There are 2 basic watercolor techniques that will be fundamental to your practice—wet-on-wet and wet-on-dry.
In this tutorial, I cover what these terms mean, when to use each of the two techniques, and how to do it successfully. In other words, this video is for you if you want to learn about gradients, shading, poking, pushing, pulling, and more.
There are 2 basic watercolor techniques that will be fundamental to your practice—wet-on-wet
wet-on-wet
Wet-on-wet, or alla prima (Italian, meaning at first attempt), direct painting or au premier coup, is a painting technique in which layers of wet paint are applied to previously administered layers of wet paint.
Blending with watercolors can be achieved using either wet-on-dry or wet-on-wet techniques. The advantage of wet-on-wet blending is that the paint stays wet for longer, giving you more time to play with the paint and blend colors together. However, wet-on-wet blending can be unpredictable.
They are usually sold as either watercolor tubes or watercolor pan paints, with the former being more expensive but providing much better coverage and quality. No matter what type you choose - be sure to experiment with your favorite kinds of brushes and paper before painting anything.
►Wet on Dry: It is the most widely used watercolor technique that uses wet paint on the dry base. You can add more textures to your painting by adding layers of wet paint on top of dried layers. It gives more control to the painter over their brush. The resulting stroke has firm edges and thinner paint in the center.
There are two fundamental techniques in watercolor painting. You can't escape them… they are: Wet-on-wet and wet-on-dry. Together, these techniques form a golden rule that is unique to watercolors, and highlights the broad range of possibilities in watercolor painting.
The easiest watercolour blends are done with plenty of water. If you're trying to blend two areas together, make sure they're both nice and wet – add more water to them if needed. Using a wet brush, touch one side of the area and pull or drag the paint down in zigzag motions to meet the other area, connecting them.
Dry brushing is a really easy technique that is excellent for creating rough textures such as bark or even demonstrating movement in an ocean. Basically, you take a dry brush and dip it into your watercolour paint, being careful not to fully saturate the brush.
When working with watercolor paints, you want to begin with the lighter colors and then work towards the darker ones. We do this because in watercolors, the white comes from the paper, not the paints. So due to the transparency of the paints, your light colors wont “pop” when painted over darker colors.
What is the wet-on-dry watercolour technique? This technique is essentially layering your watercolours. You place one layer of paint on the paper and allow it to dry, and then paint on the top. The bottom layer is dry and the top layer is wet, so that's why it's called wet on dry!
The technique, Broken Color, is when an artist applies colors to a painting in small strokes but does not blend them. Instead, the colors blend optically rather than literally. The effects of "Broken" Color are known to soothe you and create serenity.
Layering is a wet on dry technique. Make sure you let the paint dry completely before you apply the next layer. The colours will simply blend if the first layer is even slightly wet. Layering can be used with one or more colours to increase intensity or darken tone.
Introduction: My name is Frankie Dare, I am a funny, beautiful, proud, fair, pleasant, cheerful, enthusiastic person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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