Getting Even Watercolor Washes [feedly]

----
Getting Even Watercolor Washes
// Gurney Journey

Blog reader Kaos No Kamisama asks:

"May I ask how do you get your watercolor to spread so evenly on the paper? I always end up getting different concentrations of pigment or those pesky dark corner-concentrations."

Kaos, in my experience the evenness of watercolor washes depends on "The Four P's": the paper, the pigment, the prewetting, and the pitch (or tilt) of the board.

Paper 
If the paper is gelatin-sized to accept the paint, the wash will spread more evenly. All proper watercolor paper should have sizing in it. Also, the paper should have some tooth, but not so much tooth that you can't get the paint into all the little valleys. Smooth paper (also known as plate finish or hot press) tends to take washes more unevenly than rougher, cold press watercolor paper. The paper should also be absolutely flat, which is why you want heavyweight paper, or a block, or stretched paper, which won't buckle when it's wet.
  

Paint
It's important to mix up a generous amount of paint and use a big brush, so that you don't run out of it in the middle of the wash. Also, the type of pigment can affect how a paint disperses. Finer organic pigments such as phthalo or quinacridone will disperse more evenly than some relatively granular inorganic pigments such as viridian. Also, paints vary in how they're formulated. Some have a dispersant additive that makes the pigment flow more evenly.

Prewetting
Prewetting an area with clean water before you add the pigment wash will aid dispersion. You can do this with a big, clean brush, applying the water evenly to the area where you want the wash. It should be slightly damp with no puddles. Then when you add the wash it will go down more smoothly. This method is especially good for a large area without too many detail cutouts, such as a sky. Painting a sky over a dampened paper also allows for the introduction of soft edges, especially around clouds.

Pitch
Finally, and most importantly, the pitch or tilt of the board allows the wash to advance by gravity down toward the buildup of the "bead" of paint. You can keep advancing the bead downward as you develop your wash. The gravity will keep the wash from puddling backward (also called a backrun). Obviously you don't want the board to be so steep that the water breaks through the bead and drips down the board. The tilt the board can be anywhere from 10% to 40%, but it shouldn't be any moreHere's a previous post with photos of Ogden Pleissner's palette.
tilted than necessary. As you practice you'll notice that more watery mixtures will drip more easily than thicker paint mixtures. The need for a variable pitch to the board is why watercolorists need easels that can be set up at any angle, and ideally adjusted on the fly.

There's a lot more information about laying washes on the excellent website "Handprint"
My video "Watercolor in the Wild" 

----

Shared via my feedly newsfeed

Sent from my iPhone