Wash & Go

Painting streak-free luminous washes

Back to basics this week. Let’s practice an important fundamental skill: laying a smooth, translucent wash.

One of my readers commented they’d achieved a streak-free wash - you can sit this one out 😆. For the rest of us, let’s perfect this skill.

When the background wash is clean, anything you paint on top (silhouettes, glazes, detail) looks way more intentional.

We aim for a finish without blooms or streaks and translucent colours.

The Exercise

We’re going to paint the 3 essential washes:

• Flat: Mix plenty of one colour. Start at the top, sweep side to side, overlapping each stroke. Keep a wet bead and move fast.
  Goal: The entire paper should be covered in one even colour and one value (aim for a mid to dark value)

• Graded: Begin the same. As you move down, add more water to the mix every couple of strokes so the value lightens by the bottom.
  Goal: the colour should go from mid/dark to light evenly

• Variegated: Use at least 2 colours and gradually transition from one to the other.
  Goal: a smooth transition between colours

Paint two of every wash in different colours—since viscosity, granulation, and mixing vary by pigment and brand, the more combinations you try, the better.

Tip: continually remove excess water/paint from the edges, as it can creep back in and cause blooms and back runs.

Why practice washes?

Continued practice and perfecting basic skills like washes is always a worthwhile exercise.

• Sharpens water control and timing

• Gives you a luminous base for skies, backgrounds or large shapes

• Let’s us play with large brushes and colour combinations

• Paint now, use later: When you have a creative block just paint a wash, let it dry and use it later

Examples

Here are 2 of the 3 basic washes - variegated and flat. It’s easier on larger paper. I’d recommend A4/Letter (1/8 sheet) as a minimum.

Watch the video demos for both washes below.

Variegated and Flat wash

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Once you’ve nailed those 3 washes, try using them for skies and backgrounds. Drop in darker clouds wet-in-wet, and/or lifting out lighter ones.

Like so:

A variegated wash first, then lifted out some clouds

This recent sunset tutorial on my Patreon also started with a variegated sky wash:

Keep it smooth,
Patrick

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