Techniques: Watercolour Washes

A wash could be considered the most essential technique to learn when you first begin with watercolour. But what exactly does this involve and how do you get it right? In this post, we hope to answer just that and give you a few handy tips that aren't only useful for beginners, but even seasoned professionals who want to brush up on the basics! 

First of all, what is a wash? 

A wash is essentially the opposite of a single brush stroke, used to create large background areas or large underlying forms for shapes. Most watercolour pieces begin with one large wash or multiple washes, forming the foundation of your painting. 

There are many different types of washes depending on the desired effect you would like to create. 

Flat Washes 

These are flat in tone, forming a solid block or shape on the paper. Flat washes are great for when you want to create a simple colour block, to perhaps put more detail on as you add layers. 
To create a flat wash, you will need to premix plenty of your desired colour on your palette before you begin, to ensure you won't run out of colour halfway through. Due to the quick-drying nature of watercolour, you need to make sure you work swiftly to avoid watercolour blooms or uneven patches of colour. 

It is also important to have your paper slightly tilted towards you. You can use a number of things to prop the top of the paper up, see what works for you. This is used to help the water run down the page and form a bead (an excess of moisture, looking like a standing puddle at the bottom of the wet area). 

Filling your brush with as much colour as possible, you will need to first make a top stroke across the surface in the desired space where you want your wash to be. It is very important to work from top to bottom, as as soon as you lay your first stroke, a bead will form. It is important to work with the bead
so that when you make your next stroke, you go back to where the bead is and drag it along the paper, just below where your first stroke was. Keep doing this until you have filled the desired space, picking up more colour when needed. Plenty of colour on your brush at all times will help to make a smooth, flat wash. 

Once you have finished creating your wash, don't forget to use a dry brush to pick up the bead at the end, to make sure it doesn't pool at the bottom. 

Wet in Wet Washes 

These are exactly what they sound like and if you are already familiar with watercolour techniques, you may have already come across the 'wet-in-wet' technique. Essentially, you are adding pigment to an already wet surface, to create desirable effects. 

This can be used to add elements of colour where you don't want harsh edges on the shapes you're creating. 

This is particularly useful for backgrounds on pieces where you would like to add depth. Softer background elements will give a more 3D impression of your pieces, and bring your foreground elements into focus. 

When creating a 'wet in wet wash', you need to make sure you wet your surface with clean water (and a clean brush too!). Once you have the desired space that you want to fill covered with water, you will need to take your pre-mixed colour and drop or use the brush to create shapes of pigment. You may need to practise this technique before using it in a final piece- watercolour can be very unpredictable and the paint will spread differently depending on how much water you have on the surface as well as the paint on your brush. 

Graduated Washes 

Graduated washes are used to blend one colour into another, or one tone to another. Perfect for sunset skies or adding blended shadows.

For a light to dark wash, you will need to prepare your paint with varying levels of intensity in colour. Beginning with your lightest colour, or even clean water, use this to make your first stroke. Just like the other kinds of wash, use the bead for each next stroke you make, with your paper tilted towards you. However, with this kind of wash, you will need to pick up more and more colour as you go, so the more variations you have in pre-prepped colour will help create a smooth transition from one tone to another. For a dark to light wash, the premise is exactly the same. The only change is that you will work with more colour to start with, working your way to clean water. 

If you are creating a graduated wash with colour, again, make sure you have the two colours that you would like to blend into each other already prepped. To make your transitions smoother, it is worth mixing a mixture of the two colours to use in the middle of your wash. Using the same method as before, you will need to work from top to bottom, picking up the bead with variations of paint as you move down the wash. 

If you can master this technique, smooth washes will help to form strong foundations in your paintings.  Remember, practice makes perfect! 

If you enjoyed this blog post or are going to try any of these methods yourself, please do let us know in the comments below.