Helpful hints for the artist #7
Watercolor techniques—applying a wash
The most important thing in watercolor painting is to know how to apply a wash—and luckily it’s quite an easy process. A wash is a smooth and even transparent tone of diluted color. To begin with, you need to have sufficient color mixed, because you will rarely get the same tint again if you run out halfway. Use a large brush, fully loaded. Place your paper at a slight slant (you can use a book under your drawing board), and carry the brushful of color lightly across the top of the paper. You can move either from left to right or the opposite, but keep the direction consistent. The wet color will gently roll down like a little wave. When it gets to the bottom, or to the place where you want it to stop, mop off the surplus with a dry brush or blotting paper.
If you want to graduate your color from darker at the top to lighter at the bottom, you will add water to your brush after each line of wash, so that at the bottom you will be using almost pure water. This is an excellent technique for skies. If you want washes that are darker at the bottom than at the top, start with water and add the wash gradually. Another approach is to simply turn your paper upside down. You can introduce different colors into a wash in progress, or even add touches of pure color direct from the tube or palette.
Experiment, and have fun!
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