Watercolor

WatercolorMedia Specification

Jeremy Shopf10/3/06

Characteristics

• Vivid Color• Transparent, composited layers• Unpainted light regions• Texture from paper and diffusion

Winslow Homer – “Guide carrying a deer”

Paint and Medium

• Pigment diffused in water is applied to the medium (typically paper) in layers

• Pigments and amount of dilution controls the level of transparency

• Texture of the medium impacts final appearance

• There is no “white” watercolor– Areas are typically unpainted– Opaque white is occasionally used

Processes

• Wash– Area of uniform color

• Glaze– Layering of detail/darkening– Compositing color

• Wet-in-Wet– Paint with water and then apply paint– Creates unpredictable results

• Dry Brush– Use a dry brush with thick paint to generate

texture

Representative Image

• Charles Demuth – “Still life with apples and a green glass”

• Other artists: Cezanne, O’Keeffe, Audubon

Implications for Algorithms

• Fluid Simulation [Curtis97]– Darkening of boundaries– Uneven boundaries and color bleeding– Not necessarily required [Bousseau06]

• Rendering layered material– Kubela-Monk [Haase92, Curtis97]

• Texture of medium vs. type of technique [Bousseau06]

• Abstraction of detail [Bousseau06]– Detail added with pen-and-ink [Luft06]

Other Images

Vincent Van Gogh “Fishing Boats on the Beach”

Other Images

• Paul Cezanne – “Still Life with Watermelon and Pomegranates”