The sketch
Draw the subject with a lead pencil. Saturate the paper with water, beginning at the back, then moving to the front.
Applying areas of colour
For the background, apply washes of Cobalt Blue and Dioxazine Purple. Paint the tree’s features over it with Cadmium Yellow and Emerald Green. To add white strokes, apply small quantities of clean water with a small round brush.
Adding volume
Once dry, wet the tree’s silhouette liberally, then add volume to the tree by using colours from the palette.
Wet on wet technique
The wet on wet technique consists of applying wet paint to wet paper. It allows you to create coloured washes and work with transparency. This technique is a bit more complex to work with than the dry technique because the contours are less defined and the colour disperses more easily. The blurry rendering makes it a popular technique for coloured backgrounds.
Choosing paper
To paint with watercolour, it is important to use suitable paper. We recommend starting with our range of watercolour paper available in A4 or A5 format (200 g/m²). It is important to stretch the sheet by taping it to your support with adhesive so that the paper stays taught.
