5 secrets to smooth watercolor background wash

Hi friends and welcome back to my channel. Today we are talking about watercolor backgrounds. Have you ever tried to paint a watercolor background and it looks like this? Well today I am going to share with you my five secrets for perfectly smooth and even watercolor backgrounds. So let's get started. For this video I'll be using a painting from a previous video on my channel painted on 140 pound cold press watercolor paper. I'll be taping off the painting down the middle and showing the typical problems with watercolor backgrounds on the left side and what to do properly for the smooth even finish on the right. So let's get into my secrets. Secret number one is masking. Using masking tape along the edges of the paper will give your painting a clean and crisp look when you're painting a full page background. It can be messy and make your paper buckle if you go all the way to the edge of the paper with paint. Another form of masking is through masking fluid. Masking fluid is a latex based medium used to block areas from paint. Typically masking fluid is used to block areas of paper we want to keep white at the beginning of a painting, but did you know you can also use masking fluid on top of watercolor? Yes you can. Just make sure your painting is completely dry before applying the masking fluid and that the masking fluid is completely dry before painting over it. This technique is super helpful when we are trying to paint a background fast, but we need the details to stay clean and not be overlapped with paint. Masking will make the lines look clean and pleasing to the eye versus messy and overlapped. It is just too hard to paint around the details of your painting quickly without overlapping some paint on accident or without getting hard lines. And that brings us to secret number two, speed. Speed is a huge key to making your backgrounds smooth and even. If you don't go fast enough some areas will start to dry and you will get hard lines. Womp womp, no good. The faster you could paint the better, which is why masking off areas you don't want overlapped with paint and being able to go right over the top of them with your brush helps a lot with speed. Another thing that helps with speed is secret number three, wetting the paper. When you paint wet on dry the paper is dry and the brush is wet, so it's hard to get a smooth even finish because you're always playing catch up with the wet edge. While you paint one section another section is drying, but when you wet the entire area of your background with clean water first the paint spreads evenly throughout all the wet areas creating a gradual and consistent wash without you worrying about a hard edge forming behind your back. Needing a consistent wash brings us to secret number four, paint. Not preparing enough paint wash is what causes blooms. So let's say I'm painting along and I didn't mix up enough paint to cover my entire area before I start it. In the middle of painting I need more paint. I'm trying to go fast to avoid a hard edge, but even if I'm very careful there is no possible way for me to mix up the same water to pigment ratio that I did the first time. This is what causes blooming. As the new wash is introduced a difference in the water ratio causes a bloom. So this can be a really cool technique if you want it, but for the sake of today's video we need Mr. Smooth so we avoid it. The key really is to just make enough wash on your palette that you never have to go back and make anymore. Even if you think it's too much wash it's always better to have more than not enough. You don't want to introduce any kind of difference in water to pigment ratio to your wash to keep it very even. And this brings me to our last secret which is the most important of all, your brush. You might have noticed that throughout the video I have been using two very different brushes for each side of the painting. The brush that I have been using on the left side is a smaller brush with fewer bristles and it doesn't hold very much paint. The brush that I'm using on the right side of the painting is a much larger brush with lots of bristles and so it holds a lot more paint. With the smaller brush I have to keep going back to my palette to grab more paint which decreases my speed leading to more hard edges. The large brush holds significantly more wash which increases my speed making good use of the amount of wash that I have on my palette and making everything much more consistent and even. Using a big enough brush as well as applying masking fluid, increasing your speed, wetting the paper before you paint, and mixing up enough paint all work together to make very even and smooth perfect watercolor backgrounds for your paintings. Now those five secrets are great but if you really want to improve your watercolor paintings overnight check out this video. I am going to share with you the one thing that will take your watercolor paintings from kind of good to amazing instantly. Thanks guys and have a great day. Bye!