Читать книгу Watercolor Sketching - Mark McGinnis - Страница 3

Skagit River, North Cascades National Park, Washington

As with all art ventures watercolor sketching can be simple or elaborate when it comes to materials. You can go out with a five-dollar set of paints and a six-dollar sketchbook. Or you could have a French easel, one hundred dollar paints and fifty-dollar brushes. My idea of a basic watercolor sketching supply list is as follows:

Twelve to sixteen pan set of watercolor paints

watercolor round brushes #0, #2, #6, and #12

watercolor paper blocks – 9” X 12”

Some of the miscellaneous items that are helpful in sketching are as follows:

drawing pencils – one 2H and one 2B

eraser (kneadable type works well and do not make a mess)

water bottle with a good sealing cap – 16-20oz.

water container (yogurt cup size)

white paper towels cut into quarters (in a small plastic bag with an extra plastic bag to place dirty ones in)

a few Q-tips

mosquito & tick repellent

sunscreen

hat with a good brim

plastic cushion to sit on (or collapsible camp chair and possibly little table)

bag or back pack to carry it all in

All in all, it’s not a large list and one that need not be expensive. Let’s look at some of these materials more closely.

PAINT

Watercolor paint has two broad categories – tube paint and pan or cake paint. The tube variety is a pre-moistened paint that very rapidly dilutes to the desired consistency. Pan or cake paint is a drier paint that takes more moisture to liquefy. When I am working with pan paint I like to put a few drops of water on each pan at the beginning of my painting session. This softens the paint and makes it ready for more intense uses. My preference for sketching is the pan or cake sets of paint. They are more portable and easy to handle in the field, usually having a palette built into the case. For economy sake I have often filled my pans with tube paint and let them dry overnight. In the studio I prefer tube paint for their intensity.

There are a multitude of different pan sets of watercolors. A key is to purchase transparent watercolors as opposed to opaque watercolor that are also called gouache. Another problem my students have encountered is watercolor pan sets that have an opaque white added to them and are not labeled as gouache or opaque. They actually appear tinted or pale on close inspection. I like a set of transparent watercolors with some color variety – 12 to 16 pans. Some watercolor purists ban the use of black and white. To a degree I agree with the ban of white, as the white of the composition in a transparent watercolor should be the white of the paper. But I have found myself on rare occasion using the opaque white to do a bit of highlighting at the end of a sketch. In regard to black, I am not a purist and am sometimes generous with my use of ivory black. I have fondness for a blue-black called Paynes gray.

There are a variety of brands of watercolors to choose from, many of the student examples in this book were done with inexpensive Prang watercolors. Prices can range from $12.00 to over $100.00. My advice is to start on the low end and increase the quality of the paints as time goes on. One thing to consider with watercolor is the lightfast quality of the paint. Some colors are more susceptible to fading. Reds and violets seem to be some of the most prone to losing intensity, but other colors can also fade with time. One key factor is to never hang a watercolor in direct sunlight, as sunlight is the surest way to hasten color loss.

BRUSHES

An endless array of brushes exists for the watercolorist. The preferred brush has long been the sable brush. These brushes are produced with the select hair from sables with the best quality found in northern Asia. In my own experience I have found that some of the new synthetic brushes handle as well as all but the very best sable brushes which seem to be priced by their weight in gold. My current favorite is a brush called the Flow from Oriental Art Supply – it comes in small, medium, and large. They are handmade brushes and a bit spendy but are the most responsive versatile brushes I have ever used for transparent techniques. The most important quality to look for in a watercolor round is a tip that tapers to fine point. This will allow you to create a wide variety of lines and edges with one brush. Some painters also like to have a few flat-shaped brushes for washing larger areas. My preferences for round sizes are #0, #2, #6, #12 (a #4 would be optional).

One problem with brushes and field painting is protecting the tips of brushes in transportation. A solution is to use a commercial holder. My favorite is a bamboo holder that allows you to roll up your brushes and lets enough air through so they dry properly. A homemade version can be made by rolling up the brushes in a small towel with a ruler in the middle for rigidity and securing with a string or rubber bands.

PAPER

Again, the selection of watercolor paper is vast. There is sheet paper, pad paper, roll paper, and block paper. My favorite for pleine aire painting is the watercolor blocks. A watercolor block is a stack (usually 12-20 sheets) of watercolor paper that has had all four sides of the stack adhered with soft glue. This allows the artist to work very wet if they wish and the paper will not buckle out of shape. When the paper dries it returns to its original flatness. The artist may then insert a palette knife or plastic card into the one corner that has been left unglued and gently remove the paper from the stack exposing the next new sheet. I like to have two blocks in the field so I can begin a second sketch while the first is drying. The blocks come in a variety of sizes from 4” X 6” to 20” x 29.” I prefer the 9” X 12” size. I like a smaller size for the quickness of a small sketch and the ease of transportation.

Other considerations include paper surface and weight. Rough press is a coarsely textured surface that is not well suited for detail. Cold press is a moderately textured surface that holds washes well and is suitable for detail. Hot press is a smooth texture that is ideal for detail but is more prone to puddling. Fabriano watercolor papers has introduced a surface they are calling soft press that is between cold and hot press and is my favorite for studio work. Another paper consideration in weight — paper weight is designated in pounds, the weight of a ream of that paper, such as 140 lb. paper, which is the most common watercolor paper weight. For studio use I prefer 300 lb. paper that needs no stretching to keep flat, however, one does pay a price for that convenience. For sketching my favorite paper is Canson Montval blocks. It is a 140 lb. acid free paper with cold press surface. It is very moderately priced and though it does not have a good surface for rough work, it is fine for quick sketches.

MISC. ITEMS

There are a few other items you will need for pleine aire watercolor sketching. I like to have several pencils: first a 2B pencil (relatively soft) to use for rather bold borderlines and signature, second, a 2H pencil (relatively hard) to gesture (quick sketch) compositions when necessary. Other items include a kneadable eraser to clean up pencil or other unwanted marks (a note: always blow, do not brush insects off your paper – better for the insect, better for your paper); a water bottle of moderate size so as to not add to the weight of your pack; a cup for watercolor use (yogurt cup size); white paper towels cut into quarters and placed in a small plastic bag (a second bag is useful to put the used, wet towels in); and a few Q-tips to clean color pans and sometimes highlighting color areas on a painting.

Some non-art materials items that can make the sketching trip more comfortable include: mosquito and tick repellent (type and need may vary depending on where you are); sunscreen; a hat with an adequate brim; a collapsible umbrella; a backpack or durable bag to carry your supplies; a plastic cushion to sit on or a collapsible camp chair (I even bring a small collapsible table to set my materials on), comfortable walking shoes suitable to the terrain, and in all day sketching trips I like to dress in layers to be comfortable at various times of the day.

As your experience develops in sketching you will undoubtedly evolve your own personalized set of materials fitting your individual needs. This is as it should be.