Watercolor Night Painting - Tips on painting nocturnes

Most people say night scenes are hard to achieve in watercolor. Or watercolor is not a good medium to paint a night scene. And I would agree. But it’s not impossible once you are aware of the important elements of a night scene. And today, I want to share those with you. Because watercolor is transparent in nature. We typically can’t paint light on top of the dark. So unlike oil, acrylic, or even digital painting. We can’t tone the surface to a dark value and add light on top. We need to paint the color of the light first, then paint the dark in. It’s a bit unnatural because most of the lights in a night scene are artificial lights that we switched on. So painting light feels more natural rather than paint the dark around it. While painting a night scene in watercolor feels a bit awkward, it can be done, and it can look pretty good if it works out. Here are the 3 things you want to know when painting a night scene.

1. Prepare lots of mixtures - Because the majority of the painting will be of dark value. And watercolor is transparent in its nature. You will need a lot more mixture to get good consistent coverage of dark value. It’s not that you can’t mix new mixtures on the fly, but you are running into the risk of the inconsistent mixture and getting dirty washes. That muddy color or cauliflower edges we don’t like to see in our painting? Yes, this is going to be twice as bad. Because if a thick wash is dry, and you try to go over it with a wet brush, the pigments are going to melt and muddy up the previous wash. So make sure you got a lot of dark mixtures ready. Squeeze out fresh new paint if you need to.

2. Push the warm and cool more - Most of the light colors at night are warm. Even if the light appears to be white, It usually looks better when it’s warmer. On the other hand, it’s better to make the dark environment cooler. This will just bring out the energy and the contrast between light and dark. This is mostly done in the first wash. I share the process in the video above.

3. Pick a simple subject and simplify it more - If you pick a scenery with many different complex light sources. You are going to have an uphill battle. Because you are going to worry too much about preserving different lights. While you can use stuff like masking fluid or use gouache to add some small lights back. Too many light sources can also be distracting. You usually want a bright major light source with some good objects getting lit by that. So just because you find a beautiful night scenery photo, doesn’t mean it’s suitable for painting.

Be sure to check out this week’s video, where I shared some more in-depth demos. Painting a night scene with watercolor is definitely not easy. Although it can be done, some people just might not like it. So if this is not your cup of tea, don’t force yourself to do it. But it’s always nice to try something new.

Make wet on wet watercolor easier - using a spray bottle

The beauty of watercolor lies in wet on to wet. But in order to achieve wet on wet, the paper needs to be moist. And if you are like me, you probably feel frustrated sometimes because your wash dries too soon. So what do we do? Today I want to talk about a very useful tool - the spray bottle.

Let’s face it, watercolor is not easy. Especially when you want to connect big shapes while changing colors and add some wet on wet effects. I shared a video about wet on wet before. One of the tips I shared is to pre-mix your colors. I still stand by that tip, however, there are times I ran out of the mixture. So I have to mix colors on the fly, think about what shape to paint, while the wash is drying. Not only are you racing against the drying time, but you are also constantly making decisions in your painting. That’s very stressful. However, there is one tool that can keep your painting moist. So you can enjoy the wet on the wet process a bit longer. And that’s a spray bottle.

I know this doesn’t seem that magical. But I find myself using it more and more now because it allows me to have more time to do wet on wet so that I can get more nice clean soft shapes without rushing the process. Now, even though this is a simple tool, there are a few tips on using the spray bottles I want to share with you.

1. Do it gently - Don’t just point at the painting up close and spray. If you do that you are going to put out too much water in a small area, and that can ruin your wash. Instead, you want to gently float that mist over your painting. It’s more about adding moisture and humidity to your painting than making your painting wet. What I do is I usually keep at least 10 inches away from the painting, and point the spray a bit to the side. And as I spray I move the spray bottle across the painting. This will create a mist across the painting evenly. And I usually do this 2 to 3 times to make sure there is enough moisture. 

2. Spray as you paint - Spray doesn’t work if the wash dries past a certain point. So don’t spray too late. I usually start adding some mist after 5 minutes or so. And spray again after another 4 minutes or so. I can’t tell you exactly what time you should spray because this can be affected by the paint and paper you use, the temperature, and the weather you are in. But after some practice and experience, you will develop a mental alarm to remind you to give a bit of spray when you are painting.

3. Use what you already have - I recently got a new spray bottle. This bottle used to be a hand sanitizer, it produces a very fine mist that’s perfect for painting. So I rinse the bottle after we used up the sanitizer, and now I also use this as my spray bottle. You might already have a spray bottle you can use. Some people use makeup spray. As long as it produces a fine mist, not huge water droplets, you are good to go.

 While using a spray bottle is not a new trick, it does make my painting experience easier. So if you have been struggling with drying time and find yourself frustrated because you don’t have enough time to do wet on wet. Give it a try.