Watercolor Painting Techniques – Brush Control

In this article, I’m going to share some techniques for brush control. Some would say that this is probably the most important part of watercolor painting. Without proper brush control, depending on what it is you’re trying to accomplish, you’re not going to reach your intended destination…whatever that may be. So hopefully, this article will help you get there.

While it’s not possible to go over every brush control technique, I will cover a few of the main ones. The first technique is called bands of color. It’s actually very simple. What you do is choose a color and draw some kind of a line with it, preferably curved. Then, you take another color and, right underneath the first line, try to draw an identical line in shape with the second color. You then repeat this with a third, fourth and so on. The resulting image is going to be quite interesting if done right. The key is leaving just enough space between each line so that the colors don’t wash together.

Another really cool technique is thick and thin. This is where you start out painting a line so that it begins thick but then begins to thin before going back to thick again and so on until you’ve completed the entire length of the line. This is accomplished by simply applying lots of pressure at the start to create the thick part of the line and then easing up to create the thin part. It’s a very effective technique.

Then of course there is the wrist flick technique. This is really good for painting things like grass. The technique does take a little practice but once you master it, it’s so cool. Say you want to paint a grass blade. What you do is start at the bottom of the canvas, where the grass would start (as if it were growing out of the ground) and then flick the brush upward. With a little practice, this will actually begin to look like a real blade of grass. That is of course assuming you’re using the correct watercolor.

These brush control techniques only scratch the surface but should get you started on your way to creating some nice designs. If you want a complete watercolor tutorial, check out the link in my signature. You’ll learn everything you need to know about watercolor painting.