Design and color are two basic pillars while painting with watercolor which need to be apprehended and thoroughly understood by the artist prior to commencing his work. While design serves as the foundation on which the theme of the painting is based, color breathes life into the painting and defines its appearance in form of beauty and appeal. Therefore, a good painting represents a perfect blend of design and color in the sense that not only does it conform to many of the elements of design but features an optimum color combination as well.
The design of the drawing or a painting comprises of two main aspects namely the elements of design and the principles of design. While the elements of design form the basic groundwork of the painting and are seven in number, the principles of design are based on the elements of design and therefore require more creativity since they play a vital role in determining the final appearance of the painting.
The seven basic eleme
nts of design are line, shape, direction, size texture, color and value. While painting with watercolor, the line could be made in form of linear marks with a painting or a brush or alternatively could be created in form of an edge by placing two shapes next to each other. A shape in a painting refers to a self contained area which may be positive or negative in nature and has a definite geometrical form. Direction in a painting might be horizontal, vertical or oblique and while horizontal stands for peace, calmness and stability, vertical is representative of balance, formality and alertness and oblique stands for action and motion.
Similarly size is the proportion of area occupied by a shape as compared to some other shape, texture is the visual or physical quality of the shape, color is the hue and value is the tone of the color meaning whether it is light or dark.
The main principles of design are balance, gradation, repetition, contrast, harmony, dominance and unity. It is important to create balance while painting with watercolor and while a large shape could be balanced by a small shape, a light color could be balanced by a dark color. The principle of gradation is meant to proceed in a linear manner because of which color gradation proceeds from warm to cool and tonal gradation proceeds from dark to light thus providing movement along the length of the shape.
When repetition is used while painting with watercolor, the artist must introduce a certain amount of variation so as to avoid monotony and make the painting more interesting. Contrast and harmony involve the use of opposite colors in a manner which is visually satisfying, dominance refers to the emphasis given to certain elements and unity refers to the link between the different elements of the painting to produce the ultimate appearance.
Painting with watercolor entails the extensive use of colors which can be broadly categorized as being primary, secondary and tertiary. The three primary colors are red, yellow and blue, the secondary colors are green, orange and violet and the tertiary colors are formed by mixing primary and secondary colors. While all these colors are represented on the color wheel, the colors which lie outside this wheel are referred to as saturated colors. Similarly, an artist can acquire compound colors like shades of brown and earth colors by mixing all the three primary colors.
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Hi I am Susie and I am a self taught artist and I love to paint in watercolor (like my son :)). During my first couple of years I was always looking for ways to do things different or better and came up with all kinds of solutions. My favorite things to paint are snow scenes and birds. All the years of experience showed me what can go wrong and what you could do different. With my tips I will share a lot of what I learned with you. Please sign up below and I will send you all the tips I wrote down.