0:03 welcome to this 16 essential watercolor
0:05 techniques for all with a bonus
0:08 technique at the end of this video let's
0:10 get started I'm going to start off with
0:13 the most basic watercolor technique and
0:16 that is technique number one wet on dry
0:19 so I'm mixing up a little puddle of
0:22 Cerulean paint here using my size 10
0:25 round brush I've loaded the brush with
0:28 wet paint and I'm painting wet onto the
0:30 dry surface
0:34 it's cold pressed paper 300 G you notice
0:37 I load my brush each time and then paint
0:39 make sure you always load your brush
0:41 when you're painting in watercolor
0:44 especially when you're painting washes
0:46 I've allowed this first wash to dry and
0:49 I'm going to paint another layer on top
0:52 again wet on dry so I'm adding some
0:55 phthalo blue here slightly darker color
0:58 in watercolor we work light to dark and
1:00 I'm just painting this layer on on top
1:04 wet on dry and what you get when you
1:08 paint wet on dry is you get hard edges
1:10 hard edges can be useful especially if
1:13 you want to bring something forward and
1:15 sort of make something stand out more
1:17 soft edges are quite nice for pushing
1:20 things back so here is a closeup and you
1:23 can see there we've got crisp hard edges
1:25 and it's quite nice painting wet on dry
1:27 because you have more control over the
1:30 watercolor paint so technique number two
1:32 another basic technique in watercolor is
1:35 to paint wet into wet so I'm actually
1:38 wetting the surface of the paper here
1:41 just with clean water with my size 10
1:43 round brush and I'm going to use the
1:46 phthalo blue mix with the Cerulean and
1:49 I'm painting it wet into wet so the
1:52 paper is wet and so is the brush because
1:55 it's fully loaded with watercolor paint
1:57 and as you can see you get lots of soft
2:01 fuzzy edges which can be quite useful in
2:04 watercolor painting but you can also
2:06 lose control so you may find wet and wet
2:08 a bit tricky and I would definitely say
2:11 to practice the technique but it's a fun
2:13 technique to practice and another great
2:16 thing about wetting to wet is you can
2:18 actually blend and mix colors on the
2:20 paper as well which is what I'm doing
2:23 here so I've got a bit of green here and
2:25 I've painted at the bottom of that
2:28 little square mixing up a puddle of
2:30 yellow and I'm actually going to paint
2:33 that wet into wet just above the green
2:35 and what will happen is it will mix with
2:38 the blue to create a yellow green
2:40 another great thing about wetting to wet
2:43 is you can tilt to get the paint to move
2:44 and look at that it creates some
2:47 beautiful sort of atmospheric effects so
2:50 the color is blending but also you're
2:53 getting all these lovely soft edges and
2:55 I usually collect up the puddle at the
2:58 bottom as well there it gives you more
3:01 control so technique number three is to
3:05 paint damp into wet so I'm just painting
3:08 using a little bit of Windsor red here
3:11 so the surface on the paper will be wet
3:13 so I'm going to paint damp into wet so
3:16 I'm painting using damp paint a way to
3:19 get damp paint is as you saw there take
3:22 the excess moisture off on a paper towel
3:26 or just mix thicker paint and then you
3:30 can paint damp into wet and what you yet
3:32 is kind of a little bit more control the
3:34 paint doesn't run as much as it did wet
3:37 into wet and it's quite clear here using
3:40 the thicker red paint it doesn't flow
3:43 and run as it did wet in wet so you get
3:45 a little bit more definition as you can
3:47 see up close here but you still get
3:50 softer edges and you will still be able
3:53 to blend and mix the colors on the paper
3:56 the fourth technique is to paint damp
4:00 into damp so I am painting a yellow wash
4:03 onto the dry paper so basically I'm
4:07 painting wet on dry so the paint is wet
4:09 so for the paint to become damp on the
4:11 paper just wait a few minutes so one of
4:13 the ways of doing that and I'm showing
4:14 it to the camera I don't think you can
4:17 quite see it here but you want a Sheen
4:19 rather than a shine if you got a real
4:22 glossy Shine the paper is still too wet
4:26 so wait for that sort of soft Sheen look
4:28 so I'm mixing up some creamy paint so
4:31 more paint less water and remember you
4:34 can take the excess paint off on a paper
4:37 towel and my paper surface has a soft
4:40 Sheen look and I'm painting damp into
4:43 damp when you apply the paint and it
4:46 runs too much either your brush is too
4:49 wet or the paper is too wet so you get
4:52 the control here if you look at the damp
4:54 into wet next door it's sort of a bit
4:57 more fuzzier here the paint doesn't run
5:00 as much but you still get the soft Edge
5:03 a really useful technique if you want to
5:05 have a little bit more definition but
5:08 you want soft edges this technique does
5:09 take a little bit of practice but it's
5:12 so worth it for technique number five
5:15 I'm going to show you how to get a
5:17 cauliflower also known as a bloom or
5:20 back run now for beginners they can be
5:22 very tricky and sometimes you don't know
5:24 how you got it in the first place I'm
5:27 going to show you how to achieve a
5:29 backround a cauliflower but also how to
5:32 avoid them so I've painted a permanent
5:36 Rose wash here wet on dry with my size
5:38 eight round brush I'm showing you a
5:42 closeup of this wash because the Sheen
5:45 has gone from the surface so this is the
5:48 worst time to paint a lot of beginners
5:51 think that the paint has dried but it's
5:55 only deceptively dry so if you put a wet
5:58 wash on top of this so you're putting
6:02 wet into nearly dried paint you will get
6:06 a cauliflower as you can see here so you
6:09 get these sort of crinkly edges and
6:11 actually they're quite nice as well if
6:13 you want an edge like that but if you're
6:16 painting something like a sky and you
6:19 get a big cauliflower in the sky it can
6:20 be sort of quite
6:23 frustrating so if you want edges like
6:26 that for maybe flowers or sort of the
6:28 tops of trees or something like that
6:30 then this is how you would achieve it so
6:33 it's a really great technique but also a
6:36 very frustrating accident so to avoid
6:39 cauliflowers try not to put wet paint
6:42 into damp paint one of the most basic
6:45 techniques in watercolor is to paint a
6:48 flat wash the best way to paint a sort
6:51 of large flat wash for instance a large
6:53 sort of Blue Sky have your painting at
6:56 an angle which is what I've got here and
6:58 keep loading your brush have plenty of
7:01 paint and you'll see you'll get a little
7:03 puddle at the bottom of the paint there
7:05 which is called a watercolor bead and
7:07 you want that and you want to sort of
7:09 Glide your brush sort of just over the
7:11 top of the watercolor bead and at the
7:14 bottom so you'll get a Flawless flat
7:17 wash and it's a good idea to practice
7:19 this and always keep loading that brush
7:21 and then when you finished your wash
7:25 collect the bead with a clean damp brush
7:27 at the bottom this will stop that bead
7:30 from running up into your damp wash
7:33 later avoiding cauliflowers technique
7:38 number seven is a graded or graduated
7:41 wash this is a wash that starts off
7:44 darker and gets progressively lighter or
7:48 lighter and can get progressively darker
7:50 in this instance I'm just going from
7:52 dark to light but you could start
7:55 lighter and then just add a little bit
7:57 of paint each time in this instance I'm
7:59 adding the water
8:04 and each stroke the paint will get paler
8:06 but you won't get any hard edges so it's
8:08 great for something like a sky and it
8:10 gets paler as it goes towards the
8:13 horizon and you immediately create depth
8:17 in your painting so it's a really useful
8:20 technique and a great one to practice a
8:23 really useful tip is to try to keep the
8:26 sort of moisture of your brush the same
8:29 consistency as the paper if you go in
8:32 with a very wet brush and your paint
8:35 isn't as wet there is a danger again of
8:37 cauliflowers so really get into the
8:39 practice of sort of knowing what's going
8:42 on with your brush and on the surface of
8:45 the paper this really will build your
8:48 confidence in your watercolor painting
8:51 So for technique number eight I'm going
8:54 to paint a variegated wash a little bit
8:58 more of a tricky technique but it's one
9:01 where you apply the paint which is what
9:05 I'm doing here with the phthalo blue and
9:06 then I'm loaded my brush with a
9:09 permanent Rose and I've overlapped the
9:12 blue and they kind of blend together
9:16 seamlessly and you get a soft Edge and
9:19 you continue down and the colors start
9:22 to change and blend together so I've
9:24 rinsed my brush and I'm applying the
9:27 yellow overlapping the pink allowing the
9:31 colors to flow and blend so you'll still
9:32 get a little bit of the yellow but
9:36 you'll also get an orange color as well
9:38 and I'm just taking off the excess paint
9:41 at the bottom great technique especially
9:44 for something like a sunset for
9:47 technique number nine I'm going to use a
9:50 salt technique so I'm painting on a
9:52 quite a dark color here it's Pain's gray
9:56 with the phthalo blue wet on dry and I'm
9:58 applying just ordinary table salt and
10:01 I'm spring tling it sparingly onto the
10:04 damp surface if the surface is very wet
10:07 you get very large uncontrolled marks if
10:09 it's dry the salt doesn't work as well
10:12 here's a closeup of the salt as it's
10:13 absorbed the paint to create these
10:16 lovely light textured marks for
10:19 technique number 10 I'm going to use a
10:21 plastic card you can use an old bank
10:25 card or a store card cutup so I'm
10:28 applying a little bit of green here and
10:31 some burnt sienna and the paint isn't
10:34 too wet you don't want your paint too
10:36 wet when you're doing this technique you
10:37 want it slightly thicker and you don't
10:40 want to sort of lift off with the cards
10:42 straight away you want to wait so
10:45 there's a Sheen and not a shine and you
10:47 get more control that way and you want
10:52 to swipe the paint just once if possible
10:54 if you find the paint runs back in on
10:58 itself the paper is still too wet so
11:00 just wait a little a little bit longer
11:02 and do practice this technique it's so
11:04 much fun to do and here's a closeup
11:06 great for sort of rocks and sort of
11:08 textured things like that and also for
11:10 grasses and I'm just lifting off some of
11:13 the green paint here and also it's sort
11:15 of drawing some of the dark sort of
11:18 paint from the burnt sienna as well so
11:20 it's a fun technique and definitely one
11:24 worth practicing so technique number 11
11:28 is a scraffito technique and scrapo is
11:31 Italian for Scratch so I've actually
11:32 scratched into the surface of the
11:35 watercolor paper and this is permanent
11:37 but what happens when you apply the
11:39 paint the paint sinks through the
11:43 scratches and makes these dark marks
11:44 again remember this is permanent you may
11:46 want to practice this technique here is
11:49 a closeup so it's great for something
11:52 like grasses or stems Etc you can also
11:55 scratch into the wet paint as well and
11:57 that's fun to do and it actually is
12:01 easier than scratching the paper first
12:04 so here's a closeup here it's really
12:06 effective so I'm going to let the paper
12:09 dry once the paper is dry you can also
12:13 scratch off the paint using a craft
12:16 knife all I'll say is be careful with
12:19 this because sometimes you can actually
12:21 tear your paper too much so it's a bit
12:24 of a risky technique but it's quite nice
12:26 using it at the end of the painting just
12:29 to create some sparkle and Light maybe
12:31 on the surface of the water or something
12:35 like that but do practice it before you
12:38 use this technique in your paintings
12:40 technique number 12 is wax resist you
12:44 can use a candle wax crayons or even oil
12:46 pastels and I'm rubbing this wax crayon
12:49 onto the dry surface of the watercolor
12:53 paper I'm using this oil pastel here and
12:56 I'm actually going to draw on to the dry
13:00 surface as well and when you apply
13:03 watercolor paint The Pastels the oil
13:07 pastels and the wax crayon will resist
13:09 the watercolor so as you can see here
13:11 I'm applying a little bit of pink here
13:16 and you can see the clear wax crayon has
13:18 resisted the watercolor and it's a
13:20 really fun technique and create some
13:24 light and textures technique number 13
13:26 is spattering so you can see I've masked
13:30 my paintings and I'm spattering wet on
13:34 dry with my size 10 brush just some pink
13:36 paint but you get all these spatters of
13:38 paint which are great for creating
13:41 textures and I love using this technique
13:43 now you can't see this off camera but
13:45 I'm just tapping the middle of my brush
13:48 with another paint brush it's another
13:51 way of spattering you can also spatter
13:53 with an old toothbrush just rub your
13:56 finger from top to bottom to release the
13:59 paint and you get some fine Misty
14:02 spatters so that was spattering wet on
14:05 dry I'm going to wet the bottom half of
14:07 this section and I'm going to spatter
14:10 wet into wet and you get these sort of
14:13 lovely soft sort of spatters again a
14:15 very useful way of getting different
14:19 sort of textures technique number 14 is
14:22 granulation it's when some paints look
14:25 more grainy than others so I'm actually
14:28 applying the phthalo blue here phthalo
14:31 blue does not granulate and I wanted to
14:34 compare it to a blue that does granulate
14:35 and that's
14:38 ultramarine and you'll be able to see
14:40 that it's got a lot more texture and
14:43 grainy look and you can see this in the
14:45 closeup here the ultramarine is
14:49 granulating you can also buy granulation
14:52 medium so this is the phthalo blue and
14:55 I'm going to add the granulation medium
14:58 to it to make it granulate and so I've
15:00 just used my pipet to do that and I'm
15:03 just tilting my watercolor paper there
15:06 and getting the granulation fluid to mix
15:09 with the phthalo blue and you can see
15:12 these little grainy particles appear
15:14 obviously the granulation fluid does
15:16 dilute the paint as well so try and take
15:19 that into consideration but look at that
15:22 it's created some very interesting sort
15:25 of grainy textures there so some colors
15:27 granulate and some don't and you can
15:29 find this information out on the
15:32 manufacturer's color chart leaflets
15:34 which should be available online or in
15:37 your local art store technique number 15
15:39 is a dry brush technique so normally we
15:41 paint with a wet brush which is what I'm
15:44 doing here applying wet paint onto the
15:47 dry paper or even wet paper and painting
15:49 with the tip of the brush and it allows
15:52 the paint to flow freely onto the paper
15:54 to achieve a dry brush technique take
15:57 the excess paint off on your paper towel
15:59 and use the belly of the brush which is
16:02 what I'm pointing to there and then sort
16:04 of paint with the belly the middle of
16:07 the brush and sort of scrub your brush
16:09 onto the sort of textured tooth of the
16:12 paper and you get this lovely textured
16:15 effect lots of light as well so remember
16:17 take the excess paint off and use the
16:19 belly of the brush I'm actually applying
16:21 this sort of Darker paint on top of that
16:24 burnt sienna to sort of color mix and
16:27 create textures and here is a closeup
16:29 there you can see see it's a really
16:31 effective technique very useful for
16:34 creating Textures in your watercolor
16:37 paintings technique number 16 is to use
16:40 masking fluid use an old brush and
16:43 protect it with hand liquid soap and
16:45 this will protect the brush while you're
16:48 using the masking fluid so I'm dipping
16:52 my brush into the masking fluid and
16:54 painting the masking fluid onto the dry
16:57 surface masking fluid is to mask out
17:00 tricky areas that are hard to paint
17:03 around or you want to protect lighter
17:05 colors or you want to protect the light
17:08 and white of the paper as well once the
17:11 masking fluid is dry you can actually
17:14 paint freely over the top of the masking
17:16 fluid and it will protect the paper or
17:18 the paint underneath and it's quite nice
17:20 to spatter masking fluid as well you can
17:22 imagine these little dots would be
17:24 impossible to paint round and once
17:26 you're finished just rinse your brush
17:28 and as you can see here the brush has
17:31 been protected by the liquid soap if you
17:33 don't use the soap it's very difficult
17:35 to remove the masking fluid and it can
17:37 ruin your brushes you must always allow
17:39 your painting to dry naturally don't
17:42 blow dry the masking fluid because it
17:44 can make removing the masking fluid a
17:48 lot trickier so always paint on dry
17:50 masking fluid which is what I'm doing
17:53 here just using a little bit of blue
17:56 here over my white flowers that are
17:59 being protected by by the masking fluid
18:02 adding a touch of pink then a little bit
18:05 of green here and using my size eight
18:07 round brush just adding a little bit
18:09 more of a stronger Green cuz I want to
18:12 make sure that I use sort of Darker
18:14 paint so it really makes these flowers
18:16 stand out that's why I'm using a
18:18 creamier blue I'm also going to add some
18:20 salt just one of the other techniques
18:22 here to create some Textures in the
18:25 foreground and I'm going to allow the
18:27 painting to dry naturally to allow the
18:30 Sal to work and I'm brushing off the
18:32 salt with my paper towel and I'm
18:35 removing the masking fluid with my paper
18:37 towel always make sure your painting is
18:39 absolutely dry before you remove your
18:41 masking fluid it can smudge your
18:44 painting or even tear it so I'm just
18:46 adding some centers to these little
18:48 white flowers here just to add a bit of
18:52 interest and then adding some greens wet
18:56 on dry on the stems and a few grasses in
18:59 the foreground wet on dry dry so you can
19:01 see how useful it is to use masking
19:04 fluid to mask out sort of tricky smaller
19:07 lighter areas or whiter areas and here
19:09 is a closeup and you can see how
19:12 effective it has been especially masking
19:14 out those little white dots which would
19:16 be impossible as I said earlier to paint
19:19 around so for the bonus technique it is
19:23 a lifting off technique either wet paint
19:26 or dry paint so I'm lifting off some dry
19:29 paint here using a stiff brush don't use
19:32 your good soft haired brushes to do this
19:34 they won't work very well and you'll
19:36 ruin the tips of them and as you can see
19:38 I've lifted off here and you've got a
19:42 light area and a softish edge as well
19:44 it's very useful especially if you kind
19:46 of make a mistake in watercolor it's
19:48 quite nice that you can lift off but you
19:50 can also lift off wet paint so this is
19:53 what I'm doing here on this scrap of
19:56 paper just using some blues and I'm
19:59 painting wet on dry dry so this is
20:02 supposed to be a sky so I'm paling it
20:05 towards the horizon so it's a graded
20:08 wash and now I'm using some paper towel
20:12 to lift out the clouds while the paint
20:15 is wet it's a really effective technique
20:18 for creating lighter areas and marks
20:21 that are difficult to paint around and
20:23 you get some lovely textured effects
20:25 using the paper towel as well but you
20:28 can lift off with a damp brush as well
20:32 to create soft lighter areas great for
20:35 Reflections and light in the water or
20:37 even lifting off to create some light on
20:41 a petal or a leaf it is such a versatile
20:43 effective technique and one I would
20:46 really encourage you to practice so I've
20:49 removed all of the washi tape and I've
20:52 labeled all my techniques and I really
20:54 encourage you to do something similar
20:57 like this maybe in your sketchbooks it's
20:58 a good reminder of all the different
21:00 techniques out there and I know there
21:03 are more so please share them in the
21:05 comments section and if you'd like to
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21:30 thanks so much for watching happy
