Watercolor: You Can Do It! by Tony Couch

Author:Tony Couch
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Courier Publishing
Published: 2019-03-12T16:00:00+00:00

Practice making graded washes so you achieve a gradual uniform change in value from dark to light as in A, left, and around shapes as in B, below.

If it isn't getting lighter, dip the brush into the water can, striking the bottom. Get the excess water out, then continue as before. More pigment will have left the brush via the water can trip, so the box should gradually be getting lighter with each horizontal stroke. Continue to the bottom, and you should have a gradual, uniform change in value from very dark at the top to very light at the bottom, as in A.

If the gradual change isn't smooth enough, some adjustments must be made, which is simple enough if the entire box is still soaking wet. Suppose the bottom is too dark: rinse the brush in clean water, striking the bottom inside the can a few times to get the pigment out. Now dry the brush on a wad of facial tissue to get the maximum amount of water out.

Stroke the bottom of the box with the same horizontal stroke as before, but slowly to allow the thirsty brush to pick up the wet pigment as you go. Work up the box now, and the brush will pick up less and less pigment as it becomes saturated. Not light enough yet? Repeat the process.

Too abrupt a change from dark to light? With a clean, half wet brush, stroke the dark area back and forth, moving down into the light area. The brush will "borrow" some of the dark and transfer it to the lighter area. Again, all this must be done rapidly, while the entire box is still soaking wet.

Area not dark enough? Go into it with a brush with more pigment than water and stroke this area again, working down to the lighter area, as before. If the paper is still soaking wet, there is no danger of a back run.

When you have this technique down, draw a shape in the middle of a box and repeat the drill, this time painting around the shape, as in B. This exercise is helpful, because often, while using gradation in a painting, you'll also have to paint around a shape.

Practice these drills until you can do them instinctively; then you'll have no qualms about using them often in your painting. It only takes a few minutes to do each drill, and it's an excellent exercise when you don't have enough time to do a whole painting.

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