Making a watercolour Background wash
Channel: Koosje Koene
Date: 2014-05-06

Last week I made a drawing on a background wash. In today's video I'm showing you how I made that wash.

copyrights www.koosjekoene.nl
music by Pascalo


Video Transcript:
Welcome to Draw Tip Tuesday!

In last week's video I drew something on a watercolor background wash and I promised to show you how to make that wash. 

So, today we need a brush, water, and watercolors. I am using watercolors from a tube today, but if you have a set with watercolor pans in it, of course you can use that.

Get your colors ready and dip your brush into the water. You can use quite a lot of water, because you're making a wash, and for that, you don't need very dense colors. Then, start mixing your paint into the color you like. Here, I'm mixing yellow and red to make orange. 

Then, start applying your mix onto your paper. As you go, you can add more color, or more water, create areas with different colors that flow into each other, and move your paint around as it lies on your paper in a pool. I like keeping a few gaps of white as well. Play around to see what works. Some watercolor paint will dry up a bit lighter than when it's wet. Find out how your watercolors behave by trying this yourself.
For some extra splashes, dip your brush into the paint and use your finger to spray the paint down. Like this.

You can use denser colors as well, mix up some more and add as much as you feel like.

For bolder splashes, use a wet brush, let it soak up more paint and hold it above your paper. Then tap it down so it releases drips that fall onto your paper. The wetter your paint and brush, and the higher you hold it, the larger the drops will become.
You can do this with several colors.

Let it dry and use it as a background for a piece of wonderful art.

Thank you for watching this video. Let's make awesome art! If you want to learn more, go to my website, koosjekoene.nl, and find a class that fits your artistic needs.
See you next week.