How to stop paints muddying

Living close to the South Downs has beautiful scenic benefits, however, the mud is less desirable, and this is also the same when it comes to painting wet-in-wet techniques. Painting loose water colour is a beautiful way to bring your painting to life, but muddy hues aren’t pleasant and can really dull your painting.

What do I mean by Muddy Colours?

Non-pure hues can lead to muddying your colours because too many pigments are struggling against one another in a mixture.

I always find that if I mix my paints on a scrap piece of paper (this is something I always advise in my step by step guides) helps keep my hues vibrant, and pure.

Keeping your colours to a minimum will avoid muddying your colour. Adding too many colours can get muddy, dull, and heavy. It’s disappointing, and it’s especially easy to do when you’re working in a loose style.

When I’m working in an impressionistic style, my loose watercolour method keeps me from muddying my hues.

If you feel your paintings are lacking vibrancy, hopefully my tips in this video at Nature studio can give you the answer to why that’s happening.

Let me know how you get on!