Watercolour techniques
If you have never painted before, have a dabble first to get used to the paints and the brushes. Discover the marks you can make with different brushes, and learn how to lay a flat wash of colour. Practise mixing colours, and experiment with various textures. Then, when you have gained a little confidence in these basic techniques, start by painting simple things - perhaps a leaf, a flower or a single tree.
Watercolour basics
'Wet' and 'dry'
Watercolour effects vary enormously depending on whether you allow the paint dry between stages or not. If you admire splashes of vivid colour that mix spontaneously on the paper, or the soft effects of misty landscapes, then concentrate on painting 'wet'. In other words, apply each new colour to an area of wet or damp colour and allow the colours to blend together in the painting.
For detailed paintings, with sharp edges and crisp shapes, then you must work 'dry'. In other words, each colour must be allowed to dry completely before overlaid or adjacent colour is applied.
Dark over light
Because watercolour is transparent it is not possible to cover up a darker colour by painting a lighter colour on top. Once you are familiar with this characteristic of watercolour, it will become second nature to start with the light colours and to develop the painting by adding increasingly darker colours. Initially, however, it is a good idea to plan the painting in your head before starting. Work out where the whites and light tones start there. Final touches will be the darkest areas and the shadows.
Working without white
As a general rule, watercolour is used without the addition of white paint because this spoils the natural transparency of the colours by making them cloudy and opaque. Instead, the watercolour artist tends to plan ahead and leave areas of white paper unpainted for the white areas of the picture. However, while it is generally a good idea to limit or avoid mixing white paint with other colours, white can be useful for making small corrections and making last-minute corrections to highlights and reflections.
Mixing pale colours
Watercolours are lightened by adding water to the paint. The more water you add, the paler the colours will be. Because watercolour tends to become lighter when it is dry, it is a good idea to test the diluted colour on a scrap of paper and allow this to dry before painting an entire area. This ensures that you will end up with the colour you want.
Laying a wash
Probably the most useful all watercolour techniques, applying a wash of flat colour also seems to present the most problems to newcomers to the medium. Laying a wash is actually quite straightforward and there are various ways of doing it. Whichever method you use, there are two rules of thumb. Firstly, it is easier to work on a slightly tilted surface so the colour runs downwards (you can do this by resting the top edge of the board on a a book). Secondly, mix as much colour as you will need before starting to paint.
The illustration below shows a wash being applied to dry paper using a large round brush and laying the colour in broad overlapping stripes. Some artists prefer to use a flat brush and some prefer to work on damp paper. You can also apply a wash using a small sponge instead of a brush.
Brush strokes
An enormous range of textures, lines and patterns can be created using brush strokes alone. The best way to discover the scope of your brushes is to practise and experiment. Below are a few examples of simple brush strokes using a one centimetre flat brush and a number 8 round. Try painting these strokes, then go on to develop a personal repertoire of marks that can be used to introduce interest and variety to your paintings.
Fine lines, dabbed marks and broad strokes using a flat brush.
Fine lines, dabs and undulating marks using a round brush.
Texture
Everything around us has a texture, whether this is bark on a tree, the rough surface of a choppy sea, or the coarse stubble of a newly mown field. These surface characteristics and patterns can be conveyed using brush strokes alone, but there are numerous other ways of introducing new and interesting textures into your work. Below are a few ideas, but you should always feel free to experiment and try out your own ideas.
Rock salt
Marbled texture is obtained by dropping granules of rock salt onto wet colour. Remove the salt granules when the paint is completely dry.
Sponging
Apply colour with a small natural sponge.This texture is ideal for tree foliage and dappled light.
Candle wax
For an area of textured, broken colour scribble on to the paper with a white domestic candle then paint over the waxy lines.
Dry brush
Squeeze all the moisture from your brush bristles, splay the bristles with your thumb, dip the tips of the bristles in colour then apply the colour to get light criss-cross lines.
Colour mixing
This is a simple, straightforward guide to basic colour mixing. However, only by mixing and using colours is it really possible to become acquainted with the properties of the different pigments. Practice is the most effective way to develop your own colour sense, so do get out your paints and try the mixtures for yourself.
Be systematic with your colour mixing and keep your palette clean. As a general rule, use only two or three colours in each mixture while you are getting used to mixing. This will avoid the painting and the palette becoming muddy. Try to lay the colours out in the same order each time you paint so that you become familiar with your palette and do not have to search around to find the colour you want.
Primaries and secondaries
Red, yellow and blue are the pure primary colours, from which you can mix orange, green and violet - secondary colours. Phthalo blue, cadmium yellow pale and cadmium red deep are practical watercolour equivalents to the primary colours. By varying the amounts of the two primaries in each mixture you will get a variety of violets, oranges and greens.
Complementary colours
Every colour has a complementary, or opposite colour. On a simple colour wheel (above), this is the colour which falls opposite. Green is the opposite of red; blue, of orange; and yellow, of violet. Complementary colours can be used to balance a painting and create harmony or contrast. For example, a painting which is predominantly green can be brought to life with a splash of complementary red.
A general palette
There is really no such thing as a "standard" palette but the colours suggested here are a good starting off point. You will not necessarily use them all in any one painting.
Colour mixing exercise
Combining each colour on the general palette with each of the other colours gives you around 50 new colours. The illustration below shows the results when phthalo blue, cadmium red deep and cadmium yellow pale are mixed with each of the other colours on the palette. You can take the experiment further and do the same using every other colour on the palette. The colours are laid out in the same order as the basic palette above.
Adding yellow to the basic palette:
Adding red to the basic palette:
Adding blue to the basic palette:
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