Basic, Yet Effective Watercolor Techniques

Painting using watercolor is one of the easiest things to do, if you have the right set of supplies and you are familiar with the basic watercolor techniques.

For beginners, start with a simple set of watercolor supplies including pigments and paints, brushes, a palette, paper, and water. Once you have all these, you are ready to start using different watercolor techniques including:

1. Washes Technique. This is considered the most basic of watercolor techniques. You can use the flat wash, which is done by wetting the area of paper. You can cover it by the wash, after mixing enough paint to fill the entire area easily. You can also use the graded wash wherein the paint or the pigment is slightly diluted using more water in each horizontal stroke which will lead to gradual fading of shades. The graded wash technique is best for painting skies.

2. Glazing Technique. This is quite similar to the wash technique, but uses a transparent and thin paint that is applied over existing washes instead. The main idea here is to adjust the tone and shade of the wash underlying it. In using the glazing technique, make sure each layer is used evenly.

3. Wet in Wet Technique. This refers to the technique which is simply done by applying pigment to wet paper. As a result, soft undefined shapes will come out from slightly blurred marks. This technique is usually applied over existing dry washes. This technique is best used when pushing images of bushes into a certain distance – creating persepctive.

4. Dry Brush Technique. This is the opposite of the wet in wet technique because the brush, loaded with paint and less water, is usually used over a paper that is completely dry. Here, the marks that are produced have hard edges and are very crisp. The usual result of this technique is that it will make your image come forward in your painting.

5. Lifting Off Technique. Here, some watercolor pigments are usually dissolved. Then, these are lifted off once it has been dried completely. The lifting off technique can be done simply by wetting the area and by removing the pigment using a brush. With the help of tissue and clean water, the pigment can be wiped off. The blotted pigment will produce unique hard edged shapes and lines. This technique is ideal for producing foreground shadows.

6. Dropping in Color Technique. This is another simple technique used in watercolor painting. Here, a color is introduced to a wet region of the paper and blended well. Usually, the results are unpredictable, but it is often produces interesting results since it makes the color gradations more vibrant.

More details about these watercolor techniques can be learned by simply browsing books or magazines on crafts and paintings or by taking a course. You can also ask people who are into using watercolor in producing paintings to get first hand tips.

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