Here is a very interesting Watercolor Painting Technique video by artist Elizabeth Fluehr. This is a technique that you don’t see often and a somewhat unconventional usage of the Watercolor painting medium. Most of the water that she uses with this technique is for the purpose of wetting the paper and not added to the paint itself. She only uses a small amount of water to lightly dampen her brush.
The name of this technique is called the “Soft Focus” technique and you will understand why it was given this name after watching the video.
Elizabeth begins by saturating a piece of 140lb Arches Watercolor Paper with water. The paper is then allowed to sit for some time until it loses its shiny appearance.
She uses freshly squeezed paint that has not been diluted with water and a flat brush that has a lot of spring to it, to apply the paint.
Watch her demonstrate her technique by watching the video demonstration below… I hope you enjoy.
Soft Focus Watercolor Technique
A big thanks to Elizabeth Fluehr for sharing this video lesson. You can learn more about her and watch some more of her videos by visiting her YouTube page here.
Thank you Elizabeth for sharing this instructive video , I enjoyed it so much and learnt a lot from it, I will be giving it a try very soon. The way you explain absolutely everything is great, so many other tutorials miss out on explaining how & why they are doing something. I see you have many more on youtube as well. You have made me very happy this evening, I have been struggling with which way to go with my water colour but I am so keen to try this. Thanks again.
Superb explanation. Would love to learn from you