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how to paint watercolor: it's fun and easy!
Begin painting with the five basics of how to paint watercolor.
Watercolor is often used for delicate, intricate works. This intriguing medium allows the artist to explore the delicate interplay of light and color.
This page will equip you with the essential knowledge to start painting watercolor.
Watercolor is a joy to use and it makes wonderful paintings.
Watercolors are fun!
Watercolors are fun!how to paint watercolor
What Watercolor Supplies Do We Need?
Demo: What's The Rule of Painting Watercolor?
Practice Painting The Watercolor Tutorials
How Do We Paint White Watercolor?
what Watercolor Supplies do we need?
Equip yourself with the right tools
and materials. Start out with a minimum, you can always add more later.
watercolor paint
Watercolor paint comes in two different forms.
You can paint watercolor!Tube watercolors have some glycerin added to keep the paint flexible.
They are my chosen form of watercolor paint because it's easier to get more intense, vibrant colors with tube watercolors.
Pan watercolors are pressed into dry cubes.
When we want to use pan watercolors, rub a wet brush on the selected color cube.
The
brushes used on pan watercolors wear out faster from all the rubbing.
Pan watercolors an easy watercolor for beginners.
Also, they are very handy to carry for travel and painting in the field.
what do we paint watercolor on?
Watercolor is traditionally painted on 100% cotton paper.
Watercolor on Aquabord140# paper is good for beginning watercolor.
The paper should be stretched, so it won't buckle from the water.
Watercolor paper in a block cannot buckle because the sides are fastened down.
Watercolors on paper must be matted and framed under glass.
What are watercolor panels?
Hardboard panels made for watercolor are my favorites. Almost all of my watercolor paintings are done on Aquabord made by Ampersand.
When the painting is dry, I spray it with Krylon fixative. The finished painting is framed without a mat or glass.
Can we paint watercolor on canvas?
Yes, watercolor may be painted on canvas. specifically labeled for watercolor.
The
paint tends to slide
around unless you first brush the entire canvas with water. Let the
water soak away before painting. When the painting is dry, it may be
sealed with a fixative.
Watercolor for beginners is much easier, if the painting is done on paper or a prepared panel.
watercolor brushes
Watercolor painting requires soft brushes made from animal hair or a soft synthetic fiber.
We can do all our watercolor painting with just two or three brushes.
- #7 or #8 round brush is a good all-around brush
- 1" flat brush used to wash in large areas
- Optional a 1/2" angle brush for straight edges and fine lines
The watercolor brushes I have been using for around twenty years have never seen soap. I just swish them around in water, shake them to make them point up. Then blot the excess water away and lay them down flat to dry.
Get more information on supplies for watercolor painting.
what colors do we use?
A good way to start painting is with the primary colors; red, yellow, and blue.
A double primary palette has a warm and cool version of each of the primaries. It's handy when we learning how to mix colors.
Primary Palette
- Cadmium Red
- Cadmium Yellow Light
- Ultramarine Blue
Double Primary Palette
- Cadmium Red and Permanent Rose
- Cad Yellow Light and Lemon Yellow
- Ultramarine Blue and Phthalo Blue
See my recommended colors of an extended palette of 12 colors.
demo: what's the rule of painting watercolor?
Most watercolor paints are transparent or semi-transparent. The light colors are not able to cover the dark colors. Even if we use opaque colors, when they are mixed with water, they will not cover the dark colors sufficiently.
The rule is: Paint watercolor from LIGHT to DARK.
Paint the light colors first. Then, as the painting progress paint the darker parts.
watercolor demo
Do a light pencil sketch, then begin painting.
- Start with light washes of color.
- Glaze the washes darker where applicable and paint the dark colors.
- Detail and finish; scratching out highlights, darken where needed, any small brushwork, etc.
This example used the primary colors of yellow, red and blue.
It was done using a round Black Velvet watercolor brush on a small watercolor tablet that's ideal for practice. Watercolor Supplies
do a light pencil sketch
In a landscape painting, it is not necessary to draw every little detail.
Go for the big shapes. Good composition places the waterline above or below the center.
Sketch the outline of the two big rock formations. The front rocks are painted in later.
1. start with light washes
Wet the entire paper except for the big rock.
A. Turn the paper upside-down. Start painting at the horizon line with yellow, red, then blue.
B. Turn the paper upright and paint yellow, red and blue down to the bottom edge. The wet paper blends colors as you paint.
2. paint the darks
Mix a dark rock color with a combination of red, blue and yellow.
The three primary colors always mix to make neutral colors that harmonize with the rest of the painting.
3. detail and finish
Darken the rocks with a second layer. Paint more darks and color into the water.
Mistakes can be corrected. Using a damp brush, I pulled some yellow off the water at the horizon. Then painted a bit of blue.
practice painting the watercolor tutorials
Start with an easy watercolor tutorial.This beginning watercolor tutorial is great for getting into painting. It doesn't take much to practice painting watercolor.
Prepare a container of clean water.
A plastic or Styrofoam plate will work for a palette.
Set out three colors; blue, yellow and orange (Burnt Sienna works well for this painting).
Paint the hummingbird and flowers with a #7 or #8 round brush.
Paint the hummer and the flower first and then paint the blue background with a larger flat brush, as desired.
Paint a beautiful watercolor background
Paint this step-by-step watercolor.Many people begin painting with watercolor.
You can paint this Angelfish with watercolor.
You are provided with the reference photos, how to get ready to paint with tips for doing any watercolor painting.
Using just a few colors creates a harmonious piece of artwork.
What do we do if the watercolor paper is wavy after we paint on it?
There's an easy way to solve the problem of wavy paper.
more about how to paint watercolor
Refine your watercolor techniques.Learn more about painting watercolor with this captivating tutorial.
Review the basics of how to use watercolor, what supplies and colors are recommended for watercolor painting.
Draw and paint this feisty Rufous Hummingbird who doesn't mind sitting on such a thorny branch.
Start painting with the light colors. Then when they are dry, glaze on the darker colors and shadows.
This painting uses only three colors, yellow, orange and blue.
Green is not included so you get to practice a bit of mixing colors.
how do we paint white watercolor?
Use the paper for the white of watercolor paintings.
Why, you may ask?
Because a really good white watercolor paint is not available. Many artists use the white of the watercolor paper, integrated into the painting. Skip to the examples below.
how do we keep the paper white?
Here are ten common methods of protecting or recovering the white paper.
- Leaving the white paper unpainted is the easiest way to get white into our watercolor paintings.
- Masking fluid (also called frisket) is a liquid rubbery type
substance that is applied to areas before painting. It is removed when the watercolor paint has dried, thus exposing the white paper.
- Frisket sheets can be cut to shape. Use them to cover large areas. Cut them a tiny bit smaller than the area you are protecting. Then use the liquid frisket to seal down the edges.
- Artist masking tape may be used. It is good for straight lines like the horizon or a building.
- Lifting preparation may be applied before painting. Then the paint may be removed down to the white of the paper.
- Sand paper may be used to remove the paint from the tops of the bumps of watercolor paper for added texture. It may also be used to take all the paint away down to the bare paper.
- Scratching and scrapping tools are available to use on Aquabord, Claybord and other art panels.
- A brisk water stream from a spray bottle will wash some paint away. Then blot up the loose paint and water.
- A damp brush can also be used to lift paint. A stiff brush works the best. Rub the brush to loosen paint and then blot up the loose paint with a paper towel. A bright brush may be used in a straight line to make slender tree trunks or leaf veins in a painted area.
- A wax crayon may be used on an area you don't want to paint. The area's color in the final painting will be the color of the crayon.
examples of keeping the white paper
This fish painting was painted with several of the white paper techniques.
The paper makes the white in watercolors.First, notice the Blue Arrow pointing to the light-colored coral.
There is no white paint on the coral. The white paper is showing through light layers of paint. That's the beauty of painting watercolor. The colors literally glow.
leave the paper unpainted
Paint around the parts we want to be white.
The fish body colors were painted around the white stripes.
Paint around the white areas.After the body was dry, blue shadows were painted across the entire bottom of the fish, including the white stripes.
The body needed to be dry, so the blue and orange wouldn't mix and neutralize each other.
use masking fluid / frisket
One of my favorite things is water bubbles.
Just add a spot of masking fluid, let it dry and then paint the water.
Masking fluid made water bubbles.Many people use a brush to apply masking fluid. For me, I found it hard to get fine lines.
I use ball stylus embossing tools to dip into a bottle of fluid. The round metal tips are easy to clean after using them.
paint after the masking is removed
Here masking fluid was used on the coral fingers before the violet background was painted.
Masking fluid kept the coral fingers clean.The violet background color did however pile up against the edges of the making fluid.
This is a common problem when using masking fluid. To solve the problem, the extra violet could have been sopped up with a thirsty brush.
After the background was dry the masking was removed and the orange fingers were painted.
Some of the orange mixed with the violet around their edges making them brown. I didn't bother trying to remove the brown because it helped them look three-dimensional.
scratch or scrap down to the paper
Instead of painting individual scales, I scratched out lines in a diagonal pattern to simulate the fish scales.
The paint may be scratched off panels.This fish painting was done on Aquabord made by Ampersand. It's my favorite watercolor painting support.
Caution, don't use sharp tools on paper to prevent tearing the paper. Less abrasive tools like an old credit card can be used to scrape out areas without damaging the paper.
** Spots of masking fluid were used on the fish to preserve the white paper for highlights on the scales.
After removing the masking, the highlights were painted according to their surrounding colors, pale violet, light green, etc.
two popular ways how to paint watercolor whites
The beaches in Florida are wonderful. One time when I was walking the beach I came upon an area with a whole bunch of coquina shells on the beach (a Utube video).
That sparked my artist's instinct and the result was the painting below that used 2 popular techniques to preserve the white watercolor paper.
Two popular ways to keep watercolor paper white.The number one way is to paint around the white paper. That's what I did with the foam on the beach. The sand colors were painted around the foam leaving it white.
After the sand colors were dry, some areas of the foam were softly painted.
The second popular technique of how to paint watercolor white is using a masking fluid, sometimes called frisket. The coquina shells were protected with frisket while the sand was painted.
After the sand paint was dry, a pick-up eraser was used to remove the masking fluid. It can also be rubbed off with our dry fingers.
Be sure the paint around the masking fluid is dry before rubbing the masking off or you get a mess by moving the paint around. This tip is from my unfortunate experience.
why not use white watercolor paint?
There is a Titanium White watercolor paint. It may be mixed with a color to lighten it, but it makes the colors opaque and chalky looking.
Titanium White watercolor or white gouache can be painted on top of a dry
color, but it creates a dull white.
The white paper is always brighter and cleaner looking, than painting
white over another color.
What do you think is the best way how to paint watercolor white? You can see an example of doing it both ways in this Easy Butterfly painting.
The natural white of the paper provides the brightest, cleanest whites in watercolor painting.
Successful watercolor paintings require planning and techniques to preserve the whites. That's better than trying to add them later with white paint.
The whites add sparkle and vitality to our artwork.
wrapping it up
Now you have an idea how to paint watercolor. Watercolor is amazing!
With a couple of brushes, a few colors and ideas of what to paint, you are prepared for an exciting adventure.
many successful paintings to you!
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