![]() ![]() ![]() Handles for such “sable” watercolor brushes were first made from quills, and later, metal-ferruled wooden shafts. The fine hair of the Asiatic marten (or Russian sable)-which comes readily to a point in the mouth, holds a large amount of color, and flexes against the surface of the paper-provided watercolor painters with a pliant, firm, and durable material for applying color. Commercially available from the 1830s, it became a Victorian bestseller (more than 11 million units sold from 1853 to 1870). The pocket-sized “Shilling color box” in japanned tin offered pan colors and compartments for mixing, along with separate tin water vessels that clipped to the edge. Less expensive alternatives met the demands of increasing numbers of amateur artists. ![]() The most luxurious-constructed of mahogany, and fitted with brass hardware and embossed-leather linings-provided porcelain mixing pans, wash bowls, storage tins for chalks or charcoal, trays for brushes and porte-crayons, and scrapers, blocks of ink, and colors. Later, artists’ colormen sold ready-made boxes. Turner made something equally effective by sticking cakes of watercolor into a leather carrying case (modified from its original use as an almanac cover). At first, artists made their own carrying cases: one treatise on watercolor painting published in 1731 provides instructions for making a pocket-sized ivory case with compartments for thirty-two colors, brushes, a porte-crayon (a drawing instrument that holds pieces of chalk), and compasses. In watercolor, they found a medium well-suited to their needs, capable of capturing fleeting effects of light and weather, and requiring readily portable materials. In the second half of the nineteenth century, Pre-Raphaelite painters used white gouache as a ground upon which to paint in a precise, miniature-like style.īy the middle of the eighteenth century, British artists regularly sketched outdoors. Turner instituted the practice of applying diluted white gouache as a wash. In the first half of the nineteenth century, J. In 1834, Winsor & Newton introduced their patented zinc oxide pigment “Chinese White” this superfine-and therefore smoothly applied-permanent color greatly improved the qualities of gouache. The machine-ground pigments pioneered by British manufacturers produced fine, homogeneous watercolors that set the international standard. An even greater advance arrived in 1846, when Winsor & Newton introduced moist watercolors in metal tubes (following the example of tubed oil paint, first sold in 1841). Beginning in the 1830s, artists could buy moist watercolors in porcelain pans. To produce the paint, an artist dipped a cake in water and rubbed it onto a suitable receptacle, such as an oyster shell or porcelain saucer. In the last two decades of the eighteenth century, however, artists could purchase small, hard cakes of soluble watercolor (invented by William Reeves in 1780). Initially, artists ground their own colors from natural pigments, or else bought paint in liquid form. The rise of watercolor painting as a serious artistic endeavor progressed hand-in-hand with the improvement and commercial development of its materials. Watercolor is often combined with gouache (or “bodycolor”), an opaque water-based paint containing a white element derived from chalk, lead, or zinc oxide. The resulting mark (after the water has evaporated) is transparent, allowing light to reflect from the supporting surface, to luminous effect. ![]() It consists of a pigment dissolved in water and bound by a colloid agent (usually a gum, such as gum arabic) it is applied with a brush onto a supporting surface such as vellum, fabric, or-more typically-dampened paper. Watercolor is named for its primary component. Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part I (1596), act 5, scene 1, line 80 And never yet did Insurrection want Such water-colours, to impaint his cause. ![]()
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