Watercolor: A Brief History

By:Tyler HayesA Brief Exploration of the History and Usage of Watercolor Painting

Watercolor: What is it?Watercolor painting is a style of painting that involves the painter manipulating water, the pigments, and the paper itself to paint and design intricate and beautiful works of art. Watercolor art is made through the use of tube-based paint, then wet either on paper or in a mixing tray, or by using dried pigments inside of a tray, then transferred over to the paper. Watercolor is typically done on either paper or vellum, however, it can be done on a large selection on materials. Watercolor painting can be done through a variety of ways: by using varying amounts of water, wetting the paper before starting, or even by re-wetting the paper after it has dried. Wetting the paper before-hand is a technique called “Wet-in-wet” and can be very useful. Through the use of Wet-in-wet, the painter can manipulate the paint in ways to create a wonderful and beautiful scene. When paint is applied to a wet medium (paper), the water blends much more easily and flow more, creating waves and flowing colors. The more common way to paint, however, is to take the paint or pigment and apply wet to the dry paper. This will cause a more vibrant look, but may also seem more solid and contrasting. There is also the technique of re-wetting a dried paper to help bring out the color, or to have it blend more with a new layer of paint.

When and Where it StartedThe history of Watercolor is a long and extensive one. Watercolor painting has been around, in one way or another, since Prehistoric times. Cavemen would draw and paint on cave wall using primitive tools and paints of what they saw and experienced. Cave paintings are a simple form of watercolor, as they used water-soluble paints and pigments to draw on walls. Thankfully they used a solution that was able to remain on the walls for well over tens of thousands of years. The oldest known cave painting is over 40,000 years old, an was discovered in Spain. Throughout history, the popularity of watercolor has had its ups and downs. In the mid 1400’s to late 1500’s, artists were using watercolor as a way to paint wildlife guides. It re-emerged again in the 1700’s - 1800’s. During these time periods, the major artists and painters hailed from Europe, specifically England and modern-day Germany. In the last few decades, watercolor has had an increase of popularity, especially within the United States.

Famous ArtistsThere are many different uses for watercolor, but the most widely used, and well-known is through wildlife guides. These guides are used to depict botanical, biological, and anatomical models of plants, animals, insects and much more. The reason watercolor is a great way to paint wildlife is that it looks smooth. When you look outside, everything seems to blend into one another, and you can only achieve that in watercolor, especially lights and transitioning colors, such as grass, the sky, and the ocean. With normal oil, or acrylic paints, the edges between the colors or objects may seem too sharp, and not realistic. In the late 1400’s to early 1500’s, Albrecht Dürer was a very well-known artist for his fine art of wildlife. Albrecht was born in Northern (now known as) Germany and is considered on of the best and earliest water color artists. He led a life that pushed the boundaries of what artists could do with watercolor and set a benchmark that wildlife guides be painted with watercolor. Famous English artists include: Thomas Gainsborough, Paul Sandby, and Thomas Girtin. Well-known American artists of the 20th century include Georgia O’Keeffe, and Edward Hopper.

How to watercolor: Tips and TricksWatercolor may seem like an easy-to-use way of painting, but to make something exceptional, it requires patience, dedication, and a knowledge of how water can react to certain changes and uses. Watercolor paint can be applied to the paper as wet, or dry onto a wet paper, however, this will not change the immediate outcome. You can, however, go back and re-wet a dry piece of art to manipulate the art in a number of ways. This way you can change the colors that are there and either merge them to make a more blended look, or even to dilute the color to make the color seem to disappear if there was a mistake. This is one of the only ways of removing watercolor, which can be difficult because the paint actually sinks into the paper, unlike other paints which just form a layer on top. Other techniques include Glazing, which is the method of diluting and adding colors on top of dried colors to add to the color and give it a much more refined look. Other techniques and tricks to use are to: tilt the paper that you are painting on to move the paint slightly and effortlessly, “painting” with clear water onto edges of paint to bring the watercolor out in a transition. Another trick used by famous artists is to not use Black or White, and to only use the three primary colors: Red, Green, and Blue.