How to make good shapes in watercolor is one the most crucial skills you can learn. But how to make good shapes? In this tutorial lesson you’ll learn how to make good shapes in watercolor.
What is a good shape? Good shape is one that has purpose. Some properties of good shapes are:
- good shape is asymmetrical but balanced
- good shape has a clear sense of direction, which means it’s not static (circle, square, etc. are static shapes)
- good shape has an irregular edge along which something happens (incidents such as interlocks)
- and relates to the neighboring shapes.
One way to try and learn to paint good shapes is through approaching a painting in series of flat washes.
In this demonstration I start my painting on dry paper. I use a big brush and paint a flat juicy wash all around the paper’s surface, expect leaving out my whites. Once this has been achieved I dry the page and continue with another large wash – an overall silhouette of my subject.
Then I dry the page again and I start adding definition to the silhouette shapes, as if chiseling out my subject.
I overlap layer after layer and this way build value range that will lead to rich visual experience. My shapes are probably more abstract than what you probably prefer but this approach is viable regardless of how abstract or realistic your rendition is.
The point is: by treating your painting in large washes of interconnected shapes, you’re building an abstract pattern – not a “paint-by-numbers” type of painting. That way your painting has a solid underlying structure, leading to strong, successful art.
