What is Watercolor?

What is Watercolor?

Article by Vladimir London, Watercolor Academy tutor

The word watercolor has several meanings. In this article, you will discover what IS and what is NOT watercolor

The term "watercolor" was first used by the Italian painter Cennino Cennini in his book "Il Libro dell'Arte" (The Craftsman's Handbook).

This doesn't mean, however, that the watercolor technique originates in late 1400s - first half of the 16th century. Watercolor as a medium was used many centuries before the early Renaissance period.

I will a briefly outline its place in the history of arts in the next article.

So, what IS and what is NOT "watercolor"?

The word watercolor has several meanings: it is a painting medium, a picture painted in that medium, and the art of painting such pictures.

Watercolor as paint is made of a pigment or dye mixed with a water-soluble binder (most often gum arabic) with addition of some other ingredients (like glycerin, etc.) that make this paint semi-soft, elastic, and mold-resistant. It is thinned with water to achieve a transparent color that is applied on a support.

Painting by Vladimir London, Watercolor Academy tutor

This medium has one very distinct characteristic – paler colors are produced by diluting the paints rather than by adding white pigments. This what makes water-color "watercolor".

By this definition, other water-thinned mediums like gouache or tempera, for example, are not watercolors because lighter tints are made by adding white.

White color in watercolor artworks is attained by leaving the support unpainted, and light areas are created by using the natural transparency of the paints.

The most common support for watercolor artworks these days is white paper so no color-tint can be made lighter than white paper it is painted on.

To summarize, the name "watercolor" is self-descriptive: it is the medium of color-tints diluted with water.

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