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.