The Fundamentals of Watercolor Techniques (Beginners Guide)

Essential Materials

Before you learn to paint with watercolors, let’s go over what materials you need for watercolor painting:

Paper

Paper is probably the most important supply you’ll need. Good quality paper will help you make progress faster. Good quality paper absorbs enough moisture evenly, without warping, and can handle more techniques.

Usually a 300gsm, cold pressed, 100% cotton paper will do. If you don’t have 100% cotton paper, then go for 70% or 50% cotton paper.

Always make sure you are using paper made specifically for watercolor painting.

Paint

You’ll need watercolor paint. Just make sure it’s a good student or professional paint set and not those cheaper chalky paint sets you’d normally find in a pre-school.

Before I start painting, I like to pre-wet my paints by lightly spritzing them with clean water. I then allow them to sit for 5 minutes so they can properly activate.

Brushes

A good synthetic round brush will do. I love to use round brushes because they are versatile. You can use them to fill in large shapes and they come to a fine point for detail work.

I use a size 10 round brush, and it’s the perfect size because I love to work with smaller sized paper.

Other Materials

• 2 jars of water: Always use 2 jars, one to rinse your brush and one to load your brush with clean water.
• Masking tape- Watercolor paper can sometimes buckle so make sure you tape your paper down as you paint.
• Paper towel/ cloth- To dab off excess moisture from your brush.

I won’t dive into too much depth on which supplies to get, what to look for, and avoid. I do, however, have separate articles covering this topic in depth if you’d like to check them out:

• Watercolor Supplies: A Complete Guide for Novices

• Everything You Should Know About Watercolor Paper

• How to Choose Watercolor Paints

• Choosing the Best Watercolor Brushes

Warming up Your Brush

Before we jump into the basic techniques, let’s first get comfortable holding and controling the brush.

We’re going to do a quick, simple exercise: Thick to thin lines.

Start by grabbing your round brush and loading it with any color of your choosing.

The paint mixture should be roughly 50% water and 50% paint. You don’t want it too thick or too watey and you want to make sure it’s enough for a long brushstroke.

Next, hold your brush by the middle or end of the handle (not too close to the ferule).

With the tip touching the paper gently apply a little pressure and drag the brush at an angle so that the belly widens(image below).

As you go on, lift the brush until it comes to a fine point. This should create a thick to thin brushstroke.

Keep repeating this exercise until you feel confident holding the brush.

The Fundamental Watercolor Techniques

Now that you’ve warmed up, let’s start with the techniques you will be using consistently across all of your painting sessions. They include:

• Wet on wet
• Wet on dry
• Dry on dry (Dry brushing)
• Blending
• Layering

Every watercolor artist has to learn how to paint with these techniques, what effect each one creates, and when to use them.

Wet on Wet

This technique is when you wet the paper with clean water first, allow the cotton fibers to absorb the moisture, and then paint into the wet paper.

This causes the paint to spread or bleed into the paper. This is also how you can create that soft, diffused feathery texture that watercolor is known for.

Wet on wet is excellent for painting large background washes and soft diffused shapes. Great when you don’t want a lot of definition.

When working wet on wet, always remember that the paint will spread where there’s moisture.

Common mistakes with this technique include:

1. Using too much or too little water
2. Being impatient: Trying to paint defined details while there’s too much moisture

Wet on dry

The second one is wet on dry. To work this technique, you simply paint on dry paper with a wet brush.

Because of this the paint stays in the same spot and only moves where your brush goes. Wet on dry creates more control and hard edges.

Wet on dry is best used for painting more defined shapes.

Many artists will use both wet on wet and wet on dry in their paintings. You can paint the backgrounds with wet into wet and then finish of the painting with wet on dry technique.

The struggle many beginners have when working wet on dry is that there is less moisture so the paper dries quicker. This means that you have to get the timing right and work quicker.

Common mistakes include:

1. Not mixing enough paint, and running out of time as you paint
2. Scrubbing or overworking the painting
3. Creating unwanted harsh edges

If you want to dive deep and learn all about the wet on dry technique, take a look at this article:

• How to master the wet on dry technque with watercolor

Dry on dry (dry brushing)

This is when you create a thick paint mixture by using very little water. You then paint on dry paper with the thick mixture.

Dry brushing is an excellent way to create rough texture, paint small sharp details with hard edges.

You can create different effects by using different brush shapes, or holding the brush at an angle.:

Blending

There’s two times when you need to know how to blend.

• The first is to soften an edge
• The second is to seamlessly blend two or more colors

In order to blend you need to know how to “pull” the pigment with your brush.

You need to know how to lift

If you want to learn more about the blending technique, I have a full in depth article below:

• How to Blend With Watercolors

Layering/Glazing

Watercolor is transparent, that means when you paint a new layer ontop, the previous one can still be seen.

The main rule for layering is to always make sure that the previous layer is completely dry. You don’t want the colors bleeding into the previous layer causing unwanted backruns.

Because watercolors are transparent, when layering always start with the lighter values first and add the darker layers at the end.

If you layer two different colors on top of each other, it will create a new color. For example if you paint a layer of blue over a layer of yellow you will get green.

This also means that you need to be aware of layering complementary colors. This is a common cause of muddy paintings.

Avoid these common mistakes when layering:

1. Not waiting for the previous layer to dry
2. Unintentionally layering complementary colors causing the painting to muddy.
3. Painting the dark layers first.
4. Not trusting the process: trying to paint everything in one layer.

If you want to learn how to layer correctly, read my in depth article:

• How to Layer Watercolor Correctly

Watercolor Washes

One of the fundamental techniques you’ll learn in watercolor painting are the three basic washes:

1. Flat Wash: A solid block of color created when you paint an even layer of color.
2. Graded Wash: A wash going from light to dark or dark to light.
3. Variegated wash: A wash transitioning between two or more colors

Below are some examples so that you can visualize what they look like:

Each type of wash can be painted using both the wet on wet and wet on dry techniques and it is recomended to learn both.

I have written step by step instructions for all three wash techniques using both wet on wet and wet on dry techniques:

• Watercolor washes using wet on wet

• Watercolor washes using wet on dry

• Wet on wet technique – pre-wetting the paper with clear water before you add your first layer of pigment.
• This technique creates a soft, dispersed look and is more suitable to use in situations when covering a large portion of the paper at a single time.
• Use watercolor paper- Only because normal paper will get worn down by the water and will become wrinkly.

The image below shows the end result after using the wet on wet technique. I simply pre-wet the paper with clear water before adding a layer of Prussian blue.

Wet on dry technique

• Wet on dry does not require you to pre-wet the paper. Instead you just add the paint directly on the paper after adding water to it
• Wet on dry technique can be used to create rough textures and to add finer details to your painting. This is because it creates an effect of having sharp edges.
• The paper absorbs the pigment and you have more control.

The image bellow shows the result after using this technique. You can see the edges are sharper because the paper was not previously wet.

Combining the two

Both techniques I mentioned above can be used together when creating a watercolor painting. The wet on wet technique can be used to create a soft effect while the wet on dry can be used to add the finer details.

In the image below you will see an example where I combined both techniques; I used the wet on wet technique to create a blue background. After letting the paint dry, I then used the wet on dry technique to paint the the trees.

Dry brush technique

• The concept behind this technique is fairly simple. It involves applying paint onto the paper using a damp or close to dry brush (or a very dry brush). This technique is ideal when creating rough texture as shown in the images below.
• In order to improve the results of this technique try this:
  • Your thumb on one side of the brush and the other four fingers on the opposite side
  • Try hold it at an angle lower than 90° against the paper. Feel free to try different angles.

Lifting vs dropping

Dropping- dropping is basically adding a new load of paint to a wash that has not yet dried. The idea is that the two pigments will subtly blend on their own. This technique can get tricky because if you add water to a wash that has begun to dry then it will cause a backrun.

Lifting- Involves picking up pigment from the watercolor paper using a material that will absorb the watercolor. This technique won’t work if the paint is dry, in that case you may rewet the paper and lift the pigment this way. However, I recommend lifting the pigment before the layer dries as some watercolor paints stain the paper more than others and you could ruin your painting.

Backruns

Backruns are caused by adding water to a wash that is still damp causing the pigments to separate and move to the outline of the water. They can be accidental when water droplets fall from the brush unintentionally causing the pigment on the paper to break. However you can use backruns as a technique in order to create different textures. An example can be when painting the sky, adding a backrun can help express the different textures of the clouds.

Although it may take some practice and of course trial and error, using backruns as a technique can produce some fabulous results.

The first Image shows how I added the first layer of paint, and the second shows how I created a backrun by adding a streak of clear water across the orange with my brush.

Blending

Learning how to blend correctly is important when it comes to creating any watercolor painting. Blending is what happens when you cause two colors to have a soft transition on your paper. It allows two different colors to simultaneously stay next to each other; for example the blue, orange and yellow in a sunset painting.

Blending involves causing a color to fade softly instead of having a hard edge.It is achieved though the combination of the movement of the paint brush and the right timing when the layer of paint is just the right level of dampness.

You can create a blending technique by:

• Adding a streak of watercolor pigment on your paper. While its still wet, quickly clean off your brush and use a small amount of clear water to soften the edges.
  • Using clear water will cause the pigment to become lighter.
• Using wet on wet technique: Here you just pre wet the paper with clear water. Add a watercolor pigment on one side of the paper and add the other pigment next to it. Clean off your brush then use it to slowly guide the pigments, allowing them to blend the way you want.
  • Try not to use large amounts of water when pre-wetting the paper. Instead, add a subtle wash and this will give you more control of where the pigment flows.

We have come to the end of this post. Now its time to try out these techniques and practice 🙂