Watercolor for Beginners: Wet on Dry

Wet on Dry: Precision and Control

While wet-on-wet gives you flow, wet-on-dry gives you control.

The Wet-on-Dry technique involves applying wet paint to completely dry paper, creating clean, defined edges and allowing for precise detail work.

How to Master Wet-on-Dry

• Ensure your paper is completely dry (patience is key!)
• Load your brush with the desired paint consistency
• Apply confident, deliberate strokes
• Each stroke will maintain its exact shape and edge

Building Paintings Layer by Layer

This technique is your foundation for building paintings layer by layer. Many successful watercolor paintings combine both wet-on-wet and wet-on-dry techniques, using wet-on-wet for atmospheric effects and wet-on-dry for structure and details.

The beauty of wet-on-dry lies in its predictability ~ you know precisely where your paint will go and how it will behave, making it perfect for architectural elements, detailed foliage, and final touches that bring your painting to life.

Perfect Applications

Wet-on-dry is perfect for: Realistic painting, architecture, botanical art, precise shapes, lettering, and adding final details to your paintings that need crisp, clean edges.

Mastering both wet-on-wet and wet-on-dry techniques gives you the full range of watercolor's expressive possibilities.