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How do you paint realistically with watercolor? Most important tip!



Many people wonder how to achieve realism in watercolor painting.
How to make a painting pop off the page and look 3D.
In this article, I'll explain the one most important tip you want to have awareness around in order to paint more realistically. Make sure to watch the video as each point is shown with a watercolor forest painting.

1. How do you make a watercolor pop?

I think this is the first question to ask in order to understand where to improve and make progress.
Whether you paint with one or many different colors, for realism, it always comes down to having a wide range of values in your painting. 
This means you need light tones, mid tones and also dark tones in a watercolor painting. Having all of these will allow you to build up contrast, which will cause your subject to pop off the page.

Let's take red. This is an example of what values look like. 
There are three versions of it, a light tone, a mid tone and a dark tone.

2. How is value created in watercolor painting?

It's tempting to think we need many colors to get a wide range of values. But it's not the case.
You can create proper values and paint realistically with just two colors. Check out this lantern painting example, I just used blue and brown. Orange and white gouache were used as highlights Even without those highlights, the lantern pops off the page. This is a Skillshare class project you can find here.
The forest painting is different from the lantern. I used five colors and white gouache. The colors are yellow, orange, green, brown and black. 
With this many colors, this is how I pick to make sure values are on point and the end result looks realistic.
I tend to see most colors in a watercolor set as mid tones, except for very dark colors like black or very light ones like white, if you have it.
I think that for a great 3D effect, you need to do something more than just apply the colors in your set on paper and that's where beginners miss the mark.
By that I mean that you need to mix those colors to something else.

Lantern painting - 2 colors

Forest painting - 5 colors

3. How do you make light colors with watercolor?

To create a light value is pretty easy. Thin your chosen color with water and it will look a lot lighter than the original one in your set.
It's what I did when I started applying colors on my painting as shown in the video. Notice they appear very light.

4. How do you get dark tones in watercolor?

A mistake people make is to think you only need to add more paint, less water. It will help your chosen color to look more opaque, but it is not enough to build great contrast.
Instead, the color that you pick for shadows needs to be noticeably darker than what it looks like in your watercolor set.
This is why you will need to use color mixing. This is also important because remember that watercolors always dry lighter than they look like when they're wet. By adding another color to the mix, it becomes easier to create a really dark tone.
Avoid adding a lot of water to that mix, unless you start painting shadows early on.
In this forest painting, I added black to brown to make a much darker brown. That mix is thicker than before. Therefore, it shows a lot more on paper (more opaque) and it is also darker (thanks to black).

5. What is the best way to create darker tones in watercolor?

It depends on what the base color is, on your painting color scheme, on your taste.
What works for me (I use this method in my own paintings) is to add brown, or gray or black or blue to my chosen color in order to make it darker. These are not the only options. Look at what colors you use the most as green and purple, even red could work too. There is no fixed answer.
To decide: take your darkest mid tone, for me here, brown, and pick the color that you think makes the best shadow and will fit in your painting nicely.
When in doubt, swatch all colors you want to use in that painting, on a separate sheet of paper, and then, swatch the shadow color, mixed to different other colors. See which one looks best next to your color scheme.
Keep in mind you will get different results with each different mix and they might all be valid. This is a personal choice.
Now you have a nice range of values and that you know how to make colors lighter or darker, the next thing you want to do is to start applying them from light to dark. To do that, you need to work in layers.

6. How to use watercolor layers ?

Layers are helpful for two different things: Make fewer mistakes or correct mistakes more easily because layers help in working from light to dark. This is the common argument we hear a lot.
The second advantage with working in layers is you can easily assess what to do next and how much shadow to add, rather than painting in a rush.
Make sure and take a step back at each stage in the painting to decide what parts might need more shadow. 
See how I do this in this watercolor forest painting.

7. How to layer colors beautifully for maximum contrast?

Initial layer: The light tones, where you block in the main colors. Because we are working from light to dark, colors need to have been thinned with water first. No need to worry about shadows this early in a painting.
In the forest painting, I did start adding shadows as I wanted to set a moody atmosphere.
In a sunny landscape for example, I would not worry dark tones at this point.
Start with creamy mixes of paint (neither watery not thick). This ensures that colors flow easily on my initial layer and that they look light since they have a lot of water in them, and it's also great to make sure they stay vibrant enough that we don't need to add many layers on top.

Second layer: The mid tones, where you start building contrast. Start working with the same mixes but add more pigment to make them a bit thicker. You can also start leveraging color mixing to mix darker versions of some of your colors and start placing shadows on the painting.
See how I did that in the forest painting, by adding dark tones all around and adding dark trees in the background.
Be careful not to cover up all of the first layer so light tones still show through in places.
The light tones stay most visible in the center in my painting, for example. You decide.
I wanted to create a certain mood in my painting so I tweaked my reference photo by adding more darks and increasing the overall contrast.

Third layer: Details and dark shadows, highlights. Working on specific areas.
In this painting's third layer, I added dark branches. I also started adding foliage to add a bit of color and brighten up the piece.

8. How do you add white highlights to watercolor?

Adding white highlights will make your watercolors look more realistic and pop off the page even better. I do it with white gouache. It's something I love to do. In realistic watercolor, unlike loose painting, we can do it very easily, whenever we like, without any rush. 
White gouache is my favorite way to add highlights. You can either add water to make it look lighter. You can use it pure or almost pure, for maximum highlights to pop even more. This technique helps us in creating even more values in a painting.

9. How do you get the realism to look even better ?

If you think your watercolor painting needs more work, add some detail, or even a fourth layer.
I needed more branches as highlights and more darks all around, so this is what I did in this forest painting.
Pro tip: Mix some white gouache to any watercolor paint to have it pop even more. This is what I did for the foliage.
Realistic watercolors are awesome as you can do anything you like, at any given time, provided you know the framework for building great contrast while working in layers.
Keep in mind that although realistic watercolor seems intimidating at first, it is a process that you will keep repeating until you know exactly what works for you and what order to paint each element in to get to your desired result. Unlike loose watercolors, there is no need to rush, get it right from the get-go or preserve highlights ahead of time. All of them can be added later on, and the same goes for shadows.
Until next time, happy painting!