Many of us became really conscious about the proper use of watercolor when we reached preschool. It was a prerogative for students to bring various art materials and one of them being watercolors. Alongside with it came crayons, thick pencils and colorful erasers. Truly, our childhood days were filled with vivid colors and pictures. However, amidst all these childhood experiences, the watercolor itself has a colorful history to share.
Watercolor is used both as a medium and a method: as a medium for it is utilized as a material for painting in different styles such as portraits and landscape paintings; and as a method because it was and up until now an ongoing process wherein a product of art is created through the usage of the medium itself. Through the name itself, watercolors would not work without of course water. Hand in hand these two must always be present in order to teach and learn the method.
The manipulation of watercolor in society dates back from as early as the paleolithic era wherein watercolor-based drawings were then seen in caves of Europe. These drawings were 32,000 years in age and are not merely decorations of the caves but were discovered to be portraits of an ongoing habitation of people who thrived back then. Through drawing by watercolor, historians were able to uncover the livelihood and mysteries of people in the past. It was also used as manuscript illuminations for the Egyptians. However its great launched begun during the Renaissance when Albrecht Durer during the 15th and the 16th century crafted paintings using the medium with themes like botanical and wildlife landscapes. Durer was considered as one of the earliest exponents of watercolor as a medium. It even led to the development of a school of watercolor painting in Germany which was spearheaded by Hans Bol which was also known as a personality in watercolor paintings during the Durer Renaissance.
Mostly, watercolor operation was taught during the Baroque period and were commonly used by easel painters who make sketches and cartoons. The height of watercolor capitalization however, was through the production of wildlife and botanical paintings in the 19th century. The accuracy and the ability of the medium to condense and interpret wildlife and botanical ventures are still present today as variables to illustrate scientific and museum publications.
It was not only in Europe however where the adoption of watercolors dominated. It also reached England in the 18th century and was commonly used among the aristocrats and the elites. It was an art for the upper class of the English society. Watercolor was noted as a good education especially for women in the community. It also even helped the different people in the workforce such as mapmakers, surveyors, architects and engineers. They use watercolors to draw terrains and other geological data and public projects which consequently led to the hunt of Òtopographical paintersÓ which made a breakthrough of high opportunities for the said job. Adding to that, watercolor based drawings were included in publications and manuscripts which eventually directed the real growth of the medium. In America, on the other hand, watercolor only became famous in the middle of the 19th century. From America, it then disseminated throughout the neighboring countries.
From mainly a combination of synthetic or natural pigments, a binder such as arabic gum, additives and a solvent, commenced the dawn of the era of watercolors. Though it may seem only as a simple medium, it has evolved into a method of art that launched a change in history. Throughout the world, the popularization of watercolor saw the different civilizations of human history. Indeed, its colors has painted the world in the past, now and from time and beyond.
