“Watercolor paints. Their composition and production. Watercolor painting: composition, technique, innovations

Few people know that for most types of paints, for example, watercolors, oils, gouache, tempera, the same material base is used, which has not changed for many centuries.

We all probably remember our first paints on watercolor basics in round molds and with a long brush. Many have tried watercolor paints tasted and could not do anything about the habit of tasting the brush on the tongue, like a pencil. But, alas, watercolor paint cannot be eaten, despite the fact that it contains a certain amount of honey.

The main components of all paints are pigmented particles and binders.

Depending on what main component the paint will be mixed with, you can say what it will end up being, gouache or watercolor. Although the pigmented particles of all types of paints are the same, like drops of water. Paints were invented in such ancient times that the name of the inventor simply disappeared into the stream of time.

Our ancient ancestors ground soot with burnt clay, mixed it with animal glue, and using the resulting colorful composition created their immortal rock art. They painted the walls of their caves with clay and ocher paints, and these drawings have survived to this day!

Over time, paint compositions became more complex. Man began to add mineral, stone, and clay powders to them, and invented many chemical additives. Despite progress, there are artists who prefer to work with paints made using ancient technologies. These are modern icon painters and restorers. To recreate old icons and paintings, they need paints according to old recipes.

They grind paints with their hands; in their workshops there is a lead mortar, in which, for transparent Green colour malachites are ground into dust, grape seeds are ground for black color, red paint is extracted from the mercury mineral cinnabar, and blue paint is obtained from lapis lazuli.

The color variety of paints grew and multiplied with the invention of new technologies.

In modern paint and varnish production, pigmented particles are used on mineral and organic bases given to us by Mother Nature, or artificially derived materials. For example, natural ultramarine from the very expensive mineral lapis lazuli replaced its synthetically produced “namesake.”

People have been painting for more than a millennium. You can verify this by going to any exhibition of ancient art or studying the catalog of ancient rock paintings.

If there is a drawing, then there must be paint with which it was painted. But, like ancient people who decided to capture their complex, primitive life, got it? However, the answer lies on the surface. Surely the ancient people noticed that many berry crops had good coloring ability, and they decided to use this quality. In addition to the plant palette, primitive learned to use clay, soot and several mineral pigments available to him for his creative needs.

Experimented first in human history painter on a grand scale. His first and the main objective was to ensure that his works were preserved longer. Therefore, the paint must be durable and long lasting. And for this you need a binder. This role can be assigned to clay, animal glues, or an egg. By the way, egg yolks are still used in the manufacture of paints as one of the connecting links of the paint system.

To diversify color scheme the first paints, people used ocher and umber.

Any paint consists of four fundamental components. This:

• Coloring pigmented particles.
• Main binder.
• Solvent additions.
• Filling materials.

All of these components have their own unique effect on various paint parameters. Much has been said about pigmented particles, so let’s move straight to the binder.

The following are often used as a binder:

• natural or animal glue,
• natural resin,
• hydrocarbon compounds soluble in liquid media,
• solid oil products,
• polymer additions.

This entire gentleman's set serves as a film former in paints. It is they, as the paint material dries, due to their binding characteristics, that cover the surface being treated with a durable layer that retains pigmented particles and fillers in the paint material.

Solvent additions are necessary to reduce the viscosity of the paint, which simplifies the work with the brush and makes it convenient to apply the paint to the work surface. Solvents are chosen in conjunction with the binders used in a particular type of paint. Mainly:

• aquatic,
• oil,
• alcohol,
• ketones,
• ethereal,
• other hydrocarbon compounds.

Fillers are added to paint formulations to modify texture and enhance matte finish. It is impossible to imagine the production of heat-resistant paint used in pottery workshops and various paintings without filler materials.

Tempera paint

It is based on a water-soluble emulsion, which replaced the yolk mixture used in old times in traditional icon painting. For large volumes of tempera paint production, casein additives are used in combination with artificial polyvinyl acetate resins.

Tempera-based paints are distinguished by the fact that they dry extremely quickly, changing the original tonal and color parameters. However, its strength and durability are beyond any doubt. Paintings painted with tempera paint are an art created for more than one century.

One of the most common paint systems. It has been produced for several dozen centuries, because the Chinese figured out how to make watercolor paint at the same time as paper. Europeans learned about it only at the beginning of the second millennium AD.

The basis of watercolor paints are:

• Natural gum arabic.
• Plant resins.
• Plasticizing substances.
• Glycerin or granulated sugar.

Such basic materials give watercolor paints a unique lightness and transparency. In addition to these main components, watercolors indispensably include antiseptic substances, the same phenol, and that is why watercolor paint should not be part of our menu.

Gouache paint

In terms of its constituent components, gouache paint is similar to watercolor. In gouache, the main violin is also played by pigmented particles and a water-soluble adhesive-based component. But unlike watercolors, gouache is enriched with natural white. This makes it a little tighter. In addition, as the paint dries, it lightens and gives the surface a delicate velvety feel. Paintings painted in gouache or watercolor are particularly vibrant and vibrant.

This paint is mixed with drying oil, mainly linseed oil that has undergone a unique technological processing. The composition of oil paint also includes alkyd resin additives and drying solvents, which ensure the paint dries as quickly as possible. Oil-based paint appeared on the European continent in the very middle of the Middle Ages, but the name of the person who managed to invent it cannot be established.

The remains of drawings made with oil paint based on poppy and nut oils were found on the walls of the caves in which the first people lived Buddhist monks, and boiled oil drying oil was used by residents in Ancient Rome. Paints on oil bases do not change color characteristics as they dry, and have amazing depth and brightness of color.

If you compress the pigments of linseed oil, you can get oil chalk. If you do the same pressing process with wax-based paint, you get a beautiful wax chalk.

Pastel paint is also made by pressing, but no oils are added to it. New technological developments allowed us to significantly expand the range of paint products produced.

The color selection of paints has also diversified; today there are several thousand shades of all colors, which was impossible to achieve with old production methods. However, the pigmented system based on mineral and organic bases, developed many centuries ago, has remained virtually unchanged even in the context of rapidly developing technological progress.

materials on the topic

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Modern manufacturers face a big challenge when developing paint and varnish products, and one reason may be that paint samples simply give them the opportunity to evaluate the flow of the dispersion in the reaction tank. Now researchers from Fraunhofer are collaborating with Potsdam PDW Analytics GmbH for the first time to continuously monitor the production of varnishes, paints and adhesives in real time and thus design more effective method for developing paints.

Watercolor- These are water paints. The main properties of watercolor are transparency, softness, purity and brightness of color. The binder for watercolor paints is transparent vegetable glues - gum arabic and dextrin, which are simply soluble in water. Watercolor paints also contain a plasticizer in the form of glycerin and invert sugar, which makes them plastic. Glycerin holds water and prevents paints from drying out and becoming brittle. A surfactant is also introduced into watercolor paints - ox bile, which allows you to simply spread the paint on the paper, because the bile prevents the paint from rolling into drops. To prevent paints from being destroyed by mold, an antiseptic - oxybenzene - is introduced into them.

Paints are divided into two groups - warm and cool. Warm colors include yellowish, orange, reddish, brown, in other words, all paints that in their base contain one or another amount of reddish or yellowish color. The cool group includes blue, blue, greenish, violet, in which case they are dominated by coolish blue colors. Greenish, purple, grayish and dark colors can be either cool or warm, depending on the characteristics of the shade and the influence of the environment.

The colors blue, yellowish, reddish are the main ones, others, acquired by mixing, are considered derivatives - warm or cool, depending on the composition of the paints. Even neutral colors such as grayish and dark contain countless aspects that are immediately difficult to find in color quality. If you take a group of warm colors, for example burgundy, and compare them with each other in terms of warm-coldness, it will be noticeable that in this group, in relation to each other, there are colors that are colder and warmer.

How many colors should be in the set?

The sets can contain from 12 to 36 colors, but not all of them will be used. It is absolutely not necessary to have a huge number of paints in a set; moreover, it is simply awkward. It is better to try all possible paint compositions in order to know which combinations provide dirt, and which ones provide unusual colors that are not in the set. Less than 10 more commonly used paints are selected for work. In most cases, these are blue, cadmium yellowish, reddish and orange, ocher, umber, emerald green, dark neutral.

What properties should watercolor paints have?

Color according to the established sample. Great transparency, because all the beauty of a bright tone when applied in a narrow layer lies in this property, which is achieved separately by narrow grinding of dry pigments. The dispersion of paints matters, but this, on the one hand, is a question starting material pigment, with other, individual preferences of the watercolorist. Finely dispersed paints “sit” very tightly on the paper, unlike coarsely dispersed ones, which are washed off from the surface of the sheet even more easily. It is clear that finely dispersed paints have the highest glaze characteristics. This type of paint should be easy to pick up with a moistened brush and simply wash away. The bright layer should simply be washed off with water from the surface of the paper or soil. Watercolor paint, diluted with water, should lie smoothly on the paper and not create spots or dots. Under the action of straight lines sun rays the paint must be lightfast and not change color. After drying, give a strong, non-cracking layer. Don't leak on reverse side paper Binders for watercolor paints must be of high quality: after drying, they simply dissolve in water, have a fairly high degree of viscosity and adhesive ability, and when dry, give a hard, non-cracking and non-hygroscopic film.

There are:

So, in the old days they only made solid tile paints. Currently, they are used to carry out drawing work, posters, and projects. Although the highest grades of these paints are also suitable for painting. Cheaper ones are designed for children and schools. The binding agent in such hard watercolor paints is cheap glue: animal glue, potato molasses, gum arabic, honey, tragantom are also used.

The colors in the tiles should be neither brittle nor soft. The huge amount of gum arabic in them makes them brittle; The fragility disappears when there is enough sugar. When the binding substance consists mainly of animal glue, then when there is some dampness, the paints wrinkle in the hands.

Paints in ditches Usually small works are carried out, for example, in the open air when making sketches. Because it happens, and quite often, that mixing takes more time than writing itself, and God knows how comfortable it is to wash paints out of cuvettes for large formats. Semi-solid watercolor paints in cuvettes should contain a sufficient amount of glycerin, honey, sugar or molasses, but not too much, otherwise the paints will lie poorly and unevenly on the paper.

For the manufacture of semi-solid paints in tubes, which are much easier to dilute with water than solid paints, use the same gum arabic and dextrin as a binder, to which a significant amount of honey is added. Instead of honey, glycerin is used to reduce the cost. The best types of paints are prepared using pure gum arabica, with a small amount (from 20 to 40%) of candy sugar added from time to time. Paints in tubes are great for creating large-format paintings; they actually don’t smudge against each other, because they are squeezed out to scale when necessary. But it should be taken into account that since watercolor in tubes is soft and is squeezed out onto the scale, with a rich painting the pigment is not always picked up moderately on the brush and also lies unevenly on the surface of the paper. When glazing, when paints are repeatedly applied to previous dried layers, these defects are not very noticeable, however, when working on a damp surface of paper using the Alya Prima technique of “painting on wet”, this is very disturbing, since uneven clumps of a bright layer are formed, which, when dried, destroys integrity of the applied stroke. Soft watercolors are more suitable for traditional painting, although with some experience working with these paints and using the raw technique, a watercolor artist can make excellent standards. It must be emphasized that such paints are not used for some time; separation of the pigment from the binder may occur.

Watery watercolor paints Perfect for working with an airbrush. They are produced in small jars and vials (from 29 to 35 ml) or in larger bottles. Suitable for use directly from jars or after dilution with water. The range of colors is very wide. The cork in the small bubbles has a dropper, which makes it convenient to maintain the appropriate proportion when dissolved in water. These colors are colorful, rich, mix well, and provide wonderful combinations. When working with an airbrush, you need to use distilled water; in this case, there is a high concentration of impurities in tap water. Perfect for regular watercolor work.

As another option watercolor technique there is an opportunity to see the implementation watercolor pencils and crayons- a unique transition between drawing and painting. You can draw with them like ordinary pencils or crayons, but when you start using water, the color will dissipate and you will get watercolor paints. But pencils have advantages over watercolors: they are more comfortable and easier to use and are relatively cheaper. Watercolor pencils contain pigment that disintegrates in water.

Water-soluble pencils are available in a wide range of colors, just like regular pencils. Watercolor pencils do not differ like graphite pencils - (from 9B, the softest, to 9H, the hardest), but their softness does vary between brands, so from time to time it is worth purchasing a standard pencil from different brands to see who to give preference to before than to buy a set. The softer watercolor pencil, the easier it leaves a mark on the paper.

Watercolor pencils look the same as ordinary ones, but if you look closely at the inscription written on them, you will see a small sign indicating that the pencils can be washed out with water. As a rule, this is a small drop, a brush or the word “watercolor”. Well, of course, there is always the opportunity to check them on a piece of paper.

In different artistic works can be used pearlescent watercolor paints - the new kind watercolors made on the basis of colored pearlescent pigments. The paints are simply diluted with water, applied to a brush and laid on the paper in an even layer. As the paint layer dries, it becomes lighter and the pearlescent sheen intensifies. The basis for drawing can be paper, cardboard, wood, fabric, plaster and other materials.

Primary sources and carefully

Today the market various materials for creativity is presented in such a huge variety that even the choice of ordinary paint for children school age often baffles parents. In this article we want to talk about the criteria for choosing one of the most popular paints for painting, which every schoolchild should have, namely watercolor paints. So, let's find out which watercolor to choose for a child and how ordinary watercolors differ from their honey counterparts.

Watercolor paints: general information

Watercolor paints are a whole group of adhesive water-soluble paints, which contain pigments and some kind of binder. The purpose of the binder is to hold the pigment particles together and firmly connect them to the working surface: paper, canvas, etc.

Traditional watercolor in tubes refers to professional types paints

There are several types of watercolor paints, they differ from each other precisely in the type of binder, which can be gum arabic (water-soluble vegetable glue), starch, swelling clay, dextrin or honey. Here is the answer to the question “Why is watercolor honey?” Because in this type of paint, the binder is natural honey, or rather not exactly honey, but one of its components, for example, fructose, which is not subject to crystallization (an important factor in ensuring the quality of paint).

Watercolor paints, regardless of type, are very delicate and transparent, filled with light and air, with their help you can create beautiful light paintings without being a professional artist.

When buying watercolor paints, you should also think about purchasing an easel or a special tablet in which you can firmly attach a sheet of paper. The fact is that watercolor, being a water-soluble paint, takes a long time to dry, as a result of which the loose sheet can warp and the painting will deteriorate.

Which watercolor is better: honey or regular?

When thinking about which watercolor to choose, we, of course, want to purchase the most optimal option, quality paint, which will not disappoint us with its properties. At the stage of choosing paints, many people often have a question: “Which watercolor is better: classic or honey, which acquires more Lately more and more popular? This formulation of the question is not entirely correct, since both types of paint have their own purpose, features, and advantages. Traditional watercolors based on gum arabic are considered more professional; its main advantages include:

• The ability to create complex color compositions with many shades and halftones;
• More colors in the set.

Honey watercolor is perfect for beginning artists

Honey watercolor belongs to the so-called “amateur” paints; it is somewhat easier to use, lies evenly and uniformly on paper, and has a more saturated bright color. An important advantage of honey watercolor is its increased resistance to fading under the influence of direct ultraviolet rays, which is determined by the presence of honey in the paint.

Another important fact is that the difference in the cost of traditional and honey watercolors is very significant; professional paints are at least ten times more expensive. So if you are buying watercolors “to try”, it is better to purchase an inexpensive, but no less high-quality honey analogue.

So what can we conclude? It cannot be said that honey watercolor is better or worse than its classic counterpart, it’s just that each of these paints has its own purpose. If you are buying watercolor paints for a child who paints sporadically (at school, sometimes at home), feel free to take honey watercolor. With its help, a student can easily master drawing techniques, learn how to mix colors to obtain the necessary shades and, quite possibly, begin painting at a professional level.

In the event that you need watercolors for a more serious level of study ( art school, professional painting), we recommend purchasing traditional watercolor compositions with a large assortment of colors.

Understanding paints is much easier than understanding paper.

And you can save money on them. Even if you buy an expensive tube of a stunning color, it will last for a long time.

Well, let's start with the fact that paints come in ditches, in tubes and in liquid form in bottles.

Which one to choose is, as they say, up to the owner.

Cuvettes

There are normal cuvettes (of the usual sizes for us) and half-pans (usually from foreign manufacturers). So these halves are very inconvenient for me to use, they are very miniature. Only suitable for small sketches. For example, I have this pocket-sized set. Very convenient to take with you everywhere. A masterpiece of compactness)

Traditionally, I use regular cuvettes in kits. White Nights, Schmincke. It is important for me that the size of the cuvettes is human, and not Lilliputian) Well, and that there is a palette right away.

Answering the question, what to buy if you are completely unaware of materials?

I recommend White Nights 24 colors in a large white box.

My choice:

In my opinion, in terms of price and quality, White Nights is an ideal option. If some shades are missing, you can supplement the palette. But for the base it will do just fine.

If you want to pamper yourself, buy foreign sets. As a rule, they have a better box and palette; the paint does not form droplets on it and does not get dirty so much. Some boxes are made of metal with enamel, so the paint is easily washed off and does not eat into them. I love my Schminke set. The colors are good and bright. Convenient box. You can pull out the paints using special holders on the sides (all at once) and easily wash the entire palette. It is very comfortable:

Tubes.

At Zbukvich’s demonstration master class in Moscow, he was asked a question: what paints do you prefer?

To which the maestro shrugged his shoulders and said: yes, different, all good!
I agree with the maestro :)

Winsor&Newton, Schmincke, Daniel Smith, Sennelier, Rembrandt, Mr Graham, Holbein

In fact, there are a lot of brands and all are good!

Newbies usually don’t want to mess with tubes. It’s not clear where to squeeze them out and what to do if the paint remains? How to wash a palette? Well, in general, what is all this for, if there are compact sets with cuvettes?

As soon as you think about bold large fills, take on a large format or really want rich color- you will understand why tubes are needed!

But I would recommend starting with tubes and a good palette right away, even if you are a beginner. At least you won’t be faced with the problem “why is everything so pale?” :) With tubes it turns out bright and bold. And by the way, more economical. You can calculate the consumption of paints in cuvettes and tubes per ml.

And it’s also difficult to take color from the ditches when they are near the end. As a rule, some of the paint disappears.

Tubes are sold in 5, 15 and even more ml. There are sets available, you can buy individually.

I take a variety of brands and different colors. I tried all the ones I listed above and was satisfied.

What is better to buy:

I would advise you to start with the same white nights (they have such sets with tubes, they are not sold individually) - this set will cost the same as one large foreign tube :)

You shouldn’t take a million different shades at once. Diversity is even harmful at first.

Therefore, I do many tasks for beginners with color restrictions.

If funds allow, take professional series tubes. If not, don’t rush to get upset and try student training.
For example Cotman (from W&N) or Van Gogh
The difference between student and professional paints in composition. But that's not the point at all. what in prof. In the series everything is so natural, but in the student series it is artificial. Not at all. The pigments are the same.

• Firstly, different composition the binder and its relationship with the pigment are also different (sometimes the shades seem a little soapy, as if they didn’t add pigment)


• Secondly. expensive pigments are diluted with cheap ones and these paints often contain 3-4 pigments. Those. This is not very good for mixing paints: the more pigments, the more likely it is to dilute the dirt.

The basis of watercolor paint is a colored pigment, which is in high concentration in suspension, and during the drying process it is dispersed over the entire surface of the canvas, penetrating inside and coloring it. In factory watercolor paints, it is most often used as a binder. natural materials, such as gum arabic or propylene glycol. Each manufacturer has its own secrets for the unique composition of the suspension - this is the main (key) composition.

Watercolor paint is a water-soluble material; this effect can be achieved thanks to the binders and pigments in its composition; they do not dissolve in water. Pigments can be divided into several categories: natural inorganic (natural or metallic pigments from natural deposits), synthetic inorganic (natural or metallic pigments formed by combining chemical reagents and ores made from industrial production), natural organic (pigments created on the basis of animal or plant materials), synthetic organic (pigments - carbon-based (most often consisting of petroleum compounds). Today, there is a practice that artists who paint their canvases mainly for sales, they often use materials based on synthetic pigments.In a broad sense, it is by the amount of paint pigment that the difference between masterpieces can be determined professional artists and the works of students, in the paintings of painters one can observe large quantity pigments. If you want to learn more about this topic, we recommend reading the article “How watercolor paints are made.”

Types of watercolor paint

Highlight certain types mass-produced watercolor paint: paints in metal tubes, similar in consistency toothpaste, similar to small pies in a small plastic form, in order to make them suitable for work - you need to add a large number of water and liquid paints.

Tubes and bowls

In the 17th and 18th centuries, artists extracted pigment from plants and minerals and tried to make it themselves from gum arabic, granulated sugar and water. The first set of watercolor paints was created at the end of the 18th century by Thomas and William Reeves, and in 1832 it was further developed by Winsor and Newton. They made the paints wetter and decided to replace the wooden box with a neat porcelain bowl wrapped in foil, making the paints more portable and thus easier to work with.

In 1846, paints in tubes first appeared: Winston and Newton introduced them as a more advanced option oil paints, which the company first introduced in 1841. For more information about the invention of paint tubes and how it influenced Impressionism, see the article "Impressionism and Photography."

Liquid watercolor paints

Liquid watercolor paints are concentrated liquid substances that can range from 1 to 8 ounces (28 to 224 grams) or even smaller bottles, depending on the manufacturer's brand. They give a bright, deep color, which, when water is added, acquires some blurriness and pale shades. Such paints are more suitable for working with a spray gun than for standard method applying the material with a brush to the canvas. The color intensity and thickness of the paint depends on the manufacturer, but based on their general characteristics, we can say that they are more suitable for younger schoolchildren than professional artists.