"WASHES": Watercolor Foundations

    Watercolor is a "free spirit" art medium that loves independence. Non-art and beginning students usually dislike its natural "runny" nature. With several daily "practice sheets" devoted to learning the various stages of wetness, color strength, transparency and application techniques, they learn to take charge and manipulate these characteristics to wonderful advantage.

  There are many techniques to explore: Flat and Graded Washes, Black Wash, Wet-In-Wet, Broad Stroke, Dry Brush, Wax Resist, Spatter, Scraping, and Blotting. These will be capitalized when first presented. Look for them in the sequential pages that follow.

TRY A PRACTICE SHEET

    For this unit, we divided 12x18 drawing paper into several areas, one for each of the practice skills for that day.

This sheet practice was DAY 1, and painted in the following order: Area 1 is a FLAT WASH; Next, Area 2 is a GRADED WASH. Area 3 adds a contrast to a flat wash. Area 4 extends the previous practice. Area 5 has fun with WET-IN-WET water splashes that dilute color into unexpected patterns.Area 6 applies washes with a dark top drip to be picked up and allowed to run. The example on the right is what the practice sheet might look like.

Notice that "skipped spaces" between practice areas were observed, allowing time for what was just painted to dry before the one above or below is attempted. Give this a try--- loose, tight and in-between, become acquainted with some basic strokes and let watercolors become an exciting venture for you.

Next, let's work on Broad Strokes in different ways.