By Team Mojarto
Watercolour painting is a popular medium both among professional as well as amateur artists. It offers you a large plethora of creative possibilities and it’s quite easy to use. Here’s an insight into some of the popular techniques that you too could try out.
Wash
A wash is a technique used in the majority of watercolour painting. It’s just about dipping a brush into paint and water and spreading it over the intended surface. What’s important though is that this must finally appear as one solid hue.
The splatter technique
This brings energy into your work and is reminiscent of floating particles or a water spray. Hold your paintbrush between your thumb and middle fingers. To achieve this effect, using your index finger, pull back on the paintbrush bristles and allow them to snap forward.
Layering colours
As watercolour is a thin medium, you will have to build up colour gradually. First, take one colour and lay it down. Once this dries, give it another shade. In places where they overlap, the pigment mixes and this creates a different colour.
Wet on wet
The “Wet on wet” technique can be defined as wet paint is applied to wet paper, or added to a wash of fresh wet paint. It’s important to make sure that when you are working with wet paper that the paper is not too wet. The colour will always follow the water. The second way is to wet a specific area on your paper and apply some colours. After this, wet another portion, but not so wet as the first area and then apply more colours. Allow to dry.
Wet colour on dry paper
To use this technique, make sure the paper you are using is dry. Fill your brush with your colours and apply them on the dry paper. What this does is that it results in hard edges which need to be softened immediately before the washes are completely dry. A moist brush is ideal to soften the edges. This can also be used to mix colours on paper.
Get the textures right
You’ll see that working with watercolour on a rougher surface has several benefits. One of the apparent ones is that getting a great texture doesn’t need a lot of effort. Despite this, it’s crucial to make an effort to accurately describe objects and materials’ textures. This entails using both wet and dry colours as well as lights and darks.
Layer your colours
Since watercolour is a thin medium, you must gradually add colour. Since you can combine colours right on the paper, this is another benefit of the medium. Put down one colour at a time. After letting it dry, apply another shade. You’ll observe that the pigment blends where they overlap, giving you a new colour. This is excellent for developing flesh tones.