Unleash Your Creativity with These 5 Types of Watercolor Paints

When it comes to watercolor painting, the type of paint you use can greatly affect the outcome of your artwork. There are various types of watercolor paints available in the market, each with its unique characteristics and properties.

Let’s talk about it!

Understanding Watercolor Paint Components

Before we discuss the types of paint, I want you to understand the components of them. Watercolor paints are made up of two main components – pigments and binders.

Pigments and Binders

Pigments are the colored powders that give paint its color. They can include minerals, synthetic compounds, and even organic materials. The quality of the pigment used in the paint can affect your overall quality. Think Crayola watercolors. They are great for kids to practice and paint with, but you wouldn’t want to use them for your masterpiece.

Binders are the substances that hold the pigment together and help to adhere to your watercolor paper. Gum arabic is the most commonly used binder in watercolor paints. This is a natural gum made from the sap of the acacia tree and is known for its ability to dissolve easily in water.

Quality and Lightfastness

When shopping for your watercolor paints, understand that the quality can vary depending on the pigments and binders they use. A higher quality will have more pigment, which results in a more vibrant color and also better coverage.

Now let’s talk lightfastness. This means the paint’s ability to resist fading when exposed to light. A higher quality watercolor paint will typically be more lightfast which means the colors will remain true over time.

Check the label for information on the pigment and binders as well as the lightfastness rating. The American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) uses a scale of I to V to indicate the lightfastness of watercolor paints with I being the best and V the worst.

Of course, the best will be more costly, so you may want to look for the middle-of-the-road rating so to speak as a beginner. You will still achieve results that you can be proud of.

Types of Watercolor Paints

When it comes to your watercolor paints, there are several types for you to choose from. Each one has its unique qualities and characteristics that make it suitable for different painting techniques and styles.

Here are the five most common types of watercolor paints:

1. Tubes

If you want a more intense color, you will want to choose tube paints. The paint is highly pigmented and can be easily diluted with water to create a range of shades. Tubes are convenient for you the artist who needs to mix a large amount of paint or if you prefer to work with a wet palette.

Tube paints are also good because when they dry on the palette, you can refresh them with water. So there is minimal waste.

I have used tube paints and have quite a few, but since I like to just grab my paints and go, I prefer pans. With that said, I am known to go back and forth between the two and may have used both in my paintings.

I prefer Windsor & Newton paints overall. They are a bit pricey but have beautiful colors and tones.

2. Pans

Pans are compact, dry cakes of watercolor paint that you activate with water. They are perfect for you if you like to work remotely and they also are a more controlled application of paint. Pans are easy to store and transport, making them a popular choice for plein air painters.

Plein air painting is so much fun, and I encourage you to try it! There is nothing like sitting outdoors with just your paints and your paper, painting the natural elements that surround you.

This is why they are my watercolor paint of choice and what we will use during tutorials.

You can purchase different color themes of pan paints which I also like. I do have one large pan-paint set with over 40 paint colors that my son gave to me as a Christmas gift last year. It is my favorite because it has ultramarine blue in it and I love that for creating shadows.

I like the ease of use and the fact that I feel these paints layer nicely and don’t go on too thick or rich. I can build my layers for a better painting experience in my opinion.

For Pan Paints, I choose between Windsor & Newton and Koi

For more reading on Pan vs Tube Watercolor paints, learn the pros and cons of each in more depth.

An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way.

Charles Bukowski

3. Liquid Watercolors

Liquid watercolors are highly concentrated and can be used straight from the bottle or diluted with water. I started my watercolor journey with liquid watercolors and found them a bit too rich for my taste. It was a bit difficult for me to get the diluting with water correctly which resulted in what looked like overworked watercolor pictures.

This was a personal problem for me and your results may be different. I just felt I didn’t have enough control.

Many artists love liquid watercolors because of their vibrancy, and I say more power to them. With that said, you may love liquid watercolors more than pan and that’s ok!

With anything it’s great to have choices, I say.

I recommend Dr. Ph. Martins liquid watercolors

4. Gouache

Gouache is a type of watercolor paint that has a more opaque finish than traditional watercolors.

It is perfect if you need to create bold, flat areas of color or want to add highlights to your paintings. Gouache can be mixed with water to create a range of shades and can also be used on dark paper.

I use white gouache a lot for my beachy scenes as I create my waves and splashes with it. I don’t even mix it with water and just paint it right on once my pan paints are dry on my piece. The white is also great for snow scenes as well. You can use it to blot the snow on the tree branches for a more realistic look.

For further reading, check out my post on watercolor supplies.

Gouache should eventually be a part of your watercolor supplies.

5. Watercolor Pencils

Watercolor pencils are a versatile tool that can be used for both drawing and painting. They are perfect if you want to add detail and texture to your paintings or need to work in small areas.

Watercolor pencils are a mixed medium that can be used dry or wet and can be easily blended with water to create a range of effects.

I have often used watercolor pencils and water brushes (brushes that have a tube inside that you fill with water and squeeze out the right amount of water to blend). I like them for when I travel and cannot carry a water container, but can pre-fill my water brushes so I am ready to paint. I also use them with my pan paints as well.

Each type of watercolor paint has its unique benefits and you can use it to achieve different effects in your paintings. It’s important to experiment with different types and find the ones that work best for your style and technique.

If you are shopping around for watercolor paints and watercolor pencils, I recommend heading over to Arteza (As an Arteza affiliate I earn from qualifying purchases.) and see what they have to offer!

Watercolor Paint Application Techniques

Since we are on the subject of watercolor paints, let’s talk about some basic techniques.

Mixing and Blending

Mixing and blending are techniques you will use a lot in watercolor painting. You can mix different colors to create new shades and blend colors to create a smooth transition between them.

To mix colors, you can use your palette. You can also blend colors on the paper itself by layering wet paint on top of wet paint. It depends on your process and what you are painting.

This is what I love about watercolors is the fact that I can take my primary colors only and make a myriad of color combinations. Red, yellow, and blue are your primary colors.

A color wheel is handy to have so you can see how colors mix and blend to create new colors. My favorite is to mix them all and make black as I find that black made from a combo of colors that you were already using vs using ready-made black is more vibrant as well and uses the colors you painted with to bring out those other colors themselves.

Canva has a great tutorial on color theory and color wheels.

Layering and Washes

Layering and washes are techniques that involve building up layers of paint to create depth and dimension in your painting.

You can layer different colors on top of each other to create interesting effects or use washes to create a smooth, even layer of color across your paper.

To create a wash, you first wet the paper with clean water and then apply a thin layer of paint over the wet area. This is great for creating skies and landscapes.

The more thin layers you use, the more dimensional your piece becomes. In some parts, you will leave light and not do a washover to create shadow and a more realistic painting. You want your images to stand out and not look one-dimensional. Applying layers helps with this.

Detailing and Texturing

Detailing and texturing are techniques that involve adding fine details and texture to your painting.

You can use a variety of watercolor brushes to create different types of marks and textures, such as dry brush or wet-on-wet. You can also use techniques like splattering or salt sprinkling to create interesting textures and patterns in your painting.

Salt sprinkling is so fun to do as it makes a snowy scene even snowier or a night sky have the look of stars sprinkled in. I have used table salt as well as a salt grinder for a little chunkier sky. Splattering paint is messy but fun! You just tap another paintbrush handle on the one that is holding a belly full of paint and just tap over the picture. You can lay paper towels or cloths over areas you don’t want to be splattered.

You can also use a white wax crayon as the watercolor paint will not adhere to it.

A dry brush, which is your paint on a dry brush or a slightly damp brush, is great for making hairs or even trees with wispy branches.

I love the wet-on-wet technique to make a tree line in the background of a painting. The trees form themselves as the color bleeds out in just the right way. (see above image )

Another texture I love to create is with a credit card or plastic card. You can make bare branches stand out by layering paint and sliding the edge of the plastic credit card over the paint to create a tree in the woods. You need a few wet layers to achieve this effect. (see above image )

Experiment with different techniques and find what works best for you. Whether you’re mixing and blending colors, layering and creating washes, or detailing and texturing your painting, there are endless possibilities for creating beautiful watercolor artwork.

Now that you know about different types of watercolor paints and even more about different techniques, what are you going to look for and try? If you are going to follow along with me, I use pan paints and I think they are wonderful!

Stay Colorful, Stay Creative, and HAVE FUN!

~Laurie

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