I love watercolors: it's a clean medium, that we can easily use to get beautiful results while enjoying the moment, painting.
We can make a lot with some basic watercolor techniques without becoming experts first. So sit down, get your watercolor supplies along with your sketchbook, relax and try these warm-up exercises that will be the ground for new creations later.
Personal note: I always start in my sketchbook so I can keep my experiences close.
Divide a page into several sections, and let start our experiences. As you go, do not forget to add a legend explaining what you have done, to remember later.
Also, be aware that we don't control how our paint reacts, but this is a beautiful aspect of this technique; watercolor dries in mysterious ways. Enjoy the process and accept the unexpected.
Wet-on-dry - Surface, Dots, and Lines
Wet-on-dry is used to achieve more precise and defined shapes, and we call it like that because we use a wet brush/paint over the dry paper.
1. Start with dry paper. Pick up some moistened watercolor paint with a brush and paint a surface.
2. Use the minimum amount of water to get the paint going andobserve the result.
3. Try the same technique but painting lines and dots, in different areas.
4. Now, that the paint is completely dry, notice how the colors tend to fade and can look different.
Wet-on-wet - Surface, Dots, and Lines
As you are probably guessing, we're adding wet brush/paint to a wet paper surface.
This method is frequently found in watercolors paintings. We're adding wet paint to a damp surface.
1. Start by wetting your brush with plain water, "painting" the paper's surface. Add no color at all, just water.
2. After, add some moistened paint from your palette and paint your wet rectangle.
3. Repeat the process, but paint lines and after dots in different areas.
4. Try "to feel" the amount of water needed, and r+that you prefer to use. Balance is the key.
5. Once the paint has completely dried, check on the changes. Exciting forms, textures, and shades appear and can add more interest to your watercolor paintings.
Practicing Precision
This activity is a simple way to practice precision using a brush.
1. Paint simple shapes like lines, simple doodles, geometrical forms - bidimensional or tridimensional, etc.
2. Use different colors. Paint inside those shapes. Add some marks.
Try to paint similar forms using different sizes and shape brushes. Understand what you prefer and where/when you can get better results.
3. Repeat this simple practice exercise as many times as you feel necessary. It's a great way to get into the illustration-style watercolor groove and should be on your daily practice before you start "final" work.
Creating gradients - using one color only
This exercise will help you understand what you can get from that color looking at you: from plain water to a saturated paint mix. Use just one color at each time and try to achieve different values, looking to create a seamless effect,
1. Start with a dry area of watercolor paper. Drop a small puddle of water into your palette and a dab of concentrated paint right next to it.
2. Pick up a bit of water with your brush (no pigment yet) to get you started. Begin painting your strip (it will look transparent on the paper).
3. Add a tiny bit of pigment into your puddle of water; make sure to be mindful of how much paint you are adding. You want this process to be subtle and work up slowly.
4. Continue by painting where you left off with the transparent water.
5. Repeat the process by adding a bit more paint to your initial puddle of water each time. Before picking up more color, remember to rinse and pat your brush on a piece of cloth or paper in between so it's clean.
6. By the time you reach the end of your strip of paint, your watercolor mix should be pretty thick, and the stain should appear concentrated and as opaque as it can get.
7. Now, you have a nice transition from water to concentrated paint. The goal is for the process to be delicate, with no abrupt changes from one value to the next.
8. Repeat as many times as you wish. Try this activity a few times to experiment with different colors and feel comfortable building up colors.
Creating gradients - Using different colors
This activity is similar to the one explained above. Still, instead of working with plain water and different values of one color, we'll be working with two colors and slowly transitioning from one to the other. It's an excellent technique for painting skies and sunsets.
Be sure to use neighbor's colors on the color wheel (analog) to keep harmony example: green and yellow; purple, red and orange, or blue and green. Otherwise, your gradient will appear muddy.
1. Mix two distinct colors side by side. Each color should be balanced water and paint mix- 50/50 ratio.
2. Start painting your strip of color using the first color paint.
3. Clean your brush. Pick up just a little bit of the second color paint and mix it into your first mixture.
4. Pick up where you left off on your first brushstrokes. The transition from one to another should be soft and subtle. Try to avoid drastic changes in tone, so the gradient doesn't look choppy.
5. Little by little, keep adding more grading between the two colors. In this exercise, the real work happens in the palette.
6. Practice this exercise as many times as you feel necessary, using the same or experiment with different color tones.
Let's play: salt, acetone, alcohol, and hydrogen peroxide
In these exercises, you have to let go and accept the results once more.
They are pretty interesting, if I may give my opinion. Just be aware that the products must be added to the wet paint for better results. If the surface is drying too fast, consider working wet on wet for better results.
1 - Choose a color and cover an area of your sketchbook page with a flatwater and paint mix. Add salt. Let it dry and observe the texture. (Himalayan salt will add an extra touch: color!)
2 - Choose a color and with a balanced mix, paint an area. Add small dots of alcohol. Let it dry and observe the texture.
3 - Choose a color, and with a balanced mix, cover an area. Add small dots of acetone. Let it dry and observe the texture.
4 - Choose a color and with a balanced mix, paint an area. Add hydrogen peroxide. Let it dry and observe the texture.
Let me know, how it went.😊
This post is based on Ana Victoria Calderón classes/book combined with my art teaching practice.
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