If your paint’s still wet, it’s easy to remove pigment. Using different techniques, you can lift color from wet or dry watercolor. This is especially handy when you’ve made a mistake or when you want to add white space to your work. In some cases, you’ll want to remove pigment from your painting. Dip your dry brush into the paint, dab it onto a paper towel to remove the excess, and brush lightly across the surface - this method highlights the texture of the paper and also doesn’t muddy your colors. Mix your pigment, making sure your paint mixture is not super wet. It can be used for an entire painting, but it’s also perfect for creating texture in small areas of a larger painting. To make the lines of your second color less severe, you can wet the brush with water and brush gently to feather the line.ĭry brush painting requires using very little paint and water to create a scratchy, “scraped-across” brushstroke. Just don’t add much water to the second color since this can re-wet the initial color and make the two blend. Wait until your initial color has dried completely (not damp - dry!), then paint the second color on top. Just know that the paper has to be completely dry in between washes so that the colors don’t blend together and get muddy. 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. If it’s wet, you might muddy your colors.Ī simple watercolor wash uses just one color, but you can add depth to your work by using more hues in a gradient. 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). The paint will feather and diffuse like magic.Īn underpainting is essentially a monochrome wash that’s used for the first layer of the painting. 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. Let your paper dry completely at an angle before setting it down flat again.Ī 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. 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 do it either 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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