Tuesday's Tips and Techniques for Watercolor Painting

Sepia Tone Watercolor

The color sepia is perfect for doing a monotone painting. The pigment in sepia has the ability to span a wide range in value from very dark to very light. A wide value range is important when using only one color of paint to create a painting. Sepia is an opaque watercolor paint.

It gives a painting an old fashioned feel. Reminds me of sepia tone photos. Did you know the old sepia tone photos used the ink from a cuttlefish?

Tuesday's Tips and Techniques for Watercolor Painting

The Monotone Challenge

Last week, I suggested testing out three color combinations from your palette. This week I am going to limit the color choice down to one color.

Beautiful paintings can be created with one color of watercolor paint. The key is to choose a color that will go dark, very dark and has a wide value range. Test your colors to see how dark they will go, less water more paint will help the paint go dark. Add more and more water, a little at a time to create a value scale. To lighten up the color, just keep adding more water.

For this little painting I used Maimeri Blu Payne's Grey. Payne's Grey is an excellent choice for this project. Payne's Grey is also one of those color that will vary from brand to brand. Maimeri's Payne's Grey is more on the blue side, while Winsor Newton's Payne's Grey is a touch more to the grey side.

Other colors from my Maimeri Blu palette that will work well are Sepia, Permanent Blue Violet, Burnt Umber.

What colors do you like to use to create a monotone painting?