Glazing with watercolor: something every watercolor artist needs to know

Initial Washes

• Use a soft flat watercolor brush to wet the area you will be working on.

This is important for glazing with watercolor. Then the paint can be applied without forming hard edges.

Paint the lower mango with the cool yellow, Lemon Yellow.

This mango is behind and farther back than the top mango. The cool yellow sets it farther back in the painting.

Paint the top mango with the warm yellow, New Gamboge.

Let these colors dry thoroughly. Using a hair dryer will speed up the drying.

Second Wash = Glazing

• When you are glazing with watercolor the initial wash must be completely dry. Then when you apply more colors, they will not mix together.

Clean your brush of any paint from the previous layer before adding a new layer of paint.

Make a wash of the Winsor Red and water. Winsor Red is a transparent color. If you don't have Winsor Red, use Permanent Rose which is a transparent color.

The Cadmium colors are opaque and do not work well for glazing.

Let each layer dry thoroughly before you add another glaze layer.

The glaze of blue makes green.

• When the underlying colors are thoroughly dry, add the next glaze.

This time we use Ultramarine Blue.

Ultramarine Blue has the characteristic of granulating when it is applied.

The granulation portrays the color variation and texture of the mango.

Ultramarine works for this application instead of other blues because of its granulating characteristic.

Shadow the overlapping mango.

• This time, do not pre-wet the area.

Use the same blue where the top mango overlaps the bottom mango.

Apply a line of blue with a round brush.

Immediately come back with some clear water to feather in the bottom edge of the shadow.

Also, softly apply some blue around the outside edge of the mango.

This makes the mango edge turn away from the viewer and gives it a rounded appearance.

Finish glazing the mangoes.

• Glazing with watercolor takes multiple layers.
  

This is how to use watercolor.

It took more than one glaze of the red to achieve the mango color.

The viewer's eye sees down thru the multiple transparent layers.

Add more glazes of yellow to intensify the color.

Continue to use the warm yellow on the top mango.

The cool yellow on the bottom mango will set it behind the top mango. Learn more about color.

Continue glazing until you are satisfied with the colors.

Do the lower leaves first.

• Do the lower leaves first that are set behind the fruit.

Paint the leaves with yellow.

We used Raw Sienna close to the fruit for the shadow area and Lemon Yellow farther away from the fruit.

Raw Sienna made an earthy colored leaf. If you want a cleaner green use Lemon Yellow all the way.

Use the paper for white when you learn how to use watercolor. Some white on the leaves gives added interest. More ways to preserve the white paper.

After the yellow is dry glaze on some blue to make the leaves green.

If you used Lemon Yellow for the entire leaf, then darken the shadow area with extra blue.