
You might’ve heard that watercolor artists use salt to create texture in their paintings. This is true, there is an endless array of creative opportunities when it comes to using salt! However, you may not be sure how to explore this technique… In this article, I have provided you with a guide on how to use the watercolor salt technique to create spontaneous paintings!
You’ll learn how it works, the step-by-step process, how you can alter the technique to produce different textures, and finally, you’ll learn a few painting ideas.
Let’s get started…
Many watercolor artists use salt to create spontaneous paintings and achieve interesting textures. This works by sprinkling salt onto the paint while the wash is still wet. The salt absorbs the water and pulls the pigment, and once it has dried you’ll be left with textured “spots” or “sparkles”.
Here’s what you’ll need for this technique:
Here’s how you use salt to create texture in your watercolor painting:
Most types of salt will work with this technique including regular table salt, sea salt, and iodized salt…etc However, you can always experiment with different types.
Absolutely! The size of the salt grain will alter the outcome of the texture. Generally, the bigger the salt grain the bigger the sparkles will be. Meanwhile, smaller salt grains produce smaller spots. The image below shows a comparison between smaller granules of salt and coarse salt.
Finer pigments tend to react differently to granulating pigments. Because granulating pigments have larger particles there is less flow, resulting in less obvious sparkles. Meanwhile, non-granulating colors produce large textured spots because the particles flow with the water being absorbed.
Rough paper produces the most texture out of the three. However the watercolor salt technique works on all three surfaces; Rough paper, hot-pressed and cold-pressed paper.
How wet the paper is will produce different effects. Adding too much water will cause bigger blooms and could dissolve the salt and cause it to stick to the paper. Adding too little water will result in much smaller sparkles and in some cases, there won’t be any effect because the paper will dry too quickly (especially if you live in an area where there’s less heat and humidity).
I tested out all three levels of wetness with the salt technique and the image below shows the results:
Once you add the salt, let it dry, and remove it, you can glaze the painting with another color. You can even use a damp brush to rewet and soften some of the edges if you desire. However, it’s best not to disturb the painting after you’ve added the salt to a layer of wet paint before it has had time to dry.
I would recommend letting it air dry. The use of heat tools will dissolve the salt and interrupt the reaction process between the salt and the pigment.
Yes, you can, for this to work you’ll need to be careful not to load your brush with too much water. A roughly 50:50 ratio of paint to water should do. Simply wet the paper (not too wet), and sprinkle the salt. Drop in the paint with the point of your brush and let the pigment flow! Next, allow it to dry without disturbance, and then sweep off the salt.
You can make your own salt if you’d like to experiment with larger grains using sea salt or the salt you have at home. You can use seawater or the table salt you have available at home.
Here’s how to make your own coarse salt at home:
To make salt using seawater, start by straining the seawater using a cheesecloth to remove the unwanted dirt. Pour the seawater into a baking tray or a container with a large flat surface bottom. Place it in a cool dry area where it won’t be disturbed at let the water evaporate and the salt crystals form. That’s it, that’s how to make salt using seawater!
Here’s an article that shows you more information on how to grow your own salt crystals.
There are endless opportunities for you to use the salt technique in your paintings! Below, I have listed a few examples below to help inspire you! I tried to make these paintings simple so that you can follow along if you’re a beginner! (I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below).
Colors used:
This is a simple painting using just a few basic colors and of course salt! Make sure to tape your paper and prep your workstation. Let’s begin:
You can also use salt to add texture when painting a flower field! Start by painting the background of the field, while it’s still wet, sprinkle some salt, and let it dry. Remove the salt then finish the painting by adding the final details. The salt effect will help add texture!
Using salt when painting water can create that sparkling effect that you see when looking at the light reflecting off of the water. To do this, start by wetting the paper and painting in the water ripples wet into wet. Sprinkle a few specs of salt where the light reflections are and let it set. Once it finishes drying you can finish off the details of the painting.
I hope you enjoyed this article and learned a lot about the watercolor salt technique! For more watercolor learning resources sing up for my email list below:
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