As I sit here writing this article there are 6 watercolor paintings slowly drying. Unfortunately, one painting looks a complete mess. While the others are bright and clear, this one has a muddy-colored pool that could result in a total disaster. This is water dealing its mixed blessings.
What can be done to rescue the situation? Fortunately, this is nothing new. Instead of being worried about the disaster unfolding there is one question that should be asked…
“Could the finished painting end up being better than expected?”
When painting watercolors it is often better to leave things alone. Wait until it is dry and see what happens. Interfering with the natural drying process of watercolors often does more damage than good. When you have experienced this kind of situation many times before, it gives you a new confidence… the dull muddy pool may have the right ingredients to combine into dynamic colors that you couldn‘t plan for.
Guess what… the painting was a wonderful surprise. The final colors that the muddy pool produced were incredible… ranging from blues, bright reds and yellows through to greens, rich maroons, browns and grays.
The most pleasing thing of all is that, apart from clean water, the only watercolor paints used were Ultramarine Blue, Cadmium Yellow and Magenta.
Could you ask for more? If you are prepare to let your watercolor paintings paint themselves, the worst thing to happen is that you throw the failures away with the trash. So… the best idea is to leave your paintings for a few days. You never know… you might see a little something extra special that you hadn’t seen before.
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Michael Dale is the author of 1 Color Is Best (the quick and easy way to learn to paint watercolor) and 3 Colors Are All You Need (mix any color you want fast using only 3 colors). Visit http://www.Paint-And-Draw.com to find out more. If you haven’t done so already, why not take a look at this video that features some of Michael Dale’s Simple Watercolor Paintings |
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Wonderful explanation of facts aavilable here.