Welcome to kaitkei ART channel! In this video, I will show you 8 techniques that I often use in actual watercolor paintings or illustrations. The first four are useful techniques for describing things. And the latter four are I often use for backgrounds and textures. Let's start with the first four. I use Gansai by Kissho, which is used in the same way as solid watercolor. The first one is how to do "Graded wash". First, let's do a single-color gradient. In this example, I paint the shape of a leaf. So I chose a round brush like this one. For a single-color gradient, prepare a brush with paint and a brush wet with water. First, wet the paint area with water. This way, the watercolor paper is wet and you can work slowly. It is best to wet it so that water does not drip when it is tilted. Next, apply the paint. Start painting from the area where the gradient color is the darkest. After painting the color halfway through, add water to the paint to create a lighter color. Paint it again in the middle of the process. Paint with the brush, moving it repeatedly to mix dark and light paints. Next, use a brush wet with water. Be sure to adjust the amount of water so that it is not too much. Use this brush to blot the paint to create a gradation. While drying, the paint spreads and the gradation blends nicely. This kind of gradation is used quite often in actual artwork. This is usually used to add color variation and shading. Next, let's try a two-color gradient. As in the previous single-color gradient, a second color should be added. But this time I'll show you another easy way to do it. First, the two colors to be used are painted next to each other like this. Next, mix the border between colors with one of the brushes. The key is to never wash the brush until you are finished. Changing the amount of water can cause unwanted back-runs. For a more subtle gradient, blend with a brush of a closer color. I often use this kind of two-color gradient for flower petals or hair color. Next, I'll do a gradient with three colors. As before, wet the area to be painted before applying the paint. The method is the same, let's paint the border between colors in a way that mixes and goes. The beauty of this method is that even color combinations that tend to be muddy can be finished with beautiful colors retained. After mixing the colors in the palette, blurring the borders is also a good idea. Even then, the key to avoiding failure is to never wash the brush or mix it with large amounts of water. Next, I will explain the technique of “Lifting off". First, apply the paints. It is best to lift off the color while the paper is still wet. First, do it with tissue slightly moistened with water. The paint is clearly removed with dry tissue. And wet tissue can softly lift off paint. In this case, I used cold press cotton watercolor paper. The texture when lift off depends on the type and roughness of the paper. Tissue is useful for creating clouds like this. Next is how to lift off the paints with brush. After painting the color, lift off the color before it dries. Adjust the amount of water not too much like the brush for blending in gradation. Lifting off as if absorbing/wiping off, rather than applying water. I use this technique when I create lighted area. Effective for facial highlights and hair bundles. When lifted off the color after the paint has completely dried, it is possible to make fine and clear white area. Lifting off the paint with a brush moistened with water and press a piece of tissue paper against it to absorb the paint. The next is using a cotton swab way. This is useful for creating highlights, so in this example, let's do that with a sphere. The cotton swab is slightly moistened with clean water to soften it. Tap gently like this. Brightness can be adjusted according to the number and strength of taps. You can use it to create simple patterns like this, or to make snow, or to express lights. I added green because it looks like a tomato. The next technique is "Wet-in-wet". In the method of adding color, leaving the color of the white paper first wet the paint area with clean water. Then, apply some paint on the wet paper, and the color will be blurred. This wet-in-wet technique is soft impression coloring and for expressing hair on animals, etc. The way the colors spread depends on the amount of water in the paint and how wet the paper is. Next time I will try wet-in-wet, color into another color. The point is to add more water to the first color you use. If the water content of these two paints is reversed, a blot line will appear instead of being blurred when dry. During drying process, the paints spread greatly and become quite blurred. In my work, this is often used when painting a background where many colors are used at the same time. The last one is "Layering paints". The layering technique can bring out the beauty of watercolor colors. Watercolor beginners often have trouble with this. Let me show you two examples of failures. The first example is when the first coat of paint has not yet dried, and then the paint is lifted off and mixed in the next color. This is no longer a layering of colors. The next example of failure is that the paint dried and l layered over the top but was rubbed off too much when the paint was applied. In this case, the paint has lifted off, and it has been mixed into the second color. This is fine, but this time I will show you how to add a beautiful layer of color. The first point is to let it dry completely. And the second point is to apply the next color with fewer touches, without rubbing. If not rubbed, the layers of color will be overlaid like this. This leaf is another success, you can clearly see the layers of transparent color. I use the layering technique when painting hair or adding shading. This is an indispensable technique when painting complex paintings in watercolor, since the basic idea is to finish the painting by layering colors. I have introduced four techniques. Next, I will introduce four techniques that can be used for background and texture. The first one is a technique called "Back-run". This is also called "cauliflower". Two basecoats were prepared, one a darker color and the other a lighter color with the addition of water. Before the paint dries, water drops are dropped with a brush. In this experiment, in addition to the different concentrations of the underlying paint, the white pattern will gradually dry over time from top to bottom, so you can see how the white pattern changes depending on how dry the underlying paint is. The result is that the pattern is smaller at less moisture paints, and the pattern is larger when there is more water. Regarding the drying time, we can see that the pattern is larger when the paint is applied immediately, and the pattern is clearer and small when the paint is almost dry. And this back-run technique cannot be done on a completely dry paint. In my work, I use this technique for kimono patterns and for color changes in the background. Next is an expression using salt. I often use this baked salt. I apply the base coat separately with darker paints and with water added. This is also worked on before the paints dries. Sprinkle salt on it, and while it dries naturally, it will slowly take effect. The effect looks like this. The painted area with more water added has a larger pattern made with salt. The darker painted area shows that the pattern is smaller. This salt technique works well for kimono patterns and sparkling effect. Next is an expression using tissue paper. After applying the paint, use a crumpled-up tissue paper like this. Before the paint dries, press this lightly on the surface to make a pattern. Unique patterns appear like this. In my work, I often use it for clothing or for textures of objects in the background. The last technique I would like to introduce is “Sputtering”. A base coat is applied, and while it is not dry, spattering of paint. Hitting together a brush with a brush dipped in paint. When paint is sputtered on wet coloed area, the paint spreads out like this. This is a technique I often use for backgrounds. Sputtering on a dry screen give a different look. Paint a dark color and let it dry completely. Sputtering with this acrylic gouache white. When you use a toothbrush, you have to test it with a piece of paper before do on the art piece because at first you get big particles. Spattering by using a toothbrush produces much finer droplets than those using a brush. So I think it is useful when you want to make a starry sky or create a sprayed texture. I have picked out eight techniques that I actually use frequently in my watercolor work. I hope you will make use of these techniques in your own painting.
