Part 1-Beginner Watercolor Exercises: Wet on Dry and Layering

Welcome to this series on Beginner Watercolor Exercises where I want to help you build your watercolor skills. In this post, we’ll look at two techniques: wet-on-dry and layering/glazing. You can also watch the whole video on my YouTube channel.

Beginner Watercolor Exercises with an image of Audrey Ra Design and a piece of watercolor paper with layering technique demonstrated.

I also have a FREE online course, Watercolor Basics for the Absolute Beginner, if you’re the type that goes for extra credit 😉

Supplies:

Paint: LUKAS Aquarell 1862 Watercolor
Brush(es): Creative Mark’s Mimik Synthetic, round size 6
Paper: Canson cold pressed Watercolor Paper
Jars of water
Paper towel or cotton rag
All of my favorite supplies here

This post includes affiliates links. This means that if you purchase the item using my link, I receive a small commission at no extra charge to you. I will only post products that I have personally used and would recommend. The small commission helps run this blog and its activities. Thank you!

Wet on Dry technique

The wet-on-dry technique is the most common technique. And you’re doing it without even realizing it. You simply apply a wet brush on a dry surface whether that means dry, clean paper, or a dry painted paper.

Simply wet your brush, activate your paints, and paint on dry paper.

Most watercolorists will paint with this technique because it gives you the most control over your strokes. Unlike wet-on-wet which results in spontaneous spreading of paint (which will be discussed in a separate post).

Paint also tends to dry a little faster because the paper isn’t as wet. So you can layer and work quickly.

You definitely want to use this technique when you’re painting any details on final layers because you don’t want to disturb the underlayers.

And on that note, let’s talk about layers.

Layering technique

Layering or glazing is a great watercolor technique because we are taking advantage of the transparent quality of watercolors. This transparency is what makes watercolors unique from other mediums. Just to be consistent, moving forward, I will use the word layering.

When you layer a color on top of another color, you change the value (lightness or darkness of a color), and the temperature/tone of the painting.

But it gets a little tricky when you bring in other variables like the level of transparency, granulation, or staining quality of a specific paint color. That’s why I always recommend doing a complete swatch test of your colors, and learn about your paints first.

Watercolor Paint Swatch Grids-Audrey Ra Design

For this post’s demonstration, let’s use the cadmium yellow light and ultramarine blue. I’ll start with the yellow, let that completely dry. And then adding a light layer of the blue will create a green section. The key is to let the first layer completely dry. If you paint while it’s still wet you’ll notice that the colors will bleed into each other. So be patient. Use a blow dryer. Or go grab a coffee or tea.

Now let’s add our blue. I’m adding a lot of water to this color. I’m making sure the yellow is completely dry. And now I’ll overlap the yellow a little bit in the middle.

Notice how the overlap shows a green color because yellow and blue mixed makes green.

Another reason to layer besides changing the temperature or creating a mixed color is to increase the value.

Here’s a light layer of the same blue. Now, wait for it to completely dry. Now let’s add the same value and overlap a little to the right. And you can already see a darker value in the middle in the photo below.

I use the layering technique quite often to increase the value. With the macarons below, I started with washing out the color, and if I needed to make the shadow areas darker, I simply layered the same color until I got the right value.

And that’s the basics of layering! I will definitely be coming out with additional posts that go more in-depth. For now, have fun practicing layers. See what colors lay well on top of another.

Layering can be a very precise technique or you can keep it loose. It really comes down to personal preference, but you gotta play around with it first and see what you like! I ebb and flow between the two. If I’m painting a subject with lots of detail, I’ll mainly use the wet-on-dry and precise layering. If I’m painting loose florals or a landscape, then I’ll keep it a little bit more spontaneous.