What is the meaning of Watercolor? Concept, Definition of Watercolor

Definition of watercolor


1 Meaning of watercolor

Watercolor is a painting on paper or cardboard with colors diluted in water. The colors used are transparent (depending on the amount of water in the mix) and sometimes reveal the bottom of (white) paper, which acts as another real tone. It is composed of pigments agglutinated with Gum Arabic or honey. Its procedures is used in painting by transparent layers, in order to achieve greater brilliance and ease in the composition that is underway. In Japan, the watercolour with ink is called Sumi-e. In Chinese, Korean and Japanese painting has been a dominant pictorial medium, often done in monochromatic shades of black or brown.
The term watercolor refers frequently to the transparent watercolor or gouache (an opaque form of the same painting.).
The watercolor is made from fine pigment or ink mixed with Gum Arabic to give body and Glycerin or honey for viscosity and connect the dye to the surface to paint. A filling without pigment is added to the gouache to give opacity to paint.
All watercolor pales if exposed to the Sun, the colors remain much more quality have pigments. We can find the colours in tubes or tablets, in the two forms we see differences between pigments, for example with manganese blue got a granulation.
Technique "transparent" watercolor washes fine overlapping implies and is based on the whiteness of the paper for their effects and highlights. As more washes superimposed color becomes deeper. Watercolor color can be by adding or removing water, using brushes, sponges or rags. The watercolor gives many possibilities: washing technique allows us to create gradients or washed uniforms, even overlapping colors. With the wet technique on wet paint with watercolor on the already dampened support, which gives us a different effect. We can also perform washings of the once-dry pigment, depending on the paper, pigment and water temperature. Cleaning with sponge or other absorbent element, scraping, are some examples of the extensive possibilities offered the watercolor.


2. Definition of watercolor

At the behest of the plastic art, watercolor is the name which refers to a technique that is characterized by the use of colors dissolved in water.
Note that the colors used to be they are diluted in water mostly transparent, this being the most distinctive feature of this artistic procedure, sometimes being so translucent is possible to see the white background which have been captured, ending also acting in the scene as another analogy shade.
The watercolors are composed of grouped pigments, either from honey or gum Arabic. Gum Arabic consists of bio molecules from known as Acacia Senegal and Acacia Seyal trees resin, and which is the result of a process of natural healing in the same and that has the mission to close wounds and in this way avoid the entry of germs. The resin is amber coloured and is possible to collect it once it dries.
It is an ancient substance which was able to be used by the Egyptians for the preparation of cosmetic products and perfumes and in the well-known process of mummification.
The application of layered watercolor is extremely frequent to thereby gain in brilliance.
In one of the places in the world where the watercolor has become a technique popular hyper is in Japan, being known as Sumi-e ink watercolor.
The use of the technique is also ancient since it appeared approximately in 100 BC, at the time of the appearance of the paper. Its immediate predecessor is the fresh, employing pigments with water on plaster, being a faithful exponent of the fresco painted in the Sistine Chapel.
In Europe, the watercolor was employed for the first time by the Italian painter Raffaello Santi.
On the other hand, that artistic work that is carried out either on paper or cardboard and presenting the above-mentioned characteristics, it referred to as watercolor.
And the colors that are used to carry out the technique of watercolor, also called them is through the word that we are concerned.


3 Concept of watercolor

Watercolor, Etymologically, derives from the latin 'aqua' and the dictionary defines it us as "painting done with colors diluted in water and which, used as white, the color of the paper" or "colors that paint is done".
Water is the medium by which is transmitted to the paper quality and color quality of the individual pigments, diluted in this medium, bonded with other substances as for example gum Senegal, gum Arabic, or tragacento, to which the very purist, add other components as Glycerin, honey, beef gall, a preservative such as phenol or sodium ortofenilfenato...
These solutions are referred inks and the baths that we bathed the role using the brush or other means, called gouaches.

Watercolor colors are formed by a compound of dry pigments, powdered, mixed with Gum Arabic and water soluble. In practice, ready-made colors dissolve, in the best of cases, in distilled water and apply to the paper by means of a brush.
The main feature of works in watercolor is transparency that produce these pigments dilute, which also makes the technique is difficult, as difficult is the task of correcting or hide an error which, in the period of execution occurs, although there is always some possibilities afforded the knowledge and behavior of watercolor, what some call tricks and resources.

Since the end of the 19th century, the painting "watercolor" has enjoyed wide popularity, being this popularity, the cause of some disrepute since, the term paint "-colour" was associated, automatically, to certain strata of society that enjoyed a comfortable economic position and that turned, his fondness for painting, a hobby that is fun, using watercolors as a means of expressionagain running landscapes bucolic, delicate, using and abusing the pastel shades. Nevertheless, the artists have followed using watercolor creatively and applying it to the most diverse subjects.

Water is the protagonist of watercolor and the cause of the exceptional transparency and brightness that characterize it, impossible to obtain almost with any other means. Use is water with a small amount of pigment, evaporated once water is deposited in a layer so diaphanous that allows that the white of the paper can be seen under the paint, providing this quality of transparency of a good watercolour.

There are still opponents of watercolor, which branded it a be a technique of "second", relying on arguments such as instability of color.
The transformation experienced by the works with this technique is the present a very vivid appearance, when they are wet and off, attenuated, clear once the dry work. This transformation of rinsing that obviously changes the appearance of the final work, can reach, approximately 50% depending on the amount of color with which you have loaded the brush running watering holes. This should take account of this process, in order to achieve the final look as close to your perception.

While some purists argue that there is a correct way of painting with watercolor, without breaking the rules laid down in old times, nowadays, increasingly there are more artists than, chasing after a final result, use and mixed techniques in the same work.
The technique should be used for the benefit of the work and therefore, this should never be more important that what is painted.