How to Avoid Muddy Watercolours

How to Keep Your Watercolours Clean and Fresh: The Key to Avoiding Muddy Results

Struggling with muddy watercolours? The secret to brighter, cleaner paintings lies in using fewer colours and letting the watercolours work their magic. Overworking your painting or using too many colours can lead to dull, lifeless results.

I’ve used a simple tulip as a demonstration to show how a few small changes can keep your watercolours clean and vibrant.

The Mistake: Over-Mixing and Overworking

When you mix too many colours or keep brushing after applying them, you risk muddying your colours. For example, adding purple to your tulip petals while they’re still wet, switching colours without rinsing your brush, or dropping random hues can all lead to a dull, lifeless painting.

The Fix: Keep It Simple

By using just one colour for your tulip petals and avoiding unnecessary mixing, you can maintain clean, vibrant results. Clean your brush before switching colours, and apply the paint in controlled strokes to keep things fresh.

Key Tip: Fewer colours equals cleaner, more vibrant watercolours.

Want to see this technique in action? Watch the full video class here where I walk you through the entire process for cleaner, brighter watercolours.

If you have a go at trying this for yourself, I’d love to hear how it goes and what you find with the clean vs. muddy tulip technique.

With love,

Jennifer Rose xx

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