Watercolor: King Of Paints

There are in fact few media that compare to the versatility of watercolor. It is not just versatile because it is a water-based media. It is versatile because there is little to transport. With oil paints and acrylic usually an easel is necessary. With watercolor you can easily set your watercolor board on your lap or a table or desk.

If you like chunky paint you can go to acrylic (which is cheaper than oil paint), gouache (though, technically a variation of watercolor), or oil paint (which is the king of chunky). But they all have there set backs. Though, you may not be able to carve or sculpt the paint like oil, create density like gouache, or have the quick-dry, easy-cover ability of acrylic; you can have a little of all three with less mess and perhaps less frustration.

I am not necessarily expecting any converts here. Everybody is inclined to their own opinions on what media best suits them. Believe me, I have left out a lot of other media. I have left out, especially dry media-pencils, pastels, chalk, and many others. I enjoy them all. But watercolor does give a lot back. It is forgiving in the layering area, but unforgiving in subtraction. It works well when thrown in the mixed media pool, but it can stand alone. Though, it is easier to be more expressive, it also permits rigidness for portraiture and technical paintings. In fact, as a media it is embraced equally by commercial and fine artists. Though, I am sure neither party agrees on what the other truly is.

The challenge of the week is to try watercolor. If it is your first time, you can be bold and try something abstract. But there is no shame in picking up a book or magazine on the subject. From time to time, I still do and I have been at it for 10 years. It is a great way to learn new processes. When you take my challenge please post it on your blog, website, or portfolio site and send me a link. I would like to see it.

Come back next week for STORYTIME.

Value Composition

Part of the process of producing a comic page is laying it out. Almost all professional comic book artists use some method of figuring out where all of their dark and light areas go on the page before applying any ink or drawing it up.

After realizing that I had not planned my inking out very well a friend suggested this method of blocking in the dark and light values before going to ink. I have chosen the traditional inking method entailing brush and dip pens, because the blacks are much more potent, permanent, and versatile than using technical pens, ball point pens, and Adobe programs.

My method of blocking in value is to scan in the page in its penciled state, scale it down to the actual page size, print it on gray paper, then use black and white pastel to find the best possible scenario for the values of the page. I have to seriously consider the light source when I do this. Typically when you are working with just lines it is more difficult to consider some of these things ahead of time. Back tracking with this method has helped me think ahead on future pages.