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Watercolor Basics and Color Theory

This document provides instructions for a series of watercolor painting exercises to help students learn color theory and get familiar with using watercolors. The exercises include: 1) Painting squares of color at different consistencies, 2) Creating a color card and value scales for each color, 3) Painting a color wheel with primary, secondary and tertiary colors, 4) Creating a color chart showing secondary and tertiary color combinations, 5) Mixing neutrals and all tube colors, 6) Painting balls using different techniques to darken colors. The goal is to understand how to control color, value, temperature and mixing.

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1K views3 pages

Watercolor Basics and Color Theory

This document provides instructions for a series of watercolor painting exercises to help students learn color theory and get familiar with using watercolors. The exercises include: 1) Painting squares of color at different consistencies, 2) Creating a color card and value scales for each color, 3) Painting a color wheel with primary, secondary and tertiary colors, 4) Creating a color chart showing secondary and tertiary color combinations, 5) Mixing neutrals and all tube colors, 6) Painting balls using different techniques to darken colors. The goal is to understand how to control color, value, temperature and mixing.

Uploaded by

Sanghpriyauhd
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Watercolor Basics and Color Paige Smith-Wyatt©2017

Watercolor I and II
Theory www.pswyatt.com

Painting Exercises - Getting to know your paints and color


!
Basics to know before getting started:!
• Put paint onto palette and wet with brush or pipette. !
• Watercolor is usually used in a very diluted/watery consistency as compared to oil or acrylic
painting where you usually use the paint quite thickly. !
• In watercolor painting you control the water to pigment ratio to create the relative lightness
and darkness of your paint. For example, a lot of water mixed with very little paint will create a
very light color; a little bit of water mixed with a good bit of paint will create a dark color. !
• In watercolor painting, the white of the paper is used to make white in the white areas of a
painting. The white paper visible through the transparent paint creates the lightest colors.!
• The transparency of the paint makes it very difficult to paint light over dark, so you will need to
plan ahead. Therefore, it is good to paint the light areas first and gradually move to the dark
areas. !
• Paint can be lifted from the paper with your brush or a paper towel:!
! with brush - dry brush on paper towel then apply to painted area to lift wet paint!
! with paper towel/sponge - apply paper towel to area of wet paint you would like to lift!
! If the area is dry: wet the area that has dried, dry brush, then rub on area of painted you !
! just put water on on. Wash brush, dry and repeat lifting. !
!
Paint Consistency !
Paint 6 small squares of a color in the following consistencies:!
1 Watery 2 Between water and milk 3 Milk 4 Between milk and cream 5 Cream 6 Butter !
!
Color Card !
Make a small color card for your palette (use same color placement/layout as your palette). It is
helpful to keep this color card with your palette for quick reference while painting because colors
on the palette appear much darker than they do when mixed with water and applied to paper.!
!
Value Scales!
Paint and label a value scale for each tube of color. First paint entire rectangle(all 6 squares)
with a very pale mix of color. Let dry then apply another pale mix over all boxes in rectangle
except the first one. Let dry and continue progression. This will give you an idea of the different
values/tones that can be created with each paint. Label each with color name/number,
transparency, and lightfastness.!
!
Color Wheel !
Draw a circle and divide to make 12 sections. Paint the following colors:!
! primary - red, yellow, blue!
! secondary - orange, green, purple!
! tertiary - primary + secondary!
!
Color Chart!
Create a color chart to show the secondary and tertiary color combinations that are possible by
mixing only two tube colors. Use Arches paper for this!
• draw 9 (or one more than the number of tubes of color you have) rows and columns!
• draw a black line with permanent marker down the first column (if you can see the pigment
sitting on the top of the black line then that color has opaque qualities)!
Watercolor I and II

• each ROW is about the color/hue in that row and what the other colors in the palette do
when mixed with the dominant row color!
• each COLUMN contains the same colors placed in the same order as in the rows!
• Mix less of the column color and more of the row color for the best results.!
• Leave a little white space between colors to visually separate the colors.!
!
!
Mixing Neutrals - create neutral hues by combining first combining complementary colors then
experiment using three or more tube colors. Label each of your mixtures with the tube color
names used.!
!
Mix all of your tube colors to see what you get.!
!
Warm and Cool Colors !
Yellows, oranges, and reds tend to be warm and blues, greens, and purples tend to be cool.
However, any color can be either warm or cool relative to its placement to other colors as well
as the pigment mixture. For example, lemon yellow can appear cool when placed next to
cadmium yellow. As you paint, think of the relative warmness and coolness of your colors.!

Color Theory and Watercolor Painting


!
In color theory, a color’s value and chroma can be controlled by adding white, black, or a
neutral. However, in actual practice, this can create muddied color that does not work well in a
painting. !
!
The theory:!
A tint is the mixture of a color with white to increase lightness. In watercolor painting you use
the white of the paper instead of mixing your color with white paint. A shade is the mixture of a
color with black to reduce lightness. A value/tone is produced either by the mixture of a color
with gray or by both tinting and shading. Chroma is the colorful/brightness of a color. Mixing a
color with a neutral color reduces the chroma. !
!
In practice there are 3 ways to darken color to create shade: !
Using a color’s compliment, going down the color wheel, or using black.!
!
Complimentary Colors!
Colors adjacent to each other on the color wheel. A color can be added to its compliment to
neutralize or darken it. Complimentary colors can be used to create contrast in a painting.!
!
Analogous Colors!
Colors beside each other on the color wheel are analogous. Instead of moving across the color
wheel to darken (traditional approach), you can move around the color wheel (used by
impressionists). This achieves brighter, cleaner color. !
!
Draw 3 circles (balls) and paint with a light yellow. Try to leave a white spot for the highlight.
On one ball, use analogous colors to darken the shaded areas. On the next ball, use
complimentary colors to darken the shaded areas. On the last ball, use black to darken. !
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Watercolor I and II

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Value Scales !! ! ! ! ! ! !

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Color Wheel

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