The "Drop Wash" Watercolour Technique IS A GAMECHANGER !!

I'm going to demonstrate quite a nice little technique I like to call the drop wash technique and that'll become evident in a minute I think and start by wetting the paper all over it's a really nice technique for getting some real drama, movement, atmosphere, energy into a painting and takes a lot of the decisions out of your hands. I use a limited palette of blues, raw sienna and burnt sienna so colour harmony is pretty much guaranteed and like I said really nice technique for getting some good energy into a painting and some a real sense of spontaneity the paint will move around and so getting a brush really wet and then just squeezing the tip allowing the paint to drop out and land kind of randomly on the paper and so I've got the blues and that are going to be the distance and allowing it to fall and pick up the little beads on the paper there and it moves around finds its own level and creates interesting little marks without having to do really any work at all pick up the board and I can move that from side to side allowing the paint to run into those little drops that are sitting on top of the paper there and you can see already it's made some marks that I wouldn't have been able to make with a brush I'll mop up around the outside of the paper there as well I don't want too much water running back in don't mind a few cauliflowers and little things accidental marks happening with this technique either though that all kind of adds to the atmosphere picked up some burnt sienna now so I'll start to get a little bit of colour into the land area I want to paint a winter scene so I'll make sure I leave quite a bit of white behind in the land so grab some raw sienna as well and move the brush whilst squeezing the tip and allowing the paint to fall in just odd shapes and so getting some real nice little accidental marks I've got some more blue more burnt sienna I can lay some of that into the sky area with the brush and like I said I want a snow scene so I'm going to make sure that the sky is quite a bit darker than the land really make the land stand out and I'm kind of making sure that when I'm putting these brush marks in I'm keeping it in keeping with everything else I don't want rigid sort of quite tight brush marks in the sky I want to keep that as loose as possible so I'm not really taking much care I'm going to make sure the light's in the middle of the painting though so dragging that paint around can pick up the board again and allow some of that paint to move run together a little bit and again just quickly mop up around the outside edges if you're going to try this technique yourself it might take a bit of practice to get used to how much water you need you want to use quite a lot but I mean obviously not too much that everything runs away it's kind of like a sweet spot and I picked up a rigger now and I can drag some of that paint around and blend in together on the paper start to get a little bit of form in I think I'll have a path running up through the middle and then curving around to the right can lay some more dark paint in on top of that and again keeping the brush strokes very loose holding the brush right at the tip of the handle and just dragging it around so pick up a bit more blue a bit more burnt sienna mix that up quite dark now let's try and get some cloud shapes in the sky so again getting a lot of paint into the brush and moving the brush whilst squeezing and allowing the paint to fall that's making some quite interesting little shapes in the sky now everything's so wet that I mean it's all going to run together and but hopefully keep some of the structure that I've laid out there and so I've got some more dark again blue and burnt sienna and everything that's lying around in the palette get some of that dark into the land as well and that's running up I've got the board flat by the way I didn't mention that at the start so I don't want the board at an angle so the paint runs down so just keep the board flat for this stage I'll pick the rigger up again add a little bit of spatter as well again I think the more random marks you can make the better really and now I'll just dry that mop up around the outside first before I do and to stop the run backs but I'll use the heat gun to dry that so I dry it quite quickly okay it's fully dry so some really interesting little shapes going on in there that I can work with and now I can look at what's there I think I can add like a big tree on the right and suggest a few more trees in the distance get a few hard edges around the outside of the path and that should tie everything together so wet all over again very lightly this time with the mist bottle and mix up a dark again with blue and burnt sienna it's up to you what colors you use if you're going to do this technique and I wouldn't use really more than four I quite often like to use a triad of burnt sienna raw sienna and ultramarine I mean little touches of cobalt blue but a nice combination also would be something like phthalo blue burnt umber and raw sienna now just laid some brown in for the base of the tree there and I'm going to start bringing up a trunk and I've got to be careful really that I keep this tree in keeping with everything that I've done before I don't want to come in and paint anything too nice if that makes sense so keep everything loose I'll keep misting with the bottle as well to soften any edges and so still really trying to keep everything on the abstract side just enough form and structure to tie everything together and bring up another tree trunk there and being mindful not to make this shape too symmetrical so make sure the distance between the trees isn't the same on all three and now really flicking the brush around not being too careful can drop some almost neat burnt sienna in over the top of that as well I want that to really stand out and give it another quick mist as well so it allows the paint all to run together I'll pick up some of the palette greys and very simply drag out a few little branches it's always tempting I think when painting trees and branches to be quite careful but if you hold the brush at the end and just kind of move it around and allow the the bristles of the brush to do the work for you and get little broken edges and especially in this style of painting it looks far more pleasing so I'll add some blue in there so I've gone quite dark again I can drag in with the rigger and outline just the edge of a path and all the time looking at the shapes that are there from the previous wash though and working with those and looking where I can add a little bit dark a little bit of shadow maybe a little tree shape in the distance there there's that little blue area there I can work that I can work that into a tree and so very simply bring up a trunk and then lay some dark across and so really it's about being as loose as possible with the first wash and dropping the paint in and allowing it to move around and find its own level then drying it off and working with the shapes that appear kind of some structure starting to appear just from adding a few little dark areas can strengthen these tree trunks a little bit I think can get away being a little bit darker with these don't want to go too dark but enough so they stand out and but again the whole time keeping everything as loose as possible can break up that shape as well with a few little vertical marks there and I'll close off on that right hand side I think I need to put a few little tree shapes in there as well that can act as a little bit of a stopper something the eye drifting out too much on the right hand side and so I'm looking at the shapes that are forming and seeing where I need to add a hard edge or soften an edge and we're looking at the whole painting the whole time now again a little bit of a stopper on the left hand side so that's a bush or a shrub or something just over there in the mid ground then the whole time going back and using various mixtures of the same three paints can darken that edge off quite a bit there I think there's those little dark areas there I can work those into a few little bushes down in the foreground and now I need some hard edges just around the base of this tree and a few little marks in the path as well so to me starting to look like a snowy day maybe the snow started to melt a little bit and it's so it's quite slushy a little bit of mud shining through and I think I'll put a tree on the left hand side as well it's a little bit bare over there so I think round about there bring a very simple tree trunk up it might be a little bit dark and so I'll add some water to that I don't want it to compete too much with the quite large trees on the right hand side just a little tree there on the left to add a little bit of balance to the overall composition now I think we're getting there I think I need to go a tiny little bit darker on these trees and some more dark at the base there and suggest a few grasses or maybe it's a few little posts and I think the joy of doing this kind of painting as well as you leave so much work to the viewer I mean it kind of is borderline abstract just enough form to kind of trick the eye into thinking that you're looking at a landscape snow scene and I'll mix up some very wet paint with some raw sienna and what's in the palette there and now I'll drag in using the rigger again on its side I want to suggest that there's some maybe some little dead leaves and little twigs just the little bits that are left over in the winter and now I don't want to be painting little twigs or leaves or anything like that so just a few really simple little marks is enough to suggest that there's something going on same sort of thing on this tree here on the left hand side and a tiny little bit on those mid-ground trees as well and it all just helps to tie everything together and add a real sense of atmosphere drama and energy can drop a little bit darker paint in there now as well I think we're pretty much coming to the end just have a look I'll add a few marks I think with a plastic card as well scratch out some highlights a couple of little bits here and there that helps to add a few tiny little hard edges and it acts to break up some of the shapes as well but stand back again have another look I think I need to add a tiny little bit more on these trees the tree on the right on the far right is a little bit too light so a bit more dark paint on there not too much I can drag some of that across the base of the tree as well flick out a couple more little branches now I don't want to overdo it I think I run the risk possibly of starting to overwork so a couple of little dry brush areas and I'll dry that off and have a little look okay it's all dry it's finished so we'll take the tape off as always and have a look with the white edge now that's a very simple technique for getting some real energy and spontaneity into your paintings and maybe you're stuck for ideas or something like that and you just wet the paper all over and pick up some paint and just squeeze it on allow it to move around dry it off and then see what shapes have formed and then work with that so so in this painting I looked at the shapes I added some tree shapes over them put in a little path and some large trees some smaller trees and little shrubs and just to marks to break up the shapes and so do give this a go let me know how you get on and uh tag me in social media and all that kind of stuff and if you don't already you can follow me over on Patreon and I'll have some exclusive videos each week over on there as well as you get the YouTube upload early so do check that out and I'll be back again next week so have a great week everybody and thanks everyone for watching and I'll see you then thank you cheers