T E C H N I Q U E S
Plan ahead carefully BEFORE you paint. Decide where the lightest areas are so that you can paint
around them.
Start by doing a couple of thumbnails, either with pencils in white and three levels of darkness, or in
full color.
Simplify the shapes, find the most dynamic composition. Make several thumbnails with the same subject.
Look in a mirror to check your composition and subject from another point of view. Often you notice a
bunch of new things!
Composition is a subject that other people have covered well. Here are a few:
WetCanvas
Skenbild.se
Fotosidan
Konstlistan
Be decisive in your motions, you can easily spot insecurity and too much thinking in a brushstroke.
Use much more paint and water than you think! When liberally applied paint dries, you get sharper edges
and more definition. You will have even more beautiful edges if you pre-wet the paper and let it dry for
15 minutes. 
Some pigments, when applied with lots of water, will group along the edges of the pool and form a thin line.
Referred to as "edge-biters" by Arne Isacsson, founder of Gerlesborgsskolan.
New Gamboge and Neutral Tint are examples of pigments that behave in this way.
Other pigments are heavy and lump together in the grain of the paper when they dry. This is called
granulation and French Ultramarine and Cadmium Red behave in this way..
Wet-in-wet 1. Wet the paper, start painting directly, when the paper is shiny with water.
Everything blends together, you can tilt the paper so that the colour runs, spreads and mixes.
Add more water or splash more colour into it after a little while, see what happens.
Wet-in-wet 2. Wet the paper–paint after a couple of minutes when the paper is semi-glossy, like silk.
Flowers and sharp edges occur.
Wet-on-dry. The colour is allowed to dey before the next layer/adjoining surface is painted.
Layering colours. To paint one colourstroke, let dry and overpaint with another gives an interesting
optical effect, like looking through two coloured filters. This method guarantees luminosity, since the
pigments never actually mix and muddy eachother.
You can describe volume, shadows and play of light with superimposed areas.
Compare yourself the different outcome with layering versus mixing physically.
Do not layer more than 3 colours or you risk losing the luminosity.
A straight line can be hard to achieve. Hold your paper vertically, let a drop go in the marigin and
let it run for a straight horizon.
Blow on drops of colour to make them feather out and make cool patterns and lines.
You can use the protective plastic tube that is found on new brushes, should you wish to have more
control over the blowing.
