Learn a very simple layering watercolor technique that will help you make simple but successful watercolor paintings. In this lesson you’ll learn how I paint this quick and simple watercolor painting using only a few layers and I’ll explain my thought process so that you too can use this technique and make simple but successful watercolor paintings.
I start the painting with a wet into wet underpainting. I first wet my paper and put down a light middle value wash. There are two important considerations at this stage: I want to establish my color scheme, and I want to establish my whites.
My color scheme is an earthy, slightly muted palette. This is entirely your personal choice as long as you keep in mind that the first wash needs to stay light middle value. Don’t overdo your first wash with dark values. Keep it light. Then, I focus on my whites. Ideally I paint around my whites such as the shape on the right hand side. I also can use a scraping technique to reclaim my whites. This is useful for those shapes that are difficult to paint around, such as the vineyard poles. I use a cred card to scrape out the poles. You can use any tool you have at hand. The one thing to keep in mind is that you need an optimal level of wetness in your paper for this to work. Don’t do it right away when the paper is too wet, it won’t work. If you let it dry too much it won’t work either. The best time is when the paper is still very much damp but not soaking wet.
Once my whites are established and the color scheme is to my liking I dry the paper completely with my hair drier.
The next step is to paint another, darker, layer. Use this layer to make the white and near white shapes stand out. Paint around those shapes once again. Dry this wash completely.
In the next layers the idea is only to reinforce and better define these important shapes (in my case the poles).
This is a very easy, three-step layering approach with which you can easily paint simple subject successfully – if you know what to focus on. Remember: wet your paper, establish your color scheme and paint around your whites, use darker layers to define your interesting shapes – that’s it!
