What Makes Watercolor Different
Watercolors have a beauty that is different from oils, pastels or acrylics.
While all mediums can be used to “paint light,” watercolors can also capture light within the artwork itself. This difference transforms how the colors appear.
The reason is transparency. In more opaque mediums such as oil, pastel and acrylic, the light reflects off the surface of the paint. In watercolor, the light penetrates the color layers – reflecting off the white paper, back through the layers – resulting in colors that are literally backlit. This produces a glow, radiance and jewel-like clarity that no other medium can duplicate.
Radiant, jewel-like colors of a watercolor
The paints used in watercolor also behave differently than in oil, pastel or acrylic – they move. The pigments spread rapidly in water and separate in unpredictable ways. As the colors settle into the texture of the paper, they granulate, creating a look similar to the small spots of colors seen in Impressionist paintings – except in watercolor the effect is achieved, not with hundreds of brushstrokes, but with a single, broad wash of paint. The results are colors with a sense of vitality that delight the eye.
(LEFT) COLOR EFFECTS IN OIL / “Cathedrale de Rouen, Effets de Soleil Fin de Journee” / Claude Monet, 1892 / Musee Marmottan Monet
(RIGHT) COLOR EFFECTS IN WATERCOLOR / “Arch Sketch” / Richard E. Scott, 2019 / private collection
Another unique quality of watercolor is how the medium can produce a variety of edges of shapes – from razor sharp to blurred – by applying fresh paint to dry or damp paper. In the finished painting the sharpest edges lead the viewer’s eye to the focal point of an artwork, while the blurred edges add a sense of intrigue.
The boundaries between shapes can range from blurred … to razor sharp
The ways in which the medium can achieve all of these effects with minimal brushwork give it a poetic simplicity and power.