Have you heard of a watercolor word or phrase you don’t understand? This will be a common situation if you are a beginner in watercolor painting. You want to learn how to paint with watercolor but you don’t understand the language watercolor artists speak.
Don’t worry! I’ve got you covered. This article will explain to you the meaning of 80 common watercolor terms. You don’t have to remember all of them because I already have a downloadable PDF worksheet at the end of this post. Let’s dive in!
Abstract Watercolor
What is abstract watercolor? According to the Cambridge Dictionary, abstract art is a painting that uses shapes, lines, and color in a way that does not try to represent the appearance of people or things.
There is currently no official definition of abstract watercolor in any dictionary but we can transcribe it based on the definition of abstract art below:
“Abstract watercolor is a painting created with watercolor medium that uses shapes, lines, and color in a way that does not try to represent the appearance of people or things.”
Accent Color
An accent color is a complementary color to a group of analogous colors. For example, Red is an accent color to a group of similar green colors. Artists use an accent color to emphasize the difference in a painting.
Acid-Free
Acid-free means the pH (acidity) level of the watercolor paper is equal to or slightly greater than 7. Artists prefer acid-free watercolor paper because it lasts for a long time and reserves the quality of the colors.
Back Run
A back run is the effect created when a wet brush mark flows back (run back) to the painted wash of color. A back run creates interesting textures to a painting.
Background
The area in a painting that looks further away from the viewer and behind the main objects in a painting. Things are usually smaller and have fewer details when they are in the background.
Bead
A bead is created in watercolor painting when you have more pigments concentrated at the end of the brush strokes. A bead if not controlled will result in a back run or uneven wash when the paper is dry. You can fix a bead by blotting the brush or the damp wash.
Bloom
A watercolor bloom happens when a new color area has a lot more water than the other area, so the pigments are pushed by the water and result in a blooming effect. Blooms can be used intentionally to create interesting textures for the painting.
Blotting
Blotting is a way to absorb the moisture from a watercolor brush with tissue paper or towel or to absorb the water from a damp watercolor wash with a rinsed and dried brush tip.
Adding too much water is one of the common mistakes in watercolor painting and blotting is a great way to avoid it.
Brightness
The brightness of a color refers to the lightness or darkness of a color. Our eyes can see colors in objects because they reflect different colors in the sunlight. In color mixing, you can add black or white to change the brightness of a color.
Charging-In
Charging is a watercolor technique that involves mixing two or more colors on the paper instead of on a palette. To use this technique, you can paint a wet color onto another wet color on the paper.
Chroma
According to the Collins Dictionary, chroma means the purity of a color, or its freedom from white or gray.
Cold Pressed
Cold-pressed refers to a type of watercolor paper. It is distinguished from hot-pressed and rough paper. The difference between those papers is the paper texture caused by different pressing methods when manufacturers produced the papers. The cold-pressed paper has some texture on its surface but less than rough paper.
Color Harmony
Color harmony refers to the combination of colors used in a design or artwork. Certain combinations of colors result in a color balance that is considered “looks good” to the audience.
Color Temperature
Colors are considered to bring warm or cold feelings to the audience. These are psychological triggers and it is not the fact that colors have different temperatures.
Some colors are considered warm colors such as red, yellow, and orange. Some colors are categorized as cold colors such as blue, purple, and brown. We also have warm red and cold red, depending on how the pigments are mixed. There is no pure color, so each color paint contains pigments from other colors.
Color Theory
Color theory is a concept that describes how colors interact with each other to create certain feelings, effects, and moods. Color theory is popularly used in art and design as the guidelines for artists and designers to use colors in their artwork.
Color Wheel
A color wheel is a tool showing the relationships between colors. There are different color wheels but most of them start with three primary colors (red, yellow, and blue) and develop secondary and tertiary colors based on the primary colors. Some color wheels have a white color in the center of the wheels while others have a gray color in the center, depending on which color theory they follow.
Complementary Colors
Complementary colors are colors that are opposite to each other on a color wheel. Popular complementary colors are red and green, blue and orange, purple and yellow. Those colors when put together will intensify the appearance of each other.
Complementary colors are used in painting and design to create vibrant and attractive artwork. They are also used in color mixing.
Composition
Composition is the art of arranging different elements in a design or painting to show their relationships and to deliver a message. Different compositions tell different stories and evoke different feelings.
Depth
The depth of a painting refers to the feeling of 3-dimensional space that the painting creates. There are different ways to increase the depth of the artwork, meaning to make it look deeper, such as using a wide range of color values, having a background, middle-ground, and foreground, and using directional lines.
Drawing
Drawing refers to the creative practice of using different tools such as pencils, chalk coal, crayons, etc., to create shapes and outlines of subjects and things. Drawing is also used to call the artwork as the result of the drawing process.
Dry Brush
“Dry brush” is a technique in painting that involves using a dry brush to paint semi-moist paint on a surface such as paper or canvas. This technique reveals the texture of the paper or canvas, which adds stunning textures to the painting.
Easel
An easel is a tool used in drawing, painting, and designing. The main purpose of an easel is to hold the paper or canvas so artists and work on it. Besides, some easels also have features to hold the palette and reference photos.
An easel can be made from wood, plastic, and metal. It can be in an A-frame, H-frame, or tabletop.
Figure
A figure in a painting refers to the objects, humans, or animals that are separate from the background and foreground.
Flat Wash
A flat wash is a smooth surface of color with the same consistency in color tone. This is one of the three washes in watercolor painting, besides graded wash and variegated wash.
Foreground
The area that stays closest to the viewer in a painting. Objects in the foreground look bigger with more details than those in the background.
Gamut
A color gamut is a range of colors on a color wheel used by artists or designers to create certain moods or feelings in an artwork. There are different ways to decide on a gamut such as using colors inside a triangle or a diamond shape on a color wheel.
Glazing
Glazing is a watercolor painting technique that involves partially overlapping a new layer of color over a dry layer of color. Because watercolor is transparent, we can see the pigments through layers. Check this guideline for the glazing technique in watercolor.
Gouache
Gouache is a water-medium paint used in painting. It is designed to be opaque instead of transparent as watercolor. Gouache is easy to use and creates vibrant effects.
Graded Wash
A graded wash is a smooth surface of color with the color saturation reducing gradually. A graded wash is one of the three washes in watercolor painting, besides flat wash and variegated wash.
Gradient Wash
A gradient wash is another name for a graded wash.
Grain
Grain refers to the structure of the surface of paper. It can be fine, medium, or rough paper. It is subjective for artists to choose paper with different grains for their paintings. Some artists prefer smooth paper while the others like rough paper.
Granulation
Granulation is the process when the paint pigments create grains on the paper when they are dry. This can bring natural and beautiful textures to the artwork. Different pigments granulate in different ways.
Hard Edge
The hard edge refers to the sharply defined outline of a shape. Hard edges in watercolor painting can be achieved with the wet-on-dry technique.
Highlight
Highlights are the lightest parts of an object in a painting. These parts receive the most amount of light and have the lightest color tone or sometimes appear white.
Hot Pressed
Hot-pressed refers to a type of watercolor paper. It is distinguished from cold-pressed and rough paper. The difference between those papers is the paper texture caused by different pressing methods when manufacturers produced the papers. Hot-pressed paper has a smooth surface.
Hue
Hue is the pure color or pigments without black or white added to it.
Landscape
A landscape is a painting or image of a natural scenery. The word “landscape” is also used for the horizontal orientation of an image or painting.
Layering
Layering refers to painting objects in more than one layer. Because watercolor paints are lighter when they are dry, artists usually paint many layers to get the desired color saturation.
Lifting
Lifting colors is a watercolor technique. To lift the color, use a clean brush to get some pigments out of the painting when the paper is still wet. Lifting colors creates highlights or increases the lightness in a painting.
Masking
Masking is a technique in watercolor painting that involves covering a part of the paper with masking tape or masking fluid to keep the original color of the paper toward the end of the painting session.
Masking Fluid
Masking fluid is liquid used in the masking technique. The masking fluid contains pigments and rubber latex. It can be painted on paper and can be removed when it dries without damaging the paper.
Masking Tape
Masking tape is a type of tape that can be applied to the watercolor paper and removed without damaging the surface of the paper. Masking tape is usually used to mask a part of the paper before painting to keep the white color of the paper. Artists usually use masking tape to keep the outline of a painting unpainted.
Medium
Medium in art refers to the method or particular material artists use to create artwork such as watercolor, graphite, and oil. Some people also use the word media instead of medium with the same meaning.
Middle Ground
The area in a painting that appears between the background and the foreground. Artists tend to put the focal point in the middle ground.
Monochromatic
A single color and its tints and shades. For example, a monochromatic painting of the sea and the sky may include only different tints and shades of blue.
Motif
Motif in art refers to the dominant idea or subject in a painting. For example, human portraits can be a motif.
Negative Painting
Negative painting is a painting technique that involves painting the negative space to emphasize the objects.
Negative Space
Negative space is the space surrounding an object or between objects.
Neutral Colors
Neutral colors refer to colors that don’t have much intensity or saturation and can go well with every other color without contrasting with them. In paintings, neutral colors include white, black, grey, beige, ivory, and cream.
Opacity
Opacity in painting refers to how well the pigments can cover the surface of the paper. The paints with high opacity cover the paper more effectively than the ones with low opacity because they have higher pigment density. Opacity is an important characteristic to evaluate the quality of the watercolor paints.
Opaque
Opaque is a characteristic of a material. Opaque material or pigments can’t be seen through. For example, wood or gouache paints are opaque.
Palette
A palette refers to a set of colors artists use for a painting. It also means the board or surface where artists fix the paints.
Pan Color
In watercolor, pan colors are semi-moist solid paints in a rectangle or a circle.
Paper Weight
Paper weight is an important parameter in choosing the right paper for watercolor painting. On the package of watercolor paper, you will see the paperweight in gsm or lb. Paper with 300 gsm or 140 lb or above is good for watercolor painting.
Perspective
Perspective refers to how things are arranged and appear in 3-dimensional space. Perspective is an important element in a painting that artists need to consider to create more depth for their paintings on a 2D surface. There are different perspectives such as 1-point perspective, 2-point perspective, and 3-point perspective.
Pigment
Pigments are particles used with a binder to create the paints or drawing materials. Pigments can be natural or artificial.
Positive Space
Positive space refers to the area an object occupies. Except in the negative painting technique, other techniques usually paint the positive space, meaning painting the objects instead of the surrounding space of the objects.
Primary Colors
Primary colors are colors that can’t be created by other colors in nature and are used to create other colors. Three primary colors are red, yellow, and blue. However, some color theories also include green as a primary color.
Realism
Realism is an artistic style in which artists tend to create figures with high accuracy to represent how the figures look in real life.
Rough Paper
Rough paper refers to a type of watercolor paper. It is distinguished from hot-pressed and cold-pressed paper. The difference between those papers is the paper texture caused by different pressing methods when manufacturers produced the papers. Rough paper has a rough surface.
Saturation
Saturation refers to the density of the color. It is one of the main attributes of color, besides value and brightness. A color that has high saturation looks more vibrant and pure than a dull color that has low saturation.
Secondary Color
Secondary colors are colors created from primary colors. For example, mixing red and yellow creates orange, and mixing blue and yellow creates green. Orange and green are secondary colors.
Shade
A shade of color is the color after adding black to it. Depending on the proportion of the pure color and black, there are unlimited shades of a color.
Sketch
To sketch is to draw. “Sketch” also refers to a drawing of objects using a pencil, chalk coal, or other materials.
Soft Edge
Soft edge refers to the blurred outline of a shape. A soft edge in watercolor painting can be achieved with the wet-on-wet technique.
Still Life
Still-life is a work of art that depicts unanimated objects such as bottles, fruits, and flowers.
Texture
Texture is the actual representation of a surface. In watercolor painting, the surface of the paper and the painting techniques result in different textures.
Tint
Tint is the colors after adding white to them. There are unlimited tints of a color, depending on the amount of white added to the paint.
Tone
The tone is the colors with gray added.
Translucent
Refers to the paint or material that is clear enough to allow some light, but not detailed shapes, to pass through. It is also considered semitransparent.
Transparent
“Transparent” or “Transparency” refers to a characteristic of watercolor paint. It means that the pigments painted on the previous layer can still be seen through later layers. This happens when the light shines through layers of watercolor paints and most of it is reflected to the eyes of the audience.
Tube Color
Tube color refers to the watercolor paints contained in tubes. The tube cover can be made of metal or plastic.
Value
Value in painting and designing refers to light and shadows, and how they appear in a painting or design. An object has a higher value in color when it is under sunlight than when it is in shadow.
Variegated Wash
Variegated wash is a type of wash that has two gradient colors matching each other. Read how to create a variegated wash.
Wash
A wash of watercolor is a smooth and uniform area painted with watercolor paint. There are three types of washes: flat wash, graded wash (or gradient wash), and variegated wash.
Watercolor Brush
A watercolor brush is a tool used to paint with watercolor paint. A watercolor brush usually has a wooden or plastic handle. The bristles of a watercolor brush can be natural hair from animals or synthetic hair. There are different sizes and types of watercolor brushes.
Watercolor Paint
Watercolor paint is one of the main materials used in watercolor painting. Watercolor paint is activated by water. Watercolor paint has high transparency. Read more about the characteristics of watercolor paint.
Watercolor Paper
Watercolor paper is a type of paper designed for watercolor painting. Watercolor paper needs to be able to absorb a large amount of water during the painting process. There are 3 parameters of watercolor paper that artists look into, which are thickness (or weight), cotton percentage, and pH level. Read more about the watercolor paper you should choose for painting.
Wet-On-Dry
A technique in watercolor painting that involves painting wet paint on dry paper. Wet-on-dry technique creates sharp edges for your brush strokes.
Wet-On-Wet (Wet-In-Wet)
A technique in watercolor painting that involves painting wet paint on wet paper. Wet-on-wet technique results in blurred edges of colors.
Downloadable Glossary of Watercolor Terms (PDF)
We have gone through the definitions and examples of 80 common watercolor terms and phrases. I hope you get more insights into the watercolor world. Below is the form where you can leave your email address so I can send you a free PDF file of the glossary.
