Watercolor: Watercolor 1

Creating Soft Blends

SOME OF THE MOST FREE-FLOWING and translucent effects I’ve achieved in watercolor were done by painting wet-into-wet—either wet paint onto wet paper or wet paint into wet paint. With wet-into-wet, colors bleed together, creating softly blurred edges and wonderful atmospheric effects. I also use washes of wet color onto wet paper to quickly lay in large areas of diluted color. Washes are an excellent way to paint backgrounds—skies and water in particular.

Controlling the Flow of Paint

When painting wet-into-wet, both the amount of control you have and the effects achieved will vary, depending on how wet or dry the watercolor paper is. When I want the colors to flow and merge freely, as in the ocean sunset at right, I wet the ...