Wednesday, August 03, 2011

watercolors woah yeah


I spent yesterday in my favorite way. I ate delicious cheese and cherries, swam in Walden pond and visited the DeCordova Museum of Sculpture. After such pleasures, my brain felt energized and refreshed so, upon returning home, I sat right down and dabbled with the new watercolor set I picked up at the museum gift shop.


I don't think I have tried using watercolor since childhood. I remember I found it a frustratingly hard to control medium. The watercolor paintings I created as a kid were muddy and drippy and worn away in spots from trying to lift the color away with paper towel. I have a stubborn nature so when I made my decision that I did not like watercolors, I held that position firmly for more than a decade!

I am happy to report that as an adult, I found myself more patient with the nature of watercolor. I have only owned my new pigment set for less than a day but I have already spent hours experimenting and getting to know how it works. Unlike my young self, I enjoy the way the color pools and is more opaque in some places than others. I like that it is subtle. I need to learn to be more subtle.

This experience has made me want to return to some things I disliked as a child and see if I am more suited to them now. I'm looking at you calligraphy.

4 comments:

Ashley said...

I like it! I like to buy goauche because it's pretty much the same thing but sounds fancier, because it's a French word.

O'Reilly Ink said...

If you can master goauche more power to ya. I could never get the hang of it. Some people are amazing with it. It takes a while to find your way with watercolor. I think it was my 3rd year in art school before I finally found a technique that worked.

Daphne said...

I love watercolor! The toughest part for me is that when I finally mix my color just right, it runs out too quickly and I have to try to mix the same color again. It takes a lot of patience to mix colors, but it's worth it cause layering colors doesn't always work out well (they get muddy and lose that watery effect).

Elise of Argyle Whale said...

Ashley, I think goauche is a word I can't bring myself to say. It is like some people have an aversion to saying "moist".

Maggy, I am usually not patient enough to master anything but I just hope I can keep things simple enough to not be a mess.

Daphne, you are very right! That is the first problem I've run into. For that reason I'm considering investing in a couple watercolor tubes instead of the tiny squares so I can make more at a time.