There are so many techniques in watercolor painting, which can be overwhelming for a person who is just getting started. From my own experience, I found some techniques are used more often or even in almost any artwork I have done. Today, I will share the top 5 popular watercolor techniques for beginners that can help you progress fast in this artistic journey.
Yes and no. When I painted my first watercolor piece, I felt it was hard to control. The watercolor medium is very different from acrylic or oil which gives you better control over how the colors go. I almost gave up watercolor and thought it was not for me.
Years later, I bought myself a set of watercolors and decided to give it another try. After only 8 months of practicing and self-learning daily, I feel much more confident in watercolor. Watercolor painting has become easier for me and I see myself progressing even faster every day.
Below are the first and the most recent portraits I painted with watercolor.
Will you get better at watercolor painting if you do it every day? I would say regular practice creates momentum so it’s easier for you to start painting the next day, but it will not be enough. Reflection after each painting day plays an important role in your artistic journey. I would recommend you learn a new technique from trusted resources, practice it until you master it, and be open to feedback and criticism.
Don’t worry! I’m here to share with you all I know about watercolor painting, and we will start first with the 5 powerful watercolor techniques for beginners.
How Do You Start Watercolour Painting?
Before we jump to the first technique in watercolor art, there are a few things we need to prepare. If you haven’t read my post about watercolor painting supplies, I highly recommend you do it because the supplies matter a lot in the quality of your final watercolor artwork and your painting experience. I wish I had read about selecting the right watercolor supplies before buying my first set.
Here is the list of things you need for a watercolor painting session:
- Watercolor paper sheet
- A painting board to hold your paper
- An easel or a flat surface such as a table
- Watercolor paint
- A watercolor painting palette
- Watercolor brushes
- A bucket or a jar of clean water
- A water spray bottle
- Tissue paper or a cotton rag
- A pencil and an eraser for sketching (optional)
- A reference photo (optional, but I find it’s very helpful for beginners)
Choosing the right place to paint is also important. A painting session may last from 1 hour to several hours. That’s why you should choose a place where you feel comfortable sitting for a long time. Natural light on an overcast day is perfect as you can mix the right colors and the shadow of nearby objects or the texture of the paper sheet will not be distracting.
Now you are all set for painting. Read on for the top 5 basic watercolor techniques for beginners.
5 Basic Watercolor Techniques for Beginners
Wet on wet
As the name suggests, the wet-on-wet technique is when you paint watercolor on a wet surface of paper. Wet on wet, or some people also call wet in wet, is the most common technique used in watercolor painting. You can apply the wet-on-wet for a landscape, portrait, or still-life painting.
It can be used to paint a background when you want the colors to blend naturally without outlines or marks. This is especially useful to create the depth effect in your painting when the objects that are far away or less important are blurry and blend with the background, while the closer and more important objects have more details and precise outlines.
Here is how to paint wet on wet with watercolor:
- Load your brush with plain water and ‘paint’ on a watercolor paper sheet. The size of the areas you want to paint wet on wet varies from painting to painting. I sometimes paint wet-on-wet the whole painting on the first layer, and the other times I just do it partially.
- Do not load too much water as it will create puddles on the paper and damage your painting. Check common mistakes in watercolor to avoid in painting.
- Use a wet brush to pick up moistened paint from your palette and apply it on the paper when it is still wet. There are different ways to move your brush. You can slide the brush back and forth or drop the colors here and there.
- Let the pigments flow on their own on the wet surface. You can tilt the paper a bit to encourage the flow. If the pigments don’t spread, it could be because your paper is not wet enough or the paint you picked is too dry. The solution is to add more water so the pigments can travel on the paper sheet.
Practice painting wet on wet with one or more colors and see how it turns out. The beauty of the technique is that the patterns of color you get will never be the same, which makes each painting unique and interesting.
Wet on Dry
The opposite of the wet-on-wet technique is to paint wet on dry. In this case, you will use a wet brush with color to paint on a dry surface.
The wet-on-dry technique is easy to use and it’s better to control the final result. Artists paint wet-on-dry when they want to get precise details or sharp edges such as cast shadows or eyelashes.
To paint wet-on-dry, simply dip your brush in water, then pick up the paint and apply it to watercolor paper. It sounds as easy as when you paint with oil or acrylic colors.
Now, before we move to the next technique, I would like you to compare the effects you get from the wet-on-wet and wet-on-dry painting techniques. Have you spotted the difference between the two?
Glazing
The glazing technique is simple yet fun to use in your watercolor painting. This technique is about painting a shape wet-on-dry on a paper sheet, letting it dry completely, and then painting another shape over the top of the previous one.
The effect you can achieve with the glazing technique is you can see different shapes of colors and the overlapped parts having new colors. This is also considered mixing the colors on paper instead of on the palette.
The glazing effect is very useful in realistic painting when you have an object partially shined by the sunlight and a part of it is still in the shadow. The part that is under the light will have a more vibrant color while the part in the dark will have a less vibrant and blueish or brownish color.
Remember to paint the later layers quickly to avoid reactivating the previous layers. Also, wait for the previous layers to dry completely before applying a new layer, otherwise, you will not get the glazing effect.
Flat Wash
If you want to have a smooth and uniform area without the appearance of brush strokes, use the wash technique. There are three kinds of washes: flat wash, gradient wash, and variegated wash.
To create a flat wash, dip your wet paintbrush in a pool of very wet and diluted paint, and then apply the loaded brush to wet or dry paper. Move your brush from left to right or from top to bottom. Load up the brush again with the same color and paint right next to the previously painted area when it is still wet, so the colors in those areas can mix. Repeat the steps until you have a large surface painted.
To have a consistent color on a large surface, make sure the paint consistency of every brush stroke is the same. More or less water in the next brush stroke will result in an unevenly colored surface. This issue can happen when you don’t paint quickly enough and the paint on the palette starts to dry because of sunlight or wind.
If the area you want to wash is large, consider using a big wide brush. There are different flat brushes with different sizes, so choose the one that works best for you.
Gradient (Graded) Wash
Similar to the flat wash technique but we want to create a gradient wash this time. It means that the density of the pigments reduces after each brush stroke.
To achieve this, you need to dip the brush into plain water after each brush stroke and mix the wet brush with the color on the palette to reduce the density of the pigments, then apply a new brush stroke on the paper.
Using a single color for the gradient wash technique. It takes some time to practice and to control how much water you have in your brush.
The gradient wash can be used when you paint flowers, leaves, and clear sky when they have a gradient color.
Variegated Wash (Bonus)
Until now, you have already learned 5 basic but powerful watercolor techniques for beginners. However, I would love to introduce a bonus one, variegated wash. It is easier to paint than the way it sounds.
To create a variegated wash, use two colors instead of one. I would recommend using the colors which are next to each other on a color wheel such as light green and yellow, red and orange, or blue and purple. You can try the colors that are opposite to each other on the color wheel to see how it turns out. Painting is all about experiments, right?
Here are simple steps to create a variegated wash:
- Paint a gradient wash with the first color.
- Wash your brush totally before loading the second color.
- Paint a gradient wash with the second color, starting from the other end of the painting area.
- Repeat until the two colors mix.
The final result of a variegated wash should be a spectrum of colors that blend smoothly from one side to the other.
The Takeaway
Congratulations on learning the 5 most popular watercolor techniques for beginners! We have gone through the wet on wet, wet on dry, glazing, flat wash, gradient wash, and variegated wash as a bonus. I hope you have a chance to practice those techniques while reading the post.
Watercolor painting becomes easier and more joyful when you know what you are doing to get the effects you want.
If you find this post informative, bookmark it so you can revisit it to learn more about watercolor painting techniques. You can also join my subscriber list to receive more tips and learning materials via email.
