The “obvious control secret” for painting with watercolors is to control the water. Wow, who would ever have thought about that ? (sarcasm warning) Obviously, controlling the water is critical, but how do you control water ? After all, it’s not like we have a valve on a faucet. As I alluded to in the previous post, it’s all about sponges. Or to be clearer, it’s all about sponge characteristics. In scientific terms it is related to capillary action. Don’t worry, I’m not going to get all technical. A sponge will absorb or release water depending on the amount of water currently being held by the sponge. There are two extreme states of water containment in a sponge. Bone dry is a term for a sponge state where the sponge contains absolutely no moisture. Saturated is a term for a sponge state where the sponge is holding as much water or moisture as can be absorbed; it’s thoroughly soaked and no longer will absorb more water. There are in theory many in-between states, but for our purposes we will only talk about two other sponge states: moderately wet and almost dry, also referred to as just damp. Now, here’s a revealing concept. Sponge characteristics are not restricted to those porous rubbery like household accessories that we call sponges. All fibrous materials have sponge characteristics. A paint brush has bristles that are fibrous (we will talk more about the different kinds of brush bristle materials and their different unique sponge characteristics later). A paint brush is therefore a sponge and subject to exhibiting predictable sponge characteristics. Paper is a material manufactured in thin sheets from the pulp of wood or other fibrous substances. In the case of quality watercolor paper, it is made from 100% cotton fibers. Therefore watercolor paper is a sponge and also subject to exhibiting predictable sponge characteristics. We now have an established relationship between paint brushes and paper; they are all sponges. Watercolor paint is fundamentally pigment suspended in a solution which is mostly water. Water interacts with any sponge according to the characteristics of that sponge itself and its sponge state at the time of the interaction. At any given instant in time, our various sponges will each exist in their own different sponge state and therefore their individual interaction with water will differ. The interactions of water with these sponges, each which exists in a different sponge state at that instant, is the essence of controlling the water in watercolor painting. 

We are approaching an understanding of what has to happen for control during the watercolor painting process, thus we will finally know what to practice. Going forward, we will begin to explore these interactions and how to use this knowledge to guide our practice.