When I first started painting with watercolours my paintings turned out streaky, dull, and splotchy. I was so frustrated until I took my first workshop and as soon as my instructor showed me how to paint the paper with a flat blue wash, I was hooked. It was so smooth and so bright compared to anything I had tried before. I’m going to break it down into the very basic steps so that we don’t leave anyone behind, starting with how to mix the paint.
Here is a video if you prefer to watch the demo. Otherwise the step by step description is below with screenshots.
This is an excerpt from my online course “Introduction to Watercolour Basics ~ Watercolours Made Easy”
I’m working on 140lb (300g) Arches cold press paper. My paper is 7.5×11″ divided into 9 sections with blue painter’s tape. I’m going to be using a 1/2″ flat brush.
Dip your brush in water and bring it into your mixing area and then with your wet brush, tickle the paint and bring it into the mixing area and swish it around in the water.
If your paint is freshly squeezed out you won’t need to tickle it much at all to get a good amount of pigment, but if you are painting from pans or from tube paint that was previously squeezed out and then had time to dry, then you will have to tickle it more vigorously.
Dip your brush in water to bring more water into the mixing area and then continue to bring more paint and mix it thoroughly into your mixing area so that there aren’t any undissolved bits.
If you tip your palette up and all the paint runs down your palette, leaving it white, then your paint is too runny.
If you tip your palette up and the paint doesn’t move at all, then it is too thick. You want your paint to be nice and creamy, but with enough water in it that it still has some movement to it. You know when you defrost frozen blueberries in the microwave and some of the juice oozes out, that is the consistency of the paint that we want. Not too watery but not too thick. Rich and juicy is what we are going for, and you’ll need a nice sized puddle of paint so that you don’t run out half way through your painting
When you scrape your brush through your mixed paint, you should still see some of the colour on the palette. It should flow like cream, not spread like cream cheese.
Clean your brush thoroughly and wet the paper with clean water (well, at least fairly clean.
My water is light blue but it’s not going to tint my paper and if it does I’m painting the paper blue so it will be fine.) Go back and forth and every which way to make sure that the paper is evenly wet.
Tip your paper up to the light to make sure that it has a nice even shine all over and that you haven’t missed any spots.
You want it to be nice and shiny, but not drippy. If the water is pooling then it is too wet. If the paper is matte then you need to rewet it again to get a near gloss.
Dry off your brush and then dip it in the paint and fully immerse your bristles. Don’t just dab the end of your brush, swish the whole brush end in the paint so it is fully saturated.
If there is a big droplet of paint at the end of your brush then take it off by either by dabbing it on your palette, scraping it off the edge of your palette, or dabbing the tip of the brush on an old tea towel. Start at the top of your wet paper and paint a line across from one side to the other in one steady motion.
Overlap the first line and paint a second line. Dip your brush in paint and then dab off the drip from the end of your brush. Don’t dip in water at this point, just the paint.
Notice that whenever you lift your brush off the paper the paint will burst.
Since I am right handed and working from left to right, the paint will burst as I lift my brush so I will get a bigger deposit of paint and pigment on the right side of my painting.
I won’t worry about this as I’m painting or try to fix it because at the end I can just tip my painting to the right and hold a paper towel just at the very edge and it will wick up any extra paint if there still is any.
Since we are working on wet paper some of that paint will flow back into the painting and blend all by itself.
Sometimes when the painting is nice and wet then it is ok to go back over an area to smooth it out, but for the most part I want to avoid going back into an area that I already painted. Watercolour is transparent and light travels through the paint and reflects off the paper into our eyes.
If we overwork an area by painting over and over in one spot, then we smoosh the pigment into the fibres of the paper and it dulls it right down, plus as the paint starts to dry then painting over it will cause streaks and blossoms to form. So it is best to use as few brush strokes as possible and let the water and paint do most of the work for you. The paint will continue to blend on its own without the need to ‘smooth’ it out. This is something that will be easier with time as you get used to your paper and paints.
Continue to overlap previous brushstrokes and work your way from the top to the bottom of the paper.
Dip in the paint once more to ensure that we keep a fairly even value throughout the wash.
Dab off the excess on your palette or towel. Overlap the last brushstroke and complete the wash.
See how the masking tape is wet with paint? We don’t want to leave it there because as the painting is drying it could flow back into the painting and cause unwanted blossoms to form.
Wipe off the masking tape with paper towel, and you can also tip your painting and wick away any extra paint to prevent the paint from pooling on the paper.
See more at https://kendraart.com/courses
In this course you will learn all the techniques needed to build a solid foundation in watercolour, and how to overcome common struggles that beginners normally encounter. You will see each technique demonstrated in a step-by-step, easy to follow manner with a pace specifically geared towards beginners. I demonstrate everything twice so you can relax and watch the first one and then paint along with me.
The course includes over 10 hours of video instruction as well as 6 e-books adding up to over 320 pages of comprehensive step by step notes.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Filed under: Online Course, Tips.