Part 1-Beginner Watercolor Exercises: Wet on Dry and Layering - Audrey Ra Design (2024)

FAQs

What is the difference between wet-on-wet and wet on dry watercolor? ›

But what's the difference ? “Wet on wet” means that wet paint is applied to wet paper, or added to a wash of fresh wet paint. “Wet on dry” simply means that you're applying wet paint onto dry paper, or wet paint onto an area of dry paint.

First create one area of wet colour on your paper – you can paint any shape you like. Now get a darker or different colour mix on your brush and touch it to the wet paint, dropping in the colour on top. As the existing area is already wet, your new colour should spread easily.

The pressure is so light that paint only grips to the tip of the paper tooth, leaving the dips of the tooth unpainted. The name of such a technique is 'dry-brush on dry'. The term 'dry-brush' does not literally mean that the brush is totally dry, but that there is very little water on it.

Key points on how to layer watercolours

Layering is a wet on dry technique. Make sure you let the paint dry completely before you apply the next layer. The colours will simply blend if the first layer is even slightly wet. Layering can be used with one or more colours to increase intensity or darken tone.

The wet on wet technique involves applying wet paint onto wet paper. It allows colours to blend and bleed into each other on the wet surface, creating soft and diffused edges. The wet-on-wet technique is excellent for creating smooth gradients, soft backgrounds, and atmospheric effects.

Cold press paper

Cold press watercolour paper has little pockets on its surface that hold more water, giving you time to blend and create wet-on-wet effects.

If you are just beginning your watercolour journey, you need to learn about the different degrees of wetness of watercolour paper. Wet paint will spread further on paper that is quite wet. If you wait for the paper to become less wet, the paint won't spread as far.

This technique is essentially layering your watercolours. You place one layer of paint on the paper and allow it to dry, and then paint on the top. The bottom layer is dry and the top layer is wet, so that's why it's called wet on dry!

Wet-on-wet, or alla prima (Italian, meaning at first attempt), direct painting or au premier coup, is a painting technique in which layers of wet paint are applied to previously administered layers of wet paint.

Yes you can! Watercolor paintings often require more than one layer of colour. If you want to add more depth or intensity to a certain area, you may need to paint over the dry colour with a second layer of paint.

Does watercolor dry faster than acrylic? ›

They both dry relatively fast. Acrylics dry the fastest of any medium, but watercolor is a close second. They both are commonly painted by building up layers. This isn't mandatory in either medium, but it is more often than not the method that is used.

Blend by layering on wet paint

Instead of wetting the paper with water first, you can paint a wet wash onto dry paper and before the wash dries paint another colour into the wet wash. The 2nd colour will bleed over the wet paint creating a soft transition between the two colours.

There are 2 basic watercolor techniques that will be fundamental to your practice—wet-on-wet and wet-on-dry. In this tutorial, I cover what these terms mean, when to use each of the two techniques, and how to do it successfully.

Wet on wet painting is a painting technique in which new paint is applied to previously applied paint that has not dried yet. Wet on wet painting allows the painter to continuously apply layers for corrosion prevention rather than waiting for each successive layer to dry.

Both coatings contain resins, additives, and pigments. The major distinction is solvent: wet paint contains solvent, but powder coating doesn't. The solvent in wet paint keeps all the other components in suspended liquid form. In contrast, powder coating is applied as a dry powder.

Wet on Wet primer is fast process which allows the refinisher to apply a smooth coating which they can then apply topcoat straight on to without the need for sanding . Although wet on wet is called a primer it should be treated as a topcoat. Use a good quality gun and clean and tack accordingly.