Solving Common Problems
7 watercolor problems, commonly encountered but easily solved
One of the great appeals of watercolor as a painting medium is the fact that it is quick and responsive. It is also very portable and combines well with ink, charcoal, gouache and other mixed media.
The fast drying nature of watercolor can create problems. Unwanted hard edges can cause distractions. Blooms, where a damp brush or drop of water on a drying wash, can spoil a nice flat sky or simple foreground. Tonal adjustments can take some getting used to, especially if you are coming from oil or acrylic where white is simply added to make a color lighter.
In this article we will examine the seven most common problems I see with people moving into watercolor. We will also look at simple solutions to these problems.
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•Preserving White Paper
•Mixing Strong Darks
•Accurate Horizontal and Vertical Lines
•Smooth, Even Washes
•Controlling Edges and Blooms
•Making Fine Lines
•Mixing Colors
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1 Preserving White paper
With opaque painting mediums high key areas can be painted over dark areas with mixtures of white pigment. Watercolor requires areas of clean paper to be preserved where whites are required. This sounds simple enough but, in the excitement of applying paint, it is easy to lose critical areas of white.
The solution is to leave more areas of white than you will eventually need then, as the painting progresses, edit and adjust them.
For fine white lines masking fluid can be used provided you know, in the early stages of the painting, exactly where they will be required. White Gouache, warmed slightly with Burnt Sienna or Quinacridone Gold, can also be used for fine white lines over dark areas.
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Areas of white paper were left around the boats in the focal area of the painting below. As the painting progressed, some of the white spaces were washed over, darkened or reduced to allow the focal area to do its job without undue distraction.
For extremely fine masking fluid lines a clean dip in pen works best.
2 Mixing Strong Darks
Mixing extremely dark tones can be difficult if the wrong approach is taken. It is important to use as little water as possible so the pigments don't become diluted. Washing your brush between colors is a sure way to add too much water.
A transparent Yellow such as Quinacridone Gold or Indian Yellow will alter the color of the dark without lifting the tone. Opaque Yellows such as Cadmium Yellow or Yellow Ochre will make the mixture paler and muddier, so are best avoided.
Squeezing plenty of paint into your palette wells and only picking up small amounts at a time also helps you create nice strong darks.
For strong darks squeeze out plenty of paint, use very little water and don't wash your brush between colors. This might cause your colors to look a little grubby, but don't worry, just under the surface is pure, clean pigment when you need it.
3 Accurate Horizontals and Vertical Lines
If you tend to put a lean on horizontal and vertical lines, the best solution is to carefully measure and draw in a few of the major lines. Once these are established they will influence the direction of the rest of your lines. If your first few lines are incorrect you will tend to follow the direction of these and end up with a drawing that looks as if it is leaning to one side.
With opaque mediums, such as oil or acrylic, it is easy to adjust these leaning lines. With watercolor it is much better to get them correct in the first place.
Some paintings require major lines to be accurately vertical and horizontal.
The best way to keep horizontals horizontal and verticals vertical is to carefully measure with a scrap of paper, place a few dots then draw in the lines. Only a few lines need to be accurately drawn this way. Once they are in place the rest can be hand drawn and will be influenced by the accuracy of the initial measured lines.
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If you do end up with lines that all appear to be leaning in the same direction, a couple of counteracting lines will often work to make things appear to average out to be correct
The verticals and horizontals in this painting meander considerably, but because they average out to be vertical or horizontal, the overall appearance is solid and accurate.
4 Smooth, Even Washes
Try to apply your washes quickly, with plenty of water and a brush big enough for the job. Fiddling around with a small brush and a tiny puddle of paint makes the wash become busy and patchy. Remixing and adding to a wash can cause blooms and unwanted variations.
The best approach is to mix up more than you need and cover the area quickly and evenly without overworking.
If your wash looks a little uneven, gently feathering over it with a dry Hake brush, while the wash is still wet, will usually smooth things out. To apply an even wash to a large area, wet the area first, apply the wash to the wet paper then don't touch it. Even if the wash doesn't look perfectly flat and even, as it dries it will smooth itself out.
This type of wash with blobs, missed patches and uneven paint can be very distracting, particularly away from the center of interest.
Smooth even washes, even with tonal or color gradations, are much less visually demanding. They put interest into outer areas of your painting without becoming a distraction.
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5 Controlling Edges and Blooms
The treatment of edges in a painting is something that is easy to overlook, but can have a huge impact on the work. Edges range from sharp, hard lines that demand a lot of attention to soft, subtle marks that almost disappear.
Controlling these edges has a huge impact on where the viewer's eye travels through your work.
A common approach, when learning watercolor, is to busily work over the surface leaving a variegated patchwork of contrasting marks. This works fine in a focal area, but becomes a real distraction when spread across a large area of the painting. The best approach is to consider where you need hard, contrasting edges, then treat other areas with simple even washes or wet in wet techniques to reduce the attention they attract
Blooms occur when a wet brush is touched on a drying wash. If the wet brush contains more pigment than the drying wash, blooms are less likely to occur. If you notice that cauliflower shape of a bloom starting to form, gently feather a dry hake brush over it. The soft hake bristles will absorb moisture and redistribute pigment, causing the bloom to disappear.
Look at the top edge of these three marks. The hard edge on the first mark draws maximum attention. The soft edge below is much less demanding, while the broken edge on the bottom mark encourages the eye to scan across due to the combination of hard and soft areas.
Two wet brushes - one loaded with pigment, the other loaded with water - are rested on a not quite dry wash. You can see how the brush full of water is causing a bloom to form while the other is having little effect on the drying wash.
The hardest edges in this painting are in the focal area between the sandbank and the dark foliage. This draws attention to the focal area while the soft edges in the distant hills and foreground water keep the painting interesting without becoming a distraction.
The edges on the foliage of the trees are a combination of hard, rough marks and smooth lost marks. Hard where I want attention and soft where I want the marks to recede.
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6 Making Fine Lines
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The addition of some hair thin marks in your painting will greatly increase the impression of clarity and detail. I like to use a combination of different very fine lines. Fine pen lines, hair thin rigger lines and even very fine charcoal pencil lines.
To get the most out of your rigger brush, load it with paint then hold it perpendicular to the paper and make the line with a quick, confident stroke. It takes a bit of practice but once you are comfortable with the technique you will use these lines all the time.
Use a craft knife and an emery board or fine sandpaper to make a sharp point on your charcoal pencil. This sharp point can be dragged gently over your paper to produce a nice fine line. Medium grade (HB) charcoal pencils work best.
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Fine lines can be used to straighten up marks that are slightly out of line. The combination of a loose, casual mark corrected by a fine, defining line has more character than a clean, precise version of the same object.
Sometimes a loose, casual approach Has more character. The slightly skewed panels on the right hand window still appear square and accurate because of the surrounding fine lines. The skewed window is more interesting because it is not so defined and predictable. It is the fine lines that suggest clarity and definition.
A well sharpened charcoal pencil will make beautiful, fine lines. A white charcoal pencil produces a similar line over dark areas of your painting.
A combination of fine rigger lines, thin charcoal pencil lines and pen lines give this painting a feeling of detail and clarity.
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The secret to using a rigger is to load it with paint, hold it perpendicular to the paper and make a quick, confident stroke with just the tip touching the paper.
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7 Mixing Colors
The ability to quickly mix any color takes some practice and a little knowledge. If you can remember which secondary color is opposite each primary color on the color wheel, you will find mixing colors much easier. There are only three combinations you need to remember (these are complementary pairs):​
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Red - Green
Yellow - Violet
Blue - Orange​
Notice that each complimentary pair actually contain the three primaries (Green is a mixture of Yellow and Blue, Violet is a mixture of Red and Blue and Orange is a mixture of Yellow and Red)​If you are after a saturated version of any of the above colors, avoid adding any of its complementary color.If you are after a compound color brown, gray, khaki etc.(ie color containing three primaries) you will need to steer the mixture slowly towards the color you are after.The easiest way to do this is to start with the Primary or Secondary color closest to the color you are after. Depending on the saturation of the color you are after, you may need to neutralize the starting color slightly. To do this add its complement. Little by little add small amounts of pigment to gradually shift the mixture to the color you need.
Slowly adding a complementary color will gradually produce a neutral gray. The mixture can then be slowly pulled towards the color you are after. Remembering these three combinations will make the mixing process much easier.
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Author : John Lovett
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