The Art of Watercolor Lettering: A Beginner's Step-by-Step Guide to Painting Modern Calligraphy and Lettered Art
144
The Art of Watercolor Lettering: A Beginner's Step-by-Step Guide to Painting Modern Calligraphy and Lettered Art
144eBook
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Overview
In this stunning follow-up to her highly praised and influential first book, The Art of Brush Lettering, lettering expert and workshop instructor Kelly Klapstein (popular on Instagram as @kellycreates) shares her secrets for mastering the essential techniques for creating lovely modern lettering and calligraphy with watercolor.
- Start with the basics, from choosing paints, brushes, and other supplies to preparing your paper for painting.
- Learn to handle watercolor paints with essential strokes and warm-ups.
- Explore painting letterforms in a variety of styles, from traditional to modern.
- Try a range of creative techniques, including blending ombrés and rainbows, creating pictorial letterforms, and combining watercolor with other mediums.
- Enhance your lettering with special touches by complementing it with handpainted backgrounds and simple illustrations.
“Plenty of beautiful examples are included and they are really easy to re-create just by following the instructions which are always clear and concise. The letters with the beautiful colour transitions look so good. This is a very hands-on and practical book that I can easily recommend to beginners.” —Parka Blogs
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781631597817 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Quarto Publishing Group USA |
| Publication date: | 07/27/2022 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 144 |
| File size: | 19 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
What You'll Need
As with any artistic venture, having the right tools can make all the difference. When it comes to learning and practicing lettering with watercolor, there are a few important considerations, which you'll read about in this chapter. Through trial and error, I discovered which products work best for watercolor lettering and which ones didn't. There's a range of supplies to purchase for every budget, so that anyone can afford to learn watercolor lettering. Choosing the right brushes, paints, and paper will help make your learning experience easier and stress-free.
WHAT IS WATERCOLOR PAINT?
Watercolor is a paint that consists of a binder (gum arabic) mixed with pigment. The pigments can be either natural or synthetic. The first watercolor paints were derived from organic sources such as plants and minerals, some of which are still used today.
What Kind of Watercolor Paint Should I Use?
Watercolor paints are available in a range of quality levels, and I've taught with all of them. Let's be real: Can you practice with cheap children's pan paints? I say, "Yes, you can." Even I used these pans in an hour-long introductory class to watercolor lettering, but the appearance of the dried paint on the paper will be chalkier and more opaque, as compared to the lovely translucent colors we admire. However, if you're working on artistic effects, like blending colors, then I highly recommend using the artist-grade paints that are best for these techniques.
Let's take a look at the three most common options of watercolor paint used for lettering.
Pans or Cakes
Pan watercolors are made into dry, solid little cakes by compressing dried paints into individual containers. You activate the watercolor by touching the dry cake with a wet brush.
These pans seem very popular with beginner painters, especially children; however, they're the least suitable for watercolor lettering. Why? Because you need to build up a puddle of watercolor on your palette to easily paint letters. If you're painting a long quote with a solid color, you'll be exerting significant effort going back and forth from pan to palette to water cup repeatedly. Some people avoid this tiresome process by spraying, misting, or adding lots of water to cakes, resulting in tiny pools of watercolor right inside the pans. This isn't the best practice because water sitting in pans for long periods can cause the binder and pigment to separate more quickly over time.
HANDLING PAINTS SAFELY
Some watercolor paints contain toxic substances like cadmium and cobalt, so take care when handling the paints and cleaning your brushes.
• Avoid using kitchen utensils, cups, and bowls as part of your watercolor tool kit unless you've designated them to use solely for painting.
• Wash any tools you use with watercolors in a bathroom, laundry room, or studio sink rather than in your kitchen sink.
Storing Your Paints
• Watercolor paints should be stored in a cool dry place, out of direct sunlight.
• Make sure to screw the caps tightly onto the tubes of paint to prevent them from drying up.
Tubes
Tube watercolors, which have a toothpaste-like consistency, are a concentrated form of paint. Lots of artists build up their own pans of paint with tubes and palettes, but for lettering, we'll use the tubes a little differently: Squeeze a tiny bit of paint from the tube into a palette well, add a little water, and then mix together. A pipette is handy for adding small amounts of water to the palette wells. A toothpick or similar item can be used for mixing the paint with water instead of a brush (to avoid wasting paint) to attain the right liquid consistency and color for painting. The more water you add, the lighter the value of the color.
Since tube watercolors can be quite expensive, many artists have a number of palettes that they let dry when they're finished working. Instead of cleaning the palette, set it aside and allow the water to evaporate, leaving behind the hard, dry remnants of the paint in the bottom of the well. To use the paint again, add water to the well to rehydrate the watercolor.
This can be done multiple times until all the watercolor in the well has been used.
Liquids
Liquid watercolor is the ideal type for lettering. Liquid inks and other similar mediums comparable to watercolor can be found in art supply and craft stores.
Two popular liquid watercolors are Dr. Ph. Martin's and Talens Ecoline.
These are both sold in glass containers. The Dr. Ph. Martin's bottles have eye droppers, which are very handy for adding watercolor to a palette.
There are several types of liquid dyes, inks, and watercolors in the Dr.
Ph. Martin's line. Their Hydrus Fine Art Watercolors contain lightfast pigments, an important consideration for the longevity of your lettering projects (see "Archival Properties," below). Their Radiant Concentrated line of watercolors are dye-based and need to be shaken and diluted with water before use.
If you're unfamiliar with a brand, it's a good idea to read the manufacturers' descriptions of their liquid watercolor before using it.
Liquid watercolors can be used at full strength for vibrant, intense pigment, but most people dilute them by adding water. Using a pipette or an eye dropper, add the liquid watercolor to your palette well. Then, with a clean pipette, add water. You can be fairly "scientific" about the addition of water with a pipette and record the number of drops you add by creating a swatch to document the values produced by each dilution amount. I just estimate, do swatches, and remember the approximate ratio of liquid paint to water.
Archival Properties
After spending hours on a watercolor project, you want to ensure that your artful lettering will be framed and preserved without fading or deteriorating.
If you have this expectation, then do your research and use watercolors that will stand the test of time and are lightfast fine art pigments. For example, Dr. Ph. Martin's has two different ranges of liquid watercolor paint: Hydrus Fine Art watercolors are lightfast and permanent; however, the Radiant line is a dye ink that isn't lightfast. Dye-based watercolors will fade in UV light.
WHAT IS INK?
Fine art pigment ink is often used in place of liquid watercolor for lettering. It's a popular option because of its lightfastness.
BRUSHES
The best type of brushes I use for watercolor lettering have two important qualities: flexibility and shape.
Shape
Watercolor brushes come in different shapes and sizes, and the round brushes range from size 000 to 24. The simple rule is the larger the brush, the larger the letter forms. When we are painting larger letters with a larger brush, we need more skill and control; thus, I recommend beginners start with a smaller round brush. Most often, I use round watercolor brushes, usually size 1 or 2.
Flex
Flexibility or springiness is critical for lettering with watercolors because you always want to be working with a brush that has a fine point and will retain its shape when wet. A cheap plastic children's paint set brush isn't going to be used for watercolor lettering because when wet, the bristles just flop over. We want a pointed tip, not a floppy mop.
ROUND BRUSH STYLES ONLY
Italic, Gothic (blackletter) calligraphy, and Roman capital styles of lettering can be accomplished with a flat brush, but not a round brush. These styles are not covered in this book.
Synthetic vs. Animal
Without getting into a political debate about the ethics of using brushes with animal hair/fur, the simple fact is there are lots of excellent synthetic brushes that mimic animal hair. They might not hold as much watercolor paint as a sable brush would. This means you'll be dipping into water and paint more often, which can be annoying when lettering midstroke, but honestly, I find working with synthetic brushes is just fine. Sometimes, the nylon bristles are preferable because of their springy flex and many people enjoy them for this quality. Not all synthetic brushes are created equal, so finding one that you like most might be trial and error.
Water Brushes
The water brush is a modern tool some artists use for painting and lettering. It's become popular with hand lettering artists because of the nylon bristle tip rather than the water chamber. The water brush has a built-in water chamber for convenience, so the idea is to just squeeze it and continue painting or lettering with the water source coming through the bristles instead of stopping and dipping. However, I find that I like to control the water volume myself with a regular brush because the flow from the water brush isn't easy to regulate. I've used empty water brushes similar to the way I would use a regular brush. I do like my brush to have a very fine tip, and sometimes the tip of a water brush isn't fine enough for me. I recommend trying a water brush and deciding for yourself.
TIP: If you can lay a brush's wet bristles down flat and they return to a point when they're lifted up from the paper, this indicates that it's a good brush for lettering.
Storage & Cleaning
The number one rule for brush maintenance is not to leave them soaking in water. Rinse your brush well in clean water when finished and then gently squeeze bristles with cloth or papertowels and lay flat to dry. If you dry them standing up vertically in a cup, there's a danger of the water moving downward into the ferrule (the part that holds the bristles to the handle), which will then rust or loosen around the bristles.
Of course, we don't store brush tips down because that will bend and damage the bristles. After my wet brushes are cleaned and dry, I put them in a cup. A canvas brush roll is another nice choice for storage. Any type of storage that is protective of the bristle tips is suitable.
WATERCOLOR PAPER
You can find watercolor paper in every art supply store and also in craft stores. Watercolor is a medium that's now found in the world of crafting, not only fine art, so the paper is very accessible.
The ideal choice of substrate (painting surface) for watercolor lettering is watercolor paper. There are so many brands that are suitable, but overall, smooth paper is better than rough. Smooth paper allows for finer manipulations of letterforms. A rough paper with more texture, or tooth, can affect the movement of your brush on the surface so your lines aren't as clean; however, painting on rough paper might work for some lettering styles where the texture can add interest to the finished project. (For more options, see Other Substrates, page 22.)
What Is Watercolor Paper?
Most watercolor paper is made of wood pulp and cotton. Some expensive papers are 100% cotton, and there are artists who use this exclusively. Having more cotton content means the paper will be more absorbent without buckling or warping.
TIP: Smooth watercolor paper is better than rough.
Sheets, Blocks & Pads
Watercolor sheets can be purchased individually, but these are usually the more expensive cotton papers. I usually work with blocks or pads. There are also rolls of paper, which I don't use. Lots of watercolor paper pads come in a book with a coil, which I also don't like to use because it's more difficult to remove a single sheet, and my preferred method is lettering on a single sheet on the table.
A watercolor block is a glued stack of paper that is adhered together along all sides, which makes it unnecessary to stretch your paper before using it. (Stretching means to soak a sheet of paper in water for 5 to 10 minutes, then mount it to a board to dry with tape or staples.) The block helps prevent warping when a lot of water is used. The downside of a block is that if your hand rests on the paper you'll encounter the edge of the block while writing and lose stability. If you use a block, then you'll letter on the top sheet of the block and remove the single sheet from the block with a craft knife or a similar tool after the lettering is dry. I've also removed a single sheet of paper from a block and used that single sheet for my lettering. When removing paper from a block, be careful not to tear it.
My preference is a good-quality pad of watercolor paper that's gummed along one edge only and allows for easy removal of a single sheet. If the paper doesn't warp too much or I'm not using a lot of paint and water, then I won't tape down my paper to the table or stretch it. If my lettering involves a lot of blending colors and wet-on-wet technique, then taping the paper or using a block is helpful to prevent warping. I never make an effort to stretch the paper, but you can certainly do so.
Weight
The weight or thickness of watercolor paper is numbered in lb (pounds per ream) or gsm (grams per square meter, or g/m2). The three most common weights are 90 lb (190 gsm), 140 lb (300 gsm), and 300 lb (638 gsm). Since there are variations of thicknesses in the pound measurement, check the gsm when choosing the paper. Also, thicker paper isn't necessarily better for lettering because some thick papers are too absorbent. For watercolor lettering, we like the paint to sit on the surface longer and not be absorbed quickly. Watercolor paper has external and internal sizing, which allows paint to be absorbed but not spread uncontrollably.
In general, I usually use 140 lb paper, and I don't stretch it because I'm not using heavy washes. Also, using a gummed pad or block lets you avoid having to stretch it. Since we're addressing watercolor lettering as opposed to painting, we won't discuss the stretching paper technique. You can use lighter weights, such as 90 lb, but then you risk the paper warping.
Climate
Humidity is a factor to consider when using watercolor. If you're in a dry climate, the paint obviously will dry quickly and fixing mistakes or creating a certain effect by lifting (gently removing) or manipulating paint will be more difficult. On the contrary, painting in a moist, humid climate means the drying time is slower, so manipulating the paint and lifting is easier. The sizing of the paper affects absorbency rates too. External sizing is an outside coating of gelatin or starch on the paper, which means the water will sit on the surface of the paper longer and the paper will be less absorbent. This is an important consideration with watercolor lettering because absorbent paper won't allow us to achieve certain effects, such as blending colors in the wet-on-wet technique (see page 58).
Textures
There are three main textures of watercolor paper: hot pressed, cold pressed, and rough. Cold pressed is usually more reasonably priced and popular among artists; however, I prefer hot pressed paper because it's smoother. When you're painting letters, especially in a brush script style, it's important that the bristles glide along the smooth paper and not catch on the uneven texture or be slowed by the friction of rough paper. I've also used cold pressed paper with good results. There are so many brands of paper and each one is slightly different, so it's a good idea to try quite a few and discover which paper you prefer. You can use either side of a piece of watercolor paper, and there might be a slight or significant difference between the two sides. Often, I'll use the smoother side of a cheaper cold pressed paper.
OTHER SUBSTRATES
A substrate is a surface to which paint is applied. There are a number of options to use for watercolor lettering aside from watercolor paper. Let's look at some of them.
YUPO
YUPO is a waterproof synthetic paper that is becoming more popular among watercolorists because the effects of the paint drying or evaporating makes for some unusual results. One perk about using YUPO is that you can easily fix your mistakes by wiping o&8364; the watercolor since the paint sits on the surface for a longer period, but the challenge is not to smudge or smear the wet colors as you're lettering. Also, YUPO has to be handled carefully because the oil on your hands will create a resist on the paper and your paint won't adhere to those areas.
Canvas
If canvas is going to be used for watercolor lettering, then it has to be prepped with watercolor ground, a primer that forms a paper-like background on the surface of the canvas after it dries. In fact, watercolor ground will allow you to paint with watercolor on a multitude of surfaces, such as fabric, glass, metal, wood, and more.
Watercolor Art Board
If you're looking for a unique surface for your final projects, watercolor art board is an interesting alternative. It's a clay surface that is archival and acid-free and absorbs watercolor paint like paper, but the pigment remains quite vibrant. This is an expensive option when compared to watercolor paper, but it doesn't need stretching and won't warp, tear, or shrink.
Illustration Board
Illustration board is really thick, like a heavyweight cardboard, which comes hot pressed and cold pressed, with little texture. Its smoother surface is nice for watercolor lettering. Since it's an expensive option, it should be used for final projects.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "The Art of Watercolor Lettering"
by .
Copyright © 2020 Kelly Klapstein.
Excerpted by permission of The Quarto Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION My watercolor journey &the beauty of watercolor lettering, 8,
1 WHAT YOU'LL NEED Essential supplies: paints, brushes, paper &more, 11,
2 GETTING STARTED Working with color, how to hold a brush, making swatches &warm-up exercises, 27,
3 INLOVE WITH LETTERS Typography &lettering styles, 41,
4 COLOR PLAY Techniques &projects for creating with color, 55,
5 CREATIVE TECHNIQUES Creating &enhancing lettering with watercolor pencils, brush pens &other tools, 77,
6 DREAMY DESIGNS Painting quotes, adding designs &other special touches, 89,
7 TRACE & LEARN Alphabet exemplars, words "es for lettering projects, 103,
Acknowledgments, 143,
About the Author, 143,
Index, 144,