Aquarelle

Vlasta Peyerlová

Aquarelles are recognised for their beautiful colours and are highly regarded in art. They're often mistaken for watercolours (especially in English speaking countries, because they often use the same word for both of them) but you'll see there's a huge difference between these two. They're available in solid mostly squared forms or in tubes. But I admit I have absolutely no experience with those in tubes, so I'll talk about the much more common square ones.

Aquarelles have one big disadvantage, they're very expensive. The good thing is when used correctly they can last decades. You can buy a set of colours or you can choose a cheaper way and buy just three basic colours- red, yellow and blue. Because when you have those three, you have all colours. Also there exist special aquarelle paper, it's very nice material, so you want to check it out.

When you work with aquarelles you should make use of all their advantages. That's their beautiful colours, dissolvability in water and translucency. Also this is very delicate work, my old art teacher always said:,,Do one mistake and you can start all over." and it's true, so don't make any mistakes.

Technique is simple: just dip wet brush to the colour then go to the palette (just some list of paper), make whatever shade you want and paint. Use only a little of the aquarelle, there's really a lot of colour there and you shouldn't waste such expensive thing. You need to be calm and do things gradually. When you want to make more intense shade, you need to do it layer by layer adding the colour. And I think it's a good idea to make some sort of contrast there so it looks more appealing.

I recommend using aquarelle or sturdy paper rather than the basic one.

And now the important thing. Never use white. That's the worst law you can break and when you do it, you'll be the biggest disgrace to all artists. It's true that you can find white in most coloursets but that only proves that most manufacturers know nothing about the art. If you want to make something lighter or make some little correction, you just need to paint with clean water with no colour (that doesn't mean you'll have a brush full of water, it should be just wet).

And that's all. You can try it, it's a lot of fun and looks really good. It just requires you to be careful and think.