Watercolor Techniques - Dominance - Colors

Advertisement

Watercolor Techniques - Dominance - Colors

Dominance

Pay extra attention to this most often over looked color peculiarity. Color dominance needs to be considered when more than one color is mixed into a wash. The same color combination may result in an almost infinite variety of colors depending on the proportions of the mix. Whichever pigment is the most dominant in the mix will impose its characteristics on the wash, not only in the hue but in all other aspects of its nature as well, such as staining or nonstaining, opaque or transparent.

If the dominant color is Manganese Blue (a sedimentary pigment) and the secondary color is Burnt Sienna (a transparent color), the mixed color will not only be a bluer hue but will also be a grainy-textured color and will lift off better than Burnt Sienna would lift by itself. This is because Manganese Blue is the dominant color and not only its hue but also its other natural characteristics impose their dominance over the other color.

Watercolor Techniques - Staining - Colors

Advertisement

Watercolor Techniques - Staining - Colors

Dark Staining

When a pigment tints the fiber of the paper it is called a staining color.These colors behave like a dye. The staining nature in a pigment is not relevant to other qualities. Opaque, sedimentary or transparent colors can be either staining or nonstaining. The degree of staining quality of a pigment is important to know only if you intend to lift out a color. 

A staining color will show a tint of its hue even after you have tried to wet-scrub and blot off the paint. This behavior remains even if the staining color is mixed with other nonstaining colors.

Dark Staining Colors include:

. All phthalo colors

. Burnt Sienna

. Scarlet Lake

. Sap Green

. Hooker's Green

Watercolor Techniques - Sedimentary - Colors

Advertisement

Watercolor Techniques - Sedimentary - Colors

Sedimentary Colors

Sedimentary, or granulating, colors are made from physically heavy pigments, Because of their weight, sedimentary colors sink into the water like pebbles. On rough or cold-pressed paper, they are first to land in the low, Hollow spots of the paper. On the smooth surface of hot-pressed paper, they settle quickly, but water rivulets create little river-like separations. 

All this behavior translates graphically into texture. A sandpaper like grain is the nature of these pigments. When you mix them in a wet wash with other colors, they will look grainy and may separate, While transparent colors will dissolve in water like tea and stay active as long as the wash is wet. When sedimentary and non-sedimentary colors are mixed, each color is individually visible, for example, Manganese blue, Burnt Sienna, Raw Sienna and Phthalo Blue.

Sedimentary colors include :

. Ultramarine Blue

. Raw Sienna

. Raw Umber

. Sepia

. Cobalt Violet

. Viridian Green

. Manganese Blue

Watercolor Techniques - Reflective - Colors

Advertisement

Watercolor Techniques - Reflective - Colors

Reflective colors 

Reflective colors behave the opposite way of the true transparent pigments. The most transparent colors act like stained glass. They let the light penetrate through the wash and reflect from the paper through the color. Reflective colors let a certain amount of light get through to the surface of the white paper, but they are also capable of reflecting light from the surface of the paint.

If painted over a waterproof black line, reflective colors look very transparent while wet, but show a little of their own hue after they dry.

Opaque, semi opaque and reflective colors don't glaze well because they build up to a thick layer. All opaque colors that are light in hue are reflective, but not all reflective colors are opaque. A few reflective colors are considered transparent, yet they reflect light when they are applied in heavy consistency.

Reflective Colors include :

. cobalt Violet

. Cobalt Blue

. Raw Sienna

. Raw Umber

. Viridian Green

. Aureolin Yellow

. Magenta

. Cobalt Green

Watercolor Techniques - Opaque - Colors

Advertisement

Watercolor Techniques - Opaque - Colors

Opaque Colors

Though all Watercolors called transparent are luminous in thin Washes, some have more body than others. These opaque or body colors are capable of covering other dry Washes When they are applied in a thick consistency, even if the dry underwash is dark and the top color is light.

They are not truly opaque, as acrylics are, but are more so than the transparent colors.

Opaque colors include :

- All Cadmium Lemon

- Venetian Red

- Yellow Ochre

- Winsor Emerald 

- Cerulean Blue 

- Naples Yellow

- Olive Green

- Permanent Magenta