One of the biggest things I hear people new to watercolour struggle with is knowing how much water to use when they paint. It’s very easy to accidently go from too dry to a giant puddle! Watercolour isn’t a paint medium where you use it straight from the tube. It is water activated and only occasionally do watercolour artists use thick paint from the tube in their work. So this concept of water control is a key aspect of learning to paint with watercolour.
Many artists, including myself, went through a lot of trial error with this. Experimenting and practicing until I finally got a feel for the paint and water and how it would behave on the paper. But the good news is, there are also some easy tricks to get your head around the different water to pigment ratios, and the effect this has on your artwork. And that’s what I’m sharing with you today!
Tea, Coffee, Milk, Cream, Butter
My understanding is these terms were introduced by well-known watercolour artist Joseph Zbukvic, and they are what I have also adopted to help explain water to pigment ratios to students. It’s instantly something we can all picture and have a feel for in our minds, the watery consistency of a lightly steeped black tea, the darker and slightly thicker consistency of black coffee, the thicker more opaque consistency of milk, the thicker more solid feel of cream, right up to the buttery spread. This analogy makes the somewhat overwhelming part of mixing paint into water much easier to understand and approach.
So let’s start with tea.
When mixing tea on your palette you want to first start with a little puddle of water in an open part of your palette. Then with your brush pick up a little drop of paint and add it to your water. The result you want is very thin and watery. You will notice how the colour is lighter as well. This is a key point to be aware of, because in traditional watercolour painting we don’t use white to lighten our colours, we simply rely on the water. This tea consistency is often used as a first wash, where a watercolour artist will lay down large swishes of colour on the page to dampen the paper and introduce some broad coloured areas. It can also be used as a first layer on a more detailed painting, where we want to start with our lightest values.
Coffee please!
☕️ I’m actually on my second coffee this morning! Beautiful coffee is our next mix, and it involves now adding some more paint to your watery mix. For those with a more scientific mind this mix is about 70% water to 30% paint. You will notice your mix starts to darken, but we still want it very watery and still translucent. We’ve now created a mix that is darker in value.
Do you take milk?
This mix now is where we start to see the paint go from translucent washes to a more opaque mix. It’s about 50% water to 50% paint. On your palette you will notice the mix isn’t as ‘flowing’. The paint is now holding it’s place a bit more on the palette as it starts to thicken up, however if you run your brush through the middle of the puddle, the paint will still flow back into the centre. It’s also darker again in value.
I’ll take cream
Now we are moving into a much thicker consistency. This mix is opaque, doesn’t flow on your palette, and when you run your brush through the middle of it, the centre won’t fill in. In watercolour painting this mix is usually used more towards the end of a painting when we might be adding some more solid details or texture to the work.
Yummy butter
And this is the final consistency we work with in watercolour. This butter mix is pretty much the watercolour paint straight from the tube, or if you have a pan, it’s the slightest bit of water (say 10%) with the paint. It’s thick, opaque and doesn’t flow at all. Often watercolour artists will use this consistency to do ‘dry brush’ technique, where we have this thick pigment on our dry brush, and run it across the watercolour paper, leaving scratchy, broken marks across the page. It is a really effective way of adding interest and implying detail.
Now it's time for you to have a play and mix these consistencies up on your own palette. If you have any questions drop them in the comments - I'd love to help!
Want To Learn Watercolour?
I'm creating something just for you!
There is so much noise online. Conflicting resources, endless tunnels to go down and no matter how many free resources or hours of content you consume, you might still feel lost and stuck at the starting line.
I'm building a Beginner Watercolour Course that is designed to very intentionally cut through the noise and offer a clear path to becoming a watercolour artist. I see it as my job to hold up the lantern and say 'this way!' - so you can get from where you are now to where you want to be, quickly, efficiently and most importantly enjoyably!
Launching February 2027. AND by simply having your name on this waitlist you will receive bonus lessons and a jaw dropping discount that will only be available to my waitlist buddies.
Sign Up To The Watercolour Course Waitlist