Yellow + red + blue = black
Contouring
Watercolors make it easy to create eye-catching subjects because the medium blends so well! Using a contouring technique to blend different tones of the same color in a piece grants you the ability to make something look real. With that in mind, I'm going to show you how to turn a circle into a sphere with blending and different paint opacities:
Here are written instructions:
1. Choose one color, then use a light shade of it to paint a circle.
2. Pretend that there's a light source near the left side of the circle. Effectively, a shadow will appear on the right side of the sphere. To start making that shadow, load your brush with more of the same shade. Paint that shade so it "hugs" the circle in a half-moon shape.
3. You can see that there's a definite division between the medium shade and the light shade above. To get rid of that difference, use a clean, wet brush to apply water to the division between the light and medium watercolor shades. As you move your brush in a half-circle motion, the division will fade.
4. Now it's time to add the dark shade to the bottom of your circle/sphere. Hug the dark shade around the bottom as pictured. Tease out the dark shade just as you did the medium shade, and voilà!
It's a good idea to add a shadow to the bottom of the sphere as shown.
If you want more practice with giving shapes dimension, I recommend painting these shapes in different colors. If you understand how to contour a basic shape, you can go on to paint just about anything!
Free Worksheet
If you are new to watercolors, you can develop base skills with TPK's free printable worksheet . If your printer can handle printing on watercolor paper (or 80# drawing paper), print the worksheet directly on that paper. Otherwise, print the worksheet on regular paper, then do the worksheet exercises on a separate piece of watercolor paper.
Practicing Watercolors
As with any skill, the more you practice using your watercolors, the more progress you'll see. Basic watercolor tutorials abound here on the TPK website, so you can browse and take your pick of which ones to try. If you prefer a structured course, I highly recommend the The Ultimate Beginner's Watercolor Online Course . (Students love it — read the reviews .)
These are just three of the projects from The Ultimate Beginner's Watercolor Online Course.
ENROLL IN THE COURSE
If you enjoyed this article and you'd like to "geek out" a little bit, read the All About Watercolor Paints article. In it, Jess of Greenleaf & Blueberry provides excellent information about how watercolors are made, their composition and quality, and other informational gems. I've also written a Part II to today's article that encourages you to apply what you learned today in order to paint a vibrant apple.
Thanks very much for reading TPK, and happy painting!
Warmly,
