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What Is Watercolor Paint?

by Erik Steel

Overview

Watercolor paints, known traditionally as aquarelle in France, are a painting medium in which pigment is suspended in gum arabic and then applied to paper in combination with water. This painting technique gives the artist maximum control over color transparency and quality and is prized for a "glowing" quality. Pre-made watercolors contributed to the development of amateur art as well as that of some fine arts movements.
History

Despite the prehistoric roots of painting with water-based paints, it is with later Chinese and Japanese and then Middle-Ages European artists, according to bigcityart.com, that watercolor as a medium became recognizable as it is known today. Before the 18th Century, artists always prepared their own watercolors, an involved process with many steps and ingredients (see Resources). William Reeves, founder of the Reeves Art company, eventually produced ready-made watercolors in cake form for artists; this, along with the development of special watercolor paper, helped spread the practice of watercolor painting, which became very popular in England and later the United States.

Composition

The basic composition of watercolor paint is pigment, a colorant normally in powder form, which is suspended in gum arabic, a wood product that increases viscosity when added to solutions. This is combined with varying degrees of water and applied to paper (or another surface) with a number of brush techniques to create watercolor paintings. Other components include glycerin, which softens the gum arabic, and a humectant---something that helps the paint stay moist.
Types

In addition to traditional watercolors, there are two important derived forms of watercolor: tempera and gouache. Tempera uses a binding agent, instead of gum arabic, egg yolk or glue; the central characteristic of binders used in tempera painting is that they are also sizes, a term which refers to substances that act as protective coatings. This makes tempera paintings especially long-lived. Gouache, meanwhile, has larger particles of pigment than watercolor paints and is opaque, leaving a thicker layer of paint than watercolor whose tone quality is not affected by dilution in water. Gouache also dries more quickly than traditional watercolors and was exploited by the so called "plein-air" (outdoor) artists of the 19th Century for this reason.
Techniques

Watercolors are traditionally applied in layers called washes. This can be flat (one level of transparency of one color), graded (an increasing or decreasing lever of transparency within a color), and accomplished in reverse by the removal of some part of an either still wet or already dry wash. A number of texturing and other techniques can also be applied to watercolors, and many of these can be seen at watercolorpainting.com.
Considerations

Because watercolor paintings are usually created by a layering technique and because exact preparation methods greatly affect the outcome of the quality of a work done in watercolor, it often takes a long time to master watercolor painting. Painters wishing to make use of the watercolor medium should seek out the aid of instructors and books on watercolors, in addition to testing pigments and techniques they find suitable for their purposes.