Watercolor: Trying out different textures

Watercolor Professional Tips

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Parchment paper, plastic wrap and aluminum foil… bring some of your kitchen essentials into your studio and create backgrounds with incredible textures!

What you need to know:

For a novel way to add life to your backgrounds there's nothing like the printing technique. Applying various materials to very wet washes allows you to create a multitude of texture effects.

1. Preliminary steps

Step 1: To keep the paint inside its area and avoid undesirable events, mask the areas of the paper you won't be working on.

Apply masking tape to surfaces you need to protect.
Put drawing gum on the contours to define them clearly.

Step 2: apply a very wet wash to the exposed area.

Once the wash has been applied, start working right away (watercolors dry very fast)!

2. Three materials for original textures

With plastic wrap:

Cut a piece of plastic wrap, then roll it into a ball.
Set it down on the wash without pressing, because it adheres by itself.
Remove it when the paint is dry.

With parchment paper and aluminum foil: follow the same steps as for the plastic wrap. Set a weight (telephone directory, old dictionary) on the ball of paper to keep it in contact with the wash.

That little extra: for less clearly defined contours, remove the material before the paint is totally dry!