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Creating and Recapturing Whites in Watercolor Paintings

Watercolor is one of the most popular styles of painting. It is a favorite of the public and is the material of choice for some of today's most collectable artists. Many artists who work in watercolor soon realize that the thrill and excitement of color, and the application of that color, often "takes over" a work. It can be difficult to maintain whites because what that means is the complete avoidance of those areas. The paper must be carefully and systematically worked in such a way that no color is placed where whites will appear in the finished work. Because maintaining pristine white areas presents difficulty for many watercolorists, several techniques have been developed to "recapture" whites.

When you discover that the whites and lights that you wanted to keep in a work have disappeared, you might consider using an opaque white, a gouache or acrylic. Many artists consider any other method too time-consuming, or perhaps the whites they achieve with other methods are unsatisfactory for their work. While the use of opaque whites will recreate those lights, there are more aesthetic ways to get them. The following paragraphs will discuss several other options and how they might be of help to you in your watercolor paintings.

Painting around white areas is the purists' method, but is very difficult, especially for start-up painters. With practice, however, you will find that you have the latitude of working with several "qualities" of dryness to create different effects. For instance, if you are painting on dry paper around a white area, the edges that you create will be hard with sharply defined edges. If, on the other hand, you are painting around a white area on paper that is slightly damp, the pigment will spread and you will accomplish soft edges. With a bit of practice you will discover just the right amount of dampness for the look you are trying to achieve.

Scraping through areas of wet paint to achieve whites is probably the most popular way to recreate white and light areas. Several tools can be used to accomplish this scraping out of color. One popular tool is the angled end of a plastic handled watercolor brush. The plastic is hard enough to be an effective tool without causing damage to the softened surface. The edge of the handle can cut through and remove paint to create nearly perfect whites. This happens if the paint is still fluid enough to "move." Other tools one might use are scraps of mat board or perhaps a scrap of rigid plastic from a coffee can cover. No matter which tool you choose, the paint must be at an absolutely perfect point for this technique to work. If the paint is too dry, you will never be able to remove color; and if it is too wet, the pigment simply slips back to cover the scraped area. Again, practice will help you learn when the timing/dryness/wetness is right. Lifting off paint is another method used by artists, and they use it most often when they need a white area that was unplanned in the original concept. The idea is to lift off color with fresh water and a clean brush. Carefully define the area you want to lift away by wetting that area with clean water. Allow the water to sit on the paint for about 30 to 40 seconds. Then blot carefully with a tissue, paper towel or soft cloth. You can repeat this technique to create lighter and lighter areas. This method of white recapturing fails when staining pigments are used because these colors often leave trace stains on the paper.

Lastly, there is an old technique that can be used to create whites for certain applications. When wispy, linear whites are needed, especially in dark areas (such as an indication of grasses in a dark forest interior scene), use the edge of a stencil knife blade or a razor blade. By dragging the sharp edge sideways across the dark area, bits of the painted surface are scratched away. The object is not to cut the surface, but to scrape across the dry surface, removing small fragments of the paper while at the same time removing the paint.

Curiously, this technique for creating white wisps can be used to create very interesting texture in your work. This removal of pigment and bits of the surface leaves the paper receptive to additional paint. When new color is introduced into these areas, the pigments penetrate the scratched areas for very intense and very detailed line designs. The disturbed surface actually acts as a blotter to absorb more color than would be absorbed if the new color were introduced to clean paper. This technique is very interesting and useful, too.

Short of "White Out," we now see that there are many ways to achieve white and light areas in our watercolor. The most interesting watercolor paintings are those with studied applications of some or all of these methods. Why not try all of the white-creating techniques with your palette of colors? Have fun finding out which colors act as stains and which can be easily wicked up to reveal the white of the paper.

Look for a future article on the use of masks and stencils to create texture, tone and depth in your work.

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