Watercolor Painting Tips – Creating Textures in Watercolor

These watercolor painting tips are courtesy of Beth Mcrorie of EJM Studios.

Beth is an extremely talented watercolor artist. Her paintings are stunning, vibrant and full of color.

“Luminance, reflections, and color all attract me to my subjects. I see light dance through glass, or sparkle off a lemon, and I feel compelled to capture what I see with paint and paper. My art is my way emphasizing the beauty in the every day world around us, of asking the viewer to slow down long enough to enjoy the vibrancy of color in a flower or the brilliance of light streaming through crystal.”

- Beth Mcrorie

Please take a moment to visit her website to view more of her work.

Creating Textures in Watercolor by Beth Mcrorie

Texture in watercolor can add both depth and drama..and they are fun, too! The textures shown here are all done in prussian blue. If you are going to use one of these texture, practice first on a small scrap of paper. Different colors will react differently to the techniques. Try experiementing with laying several colors together. (Please forgive my blue thumb in the photos!)

Lay down a wash and let it sit a bit, but don’t let it get too dry. Then use either a paper towels or tissue.

Great for clouds!

Lay down a wash where you want fur, then quickly add a few strokes of darker paint. Let dry a bit, then add a few more strokes. Then when almost dry, a few more. This greats the illusion of soft fur with some depth.

Lace can make a wonderful stencil! Use a gentle dry brush or spray with tooth brush as shown here.

Lay on a wash, and allow to dry. Use the sharp point of a razor or other instrument and gently scratch.

Tap a loaded brush against your hand to create a splatter affect

On dry paper

On wet paper.

Use a toothbrush and pull your thumb across the top to create spray.

On dry paper

On wet paper

Lay on a wash and put down wax paper where you want the texture. Great for stone walls!

Use a natural sponge. Good for marble and many other textures.

Lay down wash and allow to dry a bit. Use a brush loaded with water and brush it where you want the texture. Then use a paper towl to lift up the paint.

Lay down a wash and allow to dry completely. Then use sand paper to create texture.

Lay out a wash. The texture will be different depending on the type of salt and how wet the wash is. Larger salt crystals will create larger white areas. The dryer the wash the lighter the texture will be. But don’t let it get too dry or it won’t show up at all.