How to Preserve White Paper When Painting Wet-into-wet

How to Preserve White Paper When Painting Wet-into-wet

By Vladimir London, Watercolor Academy tutor

How to Paint a Portrait in Watercolor - Part 2

To wet the paper surface, I will use a flat wide synthetic brush and clean water. This is high-quality, Saunders-Waterford watercolor paper, which has 300 gsm weight and is made of 100% cotton. It has a cold-pressed, which is also called 'Not', surface. First, I will moisten the entire paper sheet. It is easier to control the amount of water when applying it with a flat brush. You can do it with a sponge as well, but it's less convenient. You need to make sure that there are no dry gaps left. Because the wet surface is reflective, such gaps are easy to spot.

The board with paper is placed horizontally, so water doesn't flow down. It will take several minutes for paper to absorb water. The paper sheet is fixed to the board with masking tape. To prevent water getting under the tape, its edge is sealed with masking fluid. Because the paper was fixed dry, it will expand and buckle. This is one of the reasons why I don't particularly like fixing paper to the board with masking tape. Should this paper be stretched not dry, but wet with staples, it would buckle less. I will wait until the soaked wet paper becomes shiny and then satin. This is when the paper surface is still wet but not highly reflective.

Before wetting the paper, you need to prepare the colors of your choice. For the variegated wash I have in mind, six colors will be used. I marked pigments of those colors under the swatches. Because there will be several layers, it is better to use fine particle transparent pigments for the first layer. When the paper surface becomes satin and is ready for painting, the board has to be tilted at about 10 to 15 degrees.

Now, I will show you how to preserve white paper when applying a variegated wash wet-into-wet. For this purpose, I will use a soft squirrel mop brush that takes a lot of paint but releases it sparingly. You must get the right balance between the amount of paint on the brush and the wetness of paper. You can learn how to achieve such a balance only by practicing. It might take you several attempts to get it right.

You can notice how softly one color fuses into another. When you do a variegated wash the right way, there should be no hard edges between neighboring colors. You can see the paint slowly flows down and spreads outward from each brush stroke. To preserve white paper when painting wet-into-wet, do not bring the brush close to the edge of the white area. In this layer, the white area I am preserving is the girl's face. Give some room for paint to flow and spread without reaching the preserved area. I am applying paint with the "saw-wash" technique. With this technique, I make fast and short brush strokes placed next to each other. Every brush stroke overlaps the previous one. These brush strokes are placed diagonally. Despite using the saw-wash technique, there are no saw teeth between colors. The brushstrokes are fused to each other softly. Wet paper expands and buckles, forming hills and valleys. Paint flows from the hills down to valleys. The amount of paint has to be no more than needed, so it won't collect in valleys and run in streams. That is why it is very important not to overload the mop brush with liquid paint that would run uncontrollably on the wet paper surface.

You can see that every brushstroke has very soft edges. This is the beauty of the wet-into-wet wash. While the paint dries, it spreads, which makes diffused edges even softer. Applying brush strokes diagonally also helps because paint flows down under gravity and diagonal brushstrokes intermix better. To demonstrate how the paint flows and spreads, I will speed up this video. Gravity is your co-creator. It mixes paints on paper and makes diffusion between colors more gradual. You will find more information on how to paint wet-into-wet using the saw-wash technique in the Watercolor Academy Course.

When the variegated wash is almost complete, the board can be placed horizontally to prevent paint flowing down. The paint flows down and collects at the bottom edge. You need to absorb the excess paint with a damp brush. Because the paint also flows from the hills to valleys, you need to absorb small puddles of paint at the bottom of valleys. This also can be done with the towel-dry brush. Keep an eye on soft borders between color and white paper. If needed, you may moisten the surface slightly to prevent hard edges forming. This can be done with the mop or wide flat brush. However, you have to be careful not to add too much water. The first layer is complete but still wet. The board can be tilted at different angles for paint to flow and diffuse under gravity. This will soften up gradation between colors even more. If needed, you may soften the white area borders while paint dries. It has to be done with a clean, damp brush. You may need to come back and fix borders several times before the paper fully dries.

In the next part, I will show you how to paint wet-on-dry while protecting white areas without masking fluid. To learn professional watercolor painting techniques, you can enroll in the Watercolor Academy Course.

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