For  this lesson, you’ll start an “Under the Sea” painting using the wet on wet and spatter techniques.

The wet on wet technique involves placing wet paint on a wet surface. You can use the wet on wet technique to create the watery background.

Supplies:

• Watercolor paper attached to  a sturdy backing (cardboard, foam board, etc.) with tape
• Water in container
• Paints: Blue and green
• Large flat brush for painting background
• Palette
• Paper towels
• Old toothbrush

 Before you begin working with the wet on wet technique, be sure the colors you need (in this lesson, GREEN and BLUE) are on your palette so you are ready to paint immediately after wetting the paper. If this technique is new to you, you can try it out on a small practice paper first.

Start Painting!

 To start, “paint” the entire piece of paper with clean water using a large flat brush.

Before the water on the paper dries, load your brush with water and dip it into a color on your palette. With watery paint on your brush, create strokes of color on the paper.

You can paint the whole paper with one color, then add another on top of it while it is still wet, or you can add different colors to the empty places on the paper. Either way, paint the second color BEFORE  the water on the paper and the first color dries. The paints will readily spread and blend with each other.

To add “bubbles” to your practice sheet, dip your old toothbrush into the water, tapping off some of the excess. Next, hold the toothbrush over your painting in one hand while tapping on the handle of the brush with a pencil in your other hand. Small drops of water will spatter on your paper, and if your background is still wet, some of the paint will move out of the way to create a bubble type effect. You can also try spattering some blue or green paint on your background.

That’s it! Leave your paper attached to the cardboard until it’s dry. That way, even if it buckles while you’re painting, it will dry flat.