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