💧Watercolor Foundations Session #2 🐠 Mastering Wet-on-Damp Technique (Patreon)

🎨 Welcome to Watercolor Foundations, Episode 2! This is part of our new series of foundational exercises to help you practice essential techniques and brushstrokes in a stress-free way, using your favorite supplies. The time you spend here pays off in every painting you make afterwards!

💧 Today, we're practicing wet-on-damp - one of the most beautiful watercolor techniques, sitting right in between the classic wet-on-wet and wet-on-dry, and giving you a wonderful effect of softly faded strokes without the colors fully blending into each other. It's an essential technique for botanical art, but also for a variety of other subjects, including painting water and waves (which we will practice as part of the session).

To master this technique, we need to carefully observe how quickly your paper is drying. This will be unique to your favorite paper brand, but also your climate. For a large portion of the session, I'll be using a timer, and we'll practice basic strokes on different sections of paper drying at different time intervals. This will teach you to observe and track drying times, and help you learn more about water control.

Download the outlines below, or simply draw a grid of rectangles and a couple of common shapes like a leaf, a petal, and a starfish, grab your favorite brushes and pigments, and let's spend some time learning about your watercolor paper. ⏳

🐠 If you'd like to see wet-on-damp applied in a real painting, check out our latest Betta Fish (Tiers 2 & 3): 👉 https://www.patreon.com/AnnaBucciarelli/posts/betta-fish-wet-1-165855771 or try Blue Orchids (Tiers 2 & 3), one of our most popular tutorials using this method: 👉 https://www.patreon.com/posts/78657273

🧩 In the previous session, we practiced edges - specifically the Puzzle Method: sequencing washes of different colors to achieve crisp edges and seamless color blocks. You can see it here: https://www.patreon.com/AnnaBucciarelli/posts/watercolor-1-164747032

🦚 Coming up next: essential techniques for painting bird feathers, alongside a bigger composition featuring a Peacock that puts it into practice.

🎥 OTHER CLASSES MENTIONED:

9 Leaves 🌿 9 Techniques: From Beginner to Advanced: 👉https://www.patreon.com/AnnaBucciarelli/posts/9-leaves-9-from-101264118

Watercolor Timing Exercise with Synthetic Ox Gall: 👉 https://youtu.be/LxyZ4a_YzSQ

🎨 WATERCOLOR MATERIALS

Today, I'm using 100% cotton, cold-pressed paper, because this technique works best on this type of surface. I recommend using your favorite cotton cold-pressed paper, or papers, to learn more about the drying time on the surface you work on most.

I'm using a mix of non-granulating watercolors today, and I encourage you to use whatever you reach for most - the more contrast, the better. Similarly for brushes, try all your favorites - you'll learn a lot about how they behave with the wet-on-damp technique, even ones you've had for years. I'll work through a mix of rounds and flats, but you don't need the same ones.

📄 PAPER TESTED:

Arches cold pressed 140lbs block 9 x 12 inches: https://amzn.to/3QGcmwc

🎨 PIGMENTS TESTED:

Quinacridone Red (PV19) from QOR: https://amzn.to/43iZ12D

Quinacridone Magenta from QOR (PR122): https://amzn.to/3SuqtXt

Dioxazine Purple (PV23) from QOR: https://amzn.to/4ddnr24

Phthalo Blue Green Shade (PB15:3): https://amzn.to/3QO1sVd

Phthalo Turquoise (PB15:3/PG7) from QOR: https://amzn.to/470H9ht

Hookers Green (PG 36, PY 3, PY 150, PO 48) from Daniel Smith: https://amzn.to/43OcWOc

Perylene Green from Daniel Smith (PBk31): https://amzn.to/4a3PY8V

Permanent Brown from Daniel Smith {PBr 25}

Transparent Pyrrole Orange from QOR (PO71): https://amzn.to/3L0diJO 

Hansa Yellow Deep from Daniel Smith {PY65}: https://amzn.to/49fhK0U

🎨 BRUSHES TESTED:

Escoda Chronos Synthetic Sable Round #2 (can be found in my brush set : https://amzn.to/4qrONJm )

Escoda Perla Synthetic Squirrel Round #8 https://amzn.to/4qrONJm

Escoda Prado Synthetic Sable #1/2" Square Flat https://amzn.to/4qrONJm

Escoda Synthetic Sable Rigger #4 https://amzn.to/4qrONJm

Escoda Chronos Synthetic Sable Round #00

Escoda Reserva Sable Long Round #2

Da Vinci Sable Round #4 https://amzn.to/4guFHHf

Winsor & Newton Series 7 Sable Round #3

An old squirrel brush in size #0 from a no name brand I picked up in Europe