Watercolor Grasses tip #3

Vary your techniques....misty suggestions of grasses with bold strokes of color (after painting is dry) and a smattering of salt or spritz with clear water will give you an interesting combination.

Painting Grasses #2 Tip in watercolor

On this example of grasses I used salt on damp watercolor. After painting in the areas with a mixture of indigo blue, hooker green and raw sienna I dropped a scattering of salt on the damp paper. It is important that you do not add salt when the paper is very wet or almost completely dry. The paper will have a sheen of dampness but not puddling. Use the salt sparingly. It does not take much to get this effect.

Painting Grasses in Watercolor Tip #1

This is an example of spritzing a damp watercolor with clean water to give the impression of a grassy area. I use a spray bottle set on a fine mist. Also you can see I have some backwash on the upper left side. This can give you some visual interest. The paper is 140# Arches cold pressed paper. The palette is lemon yellow, hooker green and burnt sienna.