Once a color of paint has dried, you can add layers of watercolor to create dimension, texture and color variation. You can control how neat or painterly a gradient comes out by the wetness of the paint. Then place the second color - either a more intense version of the same hue or a different hue entirely - right beside the first color.īecause the paints are on a wet surface, they’ll blend slightly and create a natural gradient in the tones. Start by adding fresh watercolor to a wet paint surface. Gradients and Color BlendingĪ simple watercolor wash uses just one color, but you can add depth to your work by using more hues in a gradient. If it’s wet, you might muddy your colors. Let the underpainting dry completely before moving on to glazing in color. Use a soft brush and a light hand to keep the purple from overpowering the rest of the painting. Since you’re only working in one color, you can really focus on rendering the shape. Lightly paint your subject using the purple, and pay careful attention to light and shade. Neutral shades of blue or green can also work. You’ll add layers of transparent washes over the underpainting, which gives realistic and luminous effects.įirst, mix a light purple shade (a combo of cadmium red and ultramarine blue works great). UnderpaintingĪn underpainting is essentially a monochrome wash that’s used for the first layer of the painting. The paint will feather and diffuse like magic. Then dip your brush in paint and spread it over the water wash.
Start by brushing water (and only water) onto your paper. Wet-in-wet painting is one of the most basic techniques - so basic you might have already done it before without realizing it!
The paint will blend together into one luminous wash of color. Once you’ve wet the area, dip the brush in paint and apply lines of color within the wet area, just like you would with a dry wash. Be generous with the water here - you want the paper glistening with moisture. Wet WashĪ wet surface watercolor wash is about the same as a dry wash, with one main difference: First you’ll dip your brush in water and brush it over the whole surface. Let your paper dry completely at an angle before setting it down flat again. When you reach the bottom, blot your brush on a paper towel, then use the dry tip to carefully pull up the excess paint along the bottom of the final stroke to avoid a darker bottom. You’ll notice the water in the first stroke starts to pool along the bottom edge - don’t let this dry! Reload your brush with pigment and paint another stroke just below the first one, overlapping with the bottom edge. Then, working quickly, make a steady, controlled horizontal stroke along the top of the paper. Load your brush with as much paint as it’ll hold.
You might want to practice on a scrap of watercolor paper first. Remember that watercolors dry lighter than they look when they’re wet. Use a large flat or round brush and an angled surface like a drafting table or easel (this way gravity does some work for you.) On your palette, mix a generous amount of water with your chosen pigment. It’s best to leave these happy little accidents as they are. Once the wash has started to dry, a new stroke will almost definitely be more noticeable than any small mistake. One tip for any watercolor wash: If you notice a mistake in a previous stroke, don’t try to fix it. There’s more than one way to approach laying a watercolor wash - you can either do it on a wet surface or a dry one. Use these to get started, then build on them however you like. Hold it right there: Before you start adding fancy details and textures to your work, you need to know a few of the most basic watercolor painting techniques to try.
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