Verson 1 1 © OCR 2016 Fine Art – Practical skill development and experimental work

AS AND A LEVEL

ART AND DESIGNDelivery Guide (Learner Resource)

Watercolour painting techniques – practical activityIntroductionWatercolour paints are hugely versatile, allowing for loose expressive working and fine detail. At best, both extremes can be combined to create focal points and expressive compositions. Paper should be prepared in advance and allowed to dry overnight.

MaterialsWatercolour paper

Board

Gum strip

Large brush

Water pot

Paper towels

Pencil

Watercolour set

Watercolour brushes

An image to work from

Activity

Prepare your paper:

Lay a board flat on the table. Place watercolour paper on the board. Paint the paper with water, using a large, clean brush. Turn the paper over and do the same on the reverse. Cut gum strip to the lengths of each side of the paper. Wet the gum strip and apply, to secure the paper to the board. Allow to dry over night.

Verson 1 2 © OCR 2016 Fine Art – Practical skill development and experimental work

AS AND A LEVEL

ART AND DESIGNDelivery Guide (Learner Resource)

Draw out your image very lightly with your pencil, just capturing the main shapes and areas. Do not press hard.

Watercolour paints can be used in a number of ways.

Using a larger brush, areas such as backgrounds can be filled quite quickly.

With small brushes and controlled mixing fine detail can be achieved.

Colours can be pale or intense, depending upon how much water you mix and for how long you mix it from the pan.

The skill with watercolours is capturing textures and a range of colours. This is done through mixing and re-mixing colours; don’t use the colour straight from the pan. Experiment with chromatic greys and other combinations of primary and secondary colours to create a range of tones and hues. Laying a variety of these tones and hues next to each other on the paper can elicit excellent effects and textures. Loose painting, covering large areas with sweeping brushstrokes can give movement and vitality to an image. Paint can be applied wet onto wet or wet onto dry, but remember that the colour on the page will mix into the colour being applied, even when dry. You can ‘lift out’ to soften colours or areas, by wetting a clean paper towel and dabbing it onto the paper.

Extension activities/questions:Practise the use of contrast by creating compositions in black and white. This will give opportunity to use mixing of more or less water to vary the intensity and saturation of the paint.

Alternatively, create dynamic compositions by flicking and dripping the paint across bare sections of paper, contrasting with more detailed focal points.

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