Basic Watercolor
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Color Theory and Terms used for Watercolor Painting
1. TRANSPARENT – means that you are able to see through it; watercolor paint is mixed with water
and, when painted, is transparent showing the color of the paper or another color that it is painted on
top of.
2. WATERCOLORS – is a water-based painting medium where the colors are painted wet and
generally appear transparent
3. COLOR WHEEL – is a wheel made up of 12 colors placed in each hour position in the following
sequence, red, ro, orange, yo, yellow, yg, green, bg, blue, bp, purple or violet, and rp
4. PRIMARY COLORS - are the three paint colors that, when mixed, can create all other paint colors;
they are red, yellow, and blue;
5. SECONDARY COLORS – are the three paint colors made by mixing two primary colors; they are
orange, green, and purple or violet;
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6. INTERMEDIATE or TERTIARY COLORS – are the six colors that are made by mixing a primary
and secondary color that are adjacent on the color wheel; abbreviated red-orange is RO, yelloworange is YO, and so on, YG, BG, BV, RV
7. COLOR - one of the six basic elements of art; color has three characteristics, hue, intensity and value
- HUE – is the color name or position on the spectrum; as named on the color wheel; e.g. Red,
Yellow, etc.
- INTENSITY – is the purity, density, or strength of a color; in paint it refers to the concentration of
the pigment; refers to the brightness or dullness of a color
- VALUE – is the lightness or darkness of a color; e.g. yellow generally has a lighter value than
purple, which generally has a darker value; a TINT is a light version of a color like light-blue and is
made by adding water or white to blue; a SHADE is a dark version of a color like dark blue and is
made by adding black to blue
8. COMPLEMENTARY COLORS – are any pair of colors that are located opposite each other on the
color wheel; for instance, red is complementary to green, blue to orange, etc. Complementary colors,
when painted next to each other, are vibrant and create a strong visual color contrast
9. ANALAGOUS COLORS – are a group of three or four colors that are next to each other on the color
wheel; analogous colors have minimal color contrast and appear harmoniously together
10. COOL COLORS – are colors that invoke a feeling of a cold temperature; such colors include bluegreen, blue, and violet or purple
11. WARM COLORS – are colors that invoke a feeling of a warm temperature; such colors include red,
orange, yellow-green, and yellow
12. STRAIGHT or FLAT WASH – one color and value painted in an even, smooth manner over a large
area without variegations
13. GRADED WASH – one color which gradually transitions from the pure color to a lighter value and
ultimately to white; created by the careful and gradual addition of water to lighten the watercolor
without any variegations.
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14. COLOR VALUE SCALE – multiple values of one color ranging from a tint to a shade of the same
color; with one part of the scale showing a pure version of the color
15. DRYBRUSH – a watercolor painting technique where paint is dragged across dry paper with a semidry brush so that the separate bristles of the brush leave a rough, streaked, textured, and irregular
pattern of thin lines or dots; increases the effect when the paper is rough.
16. STIPPLING – a watercolor painting technique where the bristles of a brush are spread apart and paint
is held only by the tips of the bristles and the brush is lightly applied to the paper creating a pattern of
many small dots.
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17. BLENDED COMPLEMENTARY COLOR SCALE – a painted scale that has a range of one pure
color blended and changing to its complementary (opposite on color wheel) color at the other end of
the scale; mixing complementary colors is a way to dull a color or to mix a customized color brown
18. VARIEGATED WASH – an uneven and usually accidental and uncontrolled creation of shapes on
paper created by the action of water added to paint, paint added to water, or paint added to paint.
19. MASKING – a watercolor painting technique where Frisket is applied to dry painted or unpainted
paper to protect an area of the paper from a subsequent application of watercolor paint; thereafter the
Frisket can be rubbed off to reveal the protected area; a form of resist that can be removed.
20. LIFTING – a watercolor painting technique where wet paint is lifted from an area by pressing into it
any dry absorbent material (e.g. paper towel); generally a lighter shape is created in the paint formed
by the wrinkles and shape of the material that is used.
21. CONTROLLED SPRAY or SPATTER – a watercolor painting technique where paint is applied as
a spray (using a spray bottle or bending and flicking the bristles of a stiff-bristle brush/toothbrush)
making a pattern of paint dots on the paper; spray is generally an even pattern of dots, while a spatter
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shows a direction in the dot pattern.
22. CONTROLLED RUN – a watercolor painting technique where a bead of paint is directed to flow
across the paper by tilting the paper or blowing on it.
23. RESIST – a watercolor painting technique where wet paint is applied to any water resistant material,
like crayon, so that the watercolor paint beads up on the crayon and the color of the crayon shows
through; can also use latex paint, or wax.
24. GLAZE – a new color created when a transparent paint color is painted over another color making a
combination of the two overlapping colors (e.g. transparent yellow painted over red will make an
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orange glaze); Plaid is a pattern is created by making horizontal and vertical stripes of transparent
color so that, where they overlap, a glaze of the combined colors of the two stripes is created.
25. PRINTED PATTERN – a watercolor painting technique where an object is used to pickup and then
apply paint to paper, creating a pattern of the repeated shapes made by the object.
26. MIXED-MEDIA – the use of more than one medium in a work of art; for example, the use of
watercolor and oil-pastel in the same painting; or collage, paint, and markers combined; like we did
with the Picasso portrait.
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