Have you ever mixed a beautiful watercolour, only to find it looks too pale on the paper? Or perhaps your colour was so strong that it covered the lightness you wanted to keep.
The answer is not always to choose a different paint. Often, you simply need to change the balance of water and pigment on your brush.
Learning how to control this balance will help you create soft washes, rich details and more contrast in your paintings. It will also make colour mixing feel much less like guesswork.
In this beginner exercise, we will explore six Et Voilà colours in two different strengths. I call them tea and cream.
Watercolour mixing for beginners: understanding colour strength
Colour strength describes how light or dark a colour appears when you paint it.
In watercolour, we usually change the strength of a colour by adjusting the amount of water and pigment in the mixture:
- More water and less pigment creates a lighter, more transparent colour.
- Less water and more pigment creates a richer, stronger colour.
You do not need to add white paint to make a watercolour lighter. Add more water so that more of the white paper can shine through the transparent paint.
This is one of the reasons watercolour is so special.
My simple tea and cream method
Names such as water-to-pigment ratio can sound complicated when you are starting. My tea, coffee and cream method makes it easier to see and feel what is happening on your palette.
For this exercise, we will focus on two consistencies.
Tea consistency
Tea has lots of water and only a little pigment. The mixture moves easily on your palette and creates a pale, transparent wash.
Use tea consistency for:
- light areas
- first layers
- soft backgrounds
- delicate shadows
- colours that need to glow
Cream consistency
Cream contains more pigment and less water. The colour looks richer on your palette and creates a stronger mark on the paper.
Use cream consistency for:
- darker areas
- final layers
- strong shadows
- small details
- areas you want the eye to notice
There is no need to measure the water. The more you practise, the easier it becomes to recognise each consistency by the way it looks and moves.
Why should you practise light and strong colours?
If every part of a painting has the same colour strength, the artwork can look flat. A mixture of light, medium and dark areas creates contrast.
Contrast helps shapes stand out. It can show where the light is coming from, make a leaf curve or give a simple object more depth. It also guides the viewer's eye towards the most important part of your painting.
This does not mean that every painting needs very dark colours. Even a soft painting benefits from small changes in value.
Swatching lets you explore these changes before you begin an artwork. You can see how pale or strong each colour can become without worrying about making a mistake in your painting
