Watercolour painting is often praised for its captivating element of spontaneity and unpredictability. The ever-shifting interplay between water, pigment, and the absorbent paper surface can produce unexpected, serendipitous results that lend a unique, almost atmospheric quality to the medium. Yet, this fleeting, uncontrolled nature can also be daunting for artists seeking to cultivate a cohesive, harmonious composition.
The key is finding the right balance between control and chance. By embracing experimental watercolour techniques that leverage both precision and happy accidents, you can unlock a new level of creative expression and personal style. In this article, we’ll explore a range of exercises that encourage you to loosen up, let go, and harness the medium’s inherent fluidity—all while maintaining artistic intent and a thoughtful approach to design.
Embracing Chance in Watercolour
One of the most liberating aspects of watercolour is how the paint behaves unpredictably on the paper. Pigment granulation, feathered edges, and organic bloom effects can all arise spontaneously, defying your initial expectations. Rather than fighting against these chance occurrences, successful watercolour artists learn to anticipate, embrace, and even orchestrate them.
As Liz Steel notes, “I was particularly interested in getting various washes to merge—intentionally creating happy accidents.” By experimenting with different wash consistencies and techniques, you can encourage these serendipitous effects and transform them into integral design elements.
Try the following exercises to loosen up and invite more unpredictability into your watercolour process:
Wet-into-Wet Washes
Saturate your paper with clean water, then drop in pure pigment or thinned paint. Observe how the colours bloom, bleed, and intermingle across the surface. Vary your paint application, from concentrated areas to diffused, gradual washes.
Salt Textures
While the paper is still damp, sprinkle ordinary table salt over the surface. As the water evaporates, the salt will draw pigment around it, creating a unique crystalline pattern. Experiment with different salt densities and grain sizes.
Alcohol Lifts
Use a cotton swab or brush dipped in rubbing alcohol to “lift” and disperse watercolour in unexpected ways. The alcohol will lighten and disrupt the paint, creating organic, cloudy effects.
Sgraffito
Scratch, scrape, or scrub into dried paint layers to reveal the white of the paper underneath. This additive-subtractive technique allows you to create intricate, textural details.
As you play with these techniques, focus on the process rather than a preconceived outcome. Observe how the water, pigment, and paper interact, and respond intuitively to the emerging visual cues. An attitude of openness and curiosity will help you make the most of watercolour’s inherent spontaneity.
Maintaining Control and Composition
While chance occurrences can breathe life and character into a watercolour painting, you’ll also need to maintain a degree of control to achieve a cohesive, visually compelling result. Thoughtful composition, colour harmony, and intentional mark-making are all crucial for bringing structure and purpose to your experimental process.
As Vesna Jovanovic shared, one of the key challenges in teaching an “Experimental Drawing” class was finding the right balance between relinquishing control and guiding students’ creative choices:
“I found myself saying things like ‘You’re doing too good of a job!’ which was, needless to say, greeted with amusement and laughter. With the contrast between chance and control as one of the pivotal questions in my own artwork, I have found intuitive ways to resolve this problem and achieve a desired balance (to my own liking). But how does one impart this intuition to students without being prescriptive and thus defeating the purpose of the class?”
To strike this delicate balance in your own watercolour practice, consider the following techniques:
Establish a Focal Point
Even with spontaneous passages, you’ll want to guide the viewer’s eye toward a primary point of interest. Use contrasting values, intense colours, or deliberate details to create a visual anchor.
Emphasize Edges
Juxtapose freely flowing, diffused edges with sharper, more controlled lines and passages. This interplay between soft and hard edges can add depth and dynamism to your compositions.
Employ Selective Blending
Embrace the medium’s natural tendency toward mixed, blended colours, but also make strategic use of hard edges and defined shapes. Vary your application methods to create visual interest.
Incorporate Intentional Textures
Balance loose, expressive brushwork with more methodical, detailed techniques. Sgraffito, stamping, and other additive-subtractive approaches can lend a sense of depth and tactility.
Curate Your Colour Palette
Choose a harmonious, cohesive palette that ties your composition together, even as you experiment with spontaneous mixing and bleeding of hues. Carefully consider temperature, saturation, and complementary relationships.
The key is to find your own unique balance—one that allows you to harness watercolour’s unpredictable nature while maintaining artistic control and intentionality. Through regular practice and an open, adaptive mindset, you can develop an intuitive understanding of when to let go and when to guide the process.
Experimental Watercolour Exercises
Ready to get your hands dirty? Here are some engaging, free-flowing watercolour exercises to help you explore the balance between control and chance:
Colour Blending Study
Wet the paper, then drop in pure, highly saturated pigments. Observe how the colours intermingle and disperse across the surface. Try introducing new washes while the paper is still damp, allowing the paint to bloom and feather. Experiment with different water-to-pigment ratios to create a range of wash consistencies.
Salt and Alcohol Textures
Working on damp paper, sprinkle a variety of salt grains (table salt, kosher salt, Epsom salts, etc.) across the surface. Allow the salt to crystallize as the paper dries, creating unique, organic patterns. Then, use a clean, damp brush or cotton swab to “lift” and disrupt the paint by dabbing it with rubbing alcohol. See how the alcohol interacts with the watercolour and salt.
Scrape and Scratch
Once your watercolour layers are fully dry, experiment with subtractive techniques. Use a palette knife, old credit card, or other tool to scrape, scratch, and lift paint, revealing the white of the paper underneath. Try different pressures, angles, and patterns to create intricate, textural effects.
Stencil and Mask
Cut interesting shapes, patterns, or silhouettes out of cardstock, tape, or other materials to use as stencils or masks. Position them on your paper, then apply washes of colour around the openings. Carefully remove the stencil to unveil the revealed shapes. Repeat this process, experimenting with overlapping layers and compositional placements.
Watercolour Collage
Paint a variety of textural, expressive watercolour passages on scrap paper. Once dry, cut, tear, layer, and collage these painted papers onto a new surface. Arrange the fragments to create a dynamic, multi-layered composition, allowing the edges and seams to become integral design elements.
Throughout these exercises, stay nimble and receptive to the watercolour’s behaviour. Embrace the unexpected, trust your intuition, and be willing to make bold, unplanned decisions. The more you explore this balance of control and chance, the more your unique watercolour style will emerge.
As Liz Steel noted, “the more you work on seeing better, having more informed visual conversations in your head and training your eye and hand to move in sync, the easier and more enjoyable sketching becomes!” The same holds true for watercolour painting. With an open, curious mindset and a willingness to experiment, you can harness the medium’s unpredictability to create captivating, one-of-a-kind works of art.
So grab your paints, embrace the unexpected, and get ready to dance with the watercolour. The journey of balancing control and chance is half the fun.
Statistic: Recent surveys show that 70% of emerging artists credit daily sketching with significant improvements in their art