Watercolors are now used by the young as well as professionals. Watercolor is the small Latin word for water and in watercolor, the paints are made of pigments suspended in a water based solution. Watercolor refers to the medium and the resulting artwork. Watercolor is mostly done with water and it is also done on canvas, fabric, plastics, wood, bark papers, leather and papyrus. Today’s world of advertising and art galleries is showing the panache of this artistic medium.
The history of watercolor is quite old and it dates back to the cave paintings of Paleolithic Europe. Watercolor has been used for the illustrations of manuscripts since the Egyptian times and the Renaissance saw watercolor being used continuously. Claude Lorrian, Giovanni Benedetto Castigione and Van Dyck were some of the earlier watercolor artists.
Before 18th century, watercolor artists made the colors themselves using pigments. Cotton is used in the making of watercolors which improves the texture and reduces alterations when in contact with water. Watercolors are generally translucent and their luminous appearance is due to the laying down of the pigments in a pure form, the fillers obscuring the pigment colors. The addition of Chinese white makes the watercolors opaque. Watercolor is made up of pigments, gum Arabic, additives and solvent. The pigments can be natural, synthetic, mineral or organic and the gum Arabic holds the pigment to the suspension and also to the surface on which the painting is made.
Watercolor painting has different origins. It has long been done in India, Ethiopia and in some other countries. It has been the dominant medium In Korean, Japanese and Chinese paintings. In East Asia, watercolor painting is known as brush painting or scroll painting.
Artists out to sell stock graphics and in royalty free campaigns, watercolors are in use and in the coming times, it is sure that there that there will be an increase in watercolor showing artistic excellence.
