It is proposed to articulate on a linguistic analysis before teaching specific themes such as flowers, still life, landscape, human figure and portrait.

— The graphemes or grammatical cells are not strategies or resources, but atoms, minimum units of analysis. It is our task to distinguish, individualize and name them. We should think about their possible combinations, too.

— We suggest using seven basic graphemes. The character left by the watercolor can be clear, rustic, diffuse, back-run or bloom, faded-out, scatter and drainage.

Example of a technical foundation

By a graphic matrix we can distinguish the well differentiated functions of water in three places: palette, paper and brush.

— The amount of water used in the palette will define the dilution degree of brushstroke (a lot of water gives a transparent and washed gesture, while less water gives an intense result)

— The water on the paper will determine the contour or edge of the brushstroke (dry paper gives a clear gesture, damp matt paper gives a backrun and moist paper gives a diffuse shape).

— The brush water variable is subordinated to paper water. If the paper is dry, the water in the brush defines the character of the gesture (loaded brush gives a full gesture while drained hair gives a rustic or frotis) but on damp or mois paper more possibilities appear.

Example of a grapheme and its use:
fading and valorism

The fade is a difficult but very powerful grapheme. Having both, clear and a fuzzy edges, a paper area with water and a dry area are used on it. So it is an hybrid. The gradient line is its simplest expression. Among other applications, its practice helps us understand and work with diffuse shadows.

— Another watercolor foundation knowledge is that shading and lighting are simultaneous operations because the shadows applied define at the same time the lights that are reserved (the paper white). Shadows can be made with a sharp edges or with different degrees of diffusion according to the lighting represented.

— One of the possibilities of using fade or gradient is to model volumes. We call this use 'surface gradient'. The surface gradient builds the volume following the traditional academic valorism way.

— Another possibility of using the gradient is on contours, following a totally different syntax, similar to the bas-relief. The contour gradient is the tool for 'synthetic valorism' (Read an article about it).