3 Watercolor Techniques You Have to Try
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. Use these to get started, then build on them however you like.
1. Watercolor Washes
There’s more than one way to approach laying a watercolor wash — you can do it either on a wet surface or a dry one. One tip for any watercolor wash: If you notice a mistake in a previous stroke, don’t try to fix it. Once the wash has started to dry, a new stroke will almost definitely be more noticeable than any small mistake. It’s best to leave these happy little accidents as they are.
Dry Wash
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. Remember that watercolors dry lighter than they look when they’re wet. You might want to practice on a scrap of watercolor paper first.
Load your brush with as much paint as it’ll hold. Then, working quickly, make a steady, controlled horizontal stroke along the top of the paper. 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.
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. Let your paper dry completely at an angle before setting it down flat again.
Wet Wash
A 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. Be generous with the water here — you want the paper glistening with moisture.
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. The paint will blend together into one luminous wash of color.
2. Wet-In-Wet Watercolor Painting
Wet-in-wet painting is one of the most basic techniques — so basic you might have already done it before without realizing it!
Start by brushing water (and only water) onto your paper. Then dip your brush in paint and spread it over the water wash. The paint will feather and diffuse like magic.
3. Underpainting
An underpainting is essentially a monochrome wash that’s used for the first layer of the painting. You’ll add layers of transparent washes over the underpainting, which gives realistic and luminous effects.
First, mix a light purple shade (a combo of cadmium red and ultramarine blue works great). Neutral shades of blue or green can also work.
Lightly paint your subject using the purple, and pay careful attention to light and shade. Since you’re only working in one color, you can really focus on rendering the shape. Use a soft brush and a light hand to keep the purple from overpowering the rest of the painting.
Let the underpainting dry completely before moving on to glazing in color. If it’s wet, you might muddy your colors.
Looking to get started with watercolors? How to choose watercolor paints for beginners?Check out the items below:https://www.minghuachina.com/winsor-newton-fine-watercolour-p.html
