Watercolor Orbs: 10 Practice Techniques for Beginners

1. Class Intro: Watercolor painting is the process of combining water and pigments in various proportions to achieve a pleasing results. Artists use the terms wet-on-wet and wet-on-dry techniques to explain just how they achieve these results. But all watercolor uses water. The challenge is knowing how much to use, when to use it, and what the results might be when adding the water. Hi, I'm Daniela Mellen, an artist and author. In today's class, watercolor orbs. Ten practice techniques for beginners will practice methods to develop our watercolor instinct. This means we'll play with the combinations of pigment and water. More importantly, we'll play with the timing of these combinations in class will make rows of beautiful orbs, rounded shapes. That will give us an opportunity to review ten techniques using two pigments and water and their various combinations. I use two jugs of water. One to clean the brushes and want to keep as a clean jug of water. Think of it as its own particular color of paint. I showed you how I mix two colors, but you can use any two colors that you like. You can either mix them or use them straight from the tube. These practice techniques are very flexible. You can use any paper, any size brushes, and any colors that you like. The main focus is on techniques. Gather your supplies, and let's get started. 2. Class Supplies: Here are the supplies that we're going to use for our watercolor orbs. I have some eight by ten watercolor paper, but you could easily use a watercolor page from a journal as well. This is really good practice and if you find a design that you like, it's a great jumping off point for creating a piece of abstract art as well. I'm an assortment of paper towels that I'm going to use both to dry my brush while I'm me, using my painting supplies, as well as for a technique at the end. I'm gonna sort of watercolor pigments. And I'll include the list of the specific colors I use. But the specific colors are less important than using the colors that you like and colors that might be close to each other on the color wheel or opposites as well. Then I have two jugs of water. The importance of having two jugs of water is to have a clean jar of water to always use to put clean water on your piece, and then a jar of water to clean your brush in-between uses. Lastly, I'm using one brush I have here a six and a number four. They have fairly sharp points. I tend to use the six more often than the four, but I like having a little bit of variety with me as well. And then I have water to just wet my paints and I keep this in a spray bottle. In the next chapter, we'll start our first technique. 3. Technique #1: Wet On Dry: To make our page of orbs, we're going to start in each row going across, it's gonna be a different technique. You can extrapolate this by making a whole page of just using that same row, that technique. So our first technique is wet on dry. To do this, I take my brush and I select a pigment and I mixed my color. Now you can use colors straight from any of these tubes here that are put in each of these watercolor wells where you can mix your own. I think I'm going to mix my own. Gonna put some water on my palette. And then I'm gonna take some of this cobalt blue, mix it down on my palette. I have a good amount of water and a good amount of pigment. And then I'm going to take some Prussian blue and mix it in. And I just liked the way that really introduces a very rich blue. I'll add one more brushstroke of water. Now, from here, I'm just going to create orbs using the wet brush on the dry paper. That's called wet-on-dry technique. I'm just going to take that brush and just create an orb here. So I'm gonna make a round shape. Then I'll just fill it in as much as I want. And I can leave some spots of the paper because that makes it very interesting effect. Now your orb doesn't have to be perfectly filled in, but it certainly can be if you'd like it. And then I'm just going to continue that filling in that row with my orbs. And I'm using that same technique where I'm making the orb, the shape. I'm going to just depositing few more splotches of pigment. Now for this one, because I'm really testing out my limits and just what I'm doing here, the techniques, I create the perimeter. Then it can enlarge it just to make it the shape that I want. Then when I fill it in, I'm just going to stamp it with my brush again to get that interest. For the next one, I think I'll try a different technique where I create that shape, fill it in mostly. And then I want to pick up some more pigment on my brush and just dab it in. Now I'm not trying to dab it in around the entire piece because I want that little variation, that variation in color intensity. For this one, I'm going to create an orb, but I'm not going to close the shape. So I still have a little spot of dry paper between the top of that shape. And now I'll just fill it in as much as I want. I can elongate the shape as well. Then lastly, I'll do one more. Once I have my shape down, come in and fill it in closed or is it closed as I want? I'm going to go back in, take a lot of pigment on my brush and just deposit that intensity on certain areas of these various orbs. Then I'll let this layer dry and we'll come back and work on a different technique. 4. Technique #2: Wet On Dry Plus Water: For our next technique, we're gonna do a variation of the wet-on-dry. This one's gonna be wet-on-dry with the introduction of clean water. So it's wet-on-dry plus water. Good or create a new color here with a little bit of a puddle, I'll take some of this viridian hue, which is a beautiful green, and I'll set it down. Then I'm going to add a little of that cobalt blue. I get kind of a turquoise color here. You can play around with the proportions of each color. Now, with the pigment on my brush, I'm going to create that circle, again, that orb, but I'm going to keep the center dry, the center of it dry. I'll just do two or three at a time because I don't really want them to dry. In-between paintings. I'll create that outline. And I'll leave my brush here. And with my second brush, I'll just take some clean water. I'm introducing clean water to the center. And that'll just gently work it right to the edge. So it interacts with the pigment that's there. Now continue this on this row with each one. I can play around with the shape where I have an ORB for the outside. But for the inside, it's different amounts of dry paper that I'm just wedding with clear water. Now the reason I do it with a clear water is because I want those edges to run and blend and be completely natural where I'm not controlling it with my brush. I really go into clear water here and then just introduce it so that the pigments Mary and join. Now in this one, because this is all about trying different variety. I'm going to sharpen my brush to a point and just make it a thin perimeter here. Then I'll just come with my wet brush with clear water. I wet the center so that gives you the pigment area to move. Then I'll just introduce that edge. I can come back in with my pigment and just deposit it here and there. Again. Creating intensity and letting the water and the wet paper move that pigment. I'll come back in with my next one, adding a little more water to my color. I create my shape. Again, I don't want to fill in the center. And then I switch brushes to my brush. And I'm just going to dab in the center and I have the center of my orb, wet the paper. Then I can just slowly introduce a little bit. So that catches on the already wet pigment. Then I'll come over here and do the last one. I'm still using wet on dry paper to start with. I'll come over here and put a lot more pigment just to really play and see what happens when it's very intense. Then I'll just come over here with my wet brush, dab it on, and just let it move with the existing color, the existing pigment that's down. I'll get a different effect with all the processes here that I've done. Depending on how much pigment, how much water I'll get different looks and that's why I do multiple ones across so that I can see all the variations and really play around with it to see which ones I like. Some will have a softer edge, some will have a sharper edge. And as you can see, the perimeter on the outside of all of these has a nice hard edge. But the inside, interesting things happen and that's the beauty of watercolor. There are some blooms and some color variation. And that's what we're going for with this practice. In the next chapter, we'll work more on the wet on wet. 5. Technique #3: Wet on Wet Water: Now for our third technique, we're gonna do a wet-on-wet, but really a wet on water technique. I'm going to start with my brush and I'm just gonna take water. And they might be hard to see with the camera. But I'm going to create my first circle here. If you're painting and you can't really see the circle you've painted. Just tilt your head and look for the glare of that circle. Now I'm going to jump back to my first color here, which was the cobalt blue that we mixed with a little Prussian blue. I have my circle down and I want to come in here and just add just a little dab, a little dot of pigment to this circle. And I'm just eyeballing around the edge of that circle. And I'm just dabbing in more and more pigment as I go. Now I'm just going to let the water and the wet paper do its thing. I'm going to rinse my brush and I'll make another circle over here for our next orb. And I'll do one more while I'm here. So I have two orbs. Now I'm going to pick up that blue again. For this one, I'm gonna make a nice sharp point. I'm just going to go around the edge of that circle of that orb. Again because it's wet, it's running and the color is doing its thing, causing a blend. And depending on how much pigment you add, you can add so much pigment that it just fills it in right away. Versus this one. We're kind of creeps to the center because I brought my line to the edge. I have a nice hard outer edge, whereas here I have kind of that softer ruffled edge on that third circle that I made. And then pick up that color. Just going to gently drag my brush right around the edge again. Not going to go with as much intensity, but I'm going to create that shape. And then just dab a little bit of pigment. Now I'm going to rinse my brush and still with clear water, I'm going to introduce it to the center of that circle. I'll start my next one. I have my circle down, my orb. Come in and pick up that blue. Just fill it in. Again, I'm not going right to the edge of that clear water circle that I made, but I'm just trying to put in my pigment to let it move around. I'll come over here and do the same thing. And I'll make a final clear water circle. I'm going to pick up my pigment, which is the cobalt blue and a little Prussian blue. Get a nice quantity on my brush. Just dab it on and I'll just start at the top here. And then I'll come over here and I'll just do it on the bottom. Create that shape. Now I'll come back in, pick up that pigment and just continue to feed it. Just on that half circle that I made. I'll do the same thing up here. That's wet on wet. I have the clear water background and I introduced my pigment. And what depending on the wetness, I can actually tilt the page and see that pigment move around. And that's an interesting effect to it's kind of the natural effect of the water and the pigment, but you're helping it along by tilting the page, depending on how you have the paper dry. If you have it dry flat versus tilting it up or down, you'll get a different effect with the circles as they dry. We'll let that dry and then we'll come back and work on a different technique. 6. Technique #4 Wet on Water: Now for our next row, our next technique, we're gonna do the wet on water technique again. And we're going to use our turquoise colored pigment here, where we mix cobalt blue with viridian hue. Again, I want to do my circles in clear water first, so I'll just do two of them at a time. I have wet paper here and that will give my pigment somewhere to flow. Mix a little more of that color, cobalt blue and the viridian hue. So it's kind of a turquoise color. Now I'll make a very sharp point. And I'm going to start here, and I'm just going to make little dots, not touching or not trying to touch the dots to each other, but just allowing them to run and do their thing. It'll do the same thing over here. And I can play with the amount of dots that I leave and how much I hold the pigment down. The longer I hold it, the more pigment will be left on the piece, on the circle. You get different effects. Using that same technique. I put my clear water orbs down. Then I'll go in there. And depending on the size brush point you have and the size brush, you'll get different effects. Here. I'll hold it down for quite a bit and remove it. And do the same thing. And I get different blooms. I'm just trying to try to see what happens here. What I get. Let's just practice. It makes very interesting results. And I can go back in and add even more pigment. If there's an area that I don't feel is moving, I can direct it and move it around. Then I'll have my last two. Forbes put them down with clear water. Now I'm going to pick up a lot of pigment and a very sharp point here in this one, I'm gonna just start in the center and just continue to dab my brush right in the center, up and down, straight up and down. Then on the last one, I'm going to do the same thing up and down with the pigment. Come back in, add a little more pigment. Want to rinse my brush so that it's just clear water. And the point would that wet brush dab in the center. And you can see that pigment move and run. Pick up my paper. Again, just move it around. When it dries. We'll take a look at the result, will come back and work on a few more techniques. 7. Technique #5: Water on Wet: Now for this technique, we're gonna do water on wet. We're going to go back to that original blue color that we mixed the cobalt and the Prussian blue. I'll mix up a little more of that. You can mix any color you want for this as well. Then I'm just going to paint my circles, my little orbs. I'll paint about three of them. Really taking care to make them circular shaped. Again, fill them in whatever level you'd like, whatever level you're most comfortable can leave a little bit of white exposed. Once you have those good clean my brush that I have clear water on my brush. And I'm just going to drop water and I'll drop in the center here. I'll come back and pick up a little more water and drop it in a couple of spots, maybe three on the next one. Pickup some more clear water and just drop it. And we'll see what that does is it changes the dynamics and add some blooms to our piece. Come over here and make my last three orbs. Again with this beautiful blue that we mixed. Come back in and introduce a little more pigment just to make that one a little more vibrant. Do that again. Make one last orb here. Add a little more pigment to make it a little more vibrant. Then I'll rinse my brush, pick up some clear water, and just deposit some clear water and little drops. When you deposit the clear water, you'll see how it moves the pigment and floats that around. And the result will be very interesting when it dries. And as you can see here, even though we did the same technique for each one, just a slight variation caused a variation in shape and color and intensity, as well as the edges made them very interesting. 8. Technique #6: Drops on Water: For our next row here, we're gonna use both colors of pigments. So I'm going to mix my pigments to make sure I have enough. I'll add that viridian Q and some cobalt blue just to get that really turquoise color. If I need more of the bluish color, I'll pick up more cobalt and a little Prussian blue. Now I want to start by painting circles, painting my orbs just with clear water. And again, I'll do three. And then I'll come in here and pick up some of my blue. And I'm just going to dot it in certain areas on that orb. You can make the dot is long and large as you want, holding it down for longer time, repeatedly adding it to your orb. Then I'm gonna continue making my remaining three orbs. I'll pick up my blue again and just dot it in some areas. I think I'll do this one right in the center. Just do three over here. Three on this one. Now I'll clean my brush, remove some of that clear water, and pick up that turquoise color. I'm going to sharpen it to a point. I'm just going to add that turquoise to areas where I don't have the pigment. Could add it to a few areas. That a skip this one for a moment and just add it to my pigment here and you can see how it floats around. It does interesting things. Now I'll come back to that center one. And I'm just going to dot it right around the edge. Now my watercolor is floating on the water because I had an abundance of water. And it'll do interesting things. I can turn the page and create very interesting effects. And then I'll let that layer completely dry. We'll come back and do another wet on wet technique. 9. Technique #7: Dark Wet on Light Wet: For our next technique, we're gonna do a wet on wet again, but we're gonna do a dark wet on wet. You choose the color that you feel is the lightest. And again, I can always go with different colors, but because I'm sticking with colors this time, I'm going to take my lighter turquoise and I'm going to create three or so orbs. Again, I'll fill them in to whatever degree I want. Now once I have my light down and I can really carve out the shape, I'll come in here with my darker color. I rinse my brush, remove some of the water, pick up the pigment, and now I'm just going to deposit it. This one, I'm just going to deposit one dot here all deposit two dots. I can go back in and really emphasize that color. Pick up a little more of that blue. I'll add a four dots. I'll make three more. I pick up my pigment and create my orbs. Go back in, really introduced that color because we know watercolor dries lighter. Then I'll rinse my brush, remove the water, and pick up that blue pigment. Now I just want to introduce that color just by dabbing it in. The next one, I think I'm going to slide it around half of the orb over here. I'll just dab it in maybe three spots. When it dries. It will be interesting to see the variation between the one above and this one will come back and do one more row of orbs on this page. 10. Technique for #8:Light Wet on Dark Wet: We're gonna do a technique of wet-on-wet light on dark. So I'm going to mix up more of my dark color, which I chose in the previous example to be that blue. I'll mix that cobalt blue with that Prussian blue just to get enough pigment. I'll do the same thing with this little turquoise that we mixed with a cobalt blue and the viridian hue. I'll take that dark color, that blue. I'll make three orbs. Make these a little smaller just to fit on this page nicely. Again, carving out the shape, filling it in to whatever degree I want. I'll rinse my brush, remove the water. Once it until it's clear. Pickup that lighter shade, that turquoise. Now I'm just going to dab it. I'm going to switch, picking up that blue color again. Making my final three orbs. Really carving out that shape. Rinsing my brush. And I'll come out with that lighter color. I'll dab that in a few spots. Dab it on 1.5 side of this form. It will be interesting to note the difference between those last two rows. We'll come back and start a new sheet with just a few more techniques. 11. Technique #9: Wet on Dry on Wet Plus Water: For this technique, I'm just going to make two orbs. One's going to have the green background and one's going to have the blue background. So I'll start with my green, my turquoise here. And I'll make one orb. Come around, carving out that shape. Wet-on-dry. I'm just using the dry paper, my wet brush, carving out the shape. I'll come in here and fill it in. Whatever degree of filling in I want for that orb. Now this is all about technique. It's not really about the result. This is just something to show you what it will look like when it's done. After I've carved out the shape, I'll pick up a little more of my pigment. Just introduce it basically around the edge. Just because I know that wherever it's wet it will bleed accordingly. I can tilt my page a little and if I see any areas that had already started to dry, I'll move that pigment around. Now. We'll do the same thing with the blue. I'll come back in, create my orb. Whatever degree of filling in I want. Pick up that pigment, just really deposited to make it nice and vibrant right around that shape. Now I have my wet layer down. I'm going to come back in and pick up more blue. And starting with this first orb, I'm just going to deposit it right in the center. Now I have my wet blue on my wet background of my light color. And I'll come back in and really just dab it. I'm not trying to bring it all the way to the end of my orb, but I really want it to flow and really fill the center. I'll rinse my brush and I'll do the same thing on this one with my turquoise right in the center. And I'll just dab it all the way around. Just keep it a moment to absorb into the paper and to flow with the existing wet pigment of the blue. Here I have the light background and the dark color in the center. And here I have a dark background with a light color in the center. I can turn my paper just helping that color flow most pigments to marry and join. And then I'm just going to come in here and rinse my brush. The clear brush. I'll just set some water on my palette. I'm going to take that clear water, get a nice full brush, and just add a drop of water to the center. I'll come back in and just add a second drop, maybe even a third. Then I'll do the same thing here. That clear water will chase that pigment around and there'll be a little blooms that form. We can't really control them, but we can get an idea of some of the things that they'll do. We'll let this dry and we'll take a look at our finished work. Now, as you can see here, the color is dried a little bit differently and it's different effects. Now there are a lot of things that go into that result. The amount of water that you use to add your clear water spot, the amount of pigment that you had on the page and the amount it was dried, you added all those different elements. There are many factors, but as you can see, it produced very interesting blooms. And that's the look we were going for. 12. Technique #10: Lifting Pigments: For our next technique, we're gonna do a wet on dry. We're going to let that dry and then we're going to lift color. To do this technique, you need time and you need some paper towels as well. I'm going to make six orbs, three of each color. So I'll mix a little bit more color to start with, just so I have enough pigment for my orbs. Again. I'm mixing the cobalt blue and the viridian hue just to get that turquoise color. And then the other one was a Prussian blue and a cobalt blue. With my darker colors, I'm just going to make three orbs, really carving out the shape. This is good practice because you want to make the Orbs approximately the same shape. Now they won't be perfectly the same shape. But it is good practice. It's repetition. And it's about stroking the brush with a little bit of control, particularly for making these shapes. I'll come around just trying to keep a nice even edge. I can go back in and deposit any more pigment as I want. Then I'll rinse my brush. And I'll make three orbs here just to make them fit. Make them a little smaller than our original three. I'll put one underneath here just because I didn't plan out my space very well. I'll come back in. And for this technique, it's nicer when the colors are a little more vibrant. I'll just deposit a little more pigment. Then I'm going to let this layer dry before we come back to do the color lifting. To finish our technique, we weren't going to lift off color. I have just some paper towels that I folded just because it's very neat. You can use a rag just as easily as long as it's absorbent. Now I'm going to take my brush and just get some clear water on my brush. I'm gonna make a very sharp point. Then I want to make a shape. And I'm painting with clear water onto my piece. The simpler the shape the better. So a triangle or a little circle. If I make a circle right in the center here, I want to create that circle, not really trying to move the pigment or paint too much. But I just want to add that circle, give it just a moment to absorb into the paper. Then I want to press down on with my paper towel and lift up. I picked up the shape that I made. Now I can go back in very gently, adding a little more clear water to my shape, again, giving it a moment to absorb into the paper. Then pressing down the paper towel to absorb at shape to pick it up. I can of course go back in there with my blue and really carve out that shape to sharpen it. But this is an interesting way to remove color. Instead of making a shadow, you make a highlight in your piece. Again, I'll take some clear water on this one. Really sharpen my point. And I'll just make a swirl. Swirl, come around. Again, get some clear water. You want to add plenty of water and I'll go back in and deposit some more water on the place I put down this brushstroke of water. And I'll come right here to make my shape. I'm not scrubbing it with my brush. I'm just letting the water do all that work. I'll take my paper towel and refold it. Then I'll press it down and pick up some of the color. And as you can see, it's not a very crisp image, but it is very effective. The next one, I'll just make a letter. Take my brush, make a sharp point. I'll make the letter M can come back in, really go over that letter, Give it a moment to absorb into the paper. Press my paper towel on it, and pick up the color. I might want to do that again to really get a crisper image. I'll go down my brush and my water, giving it a moment to absorb funding fairly clean spot on my paper towel and absorbing the water. Now, I'm careful not to scrub the paper. I don't want to tear it, but as you can see, I've lifted the color. This doesn't work with every color. Some colors work a little better than others, and some brands work a little better than others. So you really have to experiment. You're not going to get clean white paper by doing this technique. But you will get a little highlight, a little bit of area bleached on the paper. Always start with clear water. You don't want to introduce any pigment. You can repeat the process as long as your gentle. I'll come over here. I made three dots. They're not very prevalent. Triangle over here. You can see that a lot better. And a circle over here. I just am curious. I'd like to go back in with those three dots, adding a little bit more water right on the dots, giving it a moment to absorb into the paper. Then I'll press it out. It made it a little more distinct, particularly in this area. But that's an idea if you want to really add interesting highlights to your work. 13. Bonus: 3 More Techniques: Just as a bonus, particularly if you're working with the shape, the rounded shape in your abstract work, there are a couple of other things you can do. You can always make rings, which are just a modified version of our orb, where you take a wet brush on dry paper and you just spin it around to get your ring. Now this is a very interesting effect because you get some brushstrokes and you get some imperfections. But it's a very interesting look. And you might find this technique very beneficial or very helpful to you. Another technique is to take some clear water, make your giant orb so that you have a wet basis. Pick up your pigment with your brush and do that same technique. Just make your ring on the wet area. Now the boundaries, if you did it all within the wet area, will be soft as opposed to these hard edges. If I brought my brush over any dry areas of paper, the edges will be hard. And if I brought my brush over the wet areas, they soften and dole out. That's a very interesting effect if you're playing with the hard edges versus the soft edges in your work. Lastly, one more technique for a wet-on-dry with water is to take your pigment. In this case, I'll use that turquoise. And I know we've been making orbs, but this time I'm only going to make half to three-quarters of an orb. And I'll put my color down just on that spot. And you can see with your eye how you'd fill in the remainder of this orb. I'm purposely not filling it in, but I am creating the silhouette. I want to do the same thing over here. But in this way, when I have a lot more pigment than the other, I have more ground covered on this one. Wet my brush and now I have just clear water on my brush and I'm going to wet that area that would fill in that silhouette on my paper. I have just clear water. Go back in, wet my brush with more clear water. And then I'm just going to take that boundary and just barely touch that area of the pigment. Rinse my brush, get some clear water, and really finish that edge. Now I've started a guide for my pigment to run. I'll rinse my brush again. Do the same thing over here. I saturate the paper with clear water, create that shape. And then just barely touch it to the edge that we've already painted down. This will blur the edge of the pigment that has dried somewhat on the paper. Allowing it to run and finish creating that orb will let these dry and just take a quick look at them when they're done. 14. Class Wrap Up: In class today we have the ten techniques that we used on our orbs. Each row represents a different technique. They were all very simple, but as you can see, they're very subtle differences. We stayed with using the same two colors to create our techniques, but there's many variations that you can come up with. Additionally, I have three more variations that I'll show in a bonus class at the end. This is just helpful with your work if you're creating orbs, particularly in abstract art and you want just different effects. They all use just the two colors that we mixed and the addition of clean water. Now I wanted to show you some variations and how you use your rounded pieces using the various techniques in either your sketch book or in work stepping stones for larger pieces. Here are my sketch book page. I created a page using the same techniques and instead of using the blue and the turquoise, I used red and a pink. I wrote down the techniques where I mixed water with them if I would do wet on dry and whatnot over here. And it's an interesting sketchbook page. Another way to do them is to actually work on a rainbow of colors. Started with my reds and ended up with some purples. They are not solid red and they're not solid purple. But I have that gradient traveling from one end to the other of using wet or dry paper and combining them with a separate color. Some of the circles and the orbs are filled and some are not. And you can see the little white of the paper flowing through. Here. I created something a little more abstract by introducing another element, and in my case it was spatter, but you could add many different things. I use the same clear water and colors to create them. And each row used just two colors. So I hope you found these techniques helpful to use in your work. If you make a page using these techniques, or just select the techniques that you find most enjoyable and snap a picture of them and post it in the project section. I post new videos three times a week on my YouTube channel. So join me there for more techniques as well. If you found this class helpful, please consider leaving a review. Be sure to subscribe to get notified of future classes. Thanks for joining me today.