Watercolor Washes

Woot woot 3rd art lesson is here!! And yep it is more on watercolor, geapers I never thought about how much went in to a watercolor before you could just make a painting. But writing these posts for you are sure helping me hone my techniques and create better end products! So thanks for the reminders ;)

Watercolor washes are used when you want to cover a large area with a single color. You typically use a large, flat brush that can hold lots of pigment. There are a couple different types of washes, including a flat wash, and a graded wash, which are the two I'm sharing with you now! 

I started off sketching a square for me to fill in with my pigment. It gave me an even starting and ending point, obviously, I didn't care to cut in the final edge but I still got the gist of covering a large surface. But you can always just wing it if you want :)

Once you are ready to start fill your large flat brush with a dark pigment. (Using a darker pigment allows you to see the variations in the wash easier). 

Line your brush edge up with the edge of your painting surface and pull across with your brush at an angle that allows most of your bristles to touch the paper. 

After your first line is laid, quickly refill your brush and start your second row by overlapping the first just a bit. By overlapping you are opening up the pigment from the first line to allowing it to blend smoothly with the new line. continue this until you fill your box!

Then allow your nicely painted box to dry. Once the pigment is dry you will be able to see how "flat" your wash is. If you had puddles of pigment or high spots you will see a variation, keep trying until you get a smooth service, sometimes it takes lots of practice! 

For the graded wash I started off the same, by drawing a box for myself to fill in with pigment. However, instead of loading up my brush and hitting the paper I first puddle 4 different variations of my color. You can create variations in your color by adding white or by simply changing the ration of pigment and water. The less water you have the darker/brighter your pigment will be, the more water you add the lighter and softer your color will be. 

Once you have your 4 colors puddled you can start just the same as when doing your flat wash. 

By pulling your pigment across your square and overlapping each line. Just remember to refill your brush from a different puddle each time. 

This will create an ombre affect down your square. You can use water to go in and help smooth out your edges if you can still see the transition from line to line.

Once your pigment is dry you will have a smooth gradient from light to dark to start your painting! 

So there you have it! 2 simple ways to cover large amounts of paper! Be sure to play around and see how your washes will butt up to other colors and how you can combined some of your strokes from the previous Brush Strokes post on top of these washes. Just remember if your pigment isn't fully dry before going over the top it will muddy up with other pigments!