Cathy Johnson - Watercolor Tricks & Techniques: 75 New and Classic Painting Secrets

Watercolor

TRICKS & TECHNIQUES

75 New and Classic Painting Secrets

Cathy Johnson

NORTH LIGHT BOOKS

CINCINNATI, OHIO

www.artistsnetwork.com

Watercolor Tricks & Techniques. Copyright 2010 by North Light Books. Manufactured in China. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review. Published by North Light Books, an imprint of F+W Media, Inc., 4700 East Galbraith Road, Cincinnati, Ohio, 45236. (800) 289-0963. First Edition.

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Johnson, Cathy (Cathy A.)
Watercolor tricks & techniques : 75 new and classic painting secrets / Cathy Johnson.
p. cm.
Watercolor tricks and techniques.

ISBN 978-1-60061-308-1 (pbk. with semi-concealed spiral binding : alk. paper)
eISBN: 978-1-6006-1308-1
1. Watercolor painting--Technique. I. Title. II. Title: Watercolor tricks and techniques.
ND2420.J64 2010
751.42'2--dc22

2009029242

Edited by Kelly Messerly and Jennifer Lepore Brune
Designed by Guy Kelly and Daniel T. Pessell
Production coordinated by Matthew Wagner and Mark Griffin

Metric Conversion Chart

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Cathy Johnson has written 35 books, many on art and natural history. She has been a contributing editor, writer and illustrator for The Artist's Magazine, Watercolor Artist, and Country Living for over a decade, and was Staff Naturalist for Country Living during that period as well. Cathy wrote two books on art and nature for the Sierra Club, and spoke to their first international gathering in San Francisco in 2005.

Because of her interest in art and natural history, she started a popular group blog called Sketching in Nature; it can be found at http://naturesketchers.blogspot.com/ . Cathy teaches online workshops at http://cathyjohnson.info, where she also offers free art tips. Feel free to visit her blogs at http://katequicksilvr.livejournal.com/ or Cathy Johnson Fine Art Galleries at http://cathyjohnsonart.blogspot.com/ where you will find mini-tutorials.

She lives and works in a small midwestern town with her husband Joseph Ruckman and her cats.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors name may go on the cover, but most books are the work of many, many peopleits a group effort in the best sense.

I owe my grateful thanks to Jamie Markle, Publisher (then-acquisitions editor) at North Light, whose enthusiasm for this project was immediate and exciting; to my two wonderful editors, Kelly Messerly and Jennifer Lepore, who guided the book safely into harbor; to my online artist friends who helped me in ways too many to count; to my great friends in my sketchcrawl group, whose presence is invaluable; to family and friends who are always there when I need them; to my sister Yvonne and brother-in-law, Nevada artist Richard Busey, who understand and provide safe haven, complete with jazz and good food; to Karen Winters, Roz Stendahl, Jana Bouc, Bruce MacEvoy and especially Laura Frankstone, who read parts of the manuscript and offered suggestions on paints, pigments, and colors; and to my students, who never failed to encourage and suggest and ask truly brilliant questions.

Finally, of course, and most importantly, thanks go to my knight and beloved husband Joseph, who supported, encouraged, brought coffee, made sure I had enough to eat, read manuscript, helped edit, reminded me to stop and rest, carried my spear, and emptied the kitty litter pans. I couldnt have done it without him.

DEDICATION

To my Joseph, from the dawn of time.

Table of Contents

This section covers the various ways to incorporate liquid aids into your paintings, exploring their effects as you go along. Some of these you may already have tried (liquid mask, inks and alcohol); some are old standbys (gum arabic, soap); others may be new to you (granulating, metallic and gel mediums), as new materials and supplies are constantly being introduced in the marketplace. This section will keep you on your toes, and give you new avenues to explore.

There are a number of non-liquid aids that will help add life, color, texture, and an individual stamp to your work. In this section, you will experiment to find the ones that work best for you. These dry helpers include the watercolor paper itself, as well as drafting and masking tape, tissues and paper towels, aluminum foil, waxed paper, plastic wrap, and more.

Broadly speaking, a watercolorists tools include everything from paper and pigments to the artists unique vision of the world. In this section, tools means those things you hold in your hand and paint with, mark with, scratch or scrape with, or otherwise use to cause an image to appear on your paper. In this section, youll see a wide variety of tools and all the different effects they produce.

INTRODUCTION:

Watercolor Tricks & Techniquesfor Today!

T he original edition of this book came out more than 20 years ago, and reached a very responsive audience over a very long life. Now, with all the new tools, surfaces, materials and tricks available to the artist, it seemed time to bring it into the 21st Century and a new generation of artists. There are so many wonderful products with which to experiment, and so many new ideas! We tried to incorporate as many as possible in this book, while retaining the classics.

Watercolor is a wonderfully un-tameable medium. Its exciting, challenging, unpredictable and fun. Oh, sometimes we may think it would be great to corral it and gentle it to our bidding, but what would be the excitement in that? Best just to jump on and ride for all youre worth!