THE COLORFUL WATER

USING THE LATEST WATERCOLOR PEN BRUSHES, VARIOUS

TECHNIQUES AND TRICKS FOR BEAUTIFUL ART.
 INTRODUCTION:

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Watercolors are every child’s first
“grown up” colors and they can create magical pieces of art when mastered. The
technique of watercolor painting, called aquarelle in French, can take years and years to
practice, but the end results are stunning!
The basic concept behind watercolor art is pigments which are evenly suspended in
water to give a bright and luminous tint to the watercolor paper, made up of cotton so
that the distortion is minimal when large volume of water is used on the surface to paint
with watercolors.
Historically speaking watercolors date back to the Paleolithic times and also in
Egyptian times when they illustrated and illuminated manuscripts but in recorded
history, German artist Durer is said to be the father of watercolors as he has done fine
specimens of nature in his many pieces. Until today, the best way to illustrate plants and
animals and nature in general is via watercolors. Field guides, museum copies of
botanical illustrations are done in watercolor itself. It is not only beautiful and bright but
also closest in appearance to the naturally occurring flora and fauna!
Watercolor is vibrant, exciting but also quite difficult. But in the market these days
there is a superb product which allows you to use the techniques and brushwork of
watercolors without the use of actual watercolor tubes or cakes and brushes, water,
watercolor equipment et al. This is the watercolor brush pen which looks like any other
marker but in fact is a brush with structured tip and controlled water supply through the
tip so that it gives no spread, no smear neat and perfect watercolor effect.
Here is an e book which is dedicated to make using watercolor brushes easier and
with more comfort so that they help you bring out the best art in you! They are
convenient and simple. The art is defined by the artist and not the other way round, but
sometimes the perfect tool just makes the art experience very wholesome and helps
bring more satisfaction to the art work. We hope this book brings you enough
experience and guideline to begin doing watercolors using watercolor brush pens. We
have tried to bring together many techniques and tricks and tips for getting comfortable
with the pen brushes, and applying the tricks of the art using this brush pen. Happy
painting!
CHAPTER 1:
The brush pens: what they are and why to use them
 Water brushes are the newest painting gadget on the block. They are useful and
very dynamic to use!

Basically, a water brush is a very convenient painting tool because they are brushes
with a water reservoir that’s plugged behind the portion with the bristles. This is a
revolutionary tool as the water flow controlled by a small feed which releases more
water into the brush when pressed. So in all practical terms, this is basically a water
reservoir which connects to the brush portion and one can hold this like a pen. Hence
the name brush pen.

Think of this in these terms – like in earlier days, people used to dip sharpened
feathers into ink and write and then came pens which nullified the need of dipping and
writing because the ink is in the pen, controlled by some kind of regulating mechanism,
the watercolor brush pen is also working on the same mechanism where the need to dip
the brush in water over and over is not needed.

What a simple yet genius way to go about color and painting!

This product is also on the same lines – it is a set of watercolor brush pens, 20 shades
of colored pen brushes and one plain water brush. No dipping in color or pigment is
required, just open the lid and go to town with your art! Thin, blend and provide shades
and depth to the painting using the water brush provided with the set and it is actually a
brush pen but one can fill water in it.

HOW TO PICK A BRUSH PEN?

Since this is a novel concept to paint with, one might not be really comfortable
understanding what kind of brush pen to use. There are a few considerations to keep in
mind when going out to buy your brush pens. The easiest would be to just buy a set
which has one or two of each variety and there are packs which come according to a
standard user but like a unique painter, you may have specific brush pen need which
would fit perfectly in your painting style so one must know their brushes before setting
out and painting the town red! Here are the broad categories of watercolor brush pens:
 - THE SIZE – there can be a fine, a medium, a large and a flat, just like normal
paint brush categories. The fine, the medium and the large brush pens have a
circular binding and they taper to point whereas the flat brush ends in a straight
line at the edge where all bristle ends are at one level. The round brushes are
good for graduating amount of detailing and flat brush is great for large washes
of colors over a surface.

- THE LENGTH – there can be small brush pens and longer ones and can vary in
the volume of water filled in them and how heavy they can get after filling in. the
small ones are more portable and the long ones can keep in more water but it
can all vary according to the requirement and comfort of the painter.

- THE MECHANISM – water needs to go into the reservoir of the brush pen
and it can do so either normally via open top mechanism and also by squeezing
the body so that the valve that is affixed on the top of the reservoir can be
opened and water can get it (and also not get out).

- THE MATERIAL OF THE TIP – the tip can be made up of natural hair,
synthetic hair or even felt. The way the brush behaves on the paper depends on
which of these materials the tip is made up of.

They are inexpensive and you must get a few in order to figure what works for you.
When experimenting with makes and tips and elasticity etc. go ahead and pick up as
many as you can and try them out in the art you are making.

WHY USE A WATERCOLOR BRUSH PEN?

One may ask what’s really wrong with a regular, good old paintbrush and dip-it-in
over and over method.

Well it’s simple.

Here are some reasons why watercolor brush pen is better than the usual:
 - It is liberating! One can fill the reservoir of the plain water brush from anywhere,
no extra pots and pans and equipment is needed and it is simpler to use. The set
has already filled pens, and no carrying dipping liquid or semisolid paints on the
go!

- It is not messy and there is no far of ruining the art piece or someone’s shoes by
accidentally knocking over the pot of dirty murky water or color pigment bottle.

- It is very convenient. One can even travel and paint while traveling using this
beautiful and genius invention.

- It is ideal for lettering and innovations! It gives the fluidity of a pen with the
organic brilliance and expressiveness of watercolor and this is truly the best of
both worlds. One can simply mix shades and create stunning lettering for
scrapbook or posters.

- The construction of these brush pens is superb, making them better for the
longer run as they don’t tend to get damaged so easily.

- They don’t spread or spray and they are more dynamic to use resulting in richer,
more powerful strokes. They are multifarious – acting as a marker when not
blended with the water brush, and as watercolor when run with water off the
water brush.

These make brush pens a better and more rewarding alternative to the traditional dip
brushes although you can control the amount of stain and its opacity or transparency
when you use a manual brush.

The How To’s of this very comfortable product shall be covered in the coming chapters
and few practice sheets and techniques are also covered. This book is designed keeping
both painting enthusiasts as well as pros in mind so even the variety of topics and tricks
covered will be exhaustive. Read on and have fun!
CHAPTER 2:
The basic technique of using a watercolor brush pen
 Watercolor brush pens are fairly simple to use and create art although it is advisable
that the user gets habitual with the pigment flow and handling before undertaking final
artwork surfaces and pieces. Here is a simple step by step procedure to use a watercolor
brush pen:

- Pick a sketch of your choice or draw one.

- Select the colors you will be using for the drawing and pick out the colorful
markers from the set collection.

- Now beginning from the deepest hue you want on that particular portion of the
drawing, begin drawing as if drawing with markers.

- Do little portion and advance gradually, using the water brush to diffuse and
spread the stain, and making it lighter as you go filling the space.

- When merging two colors, follow same principle of staining the paper before
blending using the water brush.

- Once the watercolor mixing is done, highlight or lowlight the required areas using
the solid color off the marker.

- This completes the drawing!

One can practice these basic techniques in order to create masterpieces in art and
lettering!
CHAPTER 3:
How to practice with watercolor brush pens
 A structured practice of any art or study is important if one wants to use the
knowledge creatively, in order to get optimum satisfaction out of the activity. One can
use the watercolor brush pen in any form – it can even act as a normal sharpie and the
fine tip produces a thin line even to fill adult coloring books (which have small, fine
prints). But that doodling is just to break into the pen, not become a pro – for that you
will need properly structured modules and instructions which we want to provide in
this chapter.

PRACTICING LETTERING:
 The most dynamic use of the brush pen is regarding the lettering and calligraphy
freedom it provides, so let us see some tips on how to practice calligraphy using the
watercolor brush pen:

- Practice straight lines horizontal and vertical before you do the joint lettering like
calligraphy. This gives your hands and the brush pen to get accustomed to one
another and you can control the pen better. Always remember, the down stroke
of the pen when you write has more pressure to it and the cross stroke or the
horizontal stroke is always lighter. This will build proper foundation for beautiful
lettering. Practice lines over and over until there is sufficient consistency. Make
straight lines and lines at angles to each other. Control the pressure and try to be
as uniform in pressure throughout the stroke as possible. This is hard to achieve
but doable. Even if it is not absolutely uniform, it looks charming because one
expects it to be organic as it is handmade.

- Now graduate to making capital letters. Practice the ones without a bend to
them, like T,L,F,E,K,J,H etc before the others which are made using semicircles or
angular lines. This is the right way to go about breaking into the brush well.

- Now you can go up to doing all letters. Don’t attempt joining the letters or
cursive writing or ornamental writing already. Just make repetitions of the same
letter until you can create the perfect shape consistently.

- After there is sufficient control and fluency in doing capitals, it is time for
calligraphy. Try going with instinct and understanding how the pen will flatten
and come back into a point while writing simple three letter words. There are
many ways to do this. you can begin with writing a simple three letter word using
the pen but only the tip (like a sharpie)and go over the loops again, making a
double line with space like in the image below. Now use the same color brush
pen or a go lighter or go another shade altogether to fill in those gaps in the
letters you just made – you can also use the diluter pen and fade the color to the
inside of the gaps.
 Once this basic drill is complete you can upgrade your lettering to larger words, more
color combinations and adding color to the lettering in myriad other forms. This shall be
discussed in the coming chapters.

But for now, let us talk about the tips and tricks to follow when you want to try the
watercolor brush pens for watercolor artwork.

PRACTICING WATERCOLOR PAINTING:

The watercolor brush pens are an amazing and revolutionary way of coloring and art
too, as they are very convenient and one can easily achieve the watercolor effect with
minimal mess and more control over blending colors.

Here are some drills for the amateur watercolor brush pen user who is making art
with the product.

- Aim at achieving the perfect blends before you begin painting. Ideal practice
would be to discover what the best way to fade out is – a fade out is maximum
strength of color in one portion and as the eye travels further, the intensity of
the hue fades into watery or blurry concentrations. In ideal fade out is nothing
 but color going from full intensity to least within the stipulated area. Use your
watercolor brush pen in a bold stroke and begin fading it out through your art
area using a plain water brush pen or the blender pen and see what works
better, the pigment first and then the blending or water on the sheet first and
then the pigment.

- Once blending becomes effortless, go up a level and blend two colors into each
other from two ends of the area – like pigment 1 fading in from left side and
pigment 2 from the right and there is a faint mixture of the two pigments in the
center of the sheet. This provides a practice of controlling the extent of mixture
of the pigments as well and this technique works well when you want a
background to some other focus of the painting. The practice of this also helps
you to avoid ugly mixing which can kill the theme and scheme of the painting.

- Now it is time to upgrade to shapes. Begin with solid simple shapes like simple
flowers etc. to get a confidence of handling complete scenes and compositions at
once. Simple shapes allow for more technique friendliness apart from giving you
the liberty to use shades and stokes of choice. A multitude of effects can be
achieved with these basic strokes.

- Upgrade to compilations and compositions but not your own already. Pick up
paintings of artists and fill in your paints in your own style until you are happy
with your results. Practice until the desired level of perfection is achieved.
- Now you are ready to do art of your own!

SOME USEFUL TIPS TO REMEMBER:

This section contains generic tips which you may know already but when doing the
job, you tend to forget.

- Pick your paper well. It needs to hold all the water from the coloring so it needs to
be thick and textured enough in order to stay in shape.
- Always stick your sheet to the board using artist’s masking tape to help your
paper stay straight and un-warped.

- Clean the tip of your blender pen once blending in done so it does not mess with
your subsequent blending.

- Keep your pens clean and dry and always capped so that they last longer.

- Keep a piece of sponge or a piece of rough clean cloth to help you with blending
and cleaning.

- Just relax into the art!

CHAPTER 4:
Drills and exercises for brush pen lettering
 Once comfortable with the pen, one needs to practice and make the strokes more
fluid and the loops and turns shapely. This takes a lot of practice and not just of the
individual letters but there are proper drill sheets to practice in which teach you the
rhythm of alternating upstrokes and down-strokes. This practice is necessary and an
absolutely critical part in getting to be the best in brush lettering.

Here are some drills and their explanations along with the pictures of how the strokes
are created.

1. THE BASIC STROKES – the basic strokes are quite simple and yet may take a
while to master because they are the backbone of any type of lettering using the
brush pens. The strokes are simple – the plain angled downward stroke, the tilted
angled downward, both together, simple O’s and angled O’s and triple small L’s.
The plain angled downward is drawn keeping the tip of the brush pen straight
and drawing a small downward stroke. The titled version of the same is drawn
the same way, only the pen is not at 90 degrees with the paper but slightly less
on one side. This makes a thicker line as compared to the plain angled
downward.
Making simple O’s is drawing an “o” on the paper and the imaginary central line
of this o is at 90 degrees with the base line. Angled o is made the same way, only
the imaginary line that runs through the center of this o and the base point,
makes an angle less than 90 degree on one side. The triple l’s are like what we
make when writing roman but joint letters not the capital ones. This is a simple
set of beginner drills which set the foundation for the ornamental letters to
come.

2. THE LETTERS – Make small and capital letters using the brush pen, one alphabet
a day but do both as a set. This will improve your flow and control and you will be
able to make better writing.

3. NUMBERS – a numbers practice is good too and makes a lot of sense because
writing numbers using brush pen calligraphy has a lot of practical application. Be
it cards or calendar or even scrapbooking, number writing is a useful practice to
do and apply.
4. SWIRLS – they are ideal for learning to shape and control the bends using a
brush pen and go in a spiral structurally. In a square of 2*2 inches, practice evenly
spaces spiral bends over and over until they come out perfect and you are
confident regarding the same.

5. SHH STROKES – they are like continuous loops of infinity symbols. This helps you
get the most perfect shapes of calligraphy symbols and helps you innovate with
the font on your own.

6. FREQUENCY STROKES – in that small square of 2*2, just make something like
sound waves which are highest across the center of the diagonal line drawn
through that square. This helps improve your flow of strokes and gives your
ample confidence to try your hand at lettering.

7. HILLS STROKE – fill the square with small “hills”, the second row being added on
top of the first one in a honeycomb pattern, using a fairly straight pen. This gives
you the practice for making perfect tops to most alphabets in the lettering
process.

8. GEOMETRY – these are just straight lines to be sketched diagonally across your
square using the broad spread of the brush pen tip. These chunky lines make for
a bold stroke. The power and confidence these strokes give when practiced are
useful for all the other strokes discussed.

SOME OTHER TECHNIQUES TO IMPROVE LETTERING:

- Colored loopy lettering: make the basic lettering with some gaps within the
lettering (so that they can be faded, blended or colored in) and surround the
lettering with any contrasting color but keep in mind to keep some space in
between the lettering and the new color so that while blending it with blender
pen or a plain water brush, there is space for the bleed to go. This creates a
beautiful halo around the words and makes it glow with the pigment.
 - Flat stroke lettering: use the flat ends of the tips to make bold and strong
strokes in the letters and words and fill out any areas left by the brush pen. Now
using the blender pen, highlight and soften the edges of the lettering and let the
color bleed slightly. This technique works best with deep colors like dark greens,
blues and browns and the most amazing with black. You can also add color to
this technique by running a different color brush pen over the black letters right
before you run the blender brush over for a subtle yet artistic look which is
muted and very smooth.

- Hand designed and handmade letters: there is no font and no rules. Use the tip
of your watercolor brush pen and create your own letters with shapes you want
and no two letters need to look similar necessarily. Just make sure there is
enough space in the lettering to fill in, like the very first basic technique we
discussed in the previous chapter. This space can be used in many ways.
1. It can be blended in using the blender pen and filled using the lighter hues of
the same color as the outline.
2. Add color using a brighter shade and mark the inside space of one or all the
letters in small dots, but just a few dots concentrated in one area of the letter
space. Now run the blender brush across the dots and spread the color in
gradient around the letter/letters filling the entire available space. Lo!
Beautiful ombre coloration decorates your writing!
3. The same technique of adding dots can also be put outside of the letter’s
empty space and an ombre halo of color can be placed right around the
letter. This is simple yet endearing way to decorate the letters!

There can be many more astonishing techniques to use for adorning the letters you
make and practicing these techniques can lead to a confident use of them as well as
creating new effects on your own. But to get there, it is a long and tedious journey to
undertake.

Now constant practice of these techniques for lettering should be the main focus of
the artist so that he can do the best with lettering. The forthcoming chapter will talk
about the tips and tricks and care instructions or your brush pens and how to handle
them well.
CHAPTER 5:
Tips and tricks to help
 When using the brush pens or even any art supply one must be careful and cautious
both for the techniques as well as the material. Here are some tips to enjoy the art as
you pursue it so that it becomes more a fun activity than any kind of pressure and you
can make more satisfaction and happiness.

Some fonts and their names are worth knowing before you set out to writing
beautifully:

- Enjoy the process: without enjoying the feel and smell of the watercolor brush
pens, without engrossing yourself in the depth of pigments and appreciating the
beauty of the art these pen produce will give you a sense of satisfaction and
make you calm.

- Always keep the pens clean. Use a clean soft cloth to clean up the tips lightest
color first. Also, always clean the blender pen right after use to preserve the
neutrality it provides. The watercolor brush pens are excellent quality pens which
give superb results when used right. They are a requisite for any artist who wants
to make good art.

- Never stop practicing. This is art not a driving test which needs to be practiced
for just once. Keep on playing with the sheets even if you are fluent with the
hand motions while lettering. This ensures you maintain precision with the
strokes. Especially practice the hold well. How you hold the pen defines the
quality of your lettering right away.

- Use shades and tints well. Each color can have depths and can look attractive if
blended properly and its variants used wisely. Use colors aesthetically and this
can only be achieved with practice and experience.

- Apply water brush lettering to variety places. Why restrict it to cards or

scrapbooks? Why not the project at school? Why not in a poster or a postcard or
a visiting card? Explore the scope of waterbrush lettering beyond the usual
applications and you will find a lot of interest developing in the area!
- Let your imagination run free: without an amply free mind, no art can be
effective. Water brush lettering will look good only if it is aimed with a
meaningful implication or logic. Let your imagination make it all even better.

- Your unique letter formations are also fonts! Keep that in mind while you are
lettering and you can easily create your own special writing style and font and
would be able to express with ease.

- Control the pressure. The up and down stroke are all pressure driven. If the
pressure is not right the pen might begin to spatter and spray the color all over
your worksheet. Control the way you put stress on the pen and glide it as
smoothly and in one stroke as possible to create a smooth, gliding writing. It is
very crucial for good and fluidic calligraphy.

FOR WATERCOLOR PAINTING WITH THE WATERCOLOR BRUSH PEN:

- Blend blend blend: once the stroke is in place, the blender pen or plain water
pen must come in immediately to blend the ink out before it dries out or the
paper absorbs it up!

- Use naturally: just go with the flow as you would when using actual watercolor.
The spontaneity is the soul of watercolor and it is hence important to break in
with the pen so that when you are using it for coloring, it does not hamper your
flow in any way. That is the purpose and that should be maintained.

- Begin humble: no need to take on ambitious projects immediately, take it slow,

take it at your pace so that it is simple and easy to handle as compared to being
overwhelming. You can take your time graduating to more complex projects.

- Use the blender pen amply: watercolor is all about the water and how it reacts
with the pigments so it is advisable that you use the blender pen to the fullest
and develop a rhythm to it while using the water substitute. You can even keep it
open for more time and not worry about it drying out because this product is
hardy that way, it won’t dry out immediately.
 The watercolor brush pen set is a boon for the painter on the
go as well as the lettering enthusiast and is the ideal choice for
any art requirement in these areas. It can produce stunning
pieces of expressive watercolors as well as attractive calligraphy
and ornamental writing to be out on those special papers – gifts,
cards or scrapbooks or eve memory-books… the list continues. So
use your imagination and creativity into creating something
exciting, satisfying the inner artist to the fullest using the
watercolor brush pen set available online or at the nearest art
supplies store.
PRACTICE SHEETS
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