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Colette Pitcher
Articles & Books From Colette Pitcher
Cheat Sheet / Updated 11-12-2021
Watercolor painting lets you explore the world of color from a uniquely wet perspective, but, in the end, it’s mostly about the color. You have to become familiar with the color wheel and its primary and complementary colors. You need to be able to judge color values (light to dark, not cheap to expensive), and to need to choose water color paints and pigments according to their biases.
Article / Updated 05-19-2021
As you grow in your art, you may hit a plateau. You may need a kick-start for inspiration or wonder how to improve your art skills. The good news is that there are lots of ideas to push you to the next level. Refer to the following list whenever you need a little spark to get your inner fire going.
Buy better art supplies
Possibly the easiest way to get better is to upgrade your art supplies.
Article / Updated 11-11-2021
There are many characteristics of watercolor paper to consider when you're shopping for paper for your watercolor painting. Two important characteristics are weight and texture.
Paper weight
One characteristic of all paper, including paper meant for watercolor paintings, is its weight. The manufacturer weighs a ream of 500 sheets of paper in its uncut state and gives it a number to indicate the paper's weight.
Article / Updated 11-12-2021
Typically, you paint on white watercolor paper. And ideally, you save the white of the paper to serve as the white in the painting. That is, you paint around the white areas, leaving the white paper to show.Although you can buy white watercolor paint, it looks a little chalky, and unless you're going for the unnatural look, you should avoid using it.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
When you're buying paper for your watercolor creation, you don't want to skimp on paper quality. Cheap paper can't take the abuse required of watercolor. Good watercolor paper is made of 100 percent cotton rag, acid-free content. (Acid-free is important because it ensures your paper won't turn yellow.) It lasts a very long time — it's been found in Egyptian tombs in good condition!
Article / Updated 11-11-2021
One of the endearing qualities of watercolor paint is that you can use a number of deceptively easy tricks to create some unexpected textures in your watercolor paintings. Not knowing the secrets, your audience will marvel at how difficult it was to complete your painting and how long it must have taken!
Sprinkling salt
A little table salt sprinkled on damp watercolor paint creates a delicate flower-like spot.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
Watercolor painting is a little about water and a little about color. You can get the water many places, but becoming familiar with the color wheel may take a bit more time. The color wheel shows the primary colors — red, yellow, and blue — and the many colors they can combine to make. The primary colors are the basis for every other color, and you can’t create the primaries by mixing other colors.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
Each one of the primary colors — red, yellow, and blue — is biased, meaning that it leans toward one of the other two primary colors. When mixing watercolor paints to get a secondary color — orange, green, or purple — use two primaries biased toward each other. Otherwise, you get a gray, muddy color.
For example, to get purple, be sure to mix a blue biased toward red such as ultramarine blue and a red biased toward blue such as alizarin crimson.