Elaboration of Artisanal Watercolors

The intense, vibrant hues of watercolors handcrafted with traditional techniques are impossible to replicate with mass-produced products. No one knows this better than Curro Gutiérrez, painter, illustrator, and calligrapher specialized in codex painting and medieval illumination. Better known as Scriptorium Yayyan, he has worked for universities such as La Catedral de Jaén in Spain and La Sociedad Sefardí Española. He has also explored the world of advertising through collaborations with brands like Desigual.

Curro was named Enlumineur de France, the highest honor awarded to an artist in this discipline, deeming him an expert in the preservation of ancient techniques through the use of traditional materials and processes.

In this course, he teaches you how to create your own watercolors using traditional formulas and natural pigments.

Get started by familiarizing yourself with Curro Gutiérrez's work as Scriptorium Yayyan and his main influences.

Next, explore the essential ingredients you need to create your own watercolor palette. Curro explains how to make classic binding agents with easy-to-find materials, revealing the formulas used to combine these ingredients and ways to store the mixture properly.

Learn to create a variety of rich, warm-toned hues like yellows, reds, ochers, and earth tones, and later move on to cool-toned hues, producing all kinds of vibrant blues and greens. Take it one step further by exploring rarer pigments used to create colors with hints of gold and silver.

Curro then gives you some useful advice to help you fill your palette wells with the watercolors you've created and discusses the different types of containers you can use to store your creations. Finish up by learning how climate impacts production and storage, and discover some useful tips on drying time, packaging, and final presentation.

Use natural pigments and traditional formulas to create your own portable watercolor palette with ten key hues you can mix to produce an endless spectrum of colors.

Illustrators, painters, artists, calligraphers, and anyone interested in learning to create their own handcrafted watercolors using ancient, traditional formulas.

No prior knowledge is necessary. Curro Gutiérrez walks you through the entire process step by step.

As for materials, you need pigments, a glass slab and muller, an empty watercolor palette, a palette knife, gum arabic, honey, and eggs.