Acrylic Watercolor Painting Read online

  When you look at dried patches of color modified by gel, you’ll notice that the gel dries to a rather high gloss. This is one more reason for not using too much gel in an acrylic watercolor. It can be distracting to see all those gobs of shiny paint sticking out from the surface. One way to tone down this effect is with a touch of matt varnish where it’s needed; I’ll say more about varnishes later on.

  One important tip about mediums. It’s best to buy mediums made by the same manufacturer who produces the tube colors you buy. The manufacturer compounds these mediums to harmonize with the chemistry and behavior of his own colors.

  Retarders

  Several manufacturers now produce retarders to slow down the drying time of acrylic paint. These retarders are really intended for painters who prefer to use acrylics in techniques similar to oil painting. If you’re painting a head, for instance, you may want your paint to dry more slowly so that you have lots of time to stroke and restroke the shadows on the side of the face, in order to get just the right soft transition from dark to light. But when you’re painting in watercolor, this sort of thing is less important. In fact, one of the things you want is rapid drying so that you can put one wash over another. Retarders are rarely used by watercolorists who work in acrylics.

  However, there just might be moments when you do want to add some retarder to slow down the drying of a particular passage. If so, remember that retarder works well only with fairly thick paint. A big, wet wash—like a sky—is mostly water, and retarder won’t have much effect. But if you’re working with a thick mass of color, like a clump of foliage, then retarder might be worth adding. But don’t use the retarder as a crutch that supports you when you’re indecisive. Don’t slow down your drying time so you have more leisure to brush the paint back and forth, to change your mind, and to turn your painting into mud. It’s better to do without the retarder and guess right the first time.

  Modeling Paste

  Like retarder, acrylic modeling paste is meant primarily for painters who want to work with thick paint, more like oil than watercolor, in an impasto technique similar to oil painting. Modeling paste comes in cans and has a consistency something like putty or clay. The paste is a mixture of acrylic emulsion and some granular substance like marble dust. You can mix it with acrylic color to get the thickest paint you’ve ever seen. Working with stiff bristle brushes, knives, and other tools, you can produce amazingly three dimensional surfaces.

  But this kind of paint isn’t much use to the watercolorist, who works primarily with fluid, transparent veils of color. However, modeling paste does offer some intriguing possibilities if you’d like to experiment with various textured painting surfaces. For example, you can tint the paste with acrylic color, trowel it onto a sheet of untempered Masonite, and texture the wet paste in a number of ways. With an ordinary pocket comb, you can groove the wet surface with hundreds of straight or wavy or zigzag lines. You can take a sheet of coarse fabric—much too coarse to paint on—and press this lightly into the wet surface of the paste to make a delicate “mold” of the fabric’s surface, which you can paint on. If you’d like to paint on a surface that has the feel of weathered wood, you can press some rotten old boards into the wet paste to leave still another kind of imprint.

  Roman Wall by Jay O’Meilia, A.W.S., acrylic on 300 lb. watercolor paper, 21 “x29”. This study in textures is an intriguing combination of strokes and washes. The shadow in the lower left is an irregular graded wash that sinks into the texture of the paper to produce a granular tone. The shadow beneath the second rooftop is an even more irregular wet-in-wet passage. And the constantly changing tones of the wall show touches of fluid drybrush, scratching and scraping, and a cumulative buildup of one delicate tone upon another. When working with very thin washes of acrylic, it’s wise to add a touch of matt or gloss medium, since the tube color may lose its adhesiveness when a wash is mainly composed of water.

  Hooded Figures by Douglass E. Parshall, N.A., A.W.S., acrylic on gesso board, 20”x30”, collection Mr. and Mrs. Grant C. Ehrlich. A traditional technique of the old masters was to paint shadowy backgrounds and the shadowy portions of figures in transparent color, then to block in the lights in semi-opaque color. Acrylic lends itself particularly well to this technique, as this figure painting demonstrates. The darks are washed on thinly, blurring into one another. On the other hand, the lights are applied with rough, shorter strokes, and with distinctly thicker paint. However, note that the lights aren’t completely opaque; they’re translucent enough to allow the shadowy tones beneath to shine through. In this way, the lights and shadows integrate very effectively.

  The possibilities seem unlimited, but the danger here is that the texture can become so insistent that it overwhelms the painting. Since dried modeling paste isn’t nearly as absorbent as a sheet of watercolor paper, working on such a surface may be tricky. A fluid wash may be hard to control and is likely to run to unexpected places. Adding some matt or gloss medium to your liquid color will give you more control on this kind of surface.

  To be perfectly frank, I don’t recommend that you paint acrylic watercolors on this kind of tricky surface until you’ve mastered more reliable surfaces like watercolor paper and gesso. Later on, concocting some wild texture with modeling paste on Masonite may be a refreshing change of pace, or just plain fun for an afternoon, but for most painters the traditional surfaces will be the right.

  Varnishes

  Acrylic emulsion serves not only as a painting medium, but also as a varnish for the finished painting. Some manufacturers recommend that their matt or gloss medium be used both to thin your paint and to varnish the painting when it’s done. Other manufacturers make mediums and varnishes which come in separate bottles, because the varnish is a slightly modified version of the medium. If the manufacturer of your colors sells mediums and varnishes separately, don’t get them switched; follow his instructions.

  If you’re accustomed to painting in traditional watercolors, you may wonder why I’m talking about varnishing at all. After all, no one varnishes a traditional watercolor. When I was a student, I tried varnishing a watercolor with the damar retouching varnish used for oil paintings; the result was disastrous—my colors were completely distorted. So far as I know, no one has come up with a satisfactory varnish for watercolors. Nor does any watercolorist lose sleep over this, since his paintings are normally exhibited under glass anyhow.

  Nor is it necessary to varnish acrylic watercolors if you’re going to exhibit them under glass. They don’t really need the protection of the varnish. But some watercolorists do wish that they could exhibit their paintings without glass, like oil paintings. There’s no question that a sheet of glass—with its shiny surface and reflections—is simply a necessary evil to protect fragile watercolor paper and water soluble colors from polluted air and greasy fingers. Thus, if you do have the urge to eliminate glass, you might want to try painting acrylic watercolors on gesso panels or on canvas coated with acrylic gesso, which are then varnished and exhibited in the open air like oil paintings. Of course, you may be annoyed when someone says, “but that’s not a watercolor!” Expecting to see watercolors under glass is an ingrained habit which is hard to break.

  Like acrylic mediums, acrylic varnishes come in two varieties: matt and gloss. They’re equally durable and which surface you prefer is a matter of taste. Before applying one of these varnishes to a dry painting, it’s best to dilute it half and half with water. Brushed on straight from the bottle, both these varnishes—and the matt varnish in particular—sometimes dry to a faintly cloudy film. Dilution with water seems to eliminate this problem.

  Like the mediums, you can mix matt and gloss varnish to produce a semi-gloss surface. This lends just a touch of luminosity, but minimizes glare.

  Recommended Basic Palette

  Nearly all the colors used in acrylic painting are the same as those used in traditional watercolor painting. Thus, if you have a palette of favorite colors for watercolor painting
, the simplest course would be to buy their counterparts in acrylic. However, it may be helpful if I recommend a list of basic colors for acrylic watercolor painting. The following colors should serve most of your needs, although I’ll recommend some “optional” colors later on.

  Ultramarine blue: This slightly warm blue is on the palette of practically every watercolorist I know. It’s not a color that socks you in the eye, and not a tremendously strong color in mixtures—but it knows its place. When mixed with yellows, it tends to make restrained (rather than brilliant) greens that stay on the painting surface, rather than pop out at you. Mixed with various browns, ultramarine blue makes a handsome range of subtle warm and cool grays. It will cool down another color without overwhelming it.

  Phthalocyanine blue: In contrast to ultramarine blue, thalo blue is cool and brilliant. Just a touch of it goes a long way in a mixture and is likely to obliterate the other colors in the blend unless used with great care. Thalo blue has great luminosity and transparency. Mixed with yellows, it makes brilliant greens. Mixed with transparent reds—not the more opaque cadmium reds—it makes glowing purples. Unlike the subdued, workmanlike ultramarine blue, thalo blue is a standout, a dazzler. You need them both.

  Up the River by Earl Gross, A.W.S., acrylic on watercolor board, 21” x 30”; collection Chicago Historical Society. This ambitious cityscape is notable for its rich tonal range, from the glowing lights of the building at the right to the deep shadows tones of the buildings at the left. Observe how the darks are built up, stroke upon stroke, not only on the buildings, but in the dramatic dark of the sky in the upper right. The atmospheric perspective of the receding cityscape in the upper right is also built stroke upon stroke, with the veils of color becoming more and more delicate as the city approaches the horizon. (Courtesy Oehlschlaeger Galleries.)

  Boul’ Mich by Earl Gross, A.W.S., acrylic on mounted watercolor paper, 12”x18”, collection Mr. and Mrs. Roy Lang. At first glance, this acrylic watercolor appears to be predominantly opaque. But the scrubby, seemingly casual brushstrokes leave behind a fascinating pattern of semi-opaque broken color. In the lower left hand corner, the strokes merge, overlap, but always shine through one another. The snow blowing in from the right is rendered with veil-like strokes of semi-opaque color that never quite conceal what lies beyond. The darkest shadows, like the two in the center of the composition, still give a feeling of transparency. (Courtesy Oehlschlaeger Galleries.)

  Cadmium yellow light: Once again, this is a basic color which almost every watercolorist uses. Cadmium yellow often comes in light, medium, and dark shades, but it’s best to use the lighter shades since it’s easy enough to darken them a bit by adding a touch of one of the earth colors. All three of these yellows make luminous oranges when mixed with reds, luminous greens when mixed with thalo blue, subtler greens when mixed with ultramarine blue, and golden brown colors when mixed with the earth tones.

  Yellow ochre: This is a subdued, earthy yellow which will warm many other colors without taking command, as the more brilliant yellows are inclined to do. A touch of yellow ochre will warm a gray without turning it to green. An undertone of yellow ochre will warm any wash that’s laid over it. John Pellew said that when he painted acrylic watercolors, he sometimes gave the paper a pale wash of yellow ochre before he started to paint. Mixed with blues, yellow ochre produces subdued greens that melt back into the atmosphere of a landscape. Mixed with earth browns, yellow ochre will give you warm, golden tones that are never brassy. Somewhat similar to yellow ochre is raw sienna, which is somewhat darker and tanner. It has a bit more glow than yellow ochre and makes richer greens. You may want to try them both and see which you prefer.

  Cadmium red light: The cadmium reds come in light, medium, and dark shades, but the lightest is most useful because you can easily darken it. Used straight from the tube, this red makes a tremendously powerful note in the picture, singing out like a trumpet. Mixed with other colors, it either dominates or turns most of them to mud. Most watercolorists keep cadmium red on the palette for those special moments when they need a brilliant red note, but they rarely use it in mixtures. However, it does mix well with the other cadmiums; blended with cadmium yellow, it makes a stunning orange. Cadmium red can be toned down slightly with a touch of brown. Or it can be intensified—if that’s possible—by adding crimson, which makes an even richer red.

  Naphthol crimson: Most watercolorists carry cadmium red light as their warm red and alizarin crimson as their cool red. However, there seems to be some chemical conflict between the alizarin crimson dye and the acrylic emulsion. So color manufacturers have come up with several crimsons that do the job just as well. One is naphthol crimson; you may also want to try thalo crimson. Both of these colors are brilliant and transparent, in contrast with the more opaque cadmium red. They’ll make intense purples when mixed with thalo blue. They’ll enrich cadmium red. They also make fascinating, strange, hot tones when mixed with earth browns.

  Burnt sienna: Although yellow ochre and raw sienna are also earth colors—they were literally dug out of the ground before chemical laboratories started making them—most people think of the earth colors as browns. Burnt sienna is a particularly brilliant, transparent red-brown, which mixes well with a variety of other colors. Blended with ultramarine blue, burnt sienna will make a wonderful range of grays. Mixed with various yellows, burnt sienna will yield glowing, golden tones. And it produces unexpected subtleties when mixed with those powerful reds. Just a touch of blue will turn burnt sienna into a much deeper brown.

  Burnt umber: This sonorous brown is the deepest of the earth colors. For lowering the tone of other colors, burnt umber is far better than black, which is likely to turn rich color to mud, while burnt umber adds a warm glow even when it reduces intensity. Like burnt sienna, this deeper brown yields splendid grays when mixed with blue. A touch of burnt umber will turn a green mixture into a deep, dark, shadowy forest tone. It will subdue a red or orange, but not destroy it. When you’re tempted to reach for black, try burnt umber instead.

  Mars black: Although ivory black is the usual black in watercolor, the more powerful mars black has taken its place in acrylic. Many watercolorists avoid black altogether, but you may want to have mars black on hand for an occasional accent. Black is the worst possible color for toning down other colors, but if you think of black as a color in itself—as the Chinese and Japanese masters did—then new possibilities open up. Try using other colors to modify black, rather than the other way around. Try adding other hues to produce warm blacks and cool blacks, reddish blacks, and still other blacks that have a life of their own. But black shouldn’t be used to make grays. Blue-brown mixtures will make vastly more interesting grays than any black.

  Shed #1 by Larry Webster, A.W.S., acrylic on Strathmore hot pressed board, 30”x40”. For the watercolorist, the most difficult surface of all is hot pressed paper or board. On this extremely smooth, shiny surface, liquid color dries almost instantly, and every stroke retains its precise shape and texture, resisting any attempt to change it or blend it. Webster has made creative use of this apparent limitation and built up a fascinating variety of strokes to render the surface of the old wooden structure. Notice where he uses short, scrubby strokes, and where he uses long, streaky strokes. The transparent shadows at the top of the composition are a particularly impressive example of the translucency of acrylic, even in a very dark wash.

  From Portrero by Rex Brandt, A.N.A., A.W.S., acrylic and watercolor on paper, 16”x28”, collection Joan Irving. This mixed media cityscape—combining acrylic with traditional transparent watercolor—shows the broad, decisive strokes for which this painter is well known. The sky and water are particularly interesting because the artist has avoided the usual tendency to treat these in flat or graded washes. Instead, broad, flat, vertical strokes are placed side by side to produce a vivid atmospheric vibration.

  Titanium white: The fascination of traditional watercolor is its transparency. Even when they switch
to acrylic, many watercolorists prefer to retain this transparency. They’re inclined to feel that it’s cheating if they add opaque white to cover up a mistake or add a light note that they couldn’t get any other way. But even if you go along with the tradition that watercolor must be transparent at all costs, I think that titanium white ought to be on your palette if you’re going to paint watercolors in acrylic.

  The usual white in traditional watercolor is so-called Chinese white, which does tend to turn your colors chalky if you use too much. But the titanium white manufactured for acrylic painting needn’t turn your transparent color to a cloud of chalk. On the contrary, faint touches of acrylic titanium white will turn transparent washes to delicate hazes of color which give an even greater sense of atmosphere, without destroying the transparency of your painting. I’ll explain how this is done in Chapter 7. In the meantime, do take my advice and buy a tube of titanium white.

  Of course, if you’re not a purist about transparency, titanium white is extremely handy for adding a touch of light where you need it. If it won’t keep you up nights, you’ll find it convenient to add titanium white to some other color for a bright clump of flowers in the shadow of a rock formation, for a brightly clad figure in a shadowy interior, or for a tiny patch of sky shining through a clump of trees.