How to Grade your watercolor painting changes ?

Posted: Feb 01, 2011 |

The slow, subtle change of gradation can sneak up on you, just as age does. Gradation is a subtle, gradual change of light to dark, of warm to cool, of one color to another. It's my favorite type of transition in watercolor. Instead of using one color to shade the side of a building, use a warm orange that slowly becomes a cool blue.

If the changes are smooth and subtle, the audience won't even see a difference, but they'll notice a more interesting scene. They may not even figure out what you did to make it more interesting!

Try making a graded swatch:

1. Paint a 1-x-4-inch rectangle of watercolor paper with clear water. If you use a 1-inch flat brush, this is one brush stroke. The area should be shiny damp. If the paper absorbs the water and dries immediately, add another stroke of water.

2. Choose two colors. Paint about 3/2 inches of one end of the paper with one color, and paint the opposite end with the other color, leaving about 1 inch of clean paper between them. You can choose any two colors you'd like. You can experiment with primary mixes to see what secondary mix happens in the middle. Or choose opposites to see what neutral results from the complementary colors.

3. Use your brush to gently blend the two colors together. Pull a little color from each end toward the center. Add more color if needed. 108 Part II: Developing a Solid Foundation.You may want to pick up the paper and tip it back and forth to let gravity help in the process. When you're finished, you should have a slow, smooth transition from one color to the other. You've made a graded wash.

Change colors` often in your paintings — at least every inch. Because of the slow, gentle change in graded washes, you can use as much gradation as you like. Gradation just makes things more intriguing. Use abrupt change like contrast sparingly.

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