Basic Techniques 3 - Water Tension

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One of the joys of watercolour is watching colour spread into water, creating those wonderfully soft, delicate edges that are so difficult to achieve with any other medium. In this tutorial I’ll show you how water tension and the wetness of your paper influence the way paint moves. We’ll compare colour placed directly onto dry paper with colour dropped into a generous wet area, so you can see just how dramatically the edges and movement change. I’ll also show you why giving your colour a lovely wet playground can buy you more time, helping you soften edges, move paint around and allow the watercolour to do what it does best. This simple little exercise is a brilliant way to start understanding the relationship between paint, water and paper – and to discover just how beautiful watercolour can be when you give it room to move. Show more