substance uncertainty
– "theory" vs. experience
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| do "primary" colors exist? |
|
– the ancient primaries
– the painter's primaries
– Newtonian color confusions
– material trichromacy
– comprehensive color models
– perceptual trichromacy
– colorimetry
– imaginary or imperfect primaries |
| the color top |
| modern color models |
|
– the evolution of color models
– Swedish Natural Color System
– Munsell Color System
– OSA uniform color scales
– CIELUV uniform color space
– CIELAB uniform color space
– CIECAM color appearance model
|
| CIECAM aCbC plane |
| PDF version of CIECAM aCbC plane |
| CIELAB a*b* plane |
| PDF version of CIELAB a*b* plane |
| comparison of hue circles |
| the structure of vision (i) |
| – the weave of vision
– center/surround receptive fields
– image frequency analysis
– edge & region detection |
| the structure of vision (ii) |
| – texture & surface analysis
– depth & volume perception
– object & scene recognition
– the visual field |
| color in the world |
| – the causes of color
– surfaces & lights
– surface & shadow color
– special material colors
– physical color changes |
| tonal value |
| – the dominance of value
– the value scale
– hue, lightness & saturation
– the artist's value wheel
– shades, tones and tints
– grayscales & gamut mapping
– shadows, saturation and value
– painting values |
| the artist's value wheel |
| PDF version of the artist's value wheel |
| color temperature |
| – warm vs. cool colors
– what causes warm color effects?
– the origin of warm/cool
– the warm/cool contrast in paints
– unsaturated color zones
– painting warm or cool |
| color wheels |
|
– creating a color wheel
– "primary" color wheel
"primary" colors and paints
why use "primary" colors?
mixing step scales
true "primary" color relationships
– secondary color wheel
secondary colors and paints
complementary colors
a complementary grain of salt
– tertiary color wheel
tertiary colors and paints
the old & modern tertiary colors
– more is less? a gamut comparison
artists mix paints, not "colors"
– color names |
| mixing with a color wheel |
| – complementary color contrasts
– saturation costs
– the color wheel fallacy
– basic mixing method
– split "primary" palette
– unequal color spacing |
| testing the color wheel |
| – testing the mixing method
– mixtures between two "primary" colors
– mixtures among all tertiary colors |
| an artist's color wheel |
| – visual vs. mixing complements
– the artist's color wheel
– tour of the color wheel
– why the difference?
– making your own color wheel |
| the artist's color wheel (CIECAM version) |
| PDF version of the artist's color wheel (CIECAM version) |
| the artist's color wheel (CIELAB version) |
| PDF version of the artist's color wheel (CIELAB version) |
| an artist's color theory |
| – lightness, saturation, hue
– color temperature
– unsaturated color zones
– those pesky "primary" colors
– color harmony
– the dungeon of "color theory"
– an intuitive color study
– teach yourself to see |
|
| books |
| buyer beware |
| learning the basics |
| |
| pigments, paints & papers |
| |
| color science & "color theory" |
| |
| advanced instruction |
| |
| how to by subject |
| |
| handbooks |
| |
|
| artists |
| introduction |
| botanical illustration |
| the topographical tradition |
| the poetic landscape |
| francis towne |
| thomas girtin |
| joseph mallord william turner |
| william blake |
| john constable |
| late georgian watercolors |
| thomas rowlandson |
| john sell cotman |
| peter de wint |
| david cox |
| william henry hunt |
| richard parkes bonington |
| victorian watercolors |
| samuel palmer |
| john ruskin |
| alfred william hunt |
| the pre–raphaelites |
| hercules brabazon brabazon |
| james mcneill whistler |
| 19th century european watercolors |
| 19th century american watercolors |
| winslow homer |
| paul cezanne |
| auguste rodin |
| thomas eakins |
| maurice prendergast |
| frederick childe hassam |
| paul signac |
| john singer sargent |
| wassily kandinsky |
| emil nolde |
| john marin |
| raoul dufy |
| william russell flint |
| paul klee |
| edward hopper |
| arthur dove |
| charles demuth |
| marguerite zorach |
| georgia o'keeffe |
| the ohio watercolorists |
| charles burchfield |
| george grosz |
| egon schiele |
| fairfield porter |
| california scene painters |
| andrew wyeth |
| philip pearlstein |
| gerhard richter |
| joseph raffael |
| trevor chamberlain |
| carolyn brady |
| francesco clemente |
| carol carter |
|
| retailers |
| – Amsterdam Art
– Art Supply Warehouse
– Cheap Joe's
– Daniel Smith Artist Materials
– Dick Blick Artist Materials
– Jerry's Artarama
– Ken Bromley Art Supplies
– Montmartre Art Supplies
– New York Central Art Supply
– Pearl Paint
– Utrecht Art Supplies
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 Last revised 08.01.2005 • © 2005 Bruce MacEvoy
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