Tips and Techniques

Here are a few Art Techniques you can try out with Art-Kure.

Technique 1 - Graduated and Variegated Wash
Technique 2 - Backruns and Cauliflowers
Technique 3 - Wet on Dry
Technique 4 - Wet into Wet
Technique 5 - Tipping Technique
Technique 6 - Body Colour
Technique 7 - Underpainting (ghost lines)
Technique 8 - Dry Brush Technique
Technique 9 - Mixing Techniques

Technique 1

Graduated and variegated Wash

A Graduated wash is a wash that shifts in tone and a variegated wash shifts in colour. Using Art-Kure you will approach a graduated wash differently than from the traditional technique.

First you use the colour sketch brush at the top of the area you wish to wash. You must move quickly so that the fully saturated colour does not stain your paper, as soon as you have made a thick line of colour, take the water sketch brush (I recommend a Large or Chisel) and drag the colour down the page in long horizontal strokes. Allow a lot of water to flow from your brush and it’s sometimes easier to have your paper at a slant so that gravity helps you to pull down the colour. Allow each horizontal stroke to flow partially into the previous stroke and never work back into the wash once you have laid it down. As you move further down the page the colour should dilute, so you have full colour saturation at the top and a lovely diluted tone at the bottom. Art-Kure is great for graduated washes as you can achieve quite a uniform tonal change.

For variegated washes the technique is different because you are using two or more different colours and are much less predictable than graduated washes. However you can achieve great and unusual effects by letting colours bleed into each other. This technique is most commonly used for sunsets and sunrises.

The technique I have found most successful is to wet your paper first, as you would traditionally with water and a brush. Using the Water Sketch Brush, whilst squeezing it, flood water onto the page. Then move it around with the brush to cover the whole area you would like to paint. Select your colours and decide where you would like them to be (e.g. at the top or bottom), then using the Colour Sketch Brush cover the area with broad horizontal strokes. The strokes should blend into each other, but if it is looking a bit streaky then go over again with the water brush. Then apply your second colour and do the same. Finally tilt your paper at an angle and allow the colours to bleed into each other, creating a variegated wash.

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Technique 2

Backruns or cauliflowers

Backruns and cauliflowers are effects that are often accidental and usually hard to control. There are a lot of artists who consider them to be too unpredictable and try to avoid them. However, they can look very effective when incorporated into a painting, or if you are creating a decorative background which you would like to add details to later (e.g. atmospheric backgrounds). Art-Kure is wonderfully receptive to this technique, as the colours are completely water-soluble wet or dry.

When you lay down a wash and then apply more colour into it before it’s completely dry you will find that the new paint will seep into the old creating bizarre shaped blotches with hard jagged edges. The more absorbent and rough the paper the less this will happen.

Backruns are great for atmospheric skies, flower petals and water reflections. Be careful about how wet your wash is before trying this technique. If the wash still has a reflective sheen on it then it is too wet and the colour will simply blend in and not give you any jagged edges (giving you a wet into wet effect). This process is very intuitive and each artist will have to experiment before trying it on a finished project.

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Technique 3

Wet on dry

Applying new wet layers of colour over earlier dried layers is the traditional method of building up a watercolour painting. If you want to create darker and richer areas in your painting, making it more striking and less wishy-washy, this is a great technique. However, be aware that this technique is slightly harder to use with Art-Kure, this is because the watercolour is so sensitive to any addition of water because they are fully water-soluble. You can still use wet on dry but you have to have a lot of patience. In the example provided, I used wet into wet for the sky that covered the whole area, I had to wait for about 20 minutes for it to dry. After it was absolutely dry I used a Colour Sketch Brush directly onto the paper to create a crisp horizon line and the standing stones.

I continued to use the Colour Sketch Brush down the page a little way and then used the Water Sketch Brush to create another graduated wash. The reason why I wanted to separate the bottom wash to the top was so that any addition of water didn’t disturb the colour already on the paper. It is very easy to disturb washes and create unintentional and annoying backruns. It’s also essential to have a completely dry painting before adding new layers, if you want to achieve completely crisp lines, as I have done with the background hills. It only takes a very minute amount of dampness for one colour to bleed into another. Another way to approach this problem is to only wet the area you want and not the whole surface, therefore making it less essential to wait for drying.

Also, be aware that small bleed lines will always appear (blurring crisp lines) if your paper is naturally rough or you have already painted several layers onto the painting. Remember the more layers you paint the more you will degrade your paper.

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Technique 4

Wet into wet

This is where you apply new colour without waiting for the previous colours to dry so that they bleed and blend into each other without any hard edges or backruns. There is not much control with this technique but the results can be very spectacular and rewarding.

Firstly dampen your paper and try to keep it that way until you have finished all the areas that you want to be wet. This technique should not be used exclusively on a painting, as the results may be formless and undefined. It is usually most effective juxtaposed with sharp hard lines, giving your picture variety.

After applying the wet into wet technique wait for the painting to dry and see where you need to sharpen it up. Also be aware that it is difficult to use the paper for highlights with this technique. If you want to highlight your work, wait for the paper to dry and use the Mixing White Colour Sketch Brush.

Step by step using wet into wet

Use the Colour Sketch Brushes you have chosen and apply them to the paper gentling dabbing and watch them spread and merge. You may want to add some more water if the colour is too intence.

After your initial layer is down you can add detail and definition to the painting with the Colour Sketch Brushes, or if you want to add subtle/dilute colour you can tip colour onto the Water Sketch Brush and use that. (see tipping technique).

Be careful not to overwork the painting as you may find that you create backruns, especially if you use too much water while building up the definition. There is another method of using wet into wet. First apply your Colour Sketch Brush with the dry brush technique then add water with a Water Sketch Brush. Before the first colour dries apply your second colour directly on top. If you want several colours to bleed into one another, as you would for a stormy sky, apply different colours with the dry brush technique then use the Water Brush after to blend the colours together.

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Technique 5

Tipping Technique

Technique 6

Body colour

Technique 7

Underpainting (ghost lines)

Technique 8

Dry brush technique

Technique 9

Laying down a mini palette and other mixing techniques

For more techniques Click Here