Everyday Watercolor: Learn to Paint Watercolor in 30 Days

Copyright © 2017 by Jenna Rainey

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Watson-Guptill Publications, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.

www.crownpublishing.com

www.watsonguptill.com

Watson-Guptill is a registered trademark and the colophon is a trademark of Penguin Random House LLC.

Library of Congress cataloging-in-publication data is on file with the publisher.

Trade paperback ISBN 9780399579721

Ebook ISBN 9780399579738

v4.1

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CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

TECHNIQUE

DAY 1 STROKES

DAY 2 CURVES AND CIRCLES

DAY 3 STRAIGHT LINES AND TRIANGLES

DAY 4 LAYOUT

DAY 5 COMPOUND STROKES

DAY 6 COMPLEX CURVES

FORM, PERSPECTIVE, AND LIGHT

DAY 7 LIGHT TO DARK LAYERING

DAY 8 BACKGROUND AND FOREGROUND

DAY 9 PATTERN

DAY 10 LIGHT SOURCE AND SHADING

DAY 11 VARIED HUE BLENDING

DAY 12 CAST SHADOW

COMPLEX SHAPES AND FORMS

DAY 13 ANGLES AND FOLDS

DAY 14 PAINTING IN SECTIONS

DAY 15 COMPLEMENTARY COLORS

DAY 16 FINE LINES

DAY 17 HIGHLIGHTS, MID-TONES, AND SHADOWS

DAY 18 GESTURE

VALUE, VOLUME, AND DEPTH

DAY 19 MOVEMENT

DAY 20 VALUES

DAY 21 SUBJECT IN A LANDSCAPE

DAY 22 ATMOSPHERIC PERSPECTIVE

DAY 23 GRAYSCALE VALUE

DAY 24 VOLUME

APPLICATION

DAY 25 WIDE LANDSCAPE: DESERT

DAY 26 WIDE LANDSCAPE: JUNGLE

DAY 27 FINAL DESERT PIECE: PART ONE

DAY 28 FINAL DESERT PIECE: PART TWO

DAY 29 FINAL JUNGLE PIECE: PART ONE

DAY 30 FINAL JUNGLE PIECE: PART TWO

DAY 31 AND BEYOND

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

INDEX

Ah, watercolor. Its beautiful luminous quality is pure delight. Watercolor is wildly uncontrollable and at the same time containable. It’s a visual medium that moves around with ease, exploding and bursting into surrounding strokes, creating texture and depth that can’t be found in any other type of media.

You know the feeling when you’ve fallen in love and you can’t stand to be away from that person? This was my story with watercolor. I know—dramatic, right? Well, it’s true. I became obsessed. When I wasn’t painting, I was thinking about painting. I fell in love with watercolor and began to study it. I put in countless hours discovering all the ins and outs.

My mom and both of my grandmothers were acrylic painters, and although I’d tried my hand at painting a few times, I would definitely have considered myself OK at best. And sure, I’d dabbled with watercolor in elementary school. But when my profession as a calligrapher and designer began to take off, I came across the right watercolor supplies—and something changed for me. With the correct materials, the process was so enjoyable that I wanted to learn more.

This infatuation rapidly turned into an important part of my career as an artist and designer. I’ve been able to work with clients from all over the globe, using watercolor to provide illustrations for large brands, as well as creative stationery for events like beautiful high-end weddings. I’ve also been able to travel and teach my watercolor classes to thousands of students over the years. With my teaching experience, I’ve learned how to communicate with beginner and developing watercolorists, to break down complicated subjects into something simpler and easier to grasp. I’m able to share what I’ve learned the hard way through experience and mistakes. I’ve come to discover that watercolor painting is about learning from the failed attempts and continuing to develop muscle memory and technique.

In the beginning, I challenged myself to paint subjects more complex than what I thought I could manage. I incorporated my knowledge of basic sketching and shading techniques into more complex subjects. At each stage of my relationship with watercolor, I was accepting of where I was—not discouraged with the outcome, but learning to enjoy the process and seeking to understand more of why watercolor does what it does and how to master it.

Being a self-taught watercolor artist has allowed me to break rules and learn the hard way. I’ve written this book to help you do just that (and perhaps avoid some of the hard parts I encountered). So here’s my advice at the outset: Allow yourself to be challenged. Paint differently than you think you should, and ask yourself what you enjoy about it. Like anything, becoming a better watercolorist takes work, dedication, practice, and most of all, patience. Patience with yourself to look at subjects with new eyes—the eyes of an artist. But first, you must allow yourself to start small and work your way up, adding more detail and complexity as you go. Jumping straight into painting a detailed flower or a toucan before practicing brush technique will usually lead to disappointment—you need to build basic skills before you tackle form and structure.

Throughout this book, we’re going to develop muscle memory and train our eyes to look for basic shapes and curves in every subject. No matter how complex and detailed a subject may seem on the surface, everything you paint or draw can be broken down into very simple shapes, like circles and ovals. We’ll start developing good brush and painting technique by practicing these basic shapes, training our eyes to look for unifying color palettes, and following rules of composition. We will define and create more complex shapes as we move through our thirty days together, building upon our foundation to continually instill confidence in your painting. Knowing where and how to start with any subject is a crucial part of the process, and this book will show you just that.

I hope you love getting to know more about watercolor over these next thirty days and you are inspired to continue painting with a new appreciation for this medium and for yourself as a creative individual. Once you have a strong foundation, you can develop your own style. Accept each step of the process, even your less successful attempts, as an opportunity for growth. Watercolor can be unpredictable, yet incredibly manageable too. If you’re up for the challenge to #everydaywatercolor, I’m sure you’ll be surprised by the creativity that is naturally in you—sometimes it just takes looking at things from a different angle. Throughout your journey through this book, I would love to see some of your favorite pieces you’ve created. If you’re on social media, use the hashtag #everydaywatercolor to add your own paintings. I’d enjoy seeing your transformation over the course of these daily painting exercises.

Let’s get started with the foundations, shall we?

SUGGESTED TOOLS AND MATERIALS

When I tried my hand at watercolor for the very first time many years ago, I was in, I don’t know—kindergarten? The teacher pulled out these cheap trays of watercolor that resembled dusty old eye shadow. Our brushes were coarse, and the plastic handle seemed to squeeze the hairs of the brush so tightly that they puffed out in every direction. The paper probably came straight from the copy machine. The masterpieces we created that day surely were displayed on fridges by proud parents, with a few fond chuckles—and soon replaced with finger paint and crayon art.

My experience with watercolor materials later in life was much different. This medium is addicting once you discover the proper materials for you and find a groove in your practice—indeed, it can be hard to stop! It’s life changing, I tell you. And I’m excited to share with you my list of most-loved supplies and why they can be so effective in your paintings.

PIGMENTS

Watercolor paint is a mixture of finely ground pigment powder combined with gum arabic. Gum arabic is a water-soluble binder, so when more is added to a particular tube or pan, the paint mixture can be sold for less money—but the purity and permanence of the pigment is degraded. I’ve found that the student-grade paints, which contain more binder, have a duller look, whereas professional-grade paints are higher quality when it comes to transparency, permanence, and color. Your eyes will light up when you see the difference these paints make in your art. I’m convinced it’s always better to invest from the beginning in professional-grade watercolor paints. You will also find that your colors become less muddy with professional grade than with student grade—and let me tell you, muddy colors for watercolorists are like death (more on this later).

My palette consists of a beautiful range of Winsor & Newton professional-grade watercolor paints, including these shown below.

Mars Black, Ultramarine Violet, Prussian Blue, Cobalt Blue, Phthalo Turquoise, Winsor Green, Sap Green, Olive Green

Lemon Yellow Deep, Yellow Ochre, Scarlet Lake, Opera Rose, Cadmium Orange, Winsor Orange (red shade), Burnt Umber

The number of paints in each artist’s palette will vary. Some prefer to have fewer options; others may prefer to have many more. This just depends on how the artist likes to mix and add hue variety to the palette. For example, when mixing up the color green, the hue will look much different if you use Prussian Blue and Lemon Yellow Deep than Phthalo Turquoise and Lemon Yellow Deep. I recommend going to your local art supply store to see these tubes and test out a couple of different types. If you purchase Winsor & Newton, the value of the pigment is rated by series numbers 1 to 4. The higher the series number, the higher the value of the pigment (and the cost). If you see the word hue in the name of a specific color—like Lemon Yellow Hue instead of Lemon Yellow Deep—that means the manufacturer is mixing two or more different and cheaper pigments together