avoid and correct simple mistakes while painting a watercolor.
Instructions
Getting ready to paint
1. Some problems can be avoided right from the beginning. If you sketch on your watercolor paper, you might be using a regular pencil. This is fine, if the light lines can be incorporated into your painting. But, if you don't want those lines to show, try the next step.
2. Use a watercolor pencil to do your initial sketch. Use a neutral color or several colors that match or are close to the main colors in your painting. Sketch lightly with the watercolor pencil. Don't be afraid to erase any marks made by your watercolor pencils, but be careful about abrading the paper. As you know, roughing up the paper can change the way the watercolor will flow. Watercolor pencils can be purchased singly or as a set.
3. As you add water and paint to the paper, the lines in your sketches will blend with the paint. If you've sketched carefully, you probably won't even see them as the painting progresses. Watercolor pencils are one of the coolest tools for watercolor!
Whoops! A mistake!
4. No matter how hard we try, almost every artist will, sooner or later, make a mistake, usually in an area that's already been worked. Now what do we do? First, use a dry brush to try to pick up some of the paint in the mistake while it's still wet. This can solve a lot of problems, but if it's a darker paint on a light background, chances are there will be a faint kind of border where the darker paint fell. Pulling paint from the paper this way is called "mopping" and the brush we often use to do this is called a mop brush. If you're not using a mop brush, make sure you use a brush with a good belly, so that it can pick up as much of the excess as possible.
5. Next, if it's possible to blend the paint left at the border of the mistake with the work underneath, without significantly changing it from what you want, use another brush, wet it slightly, and blend gently. Careful, again, as this, too, can roughen the paper. Still not what you want?
6. If you still have a place that doesn't look right to you, try to gently erase the darker paint with an art eraser. Again, be careful not to roughen the paper. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't, so don't be disappointed if it doesn't. This is a learning process and you are finding out what works and what doesn't.
7. Let's bring out the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. Yes, that white thing that kind of melts as you scrub the scuff marks off the floor or clean the fingerprints from your refrigerator. We're going to cut one, using regular scissors. Make sure you use a clean or new one, as this will affect how it works on your painting. Cut about an inch off the end of a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, then cut this piece diagonally, from one corner to the one opposite it. When done, you will have two wedges. That's exactly what we want!
8. Dampen the narrow edge of one of the wedges, using clear water. Make sure you're using very clean water for this step, as any color in the water will affect the use of the Magic Eraser.Gently rub the wet edge against the paint mistake, or whatever is left of the mistake after the other steps. As you do this, the paint will lift off. You will need to lift the Magic Eraser up often, and break the colored area away -- you don't want to lay this color back down!
9. Continue to do this, dampening the new edge or corner of the magic eraser, and gently lifting the color off the paper. Don't rub, as this will also roughen the surface of the paper if used too enthusiastically. You may find that some of the color underneath is lifting or lightening -- you may need to reapply paint to that area to even it out. This is why we're being so careful not to roughen the paper.
Check it out!
10. Now that you've removed as much of the color as possible, prop up your painting, and take a step or two back, to see if you're still getting the effect you want. You might decide to do a little more work with the Magic Eraser or apply a bit more paint.
11. It's very tempting to skip the step of mopping excess paint away, but don't. That excess paint needs to go somewhere, and absorbing it into the Magic Eraser could lay some of it back down if there's too much. Remember to always use a clean edge or corner of the Magic Eraser.
12. OK, take a look again. Hey, you did great!
