How To Paint with Watercolors

 Whatever set you decide on, the first thing you should do upon receiving your watercolors is create a color chart. I like to make a chart that fits into my set container, then I tape the chart in! We’ll talk about how to make a watercolor chart in a future tutorial; but basically, you cut a piece of watercolor paper that’s slightly smaller than your set. Paint samples of each color onto it, label the colors, and your chart is finished!

 It’s important to make a color chart because you can rarely tell what watercolors will look like on paper from how they look dried in their little pans.

2. Brushes

Once you’ve got your watercolor palette, it’s time to think about brushes.

 Brush preferences will vary by artist. I like tiny details, which means I like tiny brushes.

3. Watercolor Paper

It’s important to apply your watercolors to high-quality paper that doesn’t absorb the pigment. Watercolor paper is your safest bet!

My go-to paper is cold press I like it because it’s cheap, reliable, and widely available. Alternatively, you can buy hot press paper, which tends to have a smoother texture than cold press paper.

 Watercolor requires special paper because of absorbency. Watercolor paper essentially lets the paint sit on top of the paper until it dries rather than allowing the paint to spiderweb out. If you try to paint on, say, standard 20# printer paper, the watercolor will bleed at the edges because the paper is super absorbent.

4. Water + Cloth

The last watercolor supply you’ll need is clean water to hydrate pigments and clean off your paintbrush. You’ll also need a cloth for blotting your brush.

The General Process

Watercolors are very low-maintenance. First, start with a palette of watercolors. Next, use a small spray bottle, a blunt syringe, or a spoon to hydrate the colors you wish to use. Then, dip your brush in water to moisten it, dab the brush onto a pigment, and put the pigment-rich brush on paper. That’s it!

You can control the shade of any pigment by adjusting the amount of water on your brush. If you want a very light shade, saturate your brush in water and barely touch the brush’s tip to the pigment. For medium tones, you’ll still apply pigment to a wet brush, but you’ll apply a bit more pigment than you would for a light shade. For dark tones, I blot water off my brush (it will still be wet, but not saturated), then I use the moistened paint straight off the palette.

Mixing Colors

One thing to note about watercolors is you don’t have to buy a set that features a lot of different colors! It’s easy to mix your own colors. Simply moisten one pigment with about 1/16 tsp of water, then incorporate the water into the pigment by stirring with a brush. Dab some of the color onto a slick surface. Then, do the same thing with another pigment, and add it to the first pigment.

Mix the two pigments, and you’ve got an entirely new color!

Here are some basic color combinations:

• Red + blue = purple
• Yellow + red = orange
• Yellow + blue = green
• Orange + blue = brown
• Yellow + red + blue = black

Contouring

Watercolors make it easy to create eye-catching subjects because the medium blends so well! Using a contouring technique to blend different tones of the same color in a piece grants you the ability to make something look real. With that in mind, I’m going to show you how to turn a circle into a sphere with blending and different paint opacities.

 1. Choose one color, then use a light shade of it to paint a circle.

 2. Pretend that there’s a light source near the left side of the circle. Effectively, a shadow will appear on the right side of the sphere. To start making that shadow, load your brush with more of the same shade. Paint that shade so it “hugs” the circle in a half-moon shape.

 3. You can see that there’s a definite division between the medium shade and the light shade above. To get rid of that difference, use a clean, wet brush to apply water to the division between the light and medium watercolor shades. As you move your brush in a half-circle motion, the division will fade!

 4. Now it’s time to add the dark shade to the bottom of your circle/sphere. Hug the dark shade around the bottom as pictured. Tease out the dark shade just as you did the medium shade, and voilà!

If you want more practice with giving shapes dimension, I recommend painting shapes in different colors. If you understand how to contour a basic shape, you can go on to paint just about anything!

Challenge:  Using watercolors paint a painting. The more you practice the better you'll get.

For more fun here is a link to a page on my website that has links to all my different social media accounts.

https://customclothingboutique.com/pages/social-media-links

For more free classes click here.