Watercolor painting is a difficult paint technique, but extremely beautiful if done properly. For many years now watercolor painting has been in the minds and eyes of the art scene and the broader public looking for some piece of authentic work of art. This type of painting has a long and interesting history and we could spent many days only discussing how this and that artist applied this particular technique into their work.
The interest is understandable as watercolor painting has been an important type of painting since ancient Egyptian times. Of course the material used then differ greatly from what we see today. Today we have developed several new types of paint and brush to the specific needs of those who try to create something using watercolor. Although this industry is not as big and vibrant as used to be, or as other areas of the art world, we still have seen many new products and paintings nowadays.
This extremely delicate technique is quite famous around the art world and we can see a watercolor painting sometimes going into auction for millions of dollars a piece. Also it has the recognition of many critics and art specialists that love to talk about how important and incredible this art form can be, if, again, it is done properly.
The History
The history of watercolor painting can be traced back to the earlier years of human species, with cave paint and other similar paints being mostly being done with water as a solvent, thus it can be classified as watercolor painting. However in the modern sense of this word the history of watercolor painting is relatively young starting, in Europe and most of the western countries, after the dark ages of the Medieval era.
Thus the modern era history of watercolor painting starts, as it is similar with much of the art in the Western World, around the Renaissance period, circa 1500. The most famous era for watercolor painting was, in the western hemisphere, arguably, the eighteenth and nineteenth century. And the most important countries that have developed great artists is the United Kingdom, especially England.
During those first years of the modern era of watercolor painting, most of the work was done in the Northern Europe, with artists from the Netherland and Flanders being quite renowned, as well as their fellow artist from the regions that now forms Germany and Denmark.
After that first burst of paintings, this technique got quite famous around the whole Europe and some Italian Renaissance masters used to employ this techniques with their work as well. In this initial years, however, most of the work was only sketches and simple drawings as the main painters used different techniques, raw materials and instruments, such as oil paints.
It was only in the eighteen and nineteenth centuries that watercolor painting achieve its highest level of attention and love as British painters developed a full range of paintings and interesting materials that made easy and accessible to almost everyone to paint their own watercolor pictures.
During this time many high society man and women in the English islands made painting in watercolor their favorite hobby and thus created a blooming scenery for this particular and impressive painting technique. It was also during that period that many societies dedicated exclusively to watercolor painting was found throughout the British empire, which was, in fact getting larger and larger by the year.
After this golden age of watercolor painting we saw a slightly decrease in interest around the world as many different techniques and materials for painting was becoming more easily available, and also because of the highly delicate and sensitive nature of watercolor painting, that render it useless if directly exposed to light and other natural phenomena.
The preciousness of this art form, coupled with the invention of new and interesting art forms, such as photography and cinema has left the watercolor painting in the background of the art scene for some decades, until it was revived by hobby enthusiast during the twentieth century.
During the twentieth century we saw, initially a decline in interest for this relocated and labouring art form, but during the second half of the last century we saw an slight increase in people pursuing this ancient art form as a hobby and some alternative way of having a nice leisure time.
Other civilizations thrived their watercolor skills with many important painters coming from the eastern countries of India, China and Japan as well as the nearer countries of the Arabic peninsula and Ethiopia. As time and space is scarce, we will not be able to discuss these other schools of watercolor paintings, but rest assure, that it is extremely developed and interesting art form on their own.
The Material and the Technique
Watercolor painting refers to the medium used to put the pigments into some displaying format, which can be anything you want, from paper to canvas and even your own skin, as many tattoos today can be made using the same techniques employed while making a watercolor painting. The water is used as a good way to dissolve pigments and to use many types of incredible crafted and difficult techniques. There some basic elements that are unique to watercolor painting, which we will briefly discuss next.
Watercolor has four basic elements, that is: pigments, a binder, solvents and additives. The pigments, as you may suspect, is the color of the the paint and can come from many places and process. Natural pigments were the rule for most of the golden era of watercolor painting, but nowadays we can find many synthetic pigments with different, and sometimes misleading, names. To make things more uniform we can find pigments with an International Color Index, which display the color without any marketing designation.
The other elements are there to make the magic happens, that is to put the water in watercolor painting. The binder, normally gum Arabic, is used to fixated the paint into the painting surface. The additive and solvent are used to change the texture, viscosity and other aspects of the paint, or to make the paint thinner as is the case with the solvent, which evaporates after the painting is dry.
All those materials have been through an history of their own and we will not have time to discuss it now, but it is important to know they exist and what they are for. As this article shows, watercolor painting can be very interesting piece of art, whether you are looking at it or painting one.
Watercolor pictures are a beautiful artwork and very much in demand in these days. These pictures look so lively. This method is very old and has rich history. Many countries have history about water colors. This is the cheapest medium in world of art as there is only need the water colors, white paper and color brush. This is on the artists what they can do with these and the result is stunning. You cannot imagine how much expensive these watercolor pictures are. The bids are very high for the pictures, depends on the name of artists.
Basically water color is the medium in which paints are made up of pigments which can be dissolved in water. Normally it can be done on papers but there are other options for these. At least history says this. But for normal use you can pick paper of good quality or canvas.
If you want to buy a good watercolor picture of a famous artist, be prepare to spend big bucks. You cannot guess, what would the price of that artwork. But there is another option. You can get copy of those pictures on good price and it completely would look like original picture. If you are not comfortable with this idea, try any low price artist’s pictures. There are plenty of talented artists who can work for you.
If you are painter yourself, why not give a try for your talent. You can work as professional or small scale. In these days Artist are doing many experiments with water colors. For Example you can use watercolor on fabrics, on flowers, Leathers and much more. Start painting and may be people would like your work too. There are many tutorials and courses available even on internet. Start to learn basics here and after sometimes your will definitely get good results.