Tag Archives: Watercolor glazing

Mystery Technique

Mystery Technique #164

July 20, 2026 – 7:03 pm

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ANSWER TO MYSTERY TECHNIQUE #163:

Peaches are my favorite summertime fruit, especially South Carolina ones! I used Daniel Smith watercolors for this demo and started with Hansa Yellow Medium.

After that layer dried, I painted the stem area with a very thin glaze of Rose of Ultramarine and Quinacridone Rose. Next I wet the rest of the peach and added more Quinacridone Rose, being careful to let the yellow underpainting show in a few spots.

I waited for this layer to dry and then rewet the area to add a hint of shadow and texture with a little more Rose of Ultramarine on a damp piece of sea sponge. Next I painted the leaf with Sap Green and scratched in the veins with the end of a metal paint tube. I used a mixture of Bloodstone Genuine and French Ultramarine with a hint of Quinacridone Rose for the cast shadow. The final step was to add the stem and a few darker touches with watercolor pencils.

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Mystery Technique

Mystery Technique #158

January 20, 2026 – 8:30 pm

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ANSWER TO MYSTERY TECHNIQUE #157:

You can create luminous colors with glazing! I started with a wet-in-wet mixture of Hansa Yellow Medium and Permanent Rose. After this layer dried, I added a little Cobalt Teal Blue and French Ultramarine.

I finished the sky by adding another layer of French Ultramarine. This had to dry completely before I started the mountains, painting each one in a separate layer.

To create a sense of atmospheric perspective, I let the distant mountains fade into the sky and used darker values and more texture in the closer mountains.

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Mystery Technique

Mystery Technique #146

January 20, 2025 – 7:39 pm

Curious about the techniques used here? You can learn more next month if you’ve signed up for email updates! 

ANSWER TO MYSTERY TECHNIQUE #145:

First I loaded one brush with French Ultramarine and another with Cerulean Blue, then wet the paper and quickly mixed the 2 blues wet-in-wet while carefully leaving white paper for the cloud shapes. Before the paint dried, I lifted out some wispy edges with a damp sponge. After this layer was completely dry, I gently rewet the paper and added a delicate wash of Permanent Rose to the cloud and the top of the sky, using a damp sponge to soften edges, make transitions and remove excess paint.

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