There are many fun techniques to learn and utilize when using watercolors.
Wet into Wet is one of the many widely used watercolor techniques for building a base for a watercolor painting! Beginning students should familiarize themselves with this technique to provide a basis of understanding on how the pigment disperses while learning how to control water to color ratios. Knowing when to drop in color at various stages is fundamental and it can be used to create Realistic Watercolors with practice. The three stages of a watercolor I have termed:
Shiny - Semi Matte - Matte
These terms refer to the reflection of the amount of water on the paper (if we were to use a side glance at the paper) at various stages of wetness or dryness. You can create amazing affects when you come to understand how to manipulate and control these three vary important stages of building a watercolor for a realistic outcome. In this demonstration I had a lot of fun working a wet into wet surface for most of the painting of Hummingbird No.7. through a time lapse composite. You see how I lay in colors while the paper is extremely wet as I continue building the layers up over time. Through the building of layers in a shiny stage, color remains a bit pale. As the paper begins to dry, color will become more vibrant as I add paint to the surface. Color disperses less as the surface becomes drier and is less diluted in a matte or semi matte stage. Therefore, it is likely more vibrancy will be maintained since the color has less chance of diluting while the pigment adheres to the paper.
Some of the brushes I use vary with each painting. Depending on the size of the works and the fact I work quite large, I may use mop brushes, synthetic brushes or all sable brushes for details or a combination of both. In this demonstration I am using a combination of synthetic and sable brushes. (Princeton 4050 Series) These brushes can withstand alot as well as hold a good amount of water and keep a nice clean point to to tip of the brush and they are reasonably affordable. I am also working on 156lb. Hot Press Paper by Arches which I cut down from a roll. Color is very important in my work so I use Professional grade Winsor & Newton, Old Holland and Holbein.
If you have any questions about the demonstration, working wet into wet or are new to watercolors and have general questions, please leave a comment below and I will try and answer you asap!
Happy Painting!