Olaf Olson and Felicie Waldo Howell (1897– ) are younger artists who have shown the great possibilities of water-colour.
The materials used in painting in water-colour become of prime importance if the richness and purity of colour is to be achieved. This calls for a short but brilliant palette. Seven or eight colours suffice to give the greatest range and flexibility of handling, making it possible for the painter to force the key at any desired area on his paper. The medium must be liquid and free to gain beauty and texture. The artists of the Sung dynasty carried much of the same fresh directness that is being achieved to-day, and they took great care and trouble in the making of their materials. The artist of the present time uses a much more brilliant palette ; con sequently his troubles increase, as it is doubly important to have all materials of the best.
To begin with, a box to hold the colour is an important matter. It should be convenient, not too large to handle, and be both palette and colour container; it should be a folding box, having preferably two lids, one flat which folds over the first, and then the outer cover which should contain three or four wells or sinks where one can mix colour or gather a pool if there is a large surface to cover.
It is wise to procure a separate holder for the brushes and pencil, and to carry the tubes of paint separately. Tube colour is better than pans of colour, because it can be squeezed out as needed and the colour is always fresh, one of the most important factors in this difficult art. With the exception of vermilion, which must have time to set, otherwise it runs throughout the box, the various colours used can be put out when ready to work. So-called pan colour is of little use and is almost always dried out when bought. Tube colour is much more economical, keeps better, and if the cap is put on tight, will not dry out.
and does not last. It becomes a club after the point wears down. Some water-colour artists use three or four different-sized brushes, but the mastery of one brush means considerable progress. The wedge-shaped brush will spread as well as the curved brush, and can be controlled much better. The curved brush kicks up edges and sometimes needlessly separates. The mere matter of holding a brush is very important to the novice in water-colour painting (see Plate VI.). The Chinese spent years in cultivating the use of their brushes, how to hold them, acquiring a dexterity of handling far beyond that of many of our modern artists. They wrote with the brush and also painted with it, painting with the greatest breadth or with the most exacting minuteness (see ART : Far East ern Methods).
In holding the brush, it is necessary to use not only the fingers but the entire arm and wrist, taking care not to choke the brush by grasping it down close to the tin. When it is held in such a man ner, only the fingers operate; the rigid arm means a loss in free dom. The brush should be held as far from the hair as possible, and kept as nearly at a right angle to the paper as possible. This makes for great variety, flexibility, and carries the colour to the paper with dexterity. In taking up colour from the box a charged brush is of supreme importance, whether the colour be pale or of the deepest intensity. A full brush means depth ; a thin brush means a tint, and tinting is not, in the fullest meaning of the term, water-colour painting.
A flooded colour, light or dark, has a much greater beauty and vibration. Dark detail can be struck over a lighter mass with a charged brush, without wiping up the colour underneath or dis turbing it; when colour is used thinly it loses lustre. The paper should not be held flat, as colour will puddle and not flow as it does when held at a 45° angle; flood-colour helps to give variation and texture, and also better represents light. Just as will be observed in fine stained-glass, the upper edge will be light in colour and the lower edge rich and glowing. The colour should really flow from the brush onto the paper and be luminous, not thin and pasty.