Watercolor painting: Difference between revisions

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{{shortShort description|Type of painting method using water-based solutions}}
{{Other uses|Watercolor (disambiguation)}}
{{More footnotes needed|date=October 2019}}
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[[File:Loves Messenger Stillman DAM.jpg|thumb|''[[Love's Messenger]]'', an 1885 watercolor and [[tempera]] by [[Marie Spartali Stillman]]]]
 
'''Watercolor''' ([[American English]]) or '''watercolour''' ([[British English]]; see [[American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or|spelling differences]]), also '''''aquarelle''''' ({{IPA-fr|akwaʁɛl|lang}}; from Italian diminutive of Latin {{lang|la|aqua}} "'water"'),<ref>{{cite OED|aquarelle}}</ref> is a [[painting]] method<ref name="London, Vladimir p. 19">"Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to the Stone Age when early ancestors combined earth and charcoal with water to create the first wet-on-dry picture on a cave wall." {{Harvtxt|London|2021|p=19}}</ref> in which the [[paint]]s are made of [[pigment]]s suspended in a water-based<ref>"Ancient Egyptians used water-soluble translucent paints to decorate papyrus scrolls. They used such earth pigments as ochres and siennas, as well as minerals like reds, cinnabar, blue azure, green malachite, and so on, with gum arabic and egg white. Technically, these water-soluble colors were watercolors." {{Harvtxt|London|2021|p=19}}</ref> solution. ''Watercolor'' refers to both the [[List of art media|medium]] and the resulting [[work of art|artwork]]. Aquarelles painted with water-soluble colored ink instead of modern water colors are called {{lang|la|aquarellum atramento}} ([[Latin]] for "aquarelle made with ink") by experts. However, this term has now tended to pass out of use.<ref>{{Harvtxt|Ling|1991}}</ref><ref>{{Harvtxt|Waterhouse|1994}}</ref>
 
The conventional and most common [[Support (art)|support]] — material to which the paint is applied—for watercolor paintings is [[watercolor paper]]. Other supports or substrates include stone, ivory, silk, reed, [[papyrus]], bark papers, plastics, [[vellum]], [[leather]], [[textile|fabric]], wood, and watercolor canvas (coated with a gesso that is specially formulated for use with watercolors). Watercolor paper is often made entirely or partially with cotton.<ref>"100% cotton papers are more absorbent in most brands, but there are papers that have only 50% cotton or even high quality papers, which have no blending with cotton." {{Harvtxt|Viscarra|2020|p=21}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Vloothuis |first=Johannes |date=2017-07-14 |title=Understanding the Different Grades of Watercolor Paper |url=https://www.artistsnetwork.com/art-mediums/watercolor/understanding-the-different-grades-of-watercolor-paper/ |access-date=2018-10-03 |publisher=Artists Network |language=en-US}}</ref> This gives the surface the appropriate texture and minimizes distortion when wet.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Watercolor Paper: How to Choose the Right Paper for Use with Watercolors |url=http://www.art-is-fun.com/watercolor-paper/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151007051717/http://www.art-is-fun.com/watercolor-paper/ |archive-date=2015-10-07 |access-date=2015-10-06 |website=art-is-fun.com |publisher=Art Is Fun}}</ref> Watercolor papers are usually cold-pressed papers that provide better texture and appearance with a weight at least 300 gsm (140 lb). Under 300 gsm (140 lb) is commonly not recommended for anything but sketching.<ref>"I would not recommend a weight less than 140lb (300 gsm) to paint anything other than quick sketches." {{Harvtxt|Mann|2016}}</ref><ref>"a paper that weighs 300 grams x meter² (140 pounds), has more body and looks more like a cardboard or thin cardboard, which makes it better to support the use of water." {{Harvtxt|Viscarra|2020|p=17}}</ref> Transparency is the main characteristic of watercolors.<ref>"It consists of a mixture of pigments, binders such as gum arabic and humectants such as glycerin, which together with other components, allow the color pigment to join and form the paint paste, which we know as watercolor. With regard to the colors, the quality of the pigments and their degree of concentration, it is what determines how good the watercolor is and also its price. A paint that has a high concentration of pigment, professional type, allows us to use it with a large amount of water without losing the intensity of color." {{Harvtxt|Viscarra|2020|p=47}}</ref> Watercolors can also be made opaque by adding [[Chinese white]]. This is not a method to be used in "true watercolor" (traditional).<ref>"Turner himself was of the same opinion; he declared to me [Munro] that water-colour painting would be totally mined, and lose all its individuality and beauty by the bad practice of mingling opaque with transparent colour." {{Harvtxt|Redgrave|Redgrave|1866}}</ref>
<ref>"Turner himself was of the same opinion; he declared to me [Munro] that water-colour painting would be totally mined, and lose all its individuality and beauty by the bad practice of mingling opaque with transparent colour." {{Harvtxt|Redgrave|Redgrave|1866}}</ref>
 
Watercolor paint is an ancient form of painting, if not the most ancient form of art itself.<ref name="London, Vladimir p. 19" /> In East Asia, watercolor painting<ref>"With the discovery of paper in China around 2000 years ago, the watercolor media took a different route in which the color of the paper played an important role." {{Harvtxt|London|2021|p=19}}</ref> with inks is referred to as [[brush painting]] or scroll painting. In [[Chinese painting|Chinese]], [[Korean painting|Korean]] and [[Japanese painting]]<ref>"Watercolors on silk were frequently used by Chinese and Japanese artists. Their artworks often included calligraphy as well as peaceful nature scenes, animals, and pictures of everyday life." {{Harvtxt|London|2021|p=21}}</ref> it has been the dominant medium, often in monochrome black or browns, often using [[inkstick]] or other pigments. India, Ethiopia and other countries have long watercolor painting traditions as well.
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The three English artists credited with establishing watercolor as an independent, mature painting medium are [[Paul Sandby]] (1730–1809), often called the "father of the English watercolor"; [[Thomas Girtin]] (1775–1802), who pioneered its use for large format, romantic or picturesque landscape painting; and [[Joseph Mallord William Turner]] (1775–1851),<ref>"He was born in London on 23 April 1775, and given the names Joseph Mallord William Turner. His family called him William but he is now usually referred to by initials as J. M. W. Turner." {{Harvtxt|Reynolds|2020|p=19}}</ref> who brought watercolor painting to the highest pitch of power and refinement,<ref>"Girtin and Turner in particular explored the capacity of watercolour for creating atmospheric effects, experimenting with texture and colour." {{Harvtxt|Chaplin|2001|p=8}}</ref> and created hundreds of superb historical, topographical, architectural, and mythological watercolor paintings. His method of developing the watercolor painting in stages, starting with large, vague color areas established on wet paper, then refining the image through a sequence of [[wash (visual arts)|washes]] and glazes,<ref>"The seemingly effortless freshness of these watercolours disguises the rigorous planning stage that lies behind them. For, between the pencil sketches and the finished watercolours, Turner evolved a creative process that enabled him to experiment in an open-ended fashion with the structure and relative dispositions of colour and light." {{Harvtxt|Moorby|Chaplin|Warrell|Smibert|2010|p=26}}</ref> permitted him to produce large numbers of paintings with "workshop efficiency"<ref>"One charming account recalls how Turner would hang up his moist studies on cords spread across his room, so that his drying sheets, stained with 'pink and blue and yellow', would at first glance resemble the laundry of a washerwoman." {{Harvtxt|Moorby|Chaplin|Warrell|Smibert|2010|p=26}}</ref> and made him a multimillionaire, partly by sales from his personal art gallery, the first of its kind. Among the important and highly talented contemporaries of Turner and Girtin were [[John Varley (painter)|John Varley]], [[John Sell Cotman]],<ref>"John Varley (1778–1842), Thomas Girtin (1775–1802), John Sell Cotman (1782–1842) and David Cox (1783–1859) ushered in the golden age of British watercolour". {{Harvtxt|Chaplin|2001|p=7}}</ref> [[Copley Fielding|Anthony Copley Fielding]], [[Samuel Palmer]],<ref>"When it is remembered that men of such diverse gifts and temperaments as David Cox and Samuel Palmer, F.O. Finch and Copley Fielding were his [John Varley] pupils it will be apparent that he did not impose his own vision on his scholars but, as education truly signifies, drew out of them what was latent in them." {{Harvtxt|Reynolds|1998}}</ref> [[William Havell]],<ref>"William Havell was, at the age of twenty-three, the youngest of the exhibiting members in 1805. His work typifies the common approach of the members of the Society: the dependence of composition on the seventeenth-century landscape painters, the aspiration to vie with oil paintings, the rich tonality of the piece." {{Harvtxt|Reynolds|1998}}</ref> and [[Samuel Prout]]. The Swiss painter [[Abraham-Louis-Rodolphe Ducros]] was also widely known for his large format, romantic paintings in watercolor.
 
[[File:Jamaica hut4.jpg|thumb|left|An unfinished watercolor by [[William Berryman]], created between 1808 and 1816, using watercolor, ink, and pencil. The use of partial pigmentation draws attention to the central subject.]]
 
[[File:Remains of the Vicars’ College, Exeter.jpg|thumb|''Remains of the Vicars' College, [[Exeter]]'' by George Townsend; 1885.]]
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[[File:Paul Cézanne 151.jpg|thumb|[[Paul Cézanne]], self-portrait]]
 
The adoption of brightly colored, petroleum-derived aniline dyes (and pigments compounded from them), which all fade rapidly on exposure to light, and the efforts to properly conserve the twenty thousand [[J. M. W. Turner]] paintings inherited by the British Museum in 1857, led to a negative reevaluation of the permanence of pigments in watercolor.<ref>{{CitationCite thesis |title=Brushing the surface: the practice and critical reception of watercolour techniques in England 1850-1880 |last=Mann |first=Fiona |date=2011 |access-date=2024-03-10 |degree=Doctor of Philosophy |publisher=Oxford Brookes University |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/341769073.pdf |doi=10.24384/P9Z8-JM16 |pages=202–203|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240311030327/https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/341769073.pdf needed|archive-date=October2024-03-11 2015}}</ref> This caused a sharp decline in their status and market value. Nevertheless, isolated practitioners continued to prefer and develop the medium into the 20th century. [[Paul Signac]] created landscape and maritime watercolors, and [[Paul Cézanne]] developed a watercolor painting style consisting entirely of overlapping small glazes of pure color.
 
===20th and 21st centuries===