Watercolor And More - Hydrus watercolor paintings

Painting with Dr. Ph. Martin's Hydrus Fine Art Watercolors

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These paintings were made using a set of Dr. Ph. Martin's Hydrus Fine Art Watercolors containing the following colors: Hansa Yellow Light, Gamboge, Brilliant Cad Red, Deep Red Rose, Quinacridone Magenta, Ultramarine, Phthalo Green, Venetian Brown, Titanium White, Phthalo Blue, Cobalt Violet and Carson Black.

Too Hot by Janice Tingum
5" x 7" SOLD

Painted on Fabriano Artistico Extra White 100% cotton Hot Pressed 140 lb. watercolor paper. This painting illustrates a combination of dry brush and wet-in-wet techniques. The white highlights on the peppers were made at the end by applying Titanium White directly on the red/orange paint.

Although I applied a variety of colors in this painting, I only used one or two drops of paint from each of the selected colors.

On Wings by Janice Tingum
SOLD

This little abstract was created with just a few drops of hydrus paints and collage materials. The dark outlines that look like black ink are actually a combination of Deep Red Rose and Phthalo Green paint. A diluted mix of acrylic matt medium was used to secure the collage items, which include torn pieces of decorative table napkins.

For more information about the collage elements of this painting, see below.

Stalagmites and Stalactites by Janice Tingum
10" x 13" NFS

This award-winning painting demonstrates the hydrus watercolors paints on YUPO synthetic paper. For more information about painting on YUPO paper, go to the YUPO paper page.

For a complete demonstration of this easy design, visit the Greeting Card demo.

Tips for Painting with Hydrus™ Watercolors

For these examples, I used Dr. Ph. Martin's Hydrus Fine Art Watercolors:
3H Brilliant Cad Red
1H Hansa Yellow Light

I placed a single drop of the red paint on my pallete. Using a slightly damp round brush, I picked up the paint - the brush fully absorbed the entire drop. I stroked the brush horizontally across the watercolor paper. This dry brush effect allows portions of the white paper to show through. The undiluted hydrus paint dries very fast. Later, I applied a vertical stroke of the yellow paint to test its glazing abilities.
I placed a single drop of red paint on the pallete and sprayed it with two squirts of water from a spray bottle. I dipped a wet brush into the diluted paint, fully loading the brush and then applied a watercolor wash brushstroke across the paper.
This time, I loaded a smaller amount of the diluted paint on my brush to achieve a lighter shade of color. White hydrus paint can be added to the colored paint to lighten it, as well.
An example of glazing a stroke of yellow hydrus paint across the light red stroke.
For this sample, I added a drop of the yellow paint to the diluted red paint on my pallete and then applied it with a brush to the paper.

* Hydrus watercolors are hi-density. The color, as it comes straight out of the bottle, is very intense. The paint can be applied full strength to the paper with a brush. However, the undiluted paint dries quickly, so this works best with a dry brush technique.

* To use the Hydrus paints in a watercolor wash, add water to the paint on your pallete. Experiment using varying amounts of water. I have found that adding a few squirts of water from a spray bottle to a single drop of hydrus paint does not signficantly dilute the intensity of the color. A single drop of hydrus paint can go a long way!

* After adding water to the paint on the pallete, experiment by loading your brush with varying amounts of paint. The amount of liquid in the bristles will determine the shade of color on the paper.

* Adding a few drops of white hydrus paint to the colored paint on your pallete with lighten the colors.

* Hydrus paints can be mixed on the pallete or on the paper.

* For an unpredictable but exciting result, wet the paper surface with clean water and then use a dropper to drop in several colors. Allow the paints to mix on their own or tip the paper to encourage blending.

* The type of paper used will also affect the flow of the hydrus paints. Too Hot, the painting at the top of the page, was done on hot-pressed paper, which is smoother than the cold-pressed paper used for the tips examples. The red peppers were painted in a dry brush method with very little water added to the paint.

* Hydrus paints also work well on YUPO synthetic paper.

Dr. Ph. Martin's® is a registered trademark.

Hydrus™ is a registered trademark.

YUPO® is a registered trademark of Yupo Corporation.

Using Collage Papers with Hydrus™ Watercolors

Incorporating collage papers into a watercolor or acrylic painting can be a lot of fun. For the painting, On Wings, I used decorative paper napkins and assorted tissue papers.

Here's a close-up:

This pattern is from a decorative Thanksgiving napkin. I separated the thin tissues of the napkin and used only the top layer which holds the pattern. The image on the napkin was of a colorful turkey, but that is not obvious from the small portion of the tissue used here. One viewer thought the pattern reminded her of a baseball.

This pattern is from a decorative Christmas napkin. Notice in the painting that the various collage elements overlap each other. I use acrylic gloss medium thinned with water to adhere the collage papers to the painting.

Here I've used a collage paper which I purchased at a local art store. This particular paper had a pattern of holes in it, which is more obvious in the larger image above. The opaque white paper contrasted nicely with the red and orange hydrus watercolors used in this image.

The white shape across this selection is also from a decorative napkin. The tissue is fairly opaque, allowing just a bit of the underlying color to peek through.

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