Diagnose / Watercolour

Watercolour mistakes

Water-based and transparent; paint dries lighter; wet state controls edges. Light to dark; wait for each wash to dry before glazing.

Diagnose by symptom

33 faults, most common first

Cauliflower blooms and backrunsPale spots with hard, dark, fringed outer contours form inside an existing wash. Rescue
Copying every detail of a reference without simplifyingThe drawing is filled with high-contrast, tiny marks spread uniformly across every square centimetre. Rescue
Greens that look the same: one tube green for all foliageFoliage throughout the entire picture has an identical, artificial tone, resembling plastic turf. Rescue
Hard dry edges where you wanted a soft blendWhere a smooth gradient was intended, the colour stops abruptly at an unyielding boundary. Rescue
Hard outlines in ink around every shapeEvery building edge, window frame, and roofline is trapped within a uniform, solid black ink line. Partly
Muddy colour from overmixing too many pigmentsThe wash appears brown, dull, and murky rather than clean and vibrant. Partly
Not checking work in a mirror or at a distanceA portrait or figure exhibits an unintended tilt, an eye sitting higher than its partner, or an overall drift to one side. Rescue
Painting the next layer before the first is dryFresh paint introduced onto a damp wash dissolves the settling pigment and pushes it aside. Partly
Paper buckles because it is thin or unstretchedThe paper surface undulates with severe ripples. Rescue
Subject has no focal pointThe canvas contains equal amounts of detail, contrast, and sharp edges everywhere. Rescue
Trees drawn as lollipops: outline plus scribbled leavesThe tree is drawn as a straight, brown or grey stick topped with a circular contour filled with uniform scribbles. Partly
Washes too pale after dryingThe painting lacks deep shadows, and tones appear uniformly milky or light. Rescue
Brushes too small leading to fussy detailThe painting is covered with tiny, distinct brush strokes instead of smooth, readable planes. Rescue
Building cropped with a dead-centre horizonThe horizon line runs exactly across the horizontal centre of the page. Rescue
Colour palette fights: unplanned mix of many chromasThe painting features high-intensity, pure pigment across every corner without a clear dominant hue. Rescue
Composition cut off at awkward placesLimbs, joints, or primary objects hit the boundary of the page in an awkward manner. Partly
Dead eyes: no highlight, no eyelid shapeThe eye appears as an unvaried black disk without curvature, highlights, or distinct lid rims. Rescue
Dull, chalky colours from adding white gouache or too much waterThe translucent glow typical of watercolour is lost, replaced by a pasty, opaque film. Partly
Fur painted with hard strokes on wet layersIndividual hair strokes have exploded outward into uncontrolled, soft splotches. Rescue
Horizon line cutting the picture in halfThe horizon runs straight through the exact vertical centre of the page, splitting the composition into equal halves of sky and land. Rescue
Leaving no white paper: lights painted overThe painting has no sparkling, clean highlights. Partly
Local colour only: ignoring reflected light and temperatureThe object is painted using only its local hue mixed with black for shadow and white for highlight. Rescue
Overworking damp paper: lifting, scuffed surfaceSmall rolls of paper fibre form across the painted area and the pigment settles unevenly into the torn spots. Partly
Pencil lines showing and smeared under glazesDark graphite lines remain clearly visible beneath transparent colours, locking the painting into a stiff framework. Partly
Skin tones that look pink or greyThe face looks either harshly crimson and doll-like, or dirty and drained of life. Rescue
Stopping too early because it looks fine in the phone photoThe physical artwork appears faint, lacking rich darks and crisp details, despite reading clearly when photographed. Rescue
Tangents: edges kissing awkwardlyTwo distinct edges in the picture touch exactly at their borders without clear overlap. Rescue
Two perspectives in one drawing (inconsistent vanishing points)Different buildings in the same scene follow separate, competing eye-levels. Partly
Wet-in-wet sky with muddy horizon bleedThe clear separation between sky and distant land has dissolved into a murky, muddy line. Rescue
Framing wrongly: cropped or overmattedThe outer border of the frame or mat cuts directly into the subject matter, leaving no margin for the composition to breathe. Rescue
Granulating or staining pigment lifting unpredictablyLifting colour leaves harsh stains, rough paper fibres, or uneven blotches rather than a clean, light plane. Partly
Shapes all similar in sizeThe masses, light patches, or negative spaces across the work are all roughly the same dimensions. Rescue
Windows not shrinking with distanceWindows and doors along a receding wall stay the same width and spacing as they go back in space. Rescue

Faults that apply to every medium are collected on the any medium page. Measuring problems may also be worth checking with the proportion grid, and paint drying questions with the drying time guide.

Checklist: check your work against these

Each line is the quick test from the matching page. Print this page for a studio checklist.

Cauliflower blooms and backruns. Check the wet wash at eye level; if an area is dull while adjacent paint still has a mirror shine, water added to the dull patch will cause a bloom.
Copying every detail of a reference without simplifying. Squint heavily at your source photo; if half the tiny details disappear in your blur, but they are clearly rendered on your paper, you have over-copied.
Greens that look the same: one tube green for all foliage. Hold a sample of your foliage wash next to an actual houseplant or leaf outside; tube green will look shrill, acid, and monochromatic by comparison.
Hard dry edges where you wanted a soft blend. Drag your gaze along the gradient; if you can trace a clear wire-like border between tone and white paper, the edge has set hard.
Hard outlines in ink around every shape. Squint at the scene; if the ink lines remain darker and crisper than the deepest shadow under the eaves, the outlines are overpowering the values.
Muddy colour from overmixing too many pigments. Check the pigment codes on your paint tubes; if your mixture contains more than three distinct pigment codes (e.g. PB29, PY42, PR101, PG7), it is overmixed.
Not checking work in a mirror or at a distance. Hold the work up to a flat mirror or invert the canvas upside down right now; any lean will jump out immediately.
Painting the next layer before the first is dry. Touch the back of your hand gently against the paper; if it feels cool to the touch, it is still evaporating and not dry.
Paper buckles because it is thin or unstretched. Place a straight ruler across the surface of the paper; if gaps appear beneath the edge, the paper has buckled significantly.
Subject has no focal point. Look away for five seconds, then glance quickly at your artwork: if your eyes dart around frantically rather than settling on one clear spot, you have no focal point.
Trees drawn as lollipops: outline plus scribbled leaves. Squint at your tree drawing and ask if you could carve it out of a solid ball, or if it looks like a flat circle on a post.
Washes too pale after drying. Take a greyscale phone photo of your dry work; if the darkest tone looks middle grey instead of black, the wash was under-pigmented.
Brushes too small leading to fussy detail. Hold your painting at arm's length; if the large shadow shapes disappear into tiny hatch marks, your brush was too small.
Building cropped with a dead-centre horizon. Measure from the bottom edge to the horizon line: if it lands at exactly fifty percent of paper height, the composition is split.
Colour palette fights: unplanned mix of many chromas. Take a photo of your painting and desaturate it halfway; if the composition suddenly becomes calmer and easier to read, your saturation is unmanaged.
Composition cut off at awkward places. Hold your hands or two sheets of paper over the margins to test shifting the crop inward or outward by two centimetres.
Dead eyes: no highlight, no eyelid shape. Check if your eye consists of a single solid black tone; if there is no distinct white or light highlight reflecting a light source, the eye will appear dead.
Dull, chalky colours from adding white gouache or too much water. Hold the dry painting under strong direct lamp light; if the light passages look cloudy and opaque like dry plaster, they contain too much opaque white.
Fur painted with hard strokes on wet layers. Touch a scrap of tissue to the animal wash; if it lifts liquid readily, the paper is too wet to hold a fine hair stroke.
Horizon line cutting the picture in half. Measure the distance from the top edge to the horizon with your pencil; if it matches the distance to the bottom edge, the page is bisected.
Leaving no white paper: lights painted over. Squint at the painting from across the room; if no part of the subject gleams brighter than a mid-value wash, the lights have been lost.
Local colour only: ignoring reflected light and temperature. Examine the shadow edge of the object; if it is merely a darker, duller version of the light side, you have missed ambient bounce.
Overworking damp paper: lifting, scuffed surface. Tilt the paper into raking light to inspect the surface texture; tiny bobbles or a fuzzy texture mean the fibres have lifted.
Pencil lines showing and smeared under glazes. Look closely at the dry under-drawing under a raking light; if the graphite shines with metallic reflection, it is too soft and heavy to take a clean glaze.
Skin tones that look pink or grey. Check the forehead, cheeks, and chin separately; if all areas share the exact same pink tint, or if the shadows resemble pencil lead, the mix lacks correct skin colour temperature.
Stopping too early because it looks fine in the phone photo. Step back three metres from the easel in normal room light without your device and see if the darkest darks still hold authority.
Tangents: edges kissing awkwardly. Trace the silhouette outlines with your finger to spot any places where two different objects share an identical boundary line.
Two perspectives in one drawing (inconsistent vanishing points). Trace several receding roof and base lines backwards with a ruler and see if they meet at a single line across the page.
Wet-in-wet sky with muddy horizon bleed. Squint at the horizon line; if the boundary between sky and mountain is a feathery, grey-brown bleed instead of a defined edge, bleeding has taken place.
Framing wrongly: cropped or overmatted. Place four scraps of white paper along the edges of your painting to simulate a mount window and see if any focal points get crowded.