Opaque or Transparent

While contemplating where to begin with learning how to “blend” watercolors, I read a few posts by Brenda Swenson about watercolor paint types. The idea is, before you can blend or layer colors, the artist needs to understand how the colors will work or not work with one another. Her post, “Watercolor: Understanding Opaque and Transparent Paints” explained the importance of understanding how your colors will appear with multiple glazes.

My work station

I decided to complete my own reference to show which of my palette colors are opaque or transparent, as she recommends. Brendon notes that she still references her test swatches. She instructs swatches be made to understand your paints before beginning. Opaque colors, when layered, can appear muddy and may result in a look that was not intended.

My swatch: showing my opaque and transparent colors.

While creating my own swatches, I learned a few other significant factors to my paints. 1) I was surprised at the result of the colors, even using the same amount of paint. I gathered the same amount of water to paint ratio and pressed it to the paper. Some paints (Permanent Rose) were extremely vibrant, while others (Leaf Green) looked softer. 2) While creating these swatches, I used a professional grade brush, which holds the color better. I’m thinking the reason I dislike some of my previous projects is because I’m mainly using watercolors with a transparent nature; meaning more of the white surface will penetrate through. My preference, as I previouslyposted, is a result of more vivid, stark, and bright colors. This was a huge help with truly understanding the tools I’m using.

Looking forward, I would like to use more opaque colors. I believe the next step is to learn and understand how to properly blend opaque colors without them looking muddy.