6 Steps to Mixing Watercolours on Paper - Painting & Drawing Tips

Are your Paints just not working for you?

You mix away but you can't get the colour you want.  It needs to be a bit blue, but has yellow tones and is light and dark in places.  HOW CAN YOU MIX THAT!!??

Scarlet Macaw - 5 x 8, Watercolour 

I like to paint nature which includes both foliage but also the birds and animals that live there.  My work has a realistic look.  I achieve this by creating subjects that have mass and shape.  They bend and curve like they are 3 dimensional.  To do that I need to mix that "bit of blue, that has yellow tones and is light and dark in places". The colour changes have to be subtle and gradual, to create that realistic look.  

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There is further discussion on this topic on my YouTube post: The Magic of Mixing Watercolour on Paper
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To create these colour changes you will not always be able to find your answer mixing paint in your pallet.  You need to move onto your paper and get help there. 

You will find mixing your Watercolours on paper, opens up a whole new world of colour. Well it did for me and I hope it does for you as well.  

There are many different ways that this 'mixing' can occur but today I am going to focus on a method I use a lot.  

Lets have a look at the process 

1.  Underpainting emphasizing some of the colour changes on the body

Take a look at my Scarlett Macaw.  (Just got back from Mexico 😉and loved getting shots of this guy)

I have first of all painted an underpainting on him to set up the colours I want to emphasis in each area.  Once they are totally dry I can proceed. For purposes of my discussion I will focus on his chest.  

But first a word about Watercolours.  They have tons of secrets.  One secrete is about transparent colours.  This means when you paint over something with a transparent colour you can see the colour underneath. 

2. A Second Layer of red is painted over the chest - Note underpainting still showing

This is often referred to glazing with watercolours.  For a true glazing technique, the colour painted on top is a very thin (weak) layer and makes only a slight colour change.  The colour underneath is still very visible.  This thin layer is added over and over to a dry surface until the effect is achieved.  Depending on what is wanted this can be 5-10 layers.  

I have used this principle for my Macaw's chest.  I am using Permenent Rose, which is a transparent pigment. In my case I only want hints of the underlaying colour so I have used paint with more pigment.  (this becomes a practice thing to determine how much pigment you want to add at a time.  I usually have a practice paper beside me to test my strength of pigment)

3. Adding the shadows to my bird's chest 

The key step in this process is to paint over a DRY surface and with light wet strokes.  To understand the process, visualize the dry paint getting a layer on top of it.  The underlaying paint will become damp as soon as the wet paint touches it.  If you work the surface by pressing too hard with your brush or using too much water, you will activate the underpainting.  This will cause the pigments to mix and you  wont get the effect you are looking for.  

4. Adding another layer of the red - not the smooth edges into the shadow areas

This process has many uses.  In the case of my Macaw, I used it to bring in that yellow/orange glow into my reds but also to build up the shadow areas.  By putting in the shadow colours as one of my glazing layers I can get smooth transitions in my colour changes.  

5. Darkening the shadow areas

By using this process you can control the pigment load on your paper.  With lighter layers of paint you can add subtle colour changes.  This is very important when creating birds and animals. You can also control the edges of your transition colours.  In my case, my style is to have blended edges, so this is a very common technique for me to use.  

6. Last layer of red 

Once I had my shadows in place I put my last layer of red on top.  It gives me a rich red with dark hints of shadows and light tings of yellow and orange on his chest.  When it came to finishing around the his face and left shoulder, I did a light glaze of yellow to bring out the tones even more.  

BTW - Extra Bonus with this process.  You can lift colour and get back to the colour underneath.  I lifted a bit from my bird's left shoulder to get a little flash of yellow there.  

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There is further discussion on this topic on my YouTube post: The Magic of Mixing Watercolour on Paper
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Working with this process gives you lots of ways to alter your pigment colour.  The difference is, the changes all happen on your paper, rather than on your pallet.  Try glazing with thin pigment layers but also with thicker pigment layers.  You will find it amazing the colours you can create.  

Have fun with your painting.

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Wendy