Watercolor Basics: How much water should I use?
It’s called “watercolor” because water is the star of watercolor. Without it, we are just layering sticky globs of paint on paper, and we miss out on the beautiful magic that is created when we allow color to flow.
If you’re just getting started in watercolor, managing the water and feeling in control of what is happening on the paper is going to feel like your biggest problem. How do I control the paint and water in watercolor?
My opinion is that control is boring. If you crave a loose watercolor style, you don’t really want to tame watercolor and completely subject it to your control. There are artists that do that; they work with small amounts of paint and create very fine, controlled, detailed paintings with many glazes of paint, and they create beautiful paintings that are highly technical.
Actually, I don’t like the term “highly technical” because intuitive watercolor is highly technical too. It takes an experienced artist to be able to engage with fluid color and instinctive mark-making, and create a compelling piece of art. Don’t be fooled into thinking that loose watercolor is easier!
Winter Deer, watercolor by Angela Fehr 11 x 15 inches
This conversation would have discouraged me just a few years ago, because I never considered myself to have the ability to become highly skilled in art. “Highly skilled” implied a giftedness and access to instruction that I didn’t have. I spent a lot of years being frustrated by my distance from teachers who could guide me into skill and by my perceived lack of whatever it is that makes a world-class artist. Turns out what I had instead was a lot of self-limiting beliefs that failed to take into account that doing art will make you better.
Want to learn how much water to use to create magical effects? Paint and watch, and then do it again tomorrow. Familiarity makes the act of painting feel instinctive, and while you can learn a lot from a great teacher, actually doing will create the muscle memory that makes a skill yours.
Here are a few tips that will help you learn how much water to use when you’re painting:
Water = movement. The more water you use, the more the paint will flow, allow colors to blend together longer and extend drying time.
More water = less control. Most of the time, your most fluid painting stage will be at the beginning of the painting, creating an underpainting that supports the main idea. If you want a loose painting, you need to start loose, so be willing to allow the paint to move at this early stage.
Great paper helps! For great flow, use 100% cotton paper. I like cold press for a nice balance between absorbency and flow, while hot press will have a slicker surface for even more flow and less control.
Wet/Moist/Damp/Dry. Get to know the drying process and how the paint behaves at each stage. Adding paint to damp paper is going to cause reactions drastically different than if the paper is wet. Timing is important…and you learn this by gauging it incorrectly for the first while. I like to work at understanding drying stages by doing wet-in-wet warm ups, and fussing about with paint far into overworking. The painting may not look like much, but it’s a powerful workout for my understanding of moisture levels and paint behaviours.
Water balance is key in the damp/moist stages. If one part of the paper is wetter than the rest, blooms will occur as the excess moisture tries to run/push back into the damp sections.
It’s not just about the paper! I am always conscious of how much water my paint brush brings to the painting, especially if I want to prevent blooms and backruns. I think of my brush as having three stages: juicy brush (lots of water & paint), neutral brush (brings paint to the paper with the same amount of moisture as is already on the paper), thirsty brush (acts as a sponge to lift moisture/paint from the painting). All are useful in the painting process.
Wet, then rewet. If you are wetting a piece of paper for a wet-in-wet first layer, the first layer of water you apply will soak in quickly to the paper, and possibly unevenly. A second wash of water over the surface will result in a more even wash and give you more time to paint. Tilt the painting board to allow any excess water to flow to the edge, then blot the excess. (In very hot climates, wetting the back of the paper will also extend painting time.)
Climate matters! What one online instructor demonstrates might not work in your climate. You might have faster drying times to adapt to, or a humid climate that slows drying time. Frequent painting will help you develop working methods to adapt to your climate.
Urgency kills a painting. Be present in the moment. Paint, pause to observe, then paint again. Rushing to try to fix a mistake, or hurry to complete the painting and see if it turns out fails to allow for the evolving nature of this medium.
Use more paint! Many beginners work with watery washes of color, and too much water. A too-rich saturation of pigment can be spread to dilute and cover a large area, but a too-weak beginning will result in you needing to add more paint, and as you add more paint with a wet brush, you increase the water on the paper, Next thing you know, you have a huge puddle of color, all the pigment has migrated to the edge of the puddle, and possibly your paper is even starting to seem over-saturated and get a grey, tired look. Most students are surprised to see that I use less water than they expect, and more paint.
Let me repeat myself: you will learn this as you paint! You can’t decide how quickly you will master watercolor, but you can decide to be too stubborn to quit, to paint and observe, to experiment and know that your mistakes are teaching you more than you will learn if you play it safe.
Spend time in playful warm ups. Take risks and pour that color on! Know that watercolor rewards the brave, and childlike play is the best way to reveal your true self, your inner artist. The techniques will come as the brush miles accumulate.
Have you had a watercolor light-bulb moment that helped you understand this medium? Tell me about it in the comments!