How to Get Value Range in Your Watercolors with Ron Stocke

Watercolor is a great medium for layering. But Ep.78 Ron Stocke says you need to get strategic in HOW you layer.

Stocke divides his painting process up into primarily 3-4 washes. Each wash requires the artist to adjust how much pigment he’s placing in his mixtures.

To understand what he’s doing and why, it’s important to understand that watercolor is a medium that is tied to water.

You change the value of a single pigment by using more water (to lighten) or using less water (to darken.)

For example, squeeze out some pigment from a watercolor tube. That straight-from-the-tube pigment is the darkest and thickest that pigment will be on its own.

Now as you add water, you will both lighten and thin down that pigment.

By adding (or not adding) water, you as the artist can manipulate the value and the thickness of your paint.

This water to pigment is a ratio that’s incredibly important.

Stocke uses this to his advantage by changing this pigment to water ratio for each wash.

His first wash will be his lightest, which means he uses a lot of water and very little pigment.

His second wash is darker, which means he adds pigment and uses less water. This mixture will be thicker than the first but still not super thick.

His third wash is even darker, so he uses less water and more pigment.

For his darkest darks, he may have almost no water in his wash. This way he can get the darkest color possible for that pigment.

Put it to Practice:

You can absolutely darken a shape by adding layers of thinned, watered down washes. But if you find that you’re having trouble getting darks in your watercolors, it may be because you’re not using enough pigment in your washes.

One thing to check is the thickness (known as the viscosity) of your washes. Those first washes can have the consistency of tea but later, darker washes should actually *feel* thicker. And if they don’t, you may have found your issue.

Two ways to fix it:

First, just try adding more pigment to your mixture.

If you can’t seem to get enough pigment to thicken your mixture, make sure your pigments haven’t gone too dry. It may be time to lay out fresh paints or buy new watercolor pans.