Set II Beginners Lesson 5: Lid Lesson
Supplies:Watercolor paint box, watercolor brushes, 2 water containers – CLEAR & RINSE water, watercolor paper, paper towel, medicine dropper
Most watercolor sets have a lid that can be used as a palette. The palette is used for mixing colors. Set up your supplies. Be sure to have 2 water containers, one to RINSE your brush out and the CLEAN, CLEAR one to use for wetting your brush.
Dip your watercolor brush into the CLEAR water. Squeeze a several drops of water from your brush onto the lid of your paint box (the palette) to make small “puddles”. Dip your brush into the red paint and paint a red shape on the watercolor paper. Let it dry a bit.
Your brush still has red paint in it. Take that “loaded” brush to the small puddle of water you have on your palette. Stir your brush in it and then go immediately back to your paper and paint another shape next to the first red shape. The second shape may be lighter than the first shape. You can lighten colors by adding water.
Thoroughly rinse and swirl your brush in the RINSE container, wipe your brush thoroughly. Rinse and swirl again in the second cup of CLEAR, CLEAN water. Repeat the above exercise using the color blue and then make a lighter shape by adding water.
You can continue repeating this lesson with each color to see how you can lighten your colors just by adding water.
Get another piece of watercolor paper to try some color mixing on your watercolor lid (palette).
Dip your brush into CLEAN, CLEAR water. Make a small puddle of water on the palette by dropping clean water onto the palette. You may also use a medicine dropper to squeeze clear water onto the palette.Load your brush with some yellow paint from your paint box. Put some of the yellow paint onto your palette and pull some of the clear water from the puddle into it. You may need to squeeze your brush to make sure there is enough paint on the palette. Rinse and thoroughly wipe your brush, then dip it into the second container of clean, clear water. Be sure there is no residue of paint in the brush!
Load your brush with a “smidgen” of blue paint. Put the blue paint into the yellow paint on the palette. Mix them together with the brush tip. What color do you have? Green? It will be a variation of green depending the amount of paint you mixed together. Put this new color that you mixed together on your dry watercolor paper.
Combine yellow with a “smidgen” of red to make another color mixture. It may be red-orange or orange-red or even something you don’t recognize!
Now mix blue and red by using the same procedue. Be careful to only use a small amount of paint for the mixture. The primary colors of red and blue are very intense! Put this new color onto your paper. Is your new color predominately red or predominately blue? Put this new color on your paper.
Continue mixing colors together until you”fill up” your paper with your color-mixing discoveries.
Sign and date your work.
Onward!