My top ten Watercolour tips

Here are my top ten tips for using Watercolours. None of them require particular artistic skill. All of them will improve your work. You may have heard them before, and never put them into practice. There are thousands of ways to make your paintings better, but these are the ten things I consider will have the biggest impact, and will make the greatest difference, which is a good place to start…


1. PUT THE EASEL AWAY

Ok, I’m sorry. I know you want to feel like a proper artist, but I am afraid that whilst Oil paint sticks, Watercolour drips. If you are using the medium correctly then your work will be far too wet to place at a 90 degree angle without bad things happening. Success in Watercolour depends entirely on understanding and controlling levels of wetness. This is not possible with an easel. If you are reading this and thinking smugly, well I manage to use an easel with Watercolour just fine… then I guarantee that you are not using the medium to its full potential. And yes you may get back ache; all I can suggest is regular stretches and breaks.


2. STRETCH YOUR PAPER

Never mind gummed pads, masking tape or super thick paper. There is only one way to ensure your paper stays perfectly flat once dry and that’s to stretch it. The fact that you are ‘not very good at painting yet’ is no excuse. You won’t get to be good if you keep trying to paint on paper that’s full of bumps and puddles of paint.
Ask your art tutor to show you. Ask your local art shop. Look in the library in the art books section. Ask a friend. Google it. Youtube it. It’s easy, it’s fast, it will save you money (loose paper is far cheaper than pads), and it will make a big difference to your painting. Remember to let it dry thoroughly before using. Stretch your paper and use it the next day. I do several boards at once. It must lay flat as it dries, so keep cats out of the room unless you want paw prints in your next landscape.
No excuses; get your head round it and give it a go today!


3. LOOK AFTER YOUR BRUSHES

If you have ever attended one of my classes you will know that I walk about the room removing brushes from jars and placing them on the table. Even a minute or two with your brush in your jar can be enough to ruin the tip. In between painting put the brush on the table, if you are worried about mess put some kitchen towel down.
Don’t leave your brushes full of paint, always clean and reshape them immediately, you will extend their useful life by doing this. Here’s what to do: Rinse clean in cold running water. Work a little brush cleaner or liquid hand soap into the hairs, rinse again with cold water. Blot dry with a clean rag or kitchen towel. Reshape the end with your fingers to resemble its original shape i.e. pointed or flat. Lay FLAT on a horizontal surface in a warm place and leave to dry. Never stand the brush up on its handle, as moisture can run down into the ferrule (metal part) and rust the ferrule or rot the bristles. There are commercially available brush holders that suspend the brush in a downwards pointing position, these are fine too.


4. USE A DECENT AMOUNT OF PAINT (and decent paints)

The hint is in the name. It’s called Watercolour because the use of water is integral to the application of the paint. And using the correct amount is vital. I have seen beginners use too little water, and make it far harder work than is really necessary. This also leaves visible brush marks where you may not need them, and makes smooth outlines impossible. Use fluid paint and the biggest brush that you can still manage to paint accurately with.
For really good results choose the best paint you can afford. I would give expensive paint a much higher priority than paper or even brushes. When you have finished your picture it is the main thing that remains to speak to the viewer. Buy the best possible paint you can afford. Never think it a waste, don’t say “I’m not good enough at painting to waste such quality paint” Don’t expect to improve by using sub-standard materials. Give yourself every chance of success. It’s your choice of course, but I feel there are times when it is impossible to get real strength of colour with pan (block) paints. Plus pan paints can be very wearing on brushes, they have advantages when working outdoors, but for me nothing beats tubes.


5. STAY AWAY FROM BLACK AND WHITE (until you know what you are doing)

There is no such thing as White watercolour paint. Why? Because watercolours are simply pigment mixed with a little gum Arabic. They are by their very nature translucent and White is opaque. If you mix White paint in with watercolours you turn them opaque and you lose the glowing translucent look that watercolours are famous for. If you need to make a white area: leave a gap, either by painting round the area or using a form of resist (masking tape, or masking fluid). If you want to lighten a colour, simply add more and more water until it is as light as you want. So, what’s that White in your box? Gouache probably. Just remember that as soon as you mix White paint in with watercolour you are now painting in mixed media. Nothing wrong with that, but if you are still struggling with understanding watercolour painting stay away from White until you know what you are doing. There is only one White in pure watercolour painting – it’s your paper.
Black is not a colour. Black is a surface that absorbs all light. Therefore black does not glow. Putting Black in your painting can create ‘dead’ areas. If you are looking at a tree trunk or some dirt and thinking of using black, think again. Look for the colour. The worst thing you can use Black for? To darken your colours. To darken watercolours just use the paint thicker, or add a little of the opposite colour. If you mix black in to darken colours you will produce nothing but mud.


6. TRY OUT YOUR COLOURS FIRST

You cannot tell what a colour looks like from the tube. Make some charts. Spend a rainy Sunday doing it. Use the same paper you paint on. Make rows of colour squares and label them. Start with the paints as they are, then continue diluting them to see how they look when lighter. Make some charts of mixed colours for Greens, Oranges and Purples, even Greys. Store the charts in one of those cheap plastic A4 display wallets. Consult your charts often - you will find it a big help.
When painting always have a scrap of paper next to you when painting. Don’t guess if you have mixed the correct colour and shove it on your work! Try it out first and adjust if necessary. Remember when trying out colours to let it dry. Watercolours dry 50% lighter. So be bold.


7. KEEP YOUR WATER CLEAN

A simple tip, but easily forgotten in the fog of concentration. Change your water regularly. As soon as the water becomes deeply coloured it is no longer water, it is paint! It is particularly important to change your water when moving to radically different colours i.e. blues to reds; orange to purple etc. This will keep your colours fresh. Using more than one jar helps too. Try keeping a large jar to do the initial rinsing, then rinse again in a smaller one, it will stay fresher for longer this way.


8. DON’T BLOT YOUR PAPER

As I walk round a beginner’s class I see frantic blotting of paintings with rags and paper towel. Whilst controlling the water levels is important this is an entirely disastrous way of doing it. At best it leaves marks; at worst you will smudge your work. Resolve never to do it. If there is too much water/paint on your painting then a clean almost dry brush will pick it up. Just rinse your brush, squeeze the moisture out into the rag and use the brush to accurately lift the moisture off of your painting. Rinse your brush and repeat as often as you need. You can also wipe excess paint off the brush before applying.


9. PRE-WETTING YOUR PAPER (only if you know why you’re doing it)

There is a technique where you wet the surface of the paper before painting, mainly used when painting skies. However, I despair over the number of times I have seen inexperienced painters do this at the start of a painting, with no idea of why they are doing it or what the results will be. Don’t do anything if you don’t understand why you are doing it! (That goes for life not just for art.) The same goes for starting with a ‘wash’ of all over colour. This is almost certainly a bad idea: goodbye to all that fresh white paper, and its not coming back. Just because you saw that chap do it on the painting and drawing channel does not mean you can suddenly acquire his years of experience and pull it off yourself. These are both perfectly good techniques, but they require knowledge, experience and they are not a cure all way of starting a watercolour.


10. A BAD DRAWING WILL NEVER TURN INTO A GOOD PAINTING (although the opposite can easily happen)

Quite simple this one; if the drawing is a bit dodgy paint won’t make it better. In fact I can confidently predict it will draw attention to every error you have made. You don’t need much drawing before you paint, but what there is should be pleasing, with reasonable composition. If you are not happy, have a think about it. Put it aside for a bit. Try it again. Don’t just bung some paint on it and hope for the best.