Watercolor and the Reasons it Should Be Your Next Creative Adventure
I love watercolor. It is the best and I want to give you all my reasons why.
It's Speedy: I am not the most patient human being. Actually, I'm quite possibly the least patient person I can think of. You know the studies they did with the kids and the marshmallows? I would be the one poppin' that marshmallow in my mouth the moment the scientist walked out of the room. This is the first reason why watercolor and I jive so nicely. I can take the paints out, activate them, get to painting, and have it dry lickety split.
It's reasonably priced: I'm going to "paint" (haha) myself here in a not so pretty light but another reality about me is that I am cheap. I adore a bargain and watercolor fits the bill. There is a wide variety of watercolor quality and yes, typically the more you pay the better your supplies but, I have created some extremely beautiful pieces of art with an off- brand set of colors. If you are just starting out it is SO much easier to slosh around paint that you didn't spend a fortune on. It takes the preciousness out of the equation. That way you can get to work practicing and playing without feeling guilty that you are "wasting" paint.
Storage and clean up are easy: I have a little shelf in my kitchen where I keep my watercolor supplies: Paper, a tin of colors, and brushes. Having these so readily available makes it easy for me paint at a moment's notice. If a jolt of creativity strikes, I don't have to let it pass me by because I'm deterred by the thought of lugging out a bunch of shit. Clean-up is also a breeze. Water is all you need.
There is variety in how you use it: Depending on how much water you add to the colors you can have a lot of control or be a little wild with it. I personally love the random creations that happen when I'm just throwing water and color on a page. The versatility to this medium really lends itself to stretch my curious little brain. It is extremely fun to putz around with what it is capable of. What if I put salt on this puddle of color? What if I let this color run into this other color? What would happen if I blot this area with tissue or blow through a straw and splatter it? Yup. extreme fun!
If I make something I'm proud of with watercolor I can easily share it: Watercolor is typically done on paper. This simple fact makes sending your watercolor painting-turned greeting card, to a loved one, very possible. Want to frame it? You can just pop it into a frame without having a professional do it for you. But Jess, what if I hate what I made? Oh, in that case, watercolor paper is small and you can hide it away shamefully without much effort. . . I'm absolutely kidding don't do that! Seriously, I have made many watercolor creations that just didn't hit the mark. BUT most of these duds had areas on them that I thought were nice. Like, an area of color or texture that brought me joy. I usually will take some scissors to those bad boys and cut out those areas of joy to repurpose them. Gift tags and bookmarks are always a fantastic use for the "ugly" watercolors.
There you have it! My top 5 reasons for why watercolor is the best. I hope this inspires you a bit to try this paint out and bravely discover a love for creativity.
