Watercolor Textures

A fun, free challenge!
This exercise if a follow-up to the last one that used paint samples from the hardware store. While you’re there, try to find a display with free floor and countertop samples. Pick out a few and take them home to practice textures!

When you begin, you’ll probably need to do some underpainting for each sample. Look for the lightest colors and paint them first. Then you might be able to add new colors while the underpainting is wet (second and third example) or let it dry before adding more defined elements (first example).

You’ll probably need to use several different brushes to create these textures. Old, fuzzy brushes are particularly helpful for creating textures such as tiny dots or parallel lines. Try lifting colors with a damp brush or paper towels. Use your imagination, as far as tools go, and experiment.

Duplicating textures this way is great practice and surprisingly challenging! Have fun with this one and don’t get too uptight about it.