Has anyone ever worked with watercolors?

[Ydouneed2nomyname]

Hi, I've seen this guy who says he paints with watercolor. Now knowing very little about watercolor, it strikes as interesting because I don't know anyone who paints with this particular medium. I've seen people use oils, enamels, and lacquers.
Does anyone here have experience with watercolor? I would think you still need acrylics for some thing like basecoating and you would need varnish for sure after because watercolor comes off really easily. If there is, what would you use it for? The only one I can think of is using it for washes, but I don't know after that.
I've only been painting for about a year now so if it's much more popular than I think please tell me.
Thanks for input.

 

[QuietiManes]

Well, watercolours aren't anything too mysterious. Not that I've ever tried to use them on a mini.

They tend to be used thin and transparent (as you'd want for washes/glazes/etc) but if you layer it up or mix the colour with less water you can get opaque (for more regular painting). Just more work drying between coats and stuff. I'd imagine you'd need some sort of primer to start with, acrylic or gouache or something the watercolours would stick to. They're pretty grainy in my experience though, not sure if there are fine ground pigments to go smooth on mini's, must be, somewhere?

Can you post a link to some pictures? I'd love to see some of that.

 

[Ydouneed2nomyname]

Do you mean the minis? They were at the gaming club and they weren't my minis. I didn't have my camera on me. I can only go by my eyes and memory. In my stupidity I forgot to ask what he did with the paints to achieve his very smooth blends. Now they weren't perfect, but still very nice blending in the color. He also varnished over it so if I were to touch the mini, the texture wouldn't be accurate. He gloss coated then matt coated so that's even more unreliable. If i get lucky enough to see him again i should ask. Sorry I can't offer more than that.

 

[Ydouneed2nomyname]

It just makes me wonder how you would blend with them considering if you layer them or glaze them the second they get into contact with water (ie. a second layer or another water based paint) they automatically get wet again. and they dry too fast to wet blend. So I just want to see what people have used it for. Thanks for comment.

 

[QuietiManes]

Yeah, I meant the mini's. Was just curious to see.

If the first layer is dry, when you lay down the next "wet" layer it will re-wet and mix a bit, but if you only go over it once, the brush won't move the dry layer. So, blending, transitions, highlights, shading, etc, could be done in multiple layers. You can also wet the surface and use more water in your watercolour to slow down the dry time, certainly enough to wet blend little areas if you've got the colours and brushes all ready to go before you start. Plus you can just add more water if it starts to dry too soon. I'd imagine acrylic Slow Dry would work too...or a touch of glycerin...or something. They must have a retarder for watercolours, it's been a decade since I've used them.

 

[Ydouneed2nomyname]

They must have a retarder for watercolours

I looked it up on dickblick.com and there is. There's a blending medium that slows the drying time and if you add gum arabic it does the same. But either one makes the paint more glossy so...
I should just try it to see what I could come up with when I get more cash.
But from what you said, since the wet paint re-wets the first layer a little but doesn't move it, does that mean your wet blending but your wet blending by layering it?

 

[Dragonsreach]

Does anyone here have experience with watercolor?
Yes a fair bit, but in the traditional use on Paper.

I would think you still need acrylics for some thing like basecoating and you would need varnish for sure after because watercolor comes off really easily.
If there is, what would you use it for?
I'm thinking on this as really overboard additional work, Watercolours rely on the underlying paper for the colour to work (and also to be absorbed into) on a non-porus non-absorbative material they would be extremely 'fragile' and easily subject to damage.
I've used Gouache on a model, which was a mistake as Gouache seems to be an absorbsion needing medium and wasn't waterproof on the model.
To me this seems an additional overhead in work, which if the painter wanted traditional art colours could have easily been achieved with Artists acrylics or Oils and mediums, rather than Watercolours.
The only one I can think of is using it for washes, but I don't know after that.
Probably more effective on controlled placement glazing rather than overall washes.

I've only been painting for about a year now so if it's much more popular than I think please tell me.
Got to be honest it's the first time I've heard of it and I've been painting a long time.

This is an interesting subject and I'd like to know more about this person's statement and their quality of painting.

 

[Ydouneed2nomyname]

Like I said in a previous post in my stupidity I failed to ask him what he used it for. It was at the gaming store. I didn't bring my camera so all I could say was it was really nicely painted. If it was in the CMON gallery I'd rate it a 7.5, even though you can't technically do that. It wasn't like crazy good, but it's better than anything I can do. He varnished the mini so the feel on the surface would be incorrect. It didn't look like he used washes though. maybe as a preshading but looking at the actual colors all the shadows and highlights are well blended. So I doubt he used the watercolors for washes. I'm pretty sure he didn't use just watercolrs though. Even with less dilution of the paint, it's hard to get an opaque watercolor. So I'm sure he used acrylics for at least basecoating.

 

[QuietiManes]

Wet blending usually means laying 2 colours beside each other on the model then mixing the middle together so it fades from one to the next smoothly, before they dry. That would just be layering with watercolours, doing one thin layer, then moving over a bit and doing the next thin layer, repeating this until it builds up the shade or highlight or transition smoothly. Not sure how much the layers would mix with or sit on top of each other, depends on how they're mixed and their transparency I guess. Usually very transparent on paper where it soaks in and dries quicker than on a non-porous surface, as mentioned, so it would act different due to the time involved, I'd think.

 

[Ydouneed2nomyname]

I should have asked him what was his technique or at least his name. All he told me was that he used watercolors on the mini and that it was easier for him. Then we played our game, and he left. But yeah even with a blending medium I would think water colors dry too quickly to do any wet blending. So it must be a layering or glazing technique of some kind.