How is watercolor painting different from Chinese painting and gouache? What painting tools are generally used for watercolor?

Many beginners can't figure out the difference between watercolor, Chinese painting and gouache, here I'll briefly introduce you to the difference between them, and then tell you to paint watercolor commonly used tools.

Watercolor and Chinese painting are both water and pigment mixing a painting method, are concerned about the proportion of water and color. The difference is: first of all, watercolor painting and oil painting belongs to Western painting, is based on the drawing of a form of painting, which originated and developed in England.

Secondly, the material of watercolor painting is completely different from Chinese painting. The most different is the paper, watercolor must be painted with watercolor paper, Chinese painting generally use rice paper. The production process of watercolor paint is also different from that of Chinese paintings, which is more transparent. In terms of the pen is closer, although watercolor painting has a special watercolor brush, but can also be painted with Chinese brushes;

Lastly, watercolor painting and Chinese painting in the technique is very different, due to the watercolor paper and pigment differences, some special techniques are not Chinese painting, such as salt method, scraper method, superimposed color method, and so on.

Watercolor in a narrow sense refers exclusively to transparent watercolor. In a broader sense, watercolor includes transparent watercolor and opaque watercolor, i.e. gouache.

Watercolor pigments are opaque and can be covered and overlaid, allowing for greater modifiability of the image. Since transparent watercolor requires more moisture and color accuracy, in this sense, watercolor is more difficult to master than gouache. Of course, due to the transparency of transparent watercolor pigments and the fluidity of water, it can make the picture present a chiaroscuro atmosphere, including haloing, diffusion, splash, and some other picture effects unique to transparent watercolor, thus making transparent watercolor full of more unique charm.

Watercolor is more dependent on the medium of painting. There are so many different types and brands of watercolor tools that many beginners get lost. Every watercolor painter has their own brand and type of tendency, for beginners, do not need to pursue to buy very expensive, like tasting good wine, you need a lot of experience to taste the difference, the beginner you may not be able to detect its good.

The preparation of painting materials is an upgrading process, as you paint in-depth, and then give yourself some good tools, you feel like a tiger with wings, but also a big reward for yourself. Here are some of my favorite tools.

Watercolor paper is the most important material in watercolor painting material, there is no one. Watercolor paper is good or bad directly affects the effect of the picture, it is recommended that half of the budget for painting materials used in watercolor paper. Common brands: Canson Barbizon, Canson Monfalco, Boguanfu. Cotton pulp paper is more absorbent and has a better halo effect, which is suitable for multi-layer color stacking and richer expression. Cotton pulp paper is more expensive than wood pulp paper, and is available in three textures: fine-grained, medium-coarse, and coarse-grained. Cotton pulp paper is a good choice for painting watercolor landscapes or if you need to use the wet painting method. Common brands: Ashi, Wondorf, Consol Heritage, Fontainebleau.

Watercolor paper is available in thicknesses ranging from 180g to 450g. The thicker the paper, the more absorbent it is, and the more color it carries, but the less colorful it is. General wet painting method of landscape painting need to use 300g and above the watercolor paper, in use with the beauty of the glue around the fixed on the board, drawing a small illustration of a class of dry painting-based works can be used when the 200g of paper. Watercolor paper texture can be divided into coarse, medium and fine. Coarse texture dries slowly and is usually used for landscape painting, while fine texture dries quickly and is usually used for illustrating characters. It is recommended that beginners do not try fine grain at first, as it is not very good at controlling water. The medium and coarse grain papers are the most widely used.

Watercolor paints are generally the same watercolor brand according to the transparency of its pigment, the degree of fineness of the different will be divided into the artist level and academy level, such as Windsor Newton's Artist Grade and Gwen, Shmink's Master Grade and Academy Grade.

Windsor Newton Artist is claimed to be the world's most transparent watercolor pigment and one of my favorite solid pigments, the only drawback is that two colors are hard to dip. Germany Schmincke Academy grade and master solid pigments, many professional illustrator's recommendation of this brand, Academy grade than master cost-effective, you can buy more than 12 colors of the set, the Academy grade relative to the master level of the color is more vibrant, the master level color gray, more elegant. Windsor Newton song text tube set, song text tube set in all aspects of the performance of a more balanced, cost-effective, painting a large with it does not hurt at all, many professional painters also use it.

It is recommended that beginners can choose the following four types of brushes: wolf or sable hair round tip pen a pen, the most commonly used pen. One sheep's hair brush or squirrel hair mop brush for laying down colors. One synthetic hair outlining brush, used for carving out details. One wool brush for laying down water and large areas of the background.