How to Use Watercolor Paints

If you are entranced, yet intimidated by watercolor painting, with a little practice and some knowledge you will become a watercolor painter and love every minute of it. This article will introduce you to the ways water and color meet, mix and work together.

Things You'll Need

• 140# Cold Press watercolor paper #4 Round paint brush Watercolor paints (pans or tubes are fine) Palette (optional depending on what type of paints you use, pans or tubes) Clean water Water container Paper towels

Instructions

1. Lay the flat sheet of watercolor paper on an even, flat surface.

2. 

   Get your colors ready for painting. If you are using tubes of watercolor paint, then squeeze a tiny amount onto the palette and add a drop of clean water to each color. Place the colors distant from one another since the water will travel and colors will blend, contaminating one another. For pan paints (premeasured solid paints in a pan type of box), add a drop of clean water to the colors you will be using.

3. Pour clean water into the container and set it next to the paper on the side you paint from. If you are right-handed, then set the paint and the water bin on your right side.

4. 

   Dip the brush into the clean water and blot it slightly on a paper towel. Place the tip of the brush into the color and water drop and mix the color a little so the paint becomes thin and enters the brush hairs of the paint brush.

5. 

   Set the loaded paint brush onto the paper and sweep the brush across the surface. It will soak into the paper and dry in a few minutes or less. This is called wet-to-dry painting: wet paint on a dry surface. The more water that is in the paint, the lighter the color will be. The less water, the bolder the color is. Try both bold and light color swatches to see how they appear.

6. 

   Clean the brush in the water until all the color has gone from the hairs. Wet a section of the paper in a 2 by 2-inch wide square. Pick up moist color on the brush and dab it on one side of the wet section. Tilt the paper and watch the color move. This is called a color bleed. When a painting is done wet-on-wet, this is the method used. The more water used, the less control you will have over the paint, even though it can result in a wonderful design.

7. 

   Layer another color over the dried section you just painted to see how the colors work together. You will still see the color underneath, but you have created a unique quality to the colors. This is a wet-over-dry method of layering paints.

8. 

   Lay color around the edges of the color swatch once the swatch has dried. This creates depth and shadow which allows the swatch to pop forward.

9. 

   Paint a few flower petals using the wet-on-dry method. Let this dry and then add water to one petal, and then add another color to it. Watch the changes that take place. Usually you will wet one petal, place the wet color in that petal and when you are ready to move to another petal, it should be a petal that is adjacent to the first one, not one right next to it. This way the colors won't bleed into one another. This is especially important if you want more control over the end result.

Tips & Warnings

• For more control over the paint, use a dry paper and less water in the brush. Lift any unwanted color from the paper by moistening the paper with clean water and blotting it with a soft, unscented tissue.

• Don't scrub the paper as it may cause injury to the paper and the design. Quality paper and paint offer the best results.