Watercolour painting is possibly the most popular crafts in the UK. This can mostly be attributed to the fine effects of depth, consistency and light, which is regularly achieved through soft washes. Watercolour is also attractive as a result of it’s portability - all you need is a paint box, paint brush and a sheet of paper. Often we discover that artists will apply their watercolour methods to birthday cards and this editorial provides all the advice needed to beginning to paint in watercolour.

Body:

Getting Started:

To commence painting in watercolour, you require 3 simple objects;

· Some decent beginners’ materials

· A subject matter to paint

· A basic technique

Equipment Needed

A beginners paint tray of water colours should consist of the below paints:

· Lemon Yellow Hue

· Cadmium Yellow Pale Hue

· Cadmium Red Hue

· Permanent Rose

· Alizarin Crimson Hue

· Ultramarine

· Intense Blue

· Viridian Hue

· Raw Umber

· Yellow Ochre

· Burnt Sienna

· Chinese White

Additional Supplies

· 4 main brushes

· Paper

· Pencil & Eraser

· Board or Hard Surface

· Roll of Masking tape

· Water pot or container

· Flat Plastic Palette/Tray

· Reasonable size board for your Birthday cards

What to paint - Locating a subject

Many artists find it difficult to be stimulated by the common everyday things. However, true artists can turn the very ordinary thing into something special by purely viewing it imaginatively. It may be a landscaping, a structure, an interior scene such as a bedroom, or still life such as fruit or crockery. If you feel thoroughly confident you might wish to try a portrait (of the loved one you are sending the birthday card to), botanical painting or even an abstract. Your painting doesn’t have to be accurate or absolute, remember art is in the judgment of the artist not necessarily the critic.

Painting a Watercolour Landscape

Landscapes are arguably the easiest for novices and the subsequent basic technique should be applied. 4 general rules are valid while colouring a landscape.

Your View - As an artist you will be looking to create a visual illustration of your preferred setting, it is not a replicate but an illusion of what you're painting. Bear in mind, it is how you see it and paint it that makes it a unique piece of art for those birthday cards and maybe even canvas.

Aerial Perspective - Take time to have a browse at the landscape you want to paint and four different aspects should be evident. Firstly the objects in the distance will appear smaller. Second, the far objects will not be as detailed. Thirdly, colours become less vivid if they are further away. Fourthly, as objects recede their tones become paler and less contrasted.

Composition - Using your pencil, lightly sketch the outline of the landscape. Ensure you set out a horizon, middle and foreground within your landscape. In general, this works as the horizon being the background of the painting with the horizon line being about two thirds from the top of the page. Many beginners start drawing the horizon half way up the page - however our eye only sees 30-40% of the "surface matter" in any given scene and the remainder is sky.

When you have sketched the basic out line of your landscaping, your picture is now ready to have the colour applied.

Picking a palette of colours:

The popular practice is to preserve a broad palette of about 12 colours and add to it for particular necessities. For example, you may notice that many birthday cards are usually vivid in colour and consequently you may want to include some brighter contrasts to your work.

Once you have obtained the initial paint tray, the next thing is to find a suitable board.

Which board?

Watercolour board is mould made board and is normally acid free giving it an extensive life with no deterioration. The board is pre-sized making it possible for the artist to sponge and rub-out (if necessary) without causing any damage.

Basic Technique

Squeeze a pea-sized quantity from your water-colour paint tubes or dab a wet paint brush into your watercolour pan - usually begin with three primary colours - a red, blue and yellow.

Place some blue on the sky using a rounded brush, before dabbing the colour with a wet handkerchief to produce cloud shapes by opening out the colour.

After that, work onto the distant horizon line making use of muted colours (i.e. weak blues, greys and yellows diluted with water) then onto the onto the middle ground section adopting more blues and green and then onto the forefront using yellowy-greens and more powerful, more vibrant colours - not diluted with a lot of water. Note: For those colouring a medium sized birthday cards, you might wish to downgrade the size of the outline before commencing to paint.

As soon as you have built these colours you can then build up a succession of layers to suit your style. If you are very adventurous, you might want to try the wet-into-wet method. This is where the paints mix whilst they are still wet. This generates beautiful, delicate tones for your birthday cards and is brilliant for moody, atmospheric paintings so as to lighten up the cards for the people receiving the birthday.

An extra method, is generating a water colour wash, which gives numerous special effects such as, graduation, granulation and flecked. Without being overly technological, a wash is really where one colour alters due to the water content mixed with the pure colour. Such effect is created by starting at the top of a dry piece of board. Paint a band of dark colour (ultramarine blue), then add more water to the brushes and make a second band beneath the initial one. This should be continued until you have a graded wash i.e. the colour goes from dark to pale and occasionally clear . While painting birthday cards, you need not to worry about adding the greeting 'birthday wishes', because the message may be placed on the inner side the card with the front showing off your artistic abilities.

Some Closing Tips

DON’T - mess around with the painting; once the birthday card is complete, do not add more touches thinking you will improve it.

DON’T - Let your paint tray become too wet.

Let the colour dry in between stages of application unless you are using the wet-into-wet technique. Maybe use a hairdryer to improve the drying process.

Continually refer to the object you are painting and to your work of art.

Begin painting from the topmost of the card.

Always cleanse your equipment with cleaning soap and water.

Paint loosely; do not get hung up on accuracy. Remember that it’s a painting not a photocopy.