This watercolor glossary will help guide you through your watercolor journey whether you are a beginner or need to brush up on your skills and knowledge.
A
- Absorbency: The ability of the paper to soak up water or paint.
- Analogous Colors: Colors next to each other on the color wheel
- Aquarelle: A European term for watercolor painting.
- Artist’s Tape: Low-tack tape used to secure watercolor paper to a board. AKA – Painter’s Tape
B
- Backrun: An effect created when wet paint spreads back into a damp area, also known as blossoming or cauliflower.
- Binding Agent: A substance that holds pigment particles together and helps them adhere to the paper. In watercolors, gum arabic is commonly used.
- Brushwork: The technique of applying paint with a brush.
C
- Cadmium Colors: Intense, opaque colors derived from cadmium compounds.
- Cold Pressed Paper: Watercolor paper with a slightly textured surface.
- Color Lifting: Removing or lightening color from a painting, usually while the paint is still damp.
D
- Deckle Edge: The rough, untrimmed edges of handmade paper.
- Drybrush: A technique where a dry brush is used on dry paper to create a scratchy, textured effect.
- Drying Shift: The change in color and tone as watercolor paint dries, typically becoming lighter.
E
- Easel: A stand used to hold the artwork upright.
- Edge Control: The artist’s ability to maintain sharp or soft edges within the painting.
F
- Ferrule: The metal band that connects the brush’s handle to its bristles, helping to secure them in place and maintain their shape.
- Flat Wash: A uniform application of color across an area.
- Frisket: A liquid latex used to mask areas of the paper to keep them white. AKA Masking Fluid
G
- Gouache: An opaque water-based paint similar to watercolor but with a higher pigment concentration.
- Granulation: The effect seen when pigments settle into the texture of the paper, giving a grainy appearance.
H
- Hot Pressed Paper: Smooth-surfaced watercolor paper.
- Hue: The color or shade of paint.
I
- Impasto: A technique used in painting where paint is laid on an area of the surface very thickly.
L
- Lifting: Removing wet or dry pigment from a painting.
- Lightfastness: The resistance of a pigment to fading when exposed to light.
M
- Masking Fluid: A removable liquid used to cover parts of the painting to protect them from receiving paint.
- Medium: An artist’s expression like pottery, ceramics, watercolors, fabric, etc.
- Mixing Tray: A surface used for blending watercolor paints.
- Muted: Colors that have been softened or subdued, often by adding gray or their complementary color, resulting in less intense, more understated hues.
P
- Palette: A surface on which watercolors are mixed.
- Pan Paints: Consists of concentrated blocks of color that are dried and pressed into small pans or half-pans.
- Pigment: Fine particles of color used in making paint.
- Primary Colors: The 3 main colors to produce more colors. Red, Blue, and Yellow
- Prussian Blue: A deep blue pigment used in watercolors.
R
- Rag Paper: High-quality paper made from cotton fiber.
- Resist: A method or material used to prevent paint from adhering to a surface.
S
- Sable Brushes: Brushes made from the tail hairs of sables, known for their ability to hold a point and carry substantial amounts of water.
- Saturation: The intensity or purity of a color.
- Secondary Colors: The three colors from the mixture of 2 primary colors. Green, purple, and orange.
- Scumbling: A technique involving a very light, broken application of color to create a textured effect.
T
- Tertiary Colors: The mixing of a primary color with a secondary color adjacent to it on the color wheel, resulting in hues such as yellow-green, red-orange, or blue-violet.
- Tinting Strength: The ability of a pigment to affect the color of a mixture.
- Tone: The lightness or darkness of a color, which can be altered by adding white or black to the original hue.
- Transparent Watercolor: Paint that allows light to pass through it and reflect off the underlying paper.
- Tube Paints: Watercolor paint sold in tubes.
V
- Value: The degree of lightness or darkness of a color, independent of its hue, which determines its relative brightness or depth
W
- Wash: A layer of diluted watercolor.
- Wet-on-Wet: A technique involving the application of paint onto a wet surface, allowing colors to blend fluidly.
Y
- Yellow Ochre: A natural earth pigment ranging from yellow to light brown.
This glossary covers key terms that will help you navigate the techniques and materials essential to watercolor painting, enhancing both your understanding and your practice.