Tuesday Tips: Water Colors

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Anyone who has tried to use water colors knows that these paints seem to have a mind of their own.  Especially for some one like me who started with Digital Art and solid paints (oils and acrylics anyone?) This can be hard to navigate. So these are some tips that helped me get started in no particular order. Lets begin shall we!
  • Plan:
  • This applies to anything you do but it more true for watercolors! Like I mentioned water colors seem to have a mind of their own. Moreover, they don't have whites as a way of undoing. So the best way to tackle this is to plan your coloring scheme from before. NO! I don't mean you need to plan every stroke. However, knowing what is the effect you want and how you plan to achieve it can you save you tonnes of agony.
  • KISS (Keep it simple silly):
  •  This comes off the from the previous point. If you keep things simple planning will be a lot more simple. Additionally, most water colors look beautiful without super detailing or artwork. There is no need for that. Water Colors isn't meant to be an accurate form of art and that is how you should think of it. This includes multiple things like:        
    1. Keep a simple palette    
    2. Keep it uniform       
    3. Bring textures from the medium not adding too many strokes.   
  • Test Colors:
  • Water colors look much different after they dry up. Moreover the hue on the palette can be a lot more solid and warm than on the paper. Always test you colors on paper before using them in the painting. You should also test how they look blending, on wet, dry, splashed, etc so you can get the effect you want.
  • Tape:
  • I had no idea how important this was until I had to throw away a wonderfully done piece just to have it bend. The paper expand when the water colors are added and if you don't tape them they will remain expanded and you paper will be all weird proportions, Hence tape the paper down or at least put some wight on it before you start painting. This also make painting a lot easier.
  • Have Fun! 
  • No seriously. This is not just me signing off. Water colors is all about blending and experimentation. You can never have the picture look exactly the way you intended. But that is exactly the fun of it. The key is to enjoy that experience.


Tell me what are some of your tips, tricks and stories with water colors. Do you plan it all or go with instinct and why?
Leave a comment below and let us know!


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Dragona15's avatar
You forgot one very important tip when using watercolors: Patient :)
We need to wait for each layer of paint dry first, before applying others. When we paint everything without taking 'breaks', all of the colors will blend depending on how moist they are after drying on the paper :(
I learned this the hard way, after trying to add outlines on a scientific drawing.