Watercolors are pigments ground with gum arabic and gall and thinned with water in use. Sable and squirrel (“camel”) hair brushes are used on white or tinted paper and card. Three hundred years before the late 18th-century English watercolorists, German artist Albrecht Dürer anticipated their technique of transparent color washes in a remarkable series of plant studies and panoramic landscapes. Until the emergence of the English school, however, watercolor became a medium merely for color tinting outlined drawings or, combined with opaque body color to produce effects similar to gouache or tempera, was used in preparatory studies for oil paintings. ...(100 of 16294 words)