On a cold day in February several artist gathered to learn to paint with watercolors. The wet into wet technique. As they gathered, looking and commenting on the picture they were to paint, they were talking about how easy and simple the painting class would be on that day. As with most people, these students thought all they would have to do was wet the paper and drop wet paint into it. Watch it move and mingle and the picture us be beautiful and complete. At first glance it does appear that to accomplish a beautiful painting by this method would be easy. What the students didn’t realize is how much time the teacher had given to make this painting beautiful and to prepare a class for them.
The teacher had prepared for this class by charting pinks,reds, yellows and green. Determining if they were transparent by drawing a line down the middle of a piece of watercolor paper with a marker and then painting each color over that line to see if it was transparent. When the transparency was established, the Teacher wanted to know how each color would look when it was glazed. So she made another chart.
When the class settled down, the Teacher knew what colors to recommend and why she wanted to recommend them. Questions that she reminded her students to ask were have you decided which color of paints to use and why? Do these colors complement each other? When the colors come together on wet paper what color will they make? After guidance from the experienced teacher the students were able to take home a beautiful watercolor painting.