Painting in Watercolor 3: Common Mistakes
This lesson comes almost entirely from McCall Johnson's lesson (5 Watercolor Mistakes & How to Fix Them)
With most paint mediums I don't worry much about making mistakes, because most paints are opaque, meaning any mistake you make, you simply paint over and hide them. Watercolor's not like that, because these paints are translucent. So, you're going to see those mistakes, unless you paint very darkly over them. Which means, watercolor requires planning.
Not that you must be a perfectionist. Many artists work loosely and freely, where extra lines, drips, and scribbles are part of the charm:
Burchfield was an incredible watercolorist who was able to plan his compositions beforehand, while embracing spontaneity and what Bob Ross called "happy little accidents". You see it in his work, you don't have to ask him. This approach to painting leads to some great innovations:
This is a great way to experiment and learn watercolor. But, even then, there are few things with watercolor you need to watch out for, because translucency isn't the only issue...
You need to know that water is not your friend; not when it comes to painting.
It cares nothing for what you're trying to do, and is actively working to destroy all it touches: your paper, your brushes, even plastic, given enough time. Water is a solvent and it wants to ruin, erode, and rust everything. To paint with watercolor is to do battle with water. Just look at what it does to your paper:
Mistake #1: Eroding the Paper
So, the most common mistake, and one of the worst, is for students to overwork the paint on the paper, scribbling around aggressively with the brush. If you do this, especially on student quality paper, it will very quickly disintegrate. Little bits of paper will come off the page and ball up, sitting on top like ugly blobs, the more you work. Keep going and you can even erode a hole in the paper. This is why you can't use stiff, abrasive brushes like hog's hair, for watercolor. Smoother haired brushes and synthetics are required. With watercolor, you must work loosely and gently, the softer the better. Make but one pass with your brush and leave the paper to accept it before adding more.
Mistake #2: Color Bleeding
Another common mistake is for a student to paint two colors next to each other, and as soon as the colors connect - one will begin to intrude into the other, often in a strange leeching pattern. In the example above, the water of the canal bled into the top of the gondola in the foreground. To keep this from happening - keep those colors separate. Space them out. Or, wait till one is fully dry. Or use less water. There are a number of ways to prevent color bleeding. You can even use a blow drier to dry out the paper faster before adding colors. I imagine if Sargent had had the use of a blow drier, he would have used it often. I also imagine, he saw color bleeding as part of the aesthetic, and used it creatively. But it must have annoyed him too:
Mistake #3: Using Too Much Water
When you do this, you create giant puddles that are impossible to control, warp even thick paper, and take forever to dry. The best remedy for this is to soak up some of that water with either a brush or paper towel.
Mistake #4: Using Too Little Water
This is actually an effective textural technique called "dry-brush" and is great for painting "broken" textures like tree bark, pine needles, and light reflecting on water. But, it's not something you'll always want to use, especially for clouds and skies. For things like this, consider using a different technique.
Mistake #5: Dripping
Be careful while you paint that you don't accidentally drip water where you don't want it, as it can ruin what you've painted - sucking in color and creating strange spidery lines around itself. See if you can remove these quickly with a damp paper towel. And try to get used to your brush, watch it, and learn when it's likely to drip and when it's not.
Mistake #6: Using Dirty Water
There are a number of mistakes you can make to muddy up your colors. Using dirty water is the simplest to fix. Just bring two water containers, one for cleaning your brush and the other for clean water.
Mistake #7: Using Dirty Watercolors
The cakes of your watercolor set will often get dirty from mixing. This is normal. But, when you need that color to be pure, you should first give it a little wiping, say with a damp paper towel. Be careful not to wipe too aggressively, you don't want to take out all the color, just the top surface that's dirty.
Mistake #8: Painting over Deceptively Dry Paper
If your paper was wet, and it's just dried enough to lose its sheen... It's still not dry. This is the worst time to paint over it - any marks you make will create "back runs" (also called blooms or cauliflowers). The effect with a back run is the same as if you had accidentally dripped water over your work - the water is now uneven on the paper and so it will attempt to absorb into the paper, lifting color and pooling it into little veins. To avoid this, use a blow-drier between layers, or simply wait for it to thoroughly dry.
If you do end up with a back run, either from dripping or from overworking a damp area, there are two things beginners do to try and fix it - that actually makes the problem much worse. The first is to try and dab the area with a paper towel. The second is to work over the back run with a brush, which adds even more water to that area (and can erode the paper).
So, how do you fix a back run? You carefully wet and paint over the entire area, not just the back run itself, to even out the amount of water in that area. Remember, the problem is uneven amounts of water on your paper. The solution is to even it out.
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