Art Materials, Mediums and Methods: Painting with Watercolors
By Becky Griffith, NIU STEAM Educator
Watercolor paint is an art medium that has captured the ever-changing landscapes of the world for years. Throughout history artists and makers have taken advantage of this medium’s transparent and luminous qualities to document seasons and biomes and capture the light of day and night. The ease of watercolor paint makes it a great medium for a beginning painter to experiment with or an experienced artist to fully express their creativity.
Watercolor paints come in three main types: pans, tubes or liquid. Pans are made of solid blocks of paint which are easy to use and perfect for on-the-go. (If you’ve ever bought a children’s watercolor set, you were buying pans!) They are widely accessible and can often be found in your local grocery store or an art supply store. Since they’re small, they’re easy to store. One downside of pans is that they can sometimes lack the color variety and pigmentation needed to create the vision of the artist.
Alternately, watercolor tubes are available in a wide variety of colors and do not require water to activate. Tubes tend to work better when working with larger canvases. A disadvantage of working with tubes can be if an artist squeezes out too much paint, the paint can dry up before it’s used up. Tubes also tend to be more pricy and not as portable as pans.
While I like to use all three types of watercolor paints in my artwork, I really love working with liquid watercolor paint in a variety of ways. The magical bottles of vibrant color are ready to use as is or be diluted with water for a lighter color. Liquid watercolors are concentrated and more viscous than water, with a viscosity that’s similar to blood. Artists generally use liquid watercolors with a pallet with wells that help to keep the colors separated. Using a white, plastic pallet allows artists to see the different colors more easily and makes for easy clean up.
There are so many ways for artists to use liquid watercolor!
Below are some of super fun activities you can try on your own
- Use a dropper or pipette to put the liquid watercolor on the paper and use a straw to blow the paint around.
- Use liquid watercolor to add color to slime instead of food coloring. Liquid watercolor is typically washable!
- Add liquid watercolor, water and an Alka Seltzer tablet to a film canister to make a colorful chemical reaction.
- Place washi tape on paper before your paint, then lift it off when the paint is dry to make an abstract painting.
- Mix liquid watercolor and water into a spray bottle. Spray two or more colors to a piece of paper to see how the colors mix.
We’d love to see how you use watercolors! Share with us on social media by tagging #NIUSTEAM and @NIUSTEAM.
