Minimalism

The Minimalist movement began in the 1950’s and continued through to the 60’s and 70’s. Minimal art is characterized by its simplicity in both form and content, where personal expression is removed in order to achieve this. The intention of minimalist artists is to allow the audience to view a composition more intensely because the distractions of theme etc. have been removed. Minimalism can be detected as early as the 18th century where the artist Goethe constructed an Alatar of Good Fortune that consisted of a stone sphere and a cube.

In addition, in the 1920’s artists such as Malevich and Duchamp created works that suggested at minimalist intentions. The Minimalist movement is similar to Conceptual Art in that the outcome is used to express a theory. Minimalism is also similar to Pop Art because of the impersonal attitude, and Land Art because of the use of simple forms. Minimalist artists of the time reacted against Abstract Expressionism, which is demonstrated by the stark canvases, simple installations, and minimalist sculptures. Some of the most famous minimalist artists include Dan Flavin, Carl Andre, Donald Judd, and Ellsworth.


Carl Andre

Carl Andre was and American Minimalist artist born in 1935 in Massachusetts. He studied art in America as well as in Europe, and went on to become an intelligence officer with the USA army. In 1957 Carl Andre moved to New York City to work as an editor, and in the 1960's he worked as a railroad conductor. Carl Andre's first solo exhibition was in 1965. Carl Andre's works are known for their use of natural and simple materials such as metal plates, bricks, and concrete blocks - all used to create textures and patterns.

One of Carl Andre's first distinctive works is his Cedar Piece, which is made up of a stack of wood to create a tall column. In the 1960's Carl Andre began making 'scatter pieces' works using wood and metal pieces. Carl Andre's 1972 exhibition in London caused an uproar from the public who claimed that his art work was a waste of public money. Carl Andre also created concrete poetry, which combined words and sculpture. Although not all of Carl Andre's works were accepted by all, he was an important contributor to the Minimalist movement.

Naive Art

Naive Art, or Outsider Art, refers to works by artists in sophisticated societies who reject or lack professional training. Naive artists create art with the same passion and intentions as trained artists, but work without formal knowledge of methods and training. Naive artwork is characterized by the use of bright strong colors, highly detailed images, and an absence of perspective (creating the fantastical illusion of forms and figures floating in space). Naive art represents memories, dreams, fantasies and scenes from every day life with an emphasis on color and shapes.

Naive is often associated with Folk Art, but they are very different because of the simple fact that Naive art is less concerned with social structures, political correctness, and traditions. Naive art emerged in the last fifty years as one of contemporary art’s most important styles because it has endured the ever changing styles around it, and remains generally the same. It is interesting to note that despite the large number of primitive or naive painters around the world, they all possess a distinct unity of style. Famous Naive artists include Henri Rousseau and Grandma Moses.


Grandma Moses

Grandma Moses, or Anna Mary Robertson Moses, was one of the first famous primitive artists, who didn't take up painting until she was 75 years old! Her desire to paint was triggered by her inability to do needlework anymore due to her arthritis. Anna Robertson was born in 1860 in New York, was married at the age of 27, and bore 10 children out of which only 5 survived. Anna Robertson was fiesty and strong willed and after the death of her husband in 1927 she moved back to New York from Virginia. The works of Grandma Moses were discovered by an art collector, Louis Calder, during the Depression when she was trying to sell some her pieces at the Women's Exchange.

Calder bought many of her pieces and by 1939 she had three showing in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. One year later she had her first solo exhibition in New York. According to the art world Grandma Moses's paintings were of Primitive or Naive style. She painted scenes on pieces of old wood with simple textures but complex content. She portray happy real life scenes, and her style echoed stitching on fabric from her earlier years. From the start of her painting career at the age of 75 to her death at the age of 101 Grandma Moses painted about 1600 paintings. Anna Robertson may have been an amateur but she contributed greatly to the Naive Art movement of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Op Art

The Op Art, or Optical Art movement was at its peak in the 1960’s and is represented by paintings and sculptures that seem to move and vibrate through the use of optical effects. The leading artists of the Op Art movement included Bridget Riley and Victor Vasarely who use colors and patterns in their works to create an effect that disorientates the viewer. Sculptors such as Eric Olsen and Francisco Sobrino achieved a similar effect in their sculptures by using layers of different colors. Op Art artists used ideas from perceptive psychology and coupled them with maximum precision to achieve the results of illusion and distortion.

Op Art is a type of abstract art that is closely related to the Kinetic and Constructivist art movements. Originally the Op Art movement was criticized by skeptics but gained instant popularity with people all over the United States and Europe. After the ‘Responsive Eye’ exhibition in New York in 1965 the term Op Art became a critically acclaimed art form, and the term not only became popular, but the style infiltrated a variety of canvas types ranging from paintings to high fashion. Famous Op Art artists include Bridget Riley, Victor Vasarely, and Heinz Mack.


Victor Vasarely

Victor Vasarely was born in Pecs, Hungary in the year 1906 and studied art at the art academy in Budapest. At the academy he learned about contemporary research regarding color and optics with Jaohannes Itten, and the Constructivists Malevich and Kandinsky. Victor Vasarely's first solo exhibition was in 1930 in Budapest, and for the next 13 years after this he devoted his time to graphic studies in Paris. Victor Vasarely had a fascination with linear patterns prompted him to draw abstract patterned subjects like his series of checkers, tigers and zebras.

During this time Victor Vasarely also created 3-dimensional works by utilizing layers of cellophane to create illusions of depth. By 1943 Victor Vasarely was working with oil paints and creating both abstract and figurative compositions. In 1947 Victor Vasarely had a solid vision of his place in abstract art, where he felt that internal geometry was in existence below the surface of the whole world. He concluded that form and color were inseperable and completely dependent on one another. Throughout the 1950's Victor Vasarely wrote a series of personal manifestos regarding the use of optics for artistic endeavors. Victor Vasarely played a large part in the development of Op Art, and continues to inspire young artists today.

Photography Art

The process of photography first became public in 1839 due to the work of Sir John Herschel. The word photography is taken from the Greek words for writing and light. It is interesting to note that a man named de la Roche wrote about photography art before it ever came into existence. In a work called Giphantie, de la Roche wrote about a canvas possessing a sticky substance that would capture a mirror image on it after it had been dried. This was written in the 1700’s but it was not until the 1830’s that such a fantasy would come to fruition. There are two scientific processes that make fine art photography possible. The first process is optical and involves a dark room, or Camera Obscura. Leonardo da Vinci actually drew this camera in 1519, so it is evident that such a device had been in existence for at least 400 years before the camera was created. The second process of photography is chemical where light reacts with chemicals in order to create contrast and eventually a photo.

The first successful photo was taken by Niepce in 1827, and it required an exposure of 8 hours. The most popular genre of photography is nature photography. Probably some of the most dynamic artistic renditions can be taken from nature. Some of the other popular fine art photography artist subjects include nude art photography, female and male art photography, body art photography, clip art photography, black and white photography, little angels art photography, and wedding and special events photography.

Pop Art

The Pop Art movement sprung up as a result of a fascination with popular culture, and affluent post war society. Pop Art appeared in the 1950’s and endured through to the 1960’s. The movement originally grew out of America but quickly spread to Britain. Pop Art celebrated simple every day objects such as soup cans, soap, washing powder, pop bottles, and comic strips, and in effect, turned commonplace items into icons. Pop Art was directly influenced by Dadaism in that it pokes fun at the traditional art world by using images from the streets and supermarkets, and suggesting that they are art forms in themselves.

Pop Art encompasses definitions of the popular, the expendable, the mass produced, the young, witty and sexy, and the glamorous. Andy Warhol is Pop Art’s most notable artist in that he brought the art form to the public eye. He created numerous screen prints of Coke bottles, Campbell’s soup tins, and film stars such as Marilyn Monroe. This in effect contributed to the iconography of the 20th century. Pop Art embraced commercial techniques by creating machine produced art, which set artists apart from the previous introspective styles of the Abstract Expressionists. Famous Pop Artists include Richard Hamilton, Andy Warhol, David Hockney, Jeff Koons, Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, Tom Wesselmann, and Robert Rauschenberg.

David Hockney

David Hockney was born in 1937 in Yorkshire, England and attended the Royal College of Art in London. David Hockney's early works consisted of a series of paintings based on homoerotic life. His paintings of swimming pools associated him with the Pop Art movement which was at its peak in Britain and the USA in the early 60's. David Hockney also painted portraits of celebrities, friends, and fashion gurus who came to represent the culture of the times. David Hockney worked in Paris in the 1970's but settled in Los Angeles in 1976. David Hockney established a painting style that consisted of cleanlienss and flatness in his rendition of people and landscapes. David Hockney is known for his realist approach to paintings and his use of clear and bright colors. David Hockney also worked in designing sets for the theatre and opera in New York, London, Paris, and Los Angeles. By the 1980's David Hockney was creating pieces that resembled the Cubist movement, where he'd create compositions from photographs and pieces of photographs.

Realism

The Realism movement was active from 1830 to 1870 and is also known as the Realist School. The movement discarded the previous traditional styles and formulas of Neoclassicism and Romanticism. The Realist artist portrays subjects in the most straightforward manner possible without idealizing them, and without following previous art theories.

The earliest works from the Realist movement arose in the 18th century as a reaction against Neoclassicism and Romanticism. The works of Copley and Goya are an example of the early influences on Realism.

The period was in full swing by the mid 19th century when artists became anxious with the influence of the Academies. The Ashcan School, the Contemporary Realist, and the American Scene Painters are all movements that are based on the Realist tradition.

Famous artists of the Realist movement include Gustave Courbet, Honore Daumier, John Singer Sargeant, J A MacNeill Whistler, Jean-Francois Millet, and Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot.


James McNeill Whistler

James Abbott McNeill Whistler was born in 1834 in Massaachusetts to a civil engineer in 1834. At the age of 9 James McNeill Whistler moved to Russia with his family so that his father could work as an engineer for the construction of the railroad in Moscow. James McNeill Whistler spent a few years at the Imperial Academy of Science studying drawing, and soon became a passionate traveller.

Whistler attended the US Military Academy in 1951 where he excelled at drawing but failed chemistry. He resolved to become an artist full time and moved to Europe in 1855. Whistler studied at a few art schools in Paris all the while making copies of paintings in the Louvre. It is at this time that he developed a great admiration for Velazquez, as well as oriental art. In Paris Whistler came into contact with Courbet, a Realist artist that inspired him greatly. Whistler began to associate himself with the avant-garde artists of the time, and eventually founded the Societe des Trois with his friends Henri Fantin-Latour and Alphonse Legros.

Whistler's At The Piano was originally rejected at the Salon in 1859 but it was well recieved at the Royal Academy exhibition in the year 1860. Whistler is well known for his wit and love of controversy. He was often in debt because of his extravagent lifestyle, and love of the high life. One of Whistler's famous friends was Oscar Wilde who shared his passion for life. In essence James McNeill Whistler greatly influenced the Realist movement and set the tone for others in their pursuit of Realism.

Romanticism

Romanticism began in the late 18th century and ended in the mid 19th century. The Romantic movement can be described as a reaction against Neoclassicim in which the style is full of emotion and beauty with many individualistic and exotic elements. Romantic art portrays emotions painted in a bold and dramatic manner, and there is often an emphasis on the past. Romantic artists often use melancholic themes and dramatic tragedy.

Paintings by famous Romantic artists such as Gericault and Delacroix are filled with energetic brushstrokes, rich colors, and emotive subject matters. The German landscape painter Caspar David Friedrich created images of solitary loneliness whereas in Spain, Francisco Goya conveyed the horrors of war in his works. This demonstrates the variety in subject matter, but the emphasis on drama and emotion.

The Pre-Raphaelite movement succeeded Romanticism, and Impressionism is firmly rooted in the Romantic tradition. Other famous Romantic artists include George Stubbs, William Blake, John Margin, John Constable, JMW Turner, and Sir Thomas Lawrence.


John Constable

John Constable is considered to be one of the greatest British landscape artists along with Turner. In his early years John Constable showed a great talent for art but only developed his originality later in life. In 1799 John Constable became an artist full time, and after the death of his father in 1816 he married Maria Bicknell despite strong opposition from her family. By 1820 John Constable's reputation was growing and he won a gold medal in the Paris Salon of 1824 for his painting The Hay Wain. One of the major influences on John Constable's works was Gainsborough's style, but he later attempted to render landscapes more realisitically. John Constable moved away from conventional traditions of painting landscapes and painted based on his own experience and love for nature. This explains the fact that some of John Constable's finest paintings are of places he loved best such as his hometown Suffolk. John Constable had no successor to match his abilities in England but he greatly influenced other Romantic artists such as Delacroix, and ultimately contributed to the development of Impressionism.

Sand Art

Before we get started on the different types of sand art, and sand crafts, be sure to check out the Just Imagine Sand Art video shown by Google on the web. The link is originally from www.sandfantasy.com It’s quite amazing! Just click on the link below:

Sand art for kids

Sand art is a popular activity, especially in warmer climates, for all ages. There are many different techniques, subjects, and materials that can be used when doing sand crafts. Sand art for kids can include a piece of construction paper, glue and sand – simply have the children draw a picture or write words in glue on the construction paper, then before the glue dries sprinkle sand onto the glue, let site for a few minutes and then shake off the excess sand into and container. The sand artwork will need about half an hour to dry. Another type of sand art involves coloring sand and then pouring it into a glass jar to create colorful layers and designs. Simply collect some fine sand, strain out any large pieces and pebbles, mix the sand with powder paint (try a few different colors), and then carefully pour the sand into a glass jar, wine glass, plastic bottle, or anything transparent to make beautiful decorative sand layers. Once you’re done your sand layers you can add a layer of soil on the top and grow a small cactus in your jar – voila you have a sand art bottle! This is a fun sand craft for the whole family.

Sand Sculptors - how to make sand art

Professional sand sculptors and sand artists have a variety of ways that they build and maintain their incredible sand art pieces. Sand is fragile and unstable so the first thing some sand artists do is nail together 2 foot wooden forms of different sizes. Then the artist will shovel sand into the base of the form, add buckets of water, and use a tamper to pack the sand gradually until the wooden form is totally filled up. A new form will be added on top of the previous form, which will be smaller than the base, and you repeat the process until you have the desired amount of forms. If you hand pack the sand forms you can only go up to 8 feet or so, so this is an option for artists wanting to created lower sculptures. Once all your forms are completed and packed with sand you begin taking the wooden parts off slowly, top one first. Then the carving begins and you can create your sand sculpture! Sand sculptors usually only use hand tools, so sand art supplies usually only consist of shovels, palette knives, trowels, straws, brushes and so on. Once a sculptor has finished one part of the sand creation, he or she will spray it with a mix of one third white glue and two thirds of water in order to coat the surface and stop any damage from rain, wind, or curious spectators! If a sand art form is in a competition it is judged on artistic criteria, verticality, cut throughs, overhangs, and narrowness. Fantasy sand art is usually the most popular theme because it includes the incredible like mermaids, mythical beasts, cartoons, sci fi machines, aliens etc. For temporary artistic expression there are sand art tables that work as painter’s canvasses, and as shown in the fantasy art video by google, you can see that it’s a beautiful and versatile artform.

Sand art companies, wholesale & lessons

There are numerous sand art bottle manufacturing companies that you can buy from – anything from necklaces, picture frames, flower pots, simple bottles, to ornamental creations. There are many sand sculpting companies all over the world that provide parties, weddings, and special occasions with wonderful creations, as well as professional sand builders that provide lessons to people that want to pick up the craft. Beach sand art shows usually happen in the summer months in most beach communities so check out your local event listings to find a competition near you!

Surrealism

The Surrealist art movement was dedicated to expressing the imagination in a method that was free from the control, convention, and reason. Surrealism began in the 1920’s and ended in the 1930’s. Surrealism was similar to Dadaism in that it was anti rationalist, but was different in that it was lighter in spirit. One of the major influences on the Surrealist movement was Freud’s model of the subconscious, and emerging theories on our perception of reality. Surrealism was founded in Paris in 1924 by Andre Breton who created a Manifesto of Surrealism. The aim of the movement was an attempt to discover a super-reality by interpreting dream and reality together; two conditions that often contradict one another. In essence, Surrealists love incongruity, spontaneity, and the randomness of life. Famous Surrealist artists include Marcel Duchamp, Salvador Dali, Max Ernst, Georgia O’Keeffe, Pablo Picasso, MC Escher, Joan Miro, Rene Magritte, and Man Ray.


Max Ernst

Max Ernst was born in Germany in 1891 and studied philosophy at the Bonn university from 1909 to 1911. Max Ernst did not have any formal art education but he had his first exhibition in Berlin in 1913, and in the same year went to Paris. In Paris Max Ernst discovered the works of Picasso and de Chirico and in 1914 he met Arp. Max Ernst went through a Dadaist phase of art and founded the Cologne dada group and began creating Fatagaga collages. The first exhibit from this group was banned by officials because they deemed it immoral. In 1922 Max Ernst moved to Paris, contributed to many Dadaist publications, and helped found the Surrealist movement. Max Ernst moved to New York in 1942 and lived there until his return to France in 1954 until his death in 1976.

Symbolism

Symbolism was an art movement that began in 1885 and reigned through to 1910. The Symbolist movement was a reaction against the literal representation of objects and subjects, where instead there was an attempt to create more suggestive, metaphorical and evocative works. Symbolic artists based their ideas on literature, where poets such as Baudelaire believed that ideas and emotions could be portrayed through sound and rhythm and not just through the meaning of words.

Symbolist painter styles varied greatly but common themes included the mystical and the visionary. Symbolists also explored themes of death, debauchery, perversion and eroticism. Symbolism moved away from the naturalism of the impressionists and demonstrated a preference for emotions over intellect. The Symbolist period contributed much to the development of the abstract arts of the 20th century, and is a crucial step in understanding consecutive periods. Famous Symbolist artists include Gustave Moreau, Odilon Redon and Gustav Klimt.


Gustave Moreau

Gustave Moreau was born in 1826 and was one of the most recognized Symbolist artists of his time. He studied under Chasseriau and was greatly influenced by the masters of the Romantic movement. Gustave Moreau appreciated the bizarre and random, but went past that to create a highly distinctive personal style. Gustave Moreau preferred mystically intense images that realted to ancient and unknown civilizations. Mythological figures were of great interest to Gustave Moreau and his paint almost paid hommage to these figures with it's jewel-like texture.

Much of Gustave Moreau's life was spent in seclusion but he did become a professor at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1892. He was an inspirational teacher who was able to bring out the individual talent of his students rather than set the guidelines for their personal expression. Gustave Moreau's pupils included Henri Matisse, Marquet, and his favorite Rouault. Most of Gustave Moreau's works are preserved at his home, now the Moreau Museum. Gustave Moreau died in 1898.

Tattoo Art History

The word tattoo is derived from the Polynesian word ‘ta’ meaning ‘to strike something’ and the Tahitian word ‘tatau’ meaning ‘to mark something’. Tattoo art history dates back to over 5000 years ago and is as various as the cultures and people that sport them. Tattoos to this day are increasingly popular, and are created by inserting coloring beneath the surface of the skin. One of the oldest known examples of tattoo art was found in 1991 on a 5000 year old ice man found in the mountains between Austria and Italy. This ‘ice man’ is the best preserved corpse ever found by archeologists and the skin of the ice man yielded more than 57 tattoos. The tattoos include a cross inside the left knee, six parallel lines above the kidneys, and numerous lines around the ankles. The tattoos were believed to be administered for therapeutic reasons such as arthritis. In 1948 more evidence of tattoos in history was found between Russia and China, 120 miles north of the border.

Archeologist Sergei Rudenko was excavating tombs in the altai mountains in southwestern Siberia. 2400 year old mummies were found, and evidence of tattoos on the bodies represented different animals such as griffins, and magical monsters. The tattoos are believed to represent the status of the individuals, magical significance, or were simply decorative. Evidence of tattooing was also found in ancient Egyptian excavations. In 1891 remains of a priestess of the goddess of hathor were found dating from 2160 BC. The tattoos depicted lines, dots, dashes, and geometric patterns all over her body. In ancient Egypt tattoos were restricted to women as they were the ones associated with this ritual.

The earliest evidence of Japanese tattoos were found on clay figurines on which the faces were painted and engraved with tattoo marks. The oldest examples date back to 3000 BC. The tattoos are believed to have magical and / or religious significance as they usually accompanied the dead, possibly on their journey into the unknown. The first written record of Japanese tattooing practices was found to date back to 279 AD. The Japanese seemed to be interested in tattoo art mostly because of its decorative qualities rather than magical ones. Japanese tattoo artists, called the horis, were the undisputed masters of their day. They used complex colors, perspective and designs; the classic Japanese tattoo covers the whole body!

The Renaissance

The Renaissance movement began in Italy in the fourteenth century and is a term that means rebirth. The Renaissance was a time of revival of artistic achievement based on the Classical world. With regards to literature, the Renaissance writers moved away from the religion oriented Middle Ages to subjects based on individual man in society. Fine art also changed in that individual expression and worldly experience became the two main themes of the era. The Renaissance period was triggered by increasing sophistication of society, where economic growth, educational pursuits, and political stability were key factors. With more libraries and academies springing up, people began to more thoroughly research the culture of the antique world. The Renaissance also brought with it wealthy patrons such as the Medic family of Florence, the Sforza family of Milan, and Pope Leo X and Pope Julius II. These patrons helped to push the limits of the Renaissance period in order to create works of unsurpassable beauty and detail. Leonardo da Vinci represented the essence of the Renaissance alongside Michelangelo and Rapheal. These artists created works that were long considered to be the classical notion of perfection. Famous Renaissance architects include Alberti, Bramante and Brunelleschi. Other famous Renaissance painters include Buonarroti, Botticelli and Titian.


Titian

Titian, or Tiziano Vecellio, was the greatest painter of the Venetian shool during the High Renaissance period. Titian was born around 1485 and was trained in the studio of Giovanni Bellini. He later befriended Giorgione and in 1506 assisted him with a fresco in Venice until Giorgione's death, which prompted Titian to finish all his unfinished paintings and frescoes. Titian primary great commission was for 3 frescos in Padua, and with the death of Bellini in 1516, Titian became the official painter of the Italian Republic. Titian produced great religious works, mythological paintings, and skillful portraits. Titian loved strong and simple colors, strength of contrasts between figures and backgrounds, and magnificent architectural motifs. Titian's greatest mythological works include the Worship of Venus, The Bacchus adn Ariadne, and the Bacchanal. Titian's style changed dramatically with the death of his wife in 1530. His art became more subtle and meditative in comparison to the passion of previous works. Titian's fame began to spread throughout Europe and in 1533 he was appointed court painter to emperor Charles V, and even gained the title of Count Palatine and Knight of the Golden Spur - something that no other painter had ever been honored with. During the last 20 years of Titian's life his paintings become more and more meditative as he gently merges colors to create an immaterial effect. In 1550 he painted the Martydom of St Lawrence which contains Mannerist elements in the movement and types of figures. Titian's influence on later artists both within the Renaissance and later has been profound, and he is undoubtedly one of the most influential artists of his time.

Watercolor Painting Methods, History, & Artists

Watercolor is a wonderful medium because it allows all types of expression. Because it is waterbased it's a very relaxed and unpredictable art form at times. For a more abstract style you can wet your watercolor paper and randomly throw dabs of diluted watercolor paint on the paper and watch it spread, melt, drip, and blend to create a beautiful medely of colors and shapes. Once it dries there are endless possiblities for you to try out on your paper. You can continue the abstract theme or try something more realist like painting flowers from a photograph or boats sitting in the harbour. Watercolor is one of the most free forms of painting because of its flowing nature.


Watercolour Techniques


There are a variety of watercolor techniques but here are the most popular ones:

1. Washes. This is the most basic watercolor method used. It is achieved by wetting your watercolor paper (in a specific area i.e. the sky) and then applying the pigment over the surface from top to bottom. You can experiment with different hues, lift the paper and run the wet colours in all directions, or make different splotches all over the page, discovering something completely different once it has dried. Let the wash dry naturally or with a dryer and never try to work on a wash that is still wet.

2. Glazing. This method is similar to a wash, but it uses very thin pigment applied over dry washes that you’ve already done. This in effect adjusts the color and tone of the wash underneath. Ideal glaze colours include Rose Madder (Permanent Rose), Cobalt Blue, and Auroline. Dry each glaze colour before you apply the next one.

3. Wet in Wet. This technique is a process where you apply pigment to wet paper. Simply use a large brush or sponge to wet your whole sheet of watercolour paper and paint into the dampness. This often creates beautiful blurred shapes and colors, and soft marks of paint that create subtle backgrounds for your artwork.

4. Dry Brush. In this method you’d use a brush loaded with paint (not too much water), and drag it across totally dry paper. The creates a crisp hard edged effect that stands out in a painting.

5. Lifting Off. This is the process of removing paint once you’ve painted it onto your paper. Once your artwork is dry, you simply wet the area you’d like to ‘lift off’ and blot the water away with a tissue. This creates hard edged lines and shapes, especially if you utilize strips of paper to mask areas of pigment on the painting.

6. Dropping in Color. This is the process of adding color to a wet region of the painting and allowing it to blend in and branch out naturally into the painting.


Some famous watercolor artists include:



Raffaello Santi (1483-1520)
Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528)
Hans Bol
van Dyck (1599-1641)
Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788)
John Constable (1776-1837)
Paul Sandby (1725–1809)