Water Color at www.japanese-home-gardens.com

For use in water-color painting, the pigments common to all types of painting are made up with gum into cakes or tubes. When moistened with a brush dipped into water this concentrated pigment dissolves into so thin a wash that a transparent layer of color can be laid upon the surface to be painted, which is usually paper. The characteristic quality of water color comes from the reflection of the white surface of the paper through the thin wash of pigment; this gives a glowing, luminous effect which is seen at its purest when the separate tones are applied in comparatively broad areas and not too much broken up. Should the artist wish to use an opaque wash in place of a transparent one, he can mix the water color with Chinese, or flake, white; the resulting medium is known as gouache, or body color. Works carried out either in pure water color, pure body color, or water color and body color mixed are known interchangeably as water-color paintings or water-color drawings.

His earlier work had the more solid coloring and the nostalgia of the water colors of Eakins. The next burst of activity in water color came from "The Eight." Among these forceful painters George Luks (1867-1933) generated the most power from water color. Maurice Prendergast (1859/1861-1924) fragmented impressionist landscapes into hundreds of individual color strokes. Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928) painted many of his clammy, mystic landscapes in water color.

Water colors. These were the earliest type of brushwork pictures, and are made of pigments soluble in water. It was the method employed by the Chinese and Persians. The true water color is technically called an aquarelle, and is produced with a transparent color mixed with water. As the mixture is usually applied to white paper, the whiteness of the background affects the tonal value of the color and plays its part in the final effect. Aquarellists must work rapidly and surely, as it is difficult to alter a color when once it has dried. In gouache the pigment is first mixed with a white zinc powder to make it opaque. It is then thinned to the proper consistency with water and is applied to the paper or other background; but it is sufficiently opaque to completely cover the surface, so that only the pigment shows. Tempera, a very old process, is similar to gouache except that the pigment is combined with a thin glue or with white of egg instead of water. It is, today, extensively used in poster work, designs for magazine covers, and commercial advertising. Water color is used as a medium by itself and to color or tint drawings or engravings.