Watercolor Techniques

Watercolor Techniques

Watercolor is one of the oldest forms of painting that there is. There are several different techniques that you will find in paintings that have watercolor on them. Some artists are very true to a particular technique. Others have enjoyed experimenting with many of the different ones offered. It can be very difficult to learn these various techniques but if you are serious about watercolor painting you should explore them.

The most common type of watercolor technique is called wash and glaze. The wash process makes sure that the entire painting looks uniform. You won’t find any identifiable strokes of the brush anywhere in the painting no matter how close you look. This is because all of the strokes of the brush overlap each other. You won’t find where one color starts or ends as you critique this type of watercolor work. This process is harder to accomplish though than one might think from looking at it.

The glaze process involves allowing one layer of paint to dry. Then you will place another one over the top of it. The colors used on the second layer are light enough that elements of the first layer will be coming through. Wet in wet is another common watercolor technique. This involves placing a layer of wet paint over an area where watercolor paint has been applied but isn’t all the way dry yet.

For the ultimate in structure and control though with watercolor, a person should try the drybrush technique. This is a very time consuming process as there is very little paint on the brush used at any given time. The paint is very thick and therefore it runs very little. Some artists are so good at this particular watercolor technique that some may think it is actually an oil paint.

There are many great ways for you to learn the different watercolor techniques. You may have access to someone that can show you first hand how they do it. You may want to enroll in a course for beginners of watercolor. They tend to really go over each of the techniques well. You can then decide which of them you want to focus on so you can develop your own skills further.

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