Saturday, 1 February 2014

Quick Tips For Abstract Watercolor Painting Success

By Jayne Rutledge


If you are interested in starting abstract watercolor painting, there are many tips and hints available to you to help you get satisfying results for your efforts. There are many techniques that you can explore to develop your style. By playing around with some of the methods and tips mentioned in this article, you will be well on your way to becoming a watercolor artist.

Getting prepared to work with watercolors is a very simple act. Mixing the paints is as easy as adding a couple of drops of water to the palette and combining it. Getting the right consistency can take a little trial and error, but it can be remedied by working with the liquid to paint ratio.

A key thing to realize when you are working with this medium is that the colors are always lighter when they dry. Becoming accustomed to this early on will help you to get the right depth of color on your artwork. If you do find that your art dries too light, you can experiment with the amount of water you are mixing into the palette and reduce the amount for a darker look.

Even when you are working with darker hues, this style of painting remains quite translucent. While this can be a very attractive style, it also means that it is quite hard to disguise any errors in your work. You can go over the work again by re-wetting the piece, but this could affect the look of it. This is an aspect that you will need to play around with in order to get a feel for how you will deal with errors and re-workings.

There are a lot of artists who recommend planning out your piece carefully. Often the best way to do this is to produce a sketch of your planned artwork prior to working with the actual medium. This can help you to tweak the design and reduce the chance of errors, which are more difficult to undo when working with this style of painting.

Limiting the range of colors that you use is often recommended by long-time watercolor enthusiasts. When using more than around three hues in a piece, the effect can be busy and appear overcrowded. Limit your palette while you are a beginner and experiment with the effect before branching out further along the line.

When working with watercolors, it is worthwhile ensuring you have quality materials. It is best to invest in high quality brushes, even if that means buying fewer brushes, paper or paints. Brushes that shed bristles can really ruin a piece of artwork and become very frustrating to work with very quickly.

Abstract watercolor painting is an excellent style to try when you are beginning because it is less obvious when an error is made. As you become more skilled with the style and more experienced with the challenges that come with watercolors, you can expand your repertoire and try more realistic subjects. This kind of art can be challenging, but incredibly rewarding as well. By experimenting and applying some of the above advice, you will develop your own style and begin to get good results.




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