Why Learn the Terms
Watercolor tutorials and product labels use specific words for how paint, water and paper behave. Knowing them makes instructions easier to follow. This glossary is grouped by topic so you can find terms quickly. For the practical side, see our beginner basics guide.
Core Technique Terms
- Wet-on-wet: Applying wet paint to damp paper. Colors spread and edges soften.
- Wet-on-dry: Applying wet paint to dry paper. Edges stay sharper and more controlled.
- Glazing: Laying a thin, transparent layer of color over a dry layer to shift or deepen the color.
- Lifting: Removing paint, usually by blotting with a tissue or a damp brush, to lighten an area or create highlights. How well paint lifts depends on the pigment and paper.
- Dry brush: Dragging a brush with little water across dry paper so paint catches only on the texture, leaving broken marks. See dry brush painting techniques.
- Charging-in: Adding more color or water into a wash that is still wet so it blends in on its own.
- Blotting: Pressing a tissue or paper towel on wet paint to lighten it.
- Masking: Covering areas with masking fluid or tape to keep them paint-free.
Wash Terms
- Wash: A thin layer of diluted paint spread over an area.
- Flat wash: An even layer of color with no obvious change in tone.
- Graded wash: A wash that moves from darker to lighter, usually by adding water as you go.
- Variegated wash: A wash that blends two or more colors.
- Bead: The small pool of paint that gathers along the lower edge of a wash on a tilted surface. Painters often pick up this bead to keep a wash smooth.
Paint Properties
- Pigment: The coloring material in paint.
- Transparent and opaque: Transparent colors let the paper show through; opaque colors cover what is under them. Many paints are somewhere in between. See transparent vs opaque watercolor.
- Staining: Pigments that sink into the paper and are difficult to lift.
- Granulation: A speckled look created when some pigments settle into the texture of the paper.
- Tube vs. pan: Tube paint is a soft paste; pan paint is a dried block that is wetted with a brush.
- Convenience color: A color sold ready-mixed rather than as a single pigment.
Paper Terms
- Cold-press: Paper with a slightly textured surface.
- Hot-press: Paper with a smoother surface.
- Rough: Paper with a strong texture.
- Weight: How heavy the paper is, often given in lb or gsm. Heavier paper usually warps less.
- Cotton paper: Paper made from cotton fibers, usually more absorbent and durable than wood-pulp paper.
- Deckle edge: The soft, feathered edge on some handmade or mold-made sheets.
- Archival: Materials intended to resist yellowing and deterioration over time.
- Stretching: Wetting and securing the paper to a board so it dries flat. See how to prepare and stretch watercolor paper.
Color and Value Terms
- Hue: The basic color, such as red or blue.
- Value: How light or dark a color is. See value in watercolor painting.
- Color temperature: Whether a color feels warm (toward red and yellow) or cool (toward blue).
- Color harmony: Colors that look pleasing together.
- Primary colors: Colors from which other colors are mixed; the exact primaries depend on the palette used.
- Color wheel: A circle showing how colors relate to one another. See color theory for watercolor.
- Composition: How shapes, colors and values are arranged on the page. See composition in watercolor painting.
Effects and Problems
- Bloom (or cauliflower): A feathery shape that forms when water or wetter paint flows back into a drying wash. Some painters use it deliberately; others see it as a flaw.
- Backrun: Another name often used for the same kind of effect.
- Muddy color: Dull, grayish color, often from overmixing or painting over damp layers.
- Buckling: The warping of paper under water.
Words to Describe a Watercolor Painting
If you are asked to describe a watercolor, these words are commonly useful: transparent, luminous, delicate, fluid, soft-edged, crisp, layered, loose, expressive, translucent, granular, and atmospheric. Describing the effect, the colors and the mood is usually more helpful than naming technique alone.
Putting the Terms to Use
The quickest way to remember these words is to try them. Our first painting tutorial uses several of them in context, and the tricks and tips article shows what a few of them can do in practice.