1. Art and Design 2200 Watercolour Techniques

2. In your sketchbook you will paint a sample of each of the following watercolour techniques. Draw a rectangle for each sample technique (2-4 per sketchbook page). Your project must have a title and each sample must be labeled correctly. Remember to be neat and creative!

3. Wash This is the most basic watercolour technique. It is produced by first wetting the paper which is to be covered by the wash, then mix paint with the entire area. Paint should be applied by making horizontal brush strokes across the paper which overlap slightly.

4. Wash

5. Gradiant/Graded Wash This wash goes from dark to light down (or up) the page. This technique requires the paint to be diluted with more water for each horizontal stroke. This wash should fade out gradually and evenly.

6. Gradiant/Graded Wash

7. Wet-in-Wet The process of applying paint to wet paper. Wet the paper with a large brush and paint onto the dampness. The soft marks and colours made by painting wet on wet are great for backgrounds.

8. Wet-in-Wet

9. Dry Brush This technique is almost opposite of Wet- in-wet. The brush is full of paint with very little water and is dragged over completely dry paper. These marks will be crisp and hard edged. They will tend to come forward in the painting so use them to attract attention.

10. Dry Brush

11. Lifting Most watercolour pigment can be dissolved and lifted off after it is dried. Wet the area to be removed with a brush and clean water, then blot the pigment away with a tissue.

12. Lifting

13. Splatter This is a simple technique which involves dipping the brush in paint and using a finger to flick the bristles so that the paint splatters on the paper. Do not throw the paint everywhere!

14. Splatter

15. Salt This is a technique of sprinkling salt onto a wet wash which causes the wash to spread.

16. Salt

17. Wax Resist Clear wax (or crayons or oil pastels) drawn on white paper or dry painted paper acts as a resist to new washes.

18. Wax Resist

19. Erasing This technique involves erasing pigment with an eraser. You could also use a damp sponge over a stencil to lift colour.

20. Erasing

21. Sgrafitto Sgrafitto is an Italian term for scratching techniques. This technique is excellent for adding details to landscape paintings in the form of naked trees and branches. You can use cardboard, cut to shape, to scrape larger areas of paint around. The smooth flat edge will act as a squeegee and push the paint off the area you are scraping.

22. Erasing This technique involves erasing pigment with an eraser. You could also use a damp sponge over a stencil to lift colour.

23. Textures Dropping - This is the simple process of introducing a colour to a wet region of the painting and allowing it to blend, bleed, and feather. Plastic Wrap Texture – This texture is created by laying plastic wrap over a wet wash and allowing to dry before removing the wrap.

24. Textures Tissue Paper Texture – This texture is created by laying tissue paper over a wet wash and allowing to dry before removing the wrap. Stamping – This is made by putting paint on something and pressing that something onto your painting. The stamping material you choose could be anything organic or synthetic. Try the classic potato, pencil eraser, or leather, lace, burlap, leaves, grasses or your fingers. Use your imagination, possibilities abound.

25. Textures

26. Textures