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Technology of painting materials. Types of watercolor paints Technology for the production of watercolor paints

Full squad It is not customary to specify watercolors from manufacturers. Most often on the packaging we will find only an indication of the pigments on the basis of which the paint is made. But let's see what else can be hidden inside the tube and what role the various ingredients play.
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All that we will consider in this article is only general information, on the basis of which you can get an idea about the recipe of paints.
In reality, the formulation of each paint of each manufacturer is unique and is a trade secret.
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So let's get started!
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Coloring agent

The basis of any coloring composition is a coloring agent. It is he who determines the color of the future paint, its coloring ability, light fastness and many other properties. Coloring agents can be divided into pigments and dyes.
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A dye is a substance that is capable of coloring other materials, usually soluble in water.
Pigment is a colored substance that is insoluble in water. Simply put, it is a colored powder (ground very finely), the particles of which are in no way connected with each other.
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If we are talking about professional watercolors, then in most cases we are dealing with pigments.
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Not only are the pigment particles themselves in no way connected to each other, they also do not form any connection with the surface on which they are applied. If we tried to paint with a mixture of pigment and water, after drying, this mixture would begin to crumble from the sheet.

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In order to ensure that the pigment particles adhere to the surface and that the ink interacts with the paper in the way we are used to, a so-called binder is used.
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Also, it is the binder that determines the type of future paint. Of course, we are talking about watercolor, where a water-soluble binder is used. But, if instead of it we take, for example, linseed oil, then we could get oil paints. After all, the pigments, for the most part, are the same in paints.
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The main advantage of a watercolor binder is that it can be re-dissolved in water even after it has completely dried. That is why watercolor paints that have dried on the palette are enough to moisten with water for reuse, which is why we can wipe and select paint from the sheet even after the paint layer has dried.

What can serve as a binder for watercolor?

Historically, people have used a whole variety of different substances - these could be resins, starches, animal adhesives, and so on.
That is, there was no single option. By the way, according to one theory, this is why watercolor got its name not in honor of the binder (like oil or acrylic), but in honor of its solvent - water.
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In the 18th century, gum arabic began to be used in Europe, and it remains the most popular watercolor binder to this day. Gum arabic is a hard, transparent resin of a yellowish hue, consisting of the dried juice of some types of acacia.
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The price of gum arabic is quite high, so cheaper binders are used in budget series and general purpose paints. For example, dextrin is actively used - a substance obtained from various starches. Also, as a replacement, there are worthy options not only for vegetable, but also for synthetic binders.

Additives and fillers

The first commercial watercolors consisted mainly of pigment, water and gum arabic and were solid tiles. Before use, such tiles had to be grated and long time soak in water.
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In order for our paint to have the usual pasty consistency, and when dried, it is soaked from the touch with a wet brush, various plasticizers and moisturizers are added to it.
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One of the most popular plasticizers in watercolor is glycerin, and sugar syrup or honey can be used as a moisturizer.
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And those are just the basics! In addition, watercolors may also contain various dispersants, preservatives, thickeners, and so on. It is important to understand that all this is in the composition for a reason.
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Each pigment has its own characteristics, and in order to make paints from them that are approximately similar in consistency and behavior, it is required individual approach and unique recipes.

It should also be added that special fillers can be used to lower the pigment concentration and reduce the final cost of the paint. Such fillers are often used in paints based on the most expensive pigments. It is also normal practice to use them in student series, this makes paints more accessible. The addition of such fillers usually does not affect the preservation properties of the paint. However, their excessive use can lead to the so-called soapiness of the paint and reduce its saturation.
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Additives and fillers play an important role in the composition of the paint and in most cases work in favor of the consumer, unless the manufacturer abuses their quantity in pursuit of cheaper production.
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On this our brief digression came to an end. Now you know for sure that watercolor paint is not just an indefinite substance of some color, but a complex substance, each element of which fulfills its purpose.

The article was prepared by the experts of the watercolor laboratory watercolor.lab.

Nikitina Uliana

Target:

Make watercolors from natural ingredients at home.

Tasks:

1. Study the composition and properties of watercolors.

2. Find out the functional significance of the paint components.

3. Consider the main stages of paint production.

4. Prepare the basis of watercolor paints from vegetable raw materials and

get VEGETABLE PIGMENTS.

Hypothesis:

Working only with plant material, it is possible to obtain watercolors based on natural pigments even at home.

Research methods:

Study and analysis of scientific and popular science literature on the research problem

Experiment: methods for obtaining plant pigments and paints based on them

Processing and analysis of experimental data

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Preview:

Annotation to the work “Watercolor paints. Their composition and production

Target:

Make watercolors from natural ingredients at home.

Tasks:

1. Study the composition and properties of watercolors.

2. Find out the functional significance of the paint components.

3. Consider the main stages of paint production.

4. Prepare the basis of watercolor paints from vegetable raw materials and

get VEGETABLE PIGMENTS.

Hypothesis:

Working only with plant material, it is possible to obtain watercolors based on natural pigments even at home.

Research methods:

Study and analysis of scientific and popular science literature on the research problem

Experiment: methods for obtaining plant pigments and paints based on them

Processing and analysis of experimental data

Introduction.

Watercolor (fr. aquarelle - watery;italian. acquarello) is a painting technique using special watercolor paints.Watercolor paints applied, as a rule, to paper, which is often pre-wetted with water to achievea special blurred brushstroke.

Watercolor painting came into use later than other types of painting. However, despite its late appearance, it a short time made such progress that it can compete with painting oil paints.

Watercolor is one of the poetic types of painting. Watercolor can convey the serene blue of the sky, the lace of clouds, the veil of fog. It allows you to capture the phenomena of nature.

A sheet of white grainy paper, a box of paints, a soft, obedient brush, water in a small vessel - that's all the artist needs. You can write on wet or dry paper immediately, in full color strength. But in any case, it is impossible or almost impossible to fix the damaged place: watercolor does not tolerate the addition or correction of color.

In Russia of the century before last, there were many outstanding watercolorists. P.A. Fedotov, I.N. Kramskoy, N.A. Yaroshenko, V.D. Polenov, I.E. Repin, V.A. Serov, M.A. Vrubel, V.I. Surikov ... each of them made a rich contribution to the Russian watercolor school.

Often, artists use watercolor in combination with other materials: gouache, charcoal.

The purpose of our work is the manufacture of watercolors at home from natural ingredients.

Theoretical part.

Composition and properties of paints.

Watercolor paints are prepared mainly on glues of vegetable origin, which is why they are called water-based paints. Paints for watercolor painting should have the following qualities.

1.Great transparency.

2. Good to take with a wet brush and easy to blur.

3.Watercolor paint should lie flat on the paper and not form spots or dots.

4. After drying, give a durable, non-cracking layer.

5. Do not penetrate the reverse side of the paper.

The main components of watercolor paint are dye and water. Further, viscous substances are needed, they will prevent the paint from spreading over the paper, making it lie in an even layer; honey, molasses, glycerin are good for this.

Paint production.

Watercolor paints are available in porcelain cups and tubes. Production technique:

1) mixing with pigment;

2) grinding the mixture;

3) drying;

4) filling cups or tubes with paint;

5) packing.

Features of watercolors.

Watercolor painting is transparent, pure and bright in tone, which is difficult to achieve with oil paints. Watercolor paints are also used in underpainting for oil painting.

Strong dilution of paints with water when thinly applied to paper reduces the amount of paint, and the paint loses its tone and becomes less durable. When applying several layers of watercolor paint to one place, spots appear.

Practical part.

After analyzing the literature, articles on the Internet, you can describe how paints are prepared.

First they look for raw materials. It can be coal, chalk, clay, lapis lazuli, malachite. Raw materials must be cleaned of foreign impurities. The materials must then be ground to a powder.

Coal, chalk and clay can be ground at home, but malachite and lapis lazuli are very hard stones, special tools are needed to grind them. Ancient artists ground the powder in a mortar with a pestle. The resulting powder is the pigment.

Then the pigment must be mixed with a binder. As a binder, you can use: egg, oil, water, glue, honey. The paint must be mixed well so that there are no lumps. The resulting paint can be used for painting.

In old books, the names of exotic dyes are often found: red sandalwood, carmine, sepia, logwood ... Some of these dyes are still used today, but in very small quantities, mainly for the preparation of artistic paints. Still, you can try to prepare paints using mineral substances - pigments, which may be in the school laboratory or in the household.

Hypothesis: I assumed that watercolor paints can be made independently at home, but they will be different from the store ones.

To conduct experiments, I had to get natural pigments and binders.

At my disposal was clay, coal, chalk, onion peel, potassium permanganate, stationery glue, honey and a chicken egg.

I made a plan of 5 experiments.

Plan of the 1st experiment:

1) Clean the coal from impurities.

2) Grind coal into powder.

3) Sift the powder.

4) Mix coal with water.

Plan of the 2nd experiment:

1) Clean the clay from impurities.

2) Grind clay into powder.

3) Sift the powder.

4) Mix clay with stationery glue.

Plan of the 3rd experiment:

1) Clean the chalk from impurities.

2) Grind the chalk into powder.

3) Sift the powder.

4) Mix chalk with egg white.

Plan of the 4th experiment:

1) Make a thick decoction of onion peel.

2) Cool the broth.

3) Mix the decoction with honey.

Plan of the 5th experiment

1) Grind potassium permanganate into a fine powder.

2) Sift the powder.

3) Mix potassium permanganate with water.

During the experiments, I received black, brown, white, beige, yellow paints.

Our paints turned out to be not solid, which are sold in stores. However, artists use similar semi-liquid watercolors in tubes. After experimenting, I wanted to try other raw materials, as well as paint my drawing with new paints.

Experimental results.

Now I know what watercolor paints are made of. You can prepare some paints at home. The resulting paints differ in consistency and quality from store-bought ones.

So, charcoal with water gave the paint a metallic hue, it was easily picked up on a brush and left a bright mark on the paper, quickly drying up.

Clay with glue gave a dirty brown paint, did not mix well with glue, left a greasy mark on paper and dried for a long time.

Chalk with egg white white paint, which was easily typed on a brush, left a thick mark on paper, dried for a long time, but turned out to be the most durable.

A decoction of onion peel with honey gave a yellow paint, it was well drawn on a brush, left an intense mark on paper and dried quickly.

Potassium permanganate with water formed a light brown paint, it was easily picked up on a brush and left a pale mark on paper, quickly drying.

The resulting paints have advantages and disadvantages: environmentally friendly, free, have a natural color, but labor-intensive in production, it is inconvenient to store them, and there are no saturated colors among the resulting solutions.

Conclusion.

Watercolor is one of the most poetic types of painting. It allows you to capture short-term natural phenomena. But she also has access to capital, graphic and pictorial, chamber and monumental works, landscapes and still lifes, portraits and complex compositions.

Conclusions that can be drawn from the work:

1. The history of colors began with the advent of man. They were known long before there were written reports about them. Initially, this painting was mainly found in memory albums and souvenirs, then it entered the albums of artists and appeared in art galleries and art exhibitions.

2. The technique of watercolor painting is very diverse both in its techniques and in the way the paints are used. It differs from other techniques in its consistency, its result. Painted in watercolor in different ways. Some painters prefer to work gradually - one layer of paint is placed on another, dried up. Then the details are carefully handed over. Many take the paint at full strength and write in one layer. It is difficult to accurately show both the shape and color of objects at once.

3. Paints consist of a pigment and a binder. Namely, watercolor paints - from dry dye and glue. They may also contain a certain amount of sugar and, when used, are rubbed with water on saucers, or directly (honey paints) are taken with a brush moistened with water from tiles or cups.

4. In the course of experiments at home, I managed to get watercolor paints of different colors and shades, compare their quality with store-bought paints, and analyze the advantages and disadvantages.

5. If watercolor has a future? We can confidently answer this question. Watercolor has a future!

World without watercolor artistic painting will be boring and monotonous!

Bibliography:

1. Kukushkin Yu.N. - Chemistry around us - Bustard, 2003

2. Petrov V. - The world of art. Art Association of the 20th century.-M.: Aurora, 2009

Municipal Autonomous Educational Institution "Secondary comprehensive school No. 107, Perm

Section: natural and mathematical sciences.

Making watercolors at home from natural ingredients.

Student: 6-b

Nikitina Uliana

Teacher:

watercolor paint consists of a pigment and a water-soluble adhesive (binder). Gum arabic is used as a binder in watercolors, but in cheap paints it can be replaced with dextrin, cherry glue, etc. Additionally, in the production of watercolors, a plasticizer (glycerin, honey, molasses) is added to make the film elastic, preservatives (antiseptics) from mold and a wetting agent (ox bile) for uniform application to the surface.

TYPES OF WATERCOLOR PAINTS

Semi-solid in cuvettes

This is a dry paint, initially poured in liquid form into small rectangles, which are packaged in sets or sold individually. The standard cuvette volume is approximately 2.5 ml, but “half-pans” are also sold, which are convenient for sketching outside the home. Most often, such watercolors work on small formats (it is difficult to “pull out” the right amount of paint from dry cuvettes ).

The inside of the set's lid is most often used as a palette. If the box is plastic - the paint can eat into, but in metal with enamel - no.

(ST. PETERSBURG, LENINGRAD, LADOGA)

Watercolor paints TALENS ARTCREATION

Soft in tubes

Basically liquid paint. The most important difference between its properties and watercolors in cuvettes is rich color and brightness. Well suited for fillings and large formats, including in terms of economy. As a rule, during work, watercolors are squeezed out of tubes into empty cuvettes, which lie in a palette box. When the work is completed, the excess paint remains in the cuvettes. The palette box is closed. Even if the paints dry out a little, they are sprinkled with water and they are ready for use again. The most popular brush for working with paint from a tube on large formats is a soft flute.

Liquid watercolor

It is not a watercolor in its composition. First of all, because it is not made of pigments, but of dyes. It would be more correct to call it a non-waterproof ink that has the properties inherent in watercolor. Good for illustrations and sketches.

Briefly, the following aids can be distinguished:

Binders for watercolor and gouache

Which allow you to make paints yourself, using a pigment and a binder.

Thinners for watercolors

To reduce the surface tension of water, which allows the paint to be applied more evenly, eliminating the thickening of the paint or changing its color.

Means for masking

Masking - temporarily hiding elements that should not get paint.

Additives for surface effects

Various pastes and gels to increase the pastiness of paint and create decorative reliefs, increase gloss or shine, to create a metallic effect and many others.

Primer for watercolor

With this primer, you can prime any surface (canvas, wood, paper), after which you can work on them with watercolors.

PAPER FOR WATERCOLOR PAINTS

It is believed that in watercolor painting, the quality of the paper is paramount. Even high-quality paint on poor paper will not be able to demonstrate all the beauty of its shades and excellent properties. For watercolor paper, composition and sizing are of paramount importance. Sizing provides watercolor paper with minimal absorbency, durability when wet.

inspirational watercolor work Yulia Barminova

Nikitin Pavel

The work is devoted to the study of the physical and chemical properties of watercolors. In the theoretical part, the properties and features of watercolor paints are considered. The characteristic of the main components of paints is given. Question raised industrial production watercolor paints.

In the practical part of the work, a description is given of methods for obtaining paints at home. A technique for obtaining a base for watercolors based on available raw materials is given.

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MOU Silinskaya basic comprehensive school

Scientific-practical conference "First steps into science"

Nomination: inorganic chemistry

Competitive work

"Watercolor paints.

Their composition and production

I've done the work:

Nikitin Pavel,

14 years old.

Supervisor:

Sazanova A.E.,

chemistry teacher

village of Silino

2014

1. Plan ……………………………………………………... page 3.

2. Introduction ………………………………………………… p. 4-6.

3. The main part …………………………………………….. pp. 7-27.

4. Conclusion ………………………………………………. pp. 28-30.

5. Literature ……………………………………………… page 31.

Plan

I. Introduction.

1. Relevance of the topic.

2. Purpose.

3. Tasks.

4. Research methodology.

II. Main part. Watercolor paints. What do we know about them?

1. Theoretical part:

3. The process of preparing paints.

4. Features of watercolors.

2.Practical part.

III. Conclusion.

IV. Literature.

I. Introduction.

Colors occupy a huge niche in our life. At the same time, most often we do not even notice them - our car, motorcycle and bicycle have a color coating. The floors and walls of our house are painted, various landscapes, which are boring to us, skillfully executed with oil paints, can hang on the walls; the facade of our house is painted with facade paint and even the fence behind the house is painted by a neighbor boy who dreams of becoming a great artist, moreover, with paints from aerosol can, freely sold around the corner.

Who doesn't know watercolor? Box with colorful tiles, round jars or tubes. Dampen a soft brush with water. Get some paint on it. Then you touch the paper - and a cheerful brushstroke lights up. Another brushstroke, another ... Gradually, an image is obtained. The cheerful blue of the sky, the lace of the clouds, the veil of fogs are best conveyed in watercolor. And how useful it is when you need to depict a sunset, running waves, thickening twilight, fabulous flowers, an underwater kingdom, a cosmic landscape!Watercolor paints are distinguished by transparency, tenderness, juiciness. But they can also be very bright, deep.

Building Boom early XXI century has generated an increased demand for paint and varnish products. The requirements for the properties of the paints used are changing - environmental friendliness, resistance to elevated temperatures, precipitation, fading under the action of light, drying speed, etc.

I consider the theme of my work relevant , since in our country the formation of the production of household chemicals (including the manufacture of paints), as the most important sub-sector chemical industry, began relatively recently (1968).

IN free time I like to draw with paints, so this work I'm especially interested.

My drawings.

And perhaps the skills and knowledge I gained in the course of this work will be useful in the future, will help in choosing a profession. Or maybe they will allow in the future to create new varieties of paints.

Target : making watercolors from natural ingredients at home.

Tasks : 1. Study the composition and properties of watercolors.

2. Find out the functional significance of the paint components.

3. Consider the main stages of paint production.

4. Prepare the basis of watercolor paints from vegetable raw materials and obtain vegetable pigments.

Hypothesis : Working only with plant material, it is possible to obtain watercolors based on natural pigments even at home.

Research methods:

Study and analysis of scientific and popular science literature, Internet resources on the research problem.
Experiment: physical and chemical methods for obtaining plant pigments and paints based on them.
Processing and analysis of experimental data.

The work is devoted to the study of the physical and chemical properties of watercolors. In the theoretical part, the properties and features of watercolor paints are considered. The characteristic of the main components of paints is given. The issue of industrial production of watercolors is touched upon.

In the practical part of the work, a description is given of methods for obtaining paints at home. A technique for obtaining a base for watercolors based on available raw materials is given.

Main part.

1. The history of paint - from the cave to the modern facade.

The history of the origin of colors.

The history of colors began with the advent of man. The cave dwellers painted on the stones what surrounded them: running animals and hunters with spears. Primitive drawings made with charcoal and sanguine (clay) have survived to our time. The richer and more complex life became, the more colors were required to capture it. At present, there is such a huge variety of paints and their colors that even a non-specialist can offhand name a dozen of their different names.Without colors, our world would be gray, so man has always sought to find a way to decorate reality.Now paints are made from both natural and synthetic materials.

The appearance of paints and drawing dates back to prehistoric times. Paints were known long before there were written reports about them. The colorful images on the walls of the cave dwellings have been preserved to this day in relatively good condition. Some of them existed as far back as 15,000 BC. Thus, we can assume that the appearance of colorful substances was one of the first discoveries at the dawn of civilization.

The cave dwellers painted on the stones what surrounded them: running animals and hunters with spears. For rock painting in the cave of Lascaux (France), a natural mixture of minerals was used as paints - ocher (from the Greek. ochros - "yellow"). Oxides and hydrates of iron oxides gave the paint a reddish or yellow color. Dark shades of paint were obtained by adding black charcoal to ocher. Primitive artists kneaded their paints with animal fat to better adhere to the stone. The resulting color for a long time remained sticky and wet, as animal fats do not dry as easily in the air to form a hard film, like modern paints.

The bodies of the dead were covered with red ocher, similar in color to blood, before burial. Now we are reminded of this ancient tradition modern name red iron ore - hematite (from the Greek haima - "blood").

It should be noted, however, that in essence these primitive paints are very similar to modern ones both in composition and in the method of manufacture. Animal fats, however, are no longer used, but carbon black, similar in composition to ordinary soot, is the most widespread black pigment. At present, carbon black is subjected to special cleaning and processing in order to give the color greater strength and other properties. Primitive, while preparing the paint, he rubbed the raw materials between flat stones, and at present they use three-roll and ball mills for this purpose, that is, essentially the same thing - they grind the raw materials so that they are simultaneously subjected to impact forces and friction.

Previously, paints could not be stored for more than one day, as they oxidized and hardened when exposed to air. It was difficult to work with these paints: darker paints with a high charcoal content dried much more slowly than shades with a high ocher content.

In the Renaissance, each master had his own recipe for diluting paints: some kneaded pigment on egg white - this was done by the Italians Fra Angelico (1387 (?) -1455) and Piero della Francesca (c. 1420-1492). Others preferred casein (a milk protein already used for frescoes in Roman temples). And the Fleming Jan van Eyck (c.1390-1441) introduced oil paints into use. He learned to apply them in thin layers. This technique best conveyed space, volume and color depth.

At first, with oil paints, not everything went smoothly. So, painting the wall of the refectory of the Milanese monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) tried to mix oil paint with tempera (paint based on egg yolk diluted in water). As a result of his The Last Supper"began to crumble already during the lifetime of the master ...

Some paints have long remained fabulously expensive. Ultramarine blue paint was obtained from lapis, which was brought from Iran and Afghanistan. This mineral was so expensive that the artists used ultramarine only in exceptional cases, if the customer agreed to pay for the paint in advance.

In 1704, the German chemist Diesbach tried to improve red paint, but instead got a blue paint very similar to ultramarine. They called it "Prussian Blue". This pigment was 10 times cheaper than natural ultramarine. In 1802, the Frenchman Louis-Jacques Tenard invented a paint called cobalt blue, which was an even better substitute for ultramarine. And only after 24 years, the chemist Jean-Baptiste Gimet received "French ultramarine", completely similar to natural. Artificial paints were significantly cheaper than natural ones, but there was one important "but": they could cause allergies, and often worsen health.

In 1870, the international society of dyers decided to find out which dyes were harmful to health. It turned out that "none", except for one: emerald green. It was made from a mixture of vinegar, copper oxide and arsenic. This paint was used to paint the walls in Napoleon's house on Saint Helena. Many researchers believe that he died from poisoning with arsenic fumes that came from the wallpaper.

Despite the fact that the appearance of paints dates back to prehistoric times, the modern paint industry was created relatively recently. Less than 200 years ago, ready-made paints did not yet exist, and the ingredients had to be mixed and ground before use. It happened, however, that the most far-sighted of entrepreneurs realized all the advantages of producing ready-to-use mixtures. This is how the paint industry was born. However, even after its inception, many preferred to mix the ingredients themselves to obtain the paint, so for many more years, both ready-made paints and raw materials for them existed on sale side by side. Nevertheless, ready-made paints took over, and gradually the production of oils and pigments separately ceased.

50 years ago, the composition of the paint mainly included: a pigment or a mixture of pigments, linseed oil in one of the many forms that existed then (linseed oil, polymerized linseed oil) and turpentine as a thinner. The thinner was necessary in order to bring the paint to the desired consistency. At that time, ready-to-use paints had a similar composition.

Since then, however, much has changed in the composition of the paint, and there are paints with greater durability and better qualities, providing ease of application with a brush, no brush marks and good flow. Turpentine has been largely replaced by other solvents. As for the pigments, most of those that were used 50 years ago are still in use today: natural earth pigments of various degrees of purity and artificially prepared white lead. Over time, this assortment has been replenished with new products from the chemical industry, organic and inorganic.

Previously, there were more poisonous paints: arsenic was included in cinnabar ("yellow gold"), and lead - in red-orange minium. Today, the palette of artificial colors is very wide. More pigments are produced artificially and are of inorganic origin - they are more stable, have a constant high-quality chemical composition, which is very important in mass production. But, oddly enough, the demand for natural pigments has not only not disappeared, but is again gradually growing (by 5.5% per year); Most likely, this is due to the improvement of production techniques and the transition to more environmentally friendly technologies.

A large niche in modern construction is occupied by facade paint. Nowadays, these paints have an incredible palette, all sorts of special qualities and can satisfy any whim.

In Russia, the history of paints is studied byicons. The earliest paints in icon painting and handwriting in the 11th-13th centuries were various ochers and soots - “smoked ink”, blue azure and cinnabar, green yari obtained from copper, white, which was prepared from lead, “created” gold.

The history of the development of watercolor painting.

The term Watercolor (French aquarelle, English painting in water colours, Italian aquarelle or aqua-tento, German Wasserfarbengemalde, Aquarellmalerei; from Latin aqua - water) has several meanings.

Firstly, it means painting with special water-soluble (i.e., freely soluble in ordinary water) paints. And in this case it is customary to talk about watercolor technique (i.e. a certain process of creativity in fine arts).

Secondly, it is used, in fact, for the direct designation of the water-soluble (watercolor) paints themselves. When dissolved in water, they form a transparent aqueous suspension of fine pigment, which is the basis of the paint, thanks to which it is possible to create a unique effect of lightness, airiness and subtle color transitions.

And finally, thirdly , so it is customary to call the works themselves, made in this technique with watercolors. Their distinctive features are mainly in the transparency of the thinnest paint layer remaining on the paper after the water dries. In this case, white is not used, since their role is played by the white color of the paper, translucent through the paint layer or not painted over at all.

Watercolor has been known since ancient times. Its history begins in China after the invention of paper in the 2nd century AD. In the XII-XIII centuries, paper became widespread in Europe, primarily in Spain and Italy. predecessor watercolor technique in Europe there was painting on wet plaster (fresco), which made it possible to obtain similar effects.

In Europe, watercolor painting came into use later than other types of painting. Some artists mentioned it only in passing as an art that did not deserve serious attention. The watercolor technique was originally applied to the coloring of architectural and topographical plans, where initially Chinese ink was used, then ink with lacquer carmine, sepia, and then other water-based paints.

At the end of the XV century. the outstanding master of the German Renaissance A. Dürer created many magnificent watercolors. These were landscapes, images of animals and plants.

Soon the Italian Baghetti and many other skillful painters proved that watercolor could compete with great success with oil painting, precisely where transparency is required and, in particular, the careful finishing of the details of the drawing.

Initially, this painting was mainly found in memory albums and souvenirs, then it entered the albums of artists and appeared in art galleries and art exhibitions.

Watercolor became fully established in European countries relatively recently - in late XVII- early 18th century Artists who worked on this kind of painting and contributed to its development: Kozen - worked with brown and gray paint, using red and blue paints for light parts and reflections; French watercolorists: Delaroche, Houdin and Johannot, were engaged in more miniature painting. One of the first of their works was appreciated and continued to work with watercolors by English painters in the 19th century. W. Turner, a singer of London fogs and foamy waves, gloomy rocks and sunlight, became especially famous for his watercolors.

In Russia of the last century, there were many outstanding watercolorists.

Among them - S. V. Gerasimov (1885-1964). His landscapes are magnificent: forests and rivers, gray clouds heavy with moisture, hills and valleys illuminated by the sun. He also wrote all sorts of everyday scenes. The painter told novice watercolorists: “The life around us gives an infinite number of topics for the artist. Endless fields of golden wheat, green meadows, haymaking, children’s travels around their native land - it’s interesting to depict all this on paper! And what a wealth of colors in nature! such unusual colors as you see, for example, at sunset.

Masterfully mastered watercolor painting by a famous artist

A. V. Fonvizin (1882-1973).He wrote gracefully, lightly, boldly, juicy on wet paper.

Also K. P. Bryullov brought sheets with genre scenes, portraits and landscapes to filigree perfection.

A. A. Ivanov he wrote simply and easily, combining a lively, impeccable drawing with pure rich colors.

P. A. Fedotov, I. N. Kramskoy, N. A. Yaroshenko, V. D. Polenov, I. E. Repin, V. A. Serov, M. A. Vrubel, V. I. Surikov...Each of them made a rich contribution to the Russian watercolor school. Soviet painters, continuing the traditions of this school, gave watercolors a new development. ThisA. P. Ostroumova-Lebedeva, P. P. Konchalovsky, S. V. Gerasimov, A. A. Deineka, N. A. Tyrsa, A. V. Fonvizin, E. Springis and many others.

In 1839, Russian artists Ivanov, Richter, Moller, Kanevsky, Schuppe, Nikitin, Durnovo, Efimov, Scotty and Pimenov made an album watercolor drawings presented to Emperor Alexander II during his visit to Rome.

2. Characteristics of watercolors in terms of chemical composition, properties and basic methods of their preparation.

From time immemorial, the artist in his practice was forced to apply the knowledge of certain laws of chemistry and physics, no matter how strange it may seem at first glance. There is enough evidence for this in the history of art.

Paints are essentially mixtures chemical substances previously prepared by the artists themselves. Each master knew the secrets of grinding pigments and could have his own original recipes for obtaining paints of a certain color and quality. A modern artist no longer needs to study old or invent new recipes, but in practice, when receiving ready-made paints from the manufacturer, he still must take into account some chemical and physical characteristics of pigments and paints prepared from them. As mentioned earlier, the firsta very important condition is the quality of paints, which depends on the manufacturer. Second - the artist's understanding of the structure of colors.Unusually fine grinding of the pigment, which is a criterion for the quality of watercolor paint, cannot be achieved in some cases due to the nature of the chemical nature of some substances. So, it is well known that spectral cobalt blue and ultramarine can give a powdery precipitate, while Prussian blue (Prussian blue) and carmine are colloidally soluble by nature, that is, when dissolved, they evenly color water.

Any paint consists of a coloring pigment and a binder:

Pigment - dry dye Binder

Coal Water

Clay Clay

Earth Oil

Malachite Egg

Lapis Lazuli Honey

Chalk Wax

Ancient artists looked for material for paints right under their feet. From red and yellow clay, by finely grinding it, you can get a red and yellow dye, or, as the artists say, a pigment. Pigment black gives coal, white - chalk, azure - blue, green gives malachite and lapis lazuli.

Metal oxides also give a green pigment. Violet dyes can be made from peach pits or grape skins.

Nowadays, almost all paints are made in laboratories and factories from chemicals. Therefore, some paints are even poisonous, for example: red cinnabar from mercury.

Dry dye cannot stick to the canvas, so you need a binder that glues dry dye particles into a single color paint - a mass. Artists took what was at hand: oil, honey, egg, glue, wax. The closer the pigment particles are to each other, the thicker the paint. The density of the paint can be determined by looking at how a drop of honey, an egg, spreads on a long-drying drop of oil, which does not even combine with water, and leaves a greasy mark when it dries.

Various binders give different colors with different names:

Name of paints	Oil	Egg	Water	Glue
Watercolor
Gouache
oily
Tempera

Watercolor light, translucent paint requires dilution with water. The name itself says it.

Oil is part of oil paints, they are the most durable and fall on paper with bold strokes. They are stored in tubes and diluted with a solvent, kerosene or turpentine.

One of the ancient painting techniques- tempera. These are egg paints, sometimes called "egg paints".

According to their chemical composition, watercolor paints belong to the adhesive group of paints.They are ideal for those who are just starting to master the art of painting, as well as for those artists who have special requirements for the quality of the canvas.

Nowadays, several types of watercolors are produced:

1) solid paints that look like tiles of various shapes,

2) soft paints enclosed in faience cups,

3) honey paints, sold, like tempera and oil paints, in pewter tubes,

4) gouache - liquid paints enclosed in glass jars.

The binder of all the best types of watercolors ismucilage: gum arabic, dextrin, tragacanth and fruit glue (cherry); in addition, honey, glycerin, candy sugar, wax and some resins, mainly balm resins.The purpose of the latter is to give the paints the ability not to be washed away so easily upon drying, which is certainly needed by those that contain too much honey, glycerin, etc. in their composition.

gum arabic (from lat. gummi - gum and arabicus - Arabian) - a viscous transparent liquid secreted by some types of acacia. Refers to a group of plant substances (colloids) that are highly soluble in water. According to its composition, gum arabic is not a chemically pure substance. It is a mixture of complex organic compounds, consisting mostly of glucosidic-humic acids (for example, arabic acid and its calcium, magnesium and potassium salts). It is used in the manufacture of watercolors as an adhesive. After drying, it forms a transparent, brittle film, not prone to cracking and not hygroscopic.

larch gluemade from larch wood.

Dextrin - powder of light yellow or white color, prepared from starch.

cherry glue collected from cherry and plum trees, has a brown color, slightly soluble in water (only fresh). Under the action of acids, it is neutralized and passes into a solution used for the preparation of watercolors.

Albumen refers to protein substances, obtained from egg white, purified from yolk and fiber, dried at 50 ° C.

Honey - a mixture of equal amounts of fructose and glucose with an admixture of water (16-18%), wax and a small amount of protein substances.

Syrup - a product obtained by saccharification (hydrolysis) of starch (mainly potato and maize) with dilute acids, followed by filtration and boiling of the syrup to the desired consistency. It creates a strong film on the picture and protects the paint from drying out quickly.

Glycerol - a thick syrupy liquid, miscible with water in any ratio. Glycerin belongs to the group of trihydric alcohols. It is highly hygroscopic and is introduced into the binder of watercolors to keep them in a semi-dry state and to form an elastic film.

Cheaper varieties of watercolors, as well as paints intended not for painting, but for drawings, etc., also include ordinary wood glue, fish glue and potato molasses as a binder.
Also, the composition of watercolors includes a plasticizer, which makes the paints soft and plastic.The plasticizers are invert sugar and glycerin. The latter does not allow to dry out, become brittle, retains moisture in paints. It is introduced into the composition of watercolors and ox bile. Being a surfactant, it allows you to easily color paper, prevents paint from rolling into drops.

To protect paints from decay by mold, they contain an antiseptic, usually phenol.

Due to the low stability of the main binders of watercolor, attempts were repeatedly made to replace them with others with greater strength; so far, however, nothing of note has been proposed.

Pigments (from Latin pigmentum - paint), in chemistry - colored chemical compounds used in the form of fine powders for dyeing plastics, rubber, chemical fibers, and making paints. They are divided into organic and inorganic.

To give paint a particular color, the following pigments are most widely used: cinnabar, Indian yellow, yellow ocher, gummigut, red ocher, Indian ocher, cobalt, ultramarine, indigo, Prussian blue and many, many others.

The quality of paints largely depends on the pigments. Some pigments are subject to discoloration from sunlight, so the picture painted with such paints fades. The picture painted with Prussian blue fades from the action of the sun's rays, but, being brought into a dark room for a while, takes on its former appearance.

Very good material are natural mineral ochers of various colors, zinc crowns and white, brown, red and other mars.
Distinctive feature watercolor paints is their transparency, color brightness, purity. These properties are achieved both by the purity of the materials used and by the large dispersion of pigments, for which special grinding of powders is used.

When, when you need dullness, opacity, use a mixture of watercolor and gouache paints. For the same purpose, paints are diluted in soapy water.

Paints can be of three types: solid (tiles), semi-solid (paste) and semi-liquid (tubes).

3. The process of making paints

None of the methods of painting needs such finely divided paints as watercolor; which is why making good watercolors by hand is not an easy task. But, in addition to fine grinding of paints, when making watercolors, another, no less important condition must be observed - the paints must be composed in such a way that their powder, when the watercolor is most abundantly diluted with water, “hangs” in the binder and does not fall out of it. Only under this condition of "hanging" and gradual settling of the substance of the paint on the paper, its uniform layout is obtained; otherwise, the paint is distributed unevenly, forming dots, spots, etc.
After analyzing the literature, articles on the Internet, you can describe how paints are prepared.

First they look for raw materials. It can be coal, chalk, clay, lapis lazuli, malachite. Raw materials must be cleaned of foreign impurities. The materials must then be ground to a powder.

4. Features of watercolor paints

Watercolor painting is transparent, pure and bright in tone, which is difficult to achieve through glazing with oil paints. In watercolor, it is easier to achieve the subtlest shades and transitions. Watercolor paints are also used in underpainting for oil painting.

The hue of watercolors changes when it dries - brightens. This change comes from the evaporation of water, in connection with this, the gaps between the pigment particles in the paint are filled with air, the paints reflect light much more. The difference in the refractive indices of air and water causes a change in the color of the dried and fresh paint.

Strong dilution of paints with water when thinly applied to paper reduces the amount of binder, and the paint loses its tone and becomes less durable. When applying several layers of watercolor in one place, a supersaturation of the binder is obtained, and stains appear.

When covering watercolor paintings, it is very important that all paints are more or less evenly and in sufficient quantities saturated with a binder.

If individual parts of the paint layer contain an insufficient amount of glue, then the varnish, penetrating into the paint layer, creates a different environment for the pigment, which is not optically similar to the glue, and will greatly change it in color. When the paints contain a sufficient amount of binder, then when varnished, their intensity and original shine will be restored.

2. Practical part.

In old books, the names of exotic dyes are often found: red sandalwood, quercitron, carmine, sepia, logwood ... Some of these dyes are still used today, but in very small quantities, mainly for the preparation of artistic paints. After all, natural dyes with such beautiful names are obtained from plants and animals, and this is expensive and difficult. But natural dyes are very bright, durable, lightfast.

It would be interesting to check. But how? Logwood grows in South America, sandalwood in South Asia, sepia is obtained from cuttlefish, carmine from cochineal (tiny insects) ...

Still, you can try to prepare paints using mineral substances - pigments, which may be in the school laboratory or in the household.

Description of experiments

To conduct experiments, I had to get natural pigments and binders. At my disposal was clay, coal, chalk, onion peel, potassium permanganate, henna powder, PVA glue, honey and a chicken egg.

I did 6 experiments.

Experience 1.

1) Purify the coal from impurities.

Grind coal into powder.
Sift the powder.
Mix coal with water.

Experience 2.

1) Clean the clay from impurities.

2) Grind clay into powder.

3) Sift the powder.

4) Mix clay with glue.

Experience 3.

1) Clean the chalk from impurities.

2) Grind the chalk into powder.

3) Sift the powder.

4) Mix chalk with egg white.

Experience 4.

1) Make a thick decoction of onion peel.

2) Cool the broth.

3) Mix the decoction with honey.

Experience 5.

1) Rub large lumps of henna.

2) Sift the powder.

3) Mix henna with egg yolk.

Experience 6.

1) Grind potassium permanganate into a fine powder.

2) Sift the powder.

3) Mix potassium permanganate with water.

All experiments were successful, I received black, brown, white, beige, yellow paints.

Our paints turned out to be not solid, which are sold in stores. However, artists use semi-liquid watercolors in tubes of similar consistency.

After experimenting, I wanted to try other raw materials, as well as paint my drawing with new paints.

Experimental results

Now I know what watercolor paints are made of. You can prepare some paints at home. The resulting paints differ in consistency and quality from store-bought ones.

So, charcoal with water gave the paint a metallic hue, it was easily picked up on a brush and left a bright mark on the paper, quickly drying up.

Clay with glue gave a dirty brown paint, did not mix well with glue, left a greasy mark on paper and dried for a long time.

Chalk with egg white gave white paint, which was easily picked up on a brush, left a thick mark on paper, dried for a long time, but turned out to be the most durable.

A decoction of onion peel with honey gave a yellow paint, it was well drawn on a brush, left an intense mark on paper and dried quickly.

Henna with egg yolk gave a beige paint, which also picked up well on a brush, left an intense mark on paper, but dried more slowly.

Potassium permanganate with water formed a light brown paint, it was easily picked up on a brush and left a pale mark on paper, quickly drying.

III. Conclusion.

Watercolor is one of the most poetic typespainting . A lyrical, full of bright and clear images, a literary sketch or a short story is often called a watercolor. She is compared with musical composition, charming with gentle, transparent melodies. Watercolor can convey the serene blue of the sky, the lace of clouds, the veil of fog. It allows you to capture short-term natural phenomena. But she also has access to capital, graphic and pictorial, chamber and monumental works, landscapes and still lifes, portraits and complex compositions.

A sheet of white grainy paper, a box of paints, a soft, obedient brush, water in a small vessel - that's all the "household" of a watercolorist. Plus to this - a keen eye, a firm hand, knowledge of materials and possession of the technique of this type of painting.

Conclusions, which I made from work:

1. The history of colors began with the advent of man. They were known long before there were written reports about them.

The history of watercolors began in the 2nd century AD from China. Watercolor became fully established in European countries relatively recently - at the end of the 17th - beginning of the 18th centuries. Initially, this painting was mainly found in memory albums and souvenirs, then it entered the albums of artists and appeared in art galleries and art exhibitions.

The success of work with watercolor is very high and it is advantageous in many respects because of its properties. Watercolor is the only type of paint that is distinguished by its special transparency, purity and brightness of color.

3. Paints consist of a pigment and a binder.

Namely, watercolor paints - from dry dye and glue. They may also contain a certain amount of gum, sugar, and when used, they are rubbed with water on saucers, or directly (honey paints) are taken with a brush moistened with water from tiles or cups.

5. If watercolor has a future? We can confidently answer this question. Watercolor has a future! This answer can be explained by the fact that in the course of the work, its positive and problematic aspects were revealed about watercolor.

Russian painter S.V. Gerasimov said to novice watercolorists: "The life around us provides an infinite number of topics for the artist. Endless fields of golden wheat, green meadows, haymaking, children's travels around their native land - it's interesting to depict all this on paper! And what a wealth of colors in nature! No fantasy can come up with such unusual colors as you see, for example, at sunset".

Without watercolors, the world of artistic painting will be boring and monotonous!

IV. Literature.

Alekseev V.V. - What is art? – M.: Soviet artist, 2003.
Brodskaya N.V. - Impressionism. Opening of light and color.–M.: Aurora, 2009
Cyril and Methodius. Electronic encyclopedia. Article "Watercolor" from the "Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron" (1890-1907).
Kukushkin Yu.N. - Chemistry around us - Bustard, 2003
Petrov V. - World of Art. Art Association of the 20th century.-M.: Aurora, 2009
Olgin O. - Experiments without explosions. - Ed. second, revised. - M.: Chemistry, 1986. - 192 p.
Orlova N.G. - Iconography - M .: White City, 2004.
http://www.lformula.ru
http://www.peredvizhnik.ru

Watercolors are water colors. But watercolor is also called the technique of painting, and individual work done with watercolors. The main quality of watercolor is the transparency and softness of the paint layer.

The French artist E. Delacroix wrote: “What gives the subtlety and brilliance of painting on white paper, without a doubt, is the transparency that lies in the essence of white paper. The light penetrating the paint applied to the white surface - even in the thickest shadows - creates the brilliance and special luminosity of the watercolor. The beauty of this painting is also in the softness, naturalness of the transitions of one color to another, the limitless variety of the finest shades. However, the apparent simplicity and ease with which a professional artist creates paintings in this technique is deceptive. Watercolor painting requires skill with a brush, the ability to unmistakably apply paint to the surface - from a wide bold fill to a clear final stroke. In this case, it is necessary to know how the paints behave on various types paper, what effect they give when superimposed on each other, what colors can be written on raw paper using the Alla Prima technique so that they remain juicy and saturated. In the visual arts, watercolor occupies a special place because it can create both picturesque, and graphic, and decorative works - depending on the tasks that the artist sets for himself. For an artist engaged in watercolor painting, both the paints themselves and the convenience of using them play an important role. The possibilities of watercolor are wide: the colors are either juicy and ringing, or airy, barely perceptible, or dense and tense. The watercolorist must have a developed sense of color, know the possibilities of different types of paper and the features of watercolor paints.

Now, both in Russia and abroad, there are many companies that produce watercolor paints, but not all of them meet the high requirements that artists who work in the technique of watercolor painting place on them. It makes no sense to compare the advantages and disadvantages of professional and semi-professional paints, since their differences are obvious and it is difficult to confuse them. Our task is to test modern professional watercolor paints from various world manufacturers and see what capabilities they have and what technique they are suitable for.

For testing, we took several sets of watercolors.

It is almost impossible to determine at a glance which colors are in front of us: black, blue, dark red and brown looked the same - dark spots without any significant color differences, and only yellow, ocher, scarlet and light green had their own color. The rest of the colors had to be determined empirically, trying each color on the palette. And in the future, while working on a watercolor sheet, this significantly slowed down the creative process, although working with these paints leaves a pleasant feeling: they mix easily and give subtle color transitions. It is also convenient that the paints are easily picked up on a brush and gently lay down on paper. When working on wet paper using the Alla Prima technique, after drying, the colors lighten quite a lot, so you can achieve contrast painting only on dry paper, overlapping previously laid strokes with several layers. Then the paints lay down tightly, like gouache.

Venice (Maimery, Italy)

Soft watercolor in tubes. These paints are distinguished by their design, impressive 15 ml tubes for watercolors, the aesthetics of the supply of expensive art paints, when everything is thought out and works to ensure that they are chosen when buying. But now we are interested in the most important thing - how easy they are to work with and how pigments retain their properties and color characteristics when interacting with watercolor paper. Already the first strokes showed that the paints are worthy of the attention of artists, professionals involved in watercolor painting: a good color palette, juicy blues, reds, transparent yellows, ochers gently interact with each other, creating additional color nuances of watercolor technique. Unfortunately, brown and black pigments, even with repeated strokes, do not gain the desired tonal saturation. Black paint looks like sepia even with multi-layer prescription. There is a significant inconvenience in their work. Since the watercolor in tubes is soft and squeezed out onto the palette, with saturated painting, the pigment is not always evenly picked up on the brush and also falls unevenly on the surface of the paper. During glazing, when paints are repeatedly applied to previous dried out stains, these shortcomings are not very noticeable, but when working on a damp paper surface using the Alla Prima technique, this greatly interferes, since uneven clots of the paint layer are formed, which, when dried, destroys the integrity of the put stroke. Soft watercolor is more suitable for classical painting, although with some experience with these paints and in the technique in a raw way, the watercolor artist can create magnificent examples.

"Studio" (JSC "GAMMA", Moscow)

Twenty-four colors - the palette is not inferior to the best samples of foreign professional watercolors. Four types of blue - from classic ultramarine to turquoise, good selection, yellow, ocher, sienna, red, together with other colors create a rich color scheme. When working with glazes on a dry surface, the paints give a transparent layer, and with repeated prescriptions, they gain tone and color well, without clogging the structure of watercolor paper. The pigments mix well and apply evenly on the sheet. In the Alla Prima technique, paints give a uniform brushstroke, gently flowing into each other, creating many subtle watercolor nuances, complementing the already rich color palette. As an experienced watercolor artist, I was somewhat surprised not to find in this set the emerald green paint that is present in all professional sets of the world's watercolor paint manufacturers, and the green that, perhaps, was supposed to replace the emerald -green, “sounds” more dull. Well mixed paint gives an even covering layer, remaining matte after drying. So watercolor fits the bill professional artists. Otherwise, the paints are superior to many similar world samples.

"White Nights" (Factory of artistic paints, St. Petersburg)

In front of me is a box of White Nights watercolor art paints released in 2005. Kohler is easily typed into the bristle of the brush and just as easily falls on the sheet. The color is distributed over the surface evenly in both thick and transparent strokes, after drying it remains matte without losing its saturation. In the Alla Prima technique, on a wet sheet of paper, paints give a lot of the finest watercolor transitions, smoothly flowing into each other, but at the same time, thicker drawing strokes retain their shape and saturation. The colorful layer does not clog the structure of the paper, gives it the opportunity to glow from the inside, and even with repeated prescriptions, it retains its “watercolor”. Watercolor meets the requirements of professional artists. The next task is to find out the characteristic features of watercolors using common techniques. During painting, while the watercolor is not yet dry, it can be removed with a hard piece of cardboard, a metal blade or a brush handle, leaving thin light lines and small planes, and after drying, you can

Aquafine (Daler-Rowney, England)

After the Aquafine paints lay down in strokes on the watercolor sheet, we removed the layer of color from the surface of the paper with a metal blade. The result was light, almost white lines - in the raw form, the paints are easily manageable. When the watercolor layer was dry, we tried to wash it off with a sponge. It turned out that it was impossible to wash it white. The color has penetrated the glued surface of the sheet and has been absorbed into the fiber of the paper pulp. This means that such paints must be painted in one session for sure, without subsequent flush corrections.

Venice (Maimery, Italy)

The same test, carried out with Venezia paints, showed that soft paints are not completely removed when scratched with a blade, leaving jammed edges and color underpainting, and when the paint layer is completely dry using a sponge, the color is washed off selectively, depending on the density and thickness of the applied strokes. .
Watercolor paints from Russian manufacturers Studio GAMMA OJSC (Moscow) and White Nights paints produced by the art paint factory of St. Petersburg can be combined into one group, since there are no significant differences between them when using techniques in this text.

The semi-moist surface is almost completely removed with a blade, a piece of hard cardboard, a brush handle, from a thin line to a wider surface, and after drying, you can almost completely wash off the watercolor layer, which, of course, will not be completely white, but close to it. Carmine, kraplak and violet-pink are also not washed off white.

Another test that both professionals and beginners can conduct on their own belongs to the category of extreme .. Do color tests of paints on watercolor paper. Cut off half of each for paint and leave it in a folder in the workshop, place the other half for a rather long period (a month and a half) under the direct rays of the sun. Let them be exposed to temperature changes, fogs and rains. This test will show many qualities of paints, in particular, compliance with the marking for color fastness. Knowing the properties of watercolors, no one, of course, will exhibit his sketches without the protection of glass or plastic, much less place them in such ruthless conditions.

However, this test will allow you to visually, from your own experience, make sure that the watercolor is a thin, plastic, soft material that requires careful handling and appropriate storage rules. If they are observed, your works will indefinitely delight you and those around you with the freshness and “watercolor” inherent only in this material.

Paints for the tests were provided by the editors of the magazine "Artistic Council" (AKT SOUMS11). In preparation technical side- conducting tests, shooting illustrations was attended by a student of Moscow State Technical University. A.N. Kosygin Denis Denisov, was advised by the Honored Artist of Russia, a watercolorist with more than fifty years of experience in this material Vasily Filippovich Denisov.

Alexander Denisov, Associate Professor, Department of Drawing and Painting, Moscow State Technical University. A.N. Kosygin

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