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Ron Kasprisin is a Professor Emeritus

College of Built Environments, UW, and

a Signature Member of the Northwest Watercolor Society

He lives on Whidbey Island in the Salish Sea

Okay I think I need to give more start up suggestions for the real beginners to ease your anxiety.
EQUIPMENT SET UP

place your paper in front of you, elevated brushes selected wash water container between paper and palette; this is for washing brushes during the painting process and needs to be refreshed often to avoid dirty gray water contaminating your painting; about the size of margarine container or soup bowl your palette, slightly tilted water regulator near paper (damp sponge, TP, towels, floor)

BASIC WATER/PIGMENT/PAPER PROCESS

this will vary with experience: wet brush, regulate water in brush so damp not soaking; dip in pigment gel and take gel to mixing area of palette, deposit, add water to damp brush and mix with gel in mixing area but avoid a 'swimming pool' as too diluted, try for a clinging wash mixture; go to paper and begin wash; return to wash water, cleanse brush, discharge excess water by touching to sponge or slatting (I slat: shake brush on floor or dogs if under me; or wipe on my pants (sorry mom))go to gel, then water, mix and go to paper
this is a basic way to start; after practice you may go to gel with a damp not soaked brush and go right to paper, there are many variations. start with basic. avoid filling your pigment wells with excess water as it will dilute the gel, sop up any extra water with paper towel

WASH TECHNIQUE

the idea of the wash is to work the wet, hopefully beaded, edge of the wash downward while not going up too far into the previous wash-working the edge; this takes practice, practice and practice so make a fun project out of it, be playful. you want to work fast leaving the wash to replenish your brush so the saturation levels of the previous wash and your new charge are pretty close together: thus the bead created by gravity (elevated paper)

I am providing some example exercises for your consideration. again, they will help you become familiar with the brush, learn more about the pigments and get into some basic wash techniques. Let us see if my old brain can get this app working correctly.

EXERCISE 3: COLOR WHEELS

Intent: learn about each of the color wheel families; play with making medium to dark color washes; understand how you can make numerous variations of secondary colors (green, orange, purple) and colored grays by how you mix the quantities of pigments; FOR EXAMPLE, i can mix red and yellow, two primaries, and get a red-orange, an orange, a yellow-orange, etc., try it so you can experience.

for the color wheels, i mixed three secondary versions in between each two primaries and i tried to get darker values in the pigments, the smaller inset shows a lighter version of the same colors. all examples are from my previous books on painting, out of print but maybe in used bookstores: Watercolor in Architectural Design (Reinhold NY) and Design Media (Wiley NY). i suggest circles or splotches about at least two inches in diameter. have fun.

EXERCISE 4: LAYERED OR OVERLAPPING WASHES

In example one, i did four washes overlain one another: BUT, not until each layer was completely dry. WHY? if there is dampness in the previous wash, the drier damp area of paper will grab and pull the wetter new wash application into it and create a blossom or blemish. HAH, we all do our share so dont worry it is part of the learning process and is SPEAKING TO YOU.

Okay the second example is essentially the same approach with a first graded blue wash; and at the end of the wash i simply grabbed some yellow instead of blue and charged the wash edge with it for some yellow and green ground affects. After this wash dried i then added additional layers for some detail into the tower. try this with simple shapes, on 8 x 10 or 9 x 12 paper. again, have fun with it. always keep your practices because you will look back on them and after more experience, learn more from them.

That is it for today: next newsletter i am going to introduce you to merging and mingling of pigments both on the palette and right on the paper,  technique i use for the most part. adds complexity to all washes.

have fun, ron