Watercolor Techniques

Hard-edged shapes that sometimes creep into a clear wash when the paper dries unevenly and cockles.

• backruns

• glazing

• blending

• variegated

A means to achieve soft, melting color gradations by brushing or rubbing the edge where two tones or colors meet.

• backruns

• blending

• glazing

• variegated

Paint that is applied smoothly onto wet paper leaving no streaks or visual texture.

• flat wash

• variegated wash

• masking out

• glazing

A technique in which thin, transparent washes of color are laid on successive layers of dried colors, such as many sheets of colored tissue paper.

• backruns

• blending

• glazing

• plastic wrap technique

This technique creates an area of color that moves gradually from dark to from light to dark, or from one color to another.

• backruns

• blending

• graded wash

• masking out

A technique where certain areas of a painting are covered up with a paint-resistant surface, so that they can be freely worked over without marking the surface.

• blending

• flat wash

• grades wash

• masking out

A dry insoluble substance, usually pulverized, which when suspended in a liquid vehicle or medium becomes a paint or ink.

• graded wash

• pigment

• plastic wrap technique

• salt technique

The use of plastic wrap placed onto a wet wash or watercolor to produce textures and effects.

• masking out technique

• plastic wrap technique

• plastic texture technique

• masking texture technique

The use of salt sprinkled into a wet wash of watercolor or ink to produce textures and effects.

• salt technique

• sodium wash technique

• salt wash technique

• salt texture technique

This is an exciting and unusual effect that can be obtained by laying different colored washes side by side so that they melt into each other wet-in-wet.

• plastic texture technique

• variegated wash

• graded wash

• watercolor wash