The document provides an overview of various watercolor techniques for painters to use. It begins by introducing basic washes and the importance of tilt when applying paint. It describes different brush stroke patterns like straight, scalloped, and crossed strokes that can be used for washes. Additional techniques discussed include laying multiple washes, graded washes, thin-line graded washes, wet on wet, and dry brushing. The summary emphasizes that watercolorists typically use a combination of these techniques in a specific order, starting with establishing washes and then building up details with other techniques like dry brushing, with practice being essential to creating quality watercolor pieces.

1. Introduction to Watercolor Methods
Watercolor can be one of the most beautiful painting mediums, allowing you to achieve
a multitude of effects. It is also one of the most challenging. You will need patience
and practice to master the techniques. Don’t expect your first painting to be a
masterpiece. You will be introduced to all of the basic techniques and will be allowed to
do some practice of each technique before beginning your final project. You will be
expected to use some of these techniques in your final painting. As the most common
technique is the watercolor wash and variations thereof, it will be the primary focus of
the following text.
The Flat Wash
Pigment Characteristics
The type of pigment you use has a major effect on the quality of the wash results, yet
this topic is rarely mentioned in art handbooks. Painters are usually left with the
impression that all paints are the same and should be handled the same. Quite the
opposite is true.
Although pigments differ on many physical attributes, the paint behavior in a wash
depends primarily on three things: (1) the weight of the pigment particles in water, or
their specific gravity; (2) the distribution of the pigment particle sizes; and (3) the
difference in hue between the small and large pigment particles.
Unfortunately, an important complication is lurking in the background: there is more in
the paint than pigment. If pure powdered pigment were completely mixed with water,
then those three pigment attributes (and the tendency of the pigment particles to clump
together) would determine most of the paint behavior as it dried. But the paint also
contains many other paint ingredients, including gum arabic, glycerin, corn syrup or
honey, dextrin, fillers, brighteners and dispersants. These invisible ingredients are also
dissolved or suspended in the paint solution, and they affect how the visible pigment
disperses, flows, settles and backruns when diluted with water and applied to paper.
However, the more water there is in the solution, the less effect vehicle ingredients
(gum, glycerin, dextrin, humectants) have on pigment behavior. So all paints tend to
become more similar, and all pigments tend to show their true granulating or flocculating
character — though in more delicate colors — when they are highly diluted.
The Importance of Tilt
The Tilted Wash is the commonly recommended approach. You begin the wash with the
paper tilted to a small angle, and apply the paint to dry paper from top to bottom of the
wash area. You can adjust the force of gravity on the water by changing the tilt of the
board: below a 10% slope there is very little pull, and above 25% the pull is very strong.

2. You normally use a straight or scalloped stroke (to be explained shortly), and pull the
wash bead downwards as you go. Finish off with strokes that do not add more paint, so
that you use up what remains of the wash bead in the bottom of the wash area. Use a
slightly damp brush to soak up the extra paint that may have beaded at the bottom
edge. Then do not apply any paint to this area or any areas that border the wash area
edge until the next class period.
settling of pigment particles in a wash stroke
brushstroke is viewed from the side, on a tilted surface
At the moment the paint is applied to the paper, the mixture is equally thick across the
width of the stroke, and the paint is evenly mixed (left). Immediately, however, the wash
solution flows down the slope of the paper toward the bottom of the stroke; as it does
so, the current carries many of the largest particles with it (middle). By the time you
have filled your brush to make the next pass, the water has come to rest in a wash bead
at the bottom of the stroke (right). This contains the largest and heaviest particles that
were applied to the paper. Because the bead is no longer flowing downwards, the
particles settle in place onto the paper.
With some paints, this does not create much of a problem, but with others, stripes can
appear in your wash from leaving the bead in the same place for too long. You can also
lessen the striping effect by using scalloped brush strokes, to be discussed next.
Watercolor Wash Brush Stroke Types
Now, what pattern of brushstrokes should you use? The diagram below shows the three
basic types of wash stroke patterns.
Straight Scalloped Crossed

3. The straight brushstroke (left) is the commonly recommended approach. The strokes
are made to overlap just enough to break the wash bead at the bottom of the previous
stroke. The top edge of the brush passes through the bead in the stroke above,
breaking the tension along the bottom edge and allowing the excess paint and water to
flow across the width of the new brushstroke and form a new wash bead along its
bottom edge.
You must alternate the direction of the brushstroke to keep the pigment coverage
even: either by brushing in the opposite direction over the stroke you have just made, or
by switching direction from one brushstroke to the next. If you always start at the left (or
right) edge of the wash area, the bead is large on that side and small on the opposite
side, where the brush has little liquid left. This can cause irregularities in the wash color,
or blossoms.
The straight stroke is fine for average pigment washes, but with active or heavy
pigments it causes three annoying problems.
You are locked into a fairly mechanical rhythm, completing one horizontal stroke
all the way across the page before starting the next, which limits your ability to
handle complex edges or cutout shapes, such as clouds, in the middle of the
wash.
You must work as quickly as you safely can, because the longer the time
between strokes, the more visible imperfections will result. If you're using heavy
pigments, the bead quickly collects the largest and darkest pigment particles.
These stripes will show up very clearly when the wash has dried — even though
they may not be apparent while the wash is still wet.
Finally, the action of brushing in alternating directions can be awkward to
manage with one hand.
The scalloped brushstroke (center) solves these problems by creating an irregular,
broken pattern to the wash strokes, freeing the artist to add new paint randomly over the
entire surface of the wash. Each scallop creates its own small bead, which is picked up
by the new stroke coming underneath it, so the timing and flow of paint can be
manipulated with great accuracy. The scalloped strokes can be placed at any point
along the bottom edge of the wash, to add paint or move a bead that has been resting
for too long.
Lay this stroke down in a graceful, light, movement — don't daub or dither with it. The
shape of the stroke should not be mechanical, but varied to fit the location and shape of
the specific wash area you paint with each stroke.
If banding occurs in the scalloped wash beads across the wash area, the irregular
shape and placement of these bands will make them much less noticeable and create a
subtle textural variation that blends well into the overall watercolor effect.

4. Finally, the crossed brushstroke (right) is the most aggressive. The paint is laid down
with short, overlapping strokes. Except for the strokes at the top of the page, the start
of each stroke crosses over the end of a previous stroke. The brush is used almost with
a scrubbing emphasis, so that any collection of heavy pigment particles that may have
formed is dispersed by the new stroke.
Other Watercolor Techniques
Laying Multiple Washes
An interesting variation of the traditional wash is to lay multiple wash solutions over the
same area. This is unavoidable if you are painting multicolor gradients: a blue sky
shading down to a yellow haze along the horizon (which fades gradually back up into
the blue sky). Each wash is painted separately, with whatever technique seems
appropriate.
This approach produces especially luminous clear skies, and also luminous dark areas
such as hills and shaded undergrowth. Many artists use multiple washes to great effect,
laying down successively darker layers of the same color to get luminous, rich darks.
The main caution is to let the previous wash dry completely before starting the next
wash. Especially bad things happen when you lay a wash over a previous wash that is
still at a moist or damp wetness. The paper will look dry, but the moisture under the
surface can erupt in blossoming, uneven diffusion, broken wash beads, muddy pigment
mixtures, and other ghastly surprises.
Graded Wash
This technique is used to make a color fade from dark to light. It is done just like a
traditional wash except one must dilute the paint with more water with each vertical
pass, creating a uniform fade.
Another variation on this technique is to fade from one color to another, such as a
sunset with red near the bottom and blue sky on top. It works best to have all of the
intermediate colors pre-mixed in separate wells of the palette. Another way to do a fade
is to do one color faded from dark to light and let it dry completely. Then turn the paper
upside down and do the other color on top of the first wash, fading from dark to light.
Thin-Line Graded Wash
A thin-line graded wash is created by starting with one thin line of highly concentrated
paint. The line can be straight or curvy. Next, a flat brush is dipped in clean water and
is dragged just underneath the thin line. The brush can be rinsed and run over once
more to make a wider line if desired. The key to creating a good thin-line graded wash
is to work quickly. Do not leave the thin line setting for too long before brushing over it
with clean water.

5. Wet On Wet
Wet on wet is probably the most dramatic of water color techniques, but also one of the
most difficult to control. To produce wet on wet apply each new color without allowing
the previous one to dry. Because the paper is wet, any colors applied will bleed into
each other, producing very soft, moody effects. When painting wet on wet one should
take care to ensure that colors following the initial wash contain less water, in some
cases use pure color. If the water content of successive colors is to great they will either
diffuse into nothing, or worse still cause unsightly ‘run backs’, a condition where the
water flows back into areas you didn’t mean to apply paint. Although ‘run backs’ are
generally frowned upon, they can be employed to produce interesting results with
practice. The importance of the water content when painting wet on wet cannot be
stressed enough. In fact, a more suitable name for this technique would be dry on wet.
Another variation of this technique is to wet an area with clean water and then apply
highly saturated paints (don’t add much water to them). The more water you have in
the area, the more the colors will swirl. Less water will create more smooth blends as
the color disperses across the paper. You can also tilt your board different directions to
help control the flow of the paint.
Dry Brush
By this time you have successfully created an overall wash, and then worked darker
washes into the picture, thus defining the basic shapes. Your painting is mostly laid out,
but is now lacking in fine detail.
Dry brush is the almost the opposite watercolor technique to wet on wet. Here a brush
loaded with pigment (and not too much water) is dragged over completely dry paper.
The marks produced by this technique are very crisp and hard edged. They will tend to
come forward in your painting and so are best applied around the center of interest.
These processes require that the paper be dry or you will lose the fine edges. Dry your
paper. The biggest mistake in dry brushing is not having the paper dry!!
For grass or similar textures, you can use an old stiff bristle brush, tooth brush, or
anything with a little arthritis in the bristles. Simply scrub it into the paint on your palette
and dry brush it where the grass should be. Don't press too hard - the idea is a light
dusting so that the individual bristles make individual lines. The dry brush is excellent for
all textures, weeds, rocks, old wooden barns etc.
Take advantage of the spring of the bristles to create fine stems, weeds, branches, etc.
It works well to hold it by the very tip of the handle. Aim it straight down and flick it
across the paper in a somewhat jerky motion, letting the natural spring of the bristles
guide it. Thus you create natural looking stems or branches.
Summary

6. In summary, most watercolorists use a combination of these techniques in their
paintings, usually in a specific order. The groundwork is usually laid down with a series
of washes (flat, graded, or thin-line graded), on top of which the other techniques are
applied (such as dry brush and wet on wet). Practice and patience are the key
ingredients to the production of a nice watercolor piece.