Many people think of watercolor painting as a child's play. Watercolor painting is a lot more than just mixing color and water. If you need to use watercolor painting in the right manner, then you must learn the basic techniques of this art in the first place.
When you take up watercolor painting, you must have a clear understanding of how water behaves on canvas. Unlike oil and acrylic paints, watercolor paints are pretty difficult to handle. Unlike oil and acrylic paints that can easily hide a wrong stroke, watercolor painting does not hide anything.
These days watercolor painting has become more experimental than ever before. People are experimenting not just in terms of painting techniques but also the way they paint. Gone are the days, when the painting brush was the sole medium for using water colors. These days, sponges, sticks, scrapers, sprayers and several other devices are being used for watercolor painting.
There are several painting techniques that one can use in watercolor painting to make the painting more elaborate and to add depth to the painting. Some of the most commonly used techniques for watercolor painting include glaze, dry brush, wet, washes, strokes and the like.
Amidst various other techniques, glazes are the most difficult to paint. This basically refers to painting a diluted color over the base color so that the base color comes through. You first start by applying a smooth base coat. Once that dries, an artist can paint as many glazes as he wants to by experimenting with different color shades.
Dry brush technique is another common technique used in water color painting. This painting technique finds great usage in botanical art paintings. As the name suggests, water is not used for this kind of painting technique. Firstly, the tip of the brush is moistened using water. Now you dip the brush in paint and start painting it across the paper. The brush is used in various criss-cross movements to create a fine texture.
In case you are painting landscapes, you could also make use of wash technique in your paintings. This technique basically makes use of unified strokes to create a texture. A diluted paint is used for this kind of painting. You simply wipe the paper across with the brush to create the kind of texture that you want. You could also create textures by using a dark to light paint for this technique.
There are so many more techniques that can be used in watercolor painting. You can practice any of them based on your skill and experience. Try some of these techniques and you are sure to take your watercolor painting to the next level.
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