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8 O N E WATERCOLOR A DAY
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THIS IS A WATERCOLOR book that will not teach
you how to paint with watercolor.
Wait! Before you put the book down, let me finish. What I
mean to say is, this book will not give you step-by-step
lessons about how to paint a specific picture with watercolor
paints in a specific way. What it will do is offer exercises,
tips, and suggestions for playing with watercolor paint and
finding your own way to work with it through your own
hands-on experiences. After all, the beauty of watercolor
paint is that it’s based in water, isn’t it? That flowing,
mercurial substance that has fascinated artists forever:
Leonardo DaVinci filled sketchbook pages with drawings of
it. If “the medium is the message,” as Marshall McLuhan so
famously suggested, perhaps the message of watercolor is
simply let it flow. Be open to it; experiment with it; allow it to
lead you through many, many pictures. That kind of
experimental approach to art is the kind of approach favored
by myself and the other artists of Studio 1482, an illustration
and design collective in New York City. We believe in art as
an exploration of what you haven’t yet done or tried—art as
study; that’s what keeps it moving forward. With that in
mind, we like to study our work as much as possible, and a
INTRODUCTION
Botanical Gardens, by Michele
Bedigian, watercolor, digital
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few years ago, we created the blog, One Drawing a Day, so
we could post our studies and experiments to share with each
other and the world. The blog became a book by the same
name; now we are focusing our efforts on one artistic
medium with many creative facets: watercolor.
And that’s where this book begins. Based on the
experiential philosophy of our book One Drawing a Day, and
using our own work as a point of departure, this book will
lead you through forty-two exercises to guide you through
working with watercolor. In the process, we’ll talk about
paper, brushes, and various techniques and approaches that
you can try, with the final aim of creating a comfort level
with the medium that will allow you to continue using it to
express yourself in a very personal way. We’ll talk about
using watercolor directly, in combination with other
materials, and as a preparation tool of study for other projects
such as ceramics and textile. But mostly, we’ll ask you to use
watercolor. The best way to learn something is to do
something—if you want to learn to swim, you’ve got to jump
into the pool; if you want to play the piano, you’ve got to
touch the keys; and if you want to learn to paint with
watercolor, you’ve got to dip your brush in the paint and get
started. Be open to mistakes and, most important, leave any
critical self-judging at the door.
Why is it that people who decide to pursue art, whether as a
hobby or profession, place such high expectations upon their
early efforts? I have heard so many people say to me, “I can’t
even draw a straight line,” which makes me ask, “Do your
really need to? We have rulers to help you with that!” Your
first painting is just that—your first painting. You don’t know
yet how good you could be. Art is a process, like any other.
No one expects to hop on a bicycle and just start riding as if
they’ve been doing it all their life, yet we somehow feel that
if our first painting isn’t up to our own high expectations, we
should stop, we are not an artist, and we should leave
painting to the gods of art who reside in museums around the
world. Well, guess what, they were human too. So let’s allow
for our own humanity and not expect genius paintings the
first time we pick up the watercolor brush. Instead, I’d rather
we allow ourselves to enjoy the painting process. If some of
the exercises in this book seem difficult, I encourage you to
give them your best shot and see what can happen. The best
part of art is not knowing where it’s going, but having fun
getting there. And for those of you readers who are
experienced or professional artists, I hope this book can give
you a little jolt into some new ways of thinking and playing
with the watercolor medium. It’s always nice to have an
outside voice making suggestions toward our art—we need
that input to keep ourselves fresh. That’s one of the reasons
that the Studio 1482 members came together and created our
One Drawing a Day blog—so we can see what the other is
doing in their art, bounce ideas off each other, and support
each other with suggestions. It’s been a great ride!
In our book One Drawing a Day, the artists of Studio 1482
encouraged you to play with drawing, to live with it, make
mistakes, and see what would come out of it. We now
encourage you to do the same with the watercolor medium.
And what we hope comes out the other side of your
experience with this book is satisfaction and joy. Isn’t that
why we make art, really, for the sheer joy of it?
So let’s get this thing going . . . .
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