Scratching

Scratching techniques

Scratch a line with a fine sharp point, I usually use the back end of a brush, a knife or a credit card. Some brushes have a sharp end or scraper built into the handle. Use those first! The wet paint is sucked into the bruised paper fibers as you scratch across the wash, creating dark lines.

Used carefully, this technique is excellent for adding details to landscape paintings. Fall or winter scenes will always show naked trees and branches.

Notice the dark edges that automatically form where you scrape away the paint. You have to be quick before your background sky or landscape dries!

Had I waited another minute the scraped areas would not have as much back fill (smooth edges).

Timing is everything. Scrape too soon, you'll get backfill. Scrape too late and it won't work at all.

Experiment!

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Mixed washes

Now you can be a bit more adventurous with your colors!
Prepare three colors on your palette. (or as many as you would like)
Mix some light blue, some mysterious light purple and a bit of happy light yellow.
Use three brushes!
Wet your paper thouroughly.

Quickly apply the colors with dabs on the wet paper and let gravity do its job. You can help gravity along by turning the paper to suit your purposes.

I used this method for one of my childrens books
Spotty

Graded Wash

Graded Wash

Draw or imagine another rectangle.
Imagine you are painting a landscape and this will be the sky. Remember that the intensity of the color of the sky will recede the further away you are.
At the top of your picture the sky will be darkest and where the sky meets the horizon it will be the lightest.

Mix a liberal amount of blue on your palette. Also mix a lighter shade of blue (just add water) to have it ready for you practice masterpiece.

Now start:
Fill your brush with your darker shade of blue.
Start on the upper left corner of your rectange, or upper right corner if you are left handed.
Gently paint your first line.

Dab your brush on a paper towel and refill your brush with the lighter mixture.
Start your second stroke overlapping the bottom of the previous stroke.
You will see that the top stroke has already blended with your second stroke!

Now rinse your brush and blot it on a towel, refill from the lighter mixture. Overlap!
This is your third line across.

Now rinse your brush again to further lighten the color, overlap your previous line and soon you will have a finished sky!

This takes practice! But don't give up!

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