Getting Started With Watercolors

Materials

*paints-The easiest paints to start with are poster or tempera. They can be thinned with water, and are usually inexpensive. You can buy them at stationary, art, and other stores like K-Mart or Walgreens.

*2 cups of water- You will need 2 cups of water when you are painting. The first one is
for thinning your paint and wetting your brush. The second is for washing your brush before you change colors.

*2 brushes- You will also need two brushes when you are painting. One should be thin
for adding details, and the other should be thick for painting large areas.

*surface-When you are painting you will need a surface area. You can use paper, canvas, wood, or any other material you want to paint on.

*3 stirring sticks- As you paint you probably will find that you need to stir your paint occasionally. One stick can be for mixing colors, another for stirring your paint if it is watery, and the third for mixing water into dry paint.

*several old dinner plates- If you want a color to be lighter or darker, you will need to mix colors. When you mix colors you will need some old dinner plates, or even paper plates to mix colors on.

Step #1- Stir your paint with one of your sticks. If your paint is thick or drying out, add some water.

Step #2- On a sheet of paper, paint a small triangle with each primary color. Primary colors are mixed together to get other colors. The primary colors are red, yellow, and blue. Now your color wheel will look similar to this:

Step #3- Now put a couple drops of yellow paint on one of your plates. Then, after
washing your brush, add an equal amount of blue drops. Then mix your two colors together. Now your have the secondary color, green. It is called a secondary color, because it is made up of two primary colors. Paint a triangle of green in between your yellow and blue. You will be doing this to show that yellow+blue = green. Step #4- Now mix red and yellow together. Now you have the secondary color, orange. Paint an orange triangle in between red and yellow to show that red+ yellow=orange.

Step #5- Lastly, mix red and blue together, and you will get violet (or purple) which is also a secondary color. Paint a purple triangle in between blue and red.

Did you know that colors across from each other on the color wheel are called complimentary colors? Complimentary colors usually don’t go well together. When you mix complimentary colors you will get different shades of brown. If you mix exactly the same amount of each color you will get black. These are the complimentary colors:

* red and green
* purple and yellow

* blue and orange