Painting with Cheap Watercolor

Painting with Cheap Watercolor

By Vladimir London, Watercolor Academy tutor

In this video, I will test very cheap watercolor paints by making this portrait

As a Watercolor Academy tutor, I often get such questions as "What watercolor paints to buy?" or "What are the best paints?", or "Do I really need so expensive watercolors?"

I want to illustrate that to make a good watercolor artwork, the most important thing you must have is not some expensive art material, but skills.

Good painting is well-drawn. That is why to paint good portraits in watercolor, you need to have good drawing skills. To learn good drawing skills, you can take the Life Drawing Academy course.

I usually use Winsor & Newton watercolor paints. The range of Winsor & Newton professional artist-grade watercolor paints has beautiful, strong and vibrant colors. This Professional Watercolour Travel set has 24 Half Pans and its suggested retail price is £157.95 (about $190 USD). Here's another set of professional watercolor paints produced by the manufacturer in St. Petersburgh, Russia. I love these professional extra fine artists' watercolors because of pure, saturated colors, richness of tones and magnificent properties. This set costs about $50 USD although its quality is amazing.

I will be using natural hair Escoda.com watercolor brushes. Here's a porcelain stoneware, which I will be using as a palette. I love porcelain because it is very white and easy to clean.

And finally, here's the cheap set of children watercolor paints. It costs about $2.00, which is the cheapest I could find. This set of 12 paints costs much less than any single tube of professional watercolor paints. I did not use such low-quality paints since the age of 5! I wonder how it would feel painting with cheap watercolor.

First, let's see how these colors look on paper. I can immediately tell that the quality is very low. The paint is chalky, full of cheap extender and brightener. There is so much chalk here that it feels more like gouache paint, not watercolor. A good quality watercolor paint has not much pigment comparing to the vehicle, but in this paint, this balance is totally off. Even in thick layer, this color doesn't become much darker. I doubt this paint has any gum arabic at all. The binder feels gooey; it might be some cheap starch or chemical alternative. Although the paint layer is quite thick, the color is light due to lack of pigment. When more paint is added on top, the wet under-layer is brushed off. This will be the main challenge of painting with cheap watercolor. It is very difficult to apply an even coat of paint without visible brushstrokes. Adding more paint wet-into-wet doesn't help. The paint is wiped off with the brush. The yellow color is rather dull and it is impossible to make an even coat in one go. The ochre paint is a bit better. It might have an authentic earth pigment because it is very cheap anyway. The warm range of colors in this set is acceptable, although the saturation is not high enough. The green color is very pale. Adding more paint wet-into-wet doesn't help. All green and blue paints are chalky, transparent and dull, which will make painting even more challenging.

I will now demonstrate how I painted this portrait with cheap watercolor. To begin with, I will apply IMPRIMATURA – a very transparent layer that will be the lightest tone of this artwork. For this purpose, I will use the yellow paint. To dilute paints, I will be using cheap synthetic brushes, not to damage more expensive natural hair ones. A bit of orange is added as well to make the yellow color warmer.

Premium quality Escoda.com squirrel mop brush is an ideal tool for washes. This brush has a big belly and takes plenty of paint. The painting technique I'm using is called "Saw-wash". It is the great way of covering big areas with smooth plain or gradated layers of colors. I'll make the gradated wash from dark to light, although the difference between two tones will be very subtle. For every next stripe of paint, a bit more water will be added into the mix, making this wash lighter.

To learn professional watercolor painting methods, take the Watercolor Academy course.

You can see that at the bottom of the saucer, collects a lot of sediment. This is because this paint has more cheap filler than actual pigment. Nevertheless, the transparent layer is smooth and there are no visible brushstrokes. This is due to the technique rather than paint. With the right painting technique, it is possible to achieve good results no matter how cheap the paint is. This is because skills are more important than art materials. I would like to test how this cheap watercolor works for a variegated wash. For that wash, I will mix several colors. To apply the variegated wash, I will be using a bit smaller Escoda.com natural hair mop brush.

The pure colors are rather dull, but the proper painting technique makes transitions between colors very smooth. This confirms once again that artist's skills are more important than materials and even with the cheapest paints a professional artist will do a better job than an amateur. I will apply another variegated wash to increase tonal values and saturation of colors. This new layer is painted wet-on-dry because initial testing showed that this cheap watercolor doesn't work wet-into-wet.

I will now test how the washing out technique works with these paints. Clean water is applied on the dry surface. It takes more time to dilute the binder, which is not gum arabic. But at the end, the pigment is washed out. I will now test how this watercolor performs when painting in a limited palette of only three primary colors – blue, red and yellow. Painting alla prima, in one layer and one attempt, is challenging because this cheap watercolor is not suited for the wet-into-wet technique. It is also very difficult to achieve dark tones in one go without visible brushstrokes. Nevertheless, even with dull colors and gooey binder, a professional artist would be able to make some chiaroscuro. Although painting "wet-into-wet" with this cheap watercolor doesn't give good results, it is possible to paint "wet-on-wet". For this purpose, the paper is moistened with clean water first, and then paint is applied on the wet surface. The "wet-on-wet" method can use used for painting in multiple layers, but reduced vibrancy of these cheap paints prevents getting the most from the multi-layer technique.

There is one positive aspect of these cheap paints – the dried paint layer is rather tough and difficult to dilute. Therefore, the "wet-on-wet" method is quite easy to use. Also, wet paint doesn't lift the under-layer, which results in optical mixing rather than mechanical mixing of colors in different layers.

To increase the tonal value and yellow color saturation, I will add another layer using the "saw-wash" technique.

It's time to test if this cheap watercolor is suitable for portrait painting. This pink color has a lot of white pigment, which is not the best thing for watercolor. Nevertheless, I'm determined to complete the portrait using this set of paints for children. The paint is creamy and chalky; it feels more like gouache. I will be painting this portrait "wet-on-wet", layer on layer. The dry paper surface is moistened first with clean water. Then, the paint mix is applied "wet-on-wet". This results in very smooth transitions between colors and soft borders of layers. I have to say that the quality of this watercolor is exceptionally bad! I wonder if you could see how glutinous this paint is; it feels more like a porridge. I'm almost done with this artwork. It was challenging and interesting experience.

Would I recommend buying cheap watercolor paints? Definitely not!

Can I make a decent artwork with the cheapest watercolor? Most certainly yes!

It is not about art materials, but SKILLS. To get professional portrait painting skills, enroll in the Watercolor Academy.

To learn how to paint in watercolor, enroll now