Painting with transparency using watercolors
Watercolor is a painting technique that uses water and plays with the transparency and layering of colors. It requires a bit of patience, but that is precisely what makes it so appealing: each layer is delicately applied over the previous one to create depth and subtle nuances.
Various applications with watercolor
Indeed, if the paper is already wet, the outlines will be very blurred, and the watercolor will spread very quickly. Conversely, if the paper is dry, the edges will be very sharp, as here:
What equipment should I use?
To do this type of watercolor exercise, such as transparency, we need:
- A watercolor box. It comes in several forms, either in pans or in tubes.
- Several watercolor brushes: use soft brushes with synthetic or natural bristles.
- Wash brushes have a transparent ferrule made of plastic or quill, held together by metal wires. The bristles will be either synthetic or made of small gray squirrel hair.
- Round-tipped brushes (round metal ferrule, pointed bristles) have either synthetic bristles or weasel hair bristles.
- Water and several small containers. We will use several levels of color dilution to obtain different color densities in the image.
- A cloth
- 2 sheets of cotton watercolor paper. There are two types of watercolor paper: cotton and cellulose*. For the layering exercise, it is best to use cotton paper, which absorbs watercolor better and allows you to work with multiple layers on top of each other. Cellulose paper, on the other hand, is designed to allow you to rework previous layers, which promotes the mixing of layers, which can be very useful for a very detailed drawing, for example, or to change the color of certain elements during the creation of the drawing without the pressure of making irreparable mistakes.
Painting transparency onto a test sheet
Practice creating even flat areas and gradients
Prepare three volumes of water in three different sections of the palette: dilute the color in three small volumes of water: one very diluted, one diluted, and one not very diluted.
Using the brush, apply 3 test patches* to the paper, each approximately 5x5 cm, then a larger one of 20x10 cm (using the intermediate dilution).
Paint a flower with watercolors
Several overlapping petals: create two petals in flat shapes on the same test sheet, as shown in the image.
Let it dry completely. When the sheet is dry to the touch, let it rest for another one or two minutes, so that the color is dry even at the core of the paper. Overlay three more flat washes on top of the ones you did previously.
Add the stem and the leaf.
Painting transparency onto a final sheet
Now we’re going to paint a landscape using watercolors. Use a thicker brush so you can create a larger wash area.
Prepare 6 blue solutions with different concentrations, using the same blue, ranging from the lightest to the most concentrated. For the last one, you can also add a little black to create a higher concentration effect, and thus obtain a darker color.
Note: for this type of exercise, there are three important things:
- You can use a preliminary sketch in blue colored pencil to help you, but you won’t be able to erase it after applying the watercolor, so it needs to be very delicate and subtle.
- If there are irregularities in the coating, do not go over it with the brush several times. Wait for it to dry completely before applying another coat. By trying to fix a coat that is only half-dry, you end up with spots that are even more visible than the imperfections you are trying to correct.
- When I let go of the brush, that’s when the color will stay. We can use it to guide the color.
Make a watercolor wash
Apply a first wash of approximately 15x20 cm using the solution with the lowest concentration. Let it dry.
Apply three successive layers of mountains, from the most diluted to the least diluted, to create a sense of depth in the landscape. For the more diluted layers, and therefore for the most distant mountains, use fewer details on the mountain ridges, and the further you go in the perspective, the more details you can add to the rocks.
Painting a character with watercolors
For the fifth layer, you can add characters in silhouette to create a shadow puppet effect, or just one character, or just a dog. I recommend practicing beforehand to draw the characters, or tracing the outline with colored pencils first. Start with the characters and then fill in the surface underneath, to connect the characters' feet to the mountain.
As a final layer, you can use a very concentrated pigment wash, or add a little black, as I mentioned in the introduction. However, be careful not to use a color that is too concentrated in pigments, as this may result in brushstrokes being visible in the wash instead of it being a smooth, even surface. Test it on the test sheet first.
That’s it, we’re done! I hope you enjoyed this exercise. Feel free to repeat it, either on a larger scale or with different color dilutions, for example, to go from blue to brown. The main thing is to experiment to see where you have the most fun with the dilutions and colors.