What Is Watercolor Art

Watercolor paintings, drawings, and other artworks are some of the oldest forms of art and still one of the most popular art styles.

Watercolor Art Definition

Any artwork that is created by using watercolor as a medium is known as watercolor art. Most watercolor artworks are watercolor paintings. However, watercolor is also used in illustrations, drawings, and mixed media artworks. The watercolor medium has been around for a long time and dates as far back as the stone age. It is a beautiful medium allowing various possibilities of expression. 

How Do You Describe Watercolor Art?

Watercolor art refers to any works of art made using the medium of watercolor. Watercolor also refers to the medium, a water-soluble paint that has transparent or translucent properties. Many people describe watercolors as being “soft” or “light” because the pigments in watercolors are often not as bright as acrylics or oil paints.

Watercolor contains pigment particles combined with a binder from natural sources like gum, glucose, and glycerine. It is water-soluble. Watercolors are sold as cakes of baked color or as a liquid in containers, in which water is combined for activation. Watercolors are non-toxic and safe as compared to other mediums, such as oil paints. This non-toxic property makes watercolors accessible for children.

Is Watercolor an Art Style?

Watercolor is a unique art style that can be mastered with the right skill and talent.  Watercolor involves many techniques that, if mastered, can create multiple art pieces worthy of display. The resulting watercolor artworks are beautiful to look at and fun to make.

Properties and Advantages of Watercolors:

1. Watercolors are safe to use, even children can use them without any worries.
2. They are odorless, therefore, can be used anywhere.
3. As the name suggests, watercolors are water-based, so they dry quickly.
4. Watercolor kits are easy to carry, which allows the artist to make live paintings and portraits, making watercolors a popular medium for landscape paintings.
5. They are suitable for quick portraits because it does not take a long time to mix and prepare the paints.
6. Watercolors are easy to clean up. If spilled, just clean it with a damp rag, this is especially beneficial when painting with children.
7. Watercolors are compatible with other media. Such as color pencils, watercolor pencils, ink, etc. This allows creating artwork composed of mixed media.
8. Watercolor best work on papers. Therefore the quality, texture, and thickness of the paper are important. Now watercolor paper canvases are also available.
9. Watercolor paint gives off a slightly transparent effect which is ideal for emotional or ethereal effects.
10. The watercolor medium allows layering of paint, and with its translucent property, artists can layer images that will pop up from the undersurface.
11. However, the translucent property also makes it challenging to cover hiccups while creating artwork.
12. Watercolor dries quickly as compared to other mediums and offers a lighter finish after drying. This makes them popular for painting outside or on the move.
13. To counter the issue of lighter finish, many artists use opaque base pigments like lead white or body pigments like gouache to make the watercolor pigment more popped.
14. Watercolor allows various techniques which help in creating multiple sorts of artwork.

Is Watercolor Art Easy?

Watercolors are a popular medium for beginner painters and children. Watercolor paints are usually cheaper and easier to work with and clean up than acrylics or oil paints. Therefore, watercolors are often the first medium many artists will work with. In this sense, yes, they are easier to work with than some other mediums.

However, to create watercolor artworks of a high standard still requires great skill and talent. To achieve fine watercolor artworks, watercolor artists will need to master the techniques detailed below and many more.

Techniques Involving Watercolor:

There are various techniques involved with watercolors. Some of the most popular techniques are as follows:

Wet-on-wet technique: This means that the rush and paper both are wet with water. It allows a more pigmented finish as compared to the usual lighter finish.

Wet-on-dry technique:  It is the usual dry paper and wet brush technique that every novice knows.

Splattering: It is what the name suggests. You can splatter the watercolor paint on paper in a controlled manner to create an art piece. Splattering itself has different techniques involved like tapping, flicking, or using a stencil.

Watercolor blooms: This involves adding wet paint to a nearly dried area of painting. The liquid displaces the primary pigment and creates these pleasant, sporadically shaped specks.

Feathering: This technique is good for creating gradients. It involves diffusing the strong stroke of pigment to create an ombre gradient.

Texture with Salt: Sprinkling salt on a wet wash adds texture to the painting. The salt begins to accumulate the pigments in the watercolor, making the surface look amazing. The effect depends on the size of the grains of salt and the moisture on the paper. Once the paint has dried, simply whisk off the excess salt.

Original Artworks

If you’re looking to buy watercolor paintings or other original artworks for your art collection, you can explore the range of fine artworks online and in our Eden Gallery locations.