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Watercolor Painting Tutorials

How to Shade With Watercolors

Before teaching watercolor shading, I shucked scallops on a 100ft boat 12 hours a day. Those chaotic nights taught me everything about steady hands and working with unpredictable conditions - skills that translate perfectly to mastering wet-on-wet and wet-on-dry watercolor techniques.

Watercolor shading tutorial thumbnail showing sphere and cube demo with text about fishing boat steady hands technique

Before we dive into watercolor shading techniques, here's something that might surprise you - did you know I used to commercial fish back in the day? Picture this: me on a 100ft scallop boat with a bunch of roughnecks, being the only guy with a full set of teeth, shucking scallops at 2am in the middle of nowhere. Man, how things have changed... from handling rough seas to handling smooth watercolor washes!

But here's the thing - those nights on that rocking boat actually taught me everything I know about steady hands and working with unpredictable conditions. When you're trying to maintain control while everything around you is moving, you learn to work WITH the chaos instead of fighting it.

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Dock Note: Fifteen-hour shifts on deck taught me patience and a little hard work go a long way - some things can't be rushed. Take your time, steady as she goes, and if it isn't right the first time, try again. Even if it doesn't look great, at least if smells better than the back deck o a trawler.
Step by step watercolor shading demonstration showing five-value scale with gray sphere and cube on white paper
Gray scale demo
Red watercolor sphere and white cube demonstration showing color interaction and reflected light techniques
Red demo showing light on form

Key Takeaways

After years of working in unpredictable conditions - whether on a scallop boat or at an easel - I've learned these essential principles:

Patience Pays Off: Just like waiting for the right conditions to haul nets, waiting for your watercolor layers to dry completely prevents muddy, overworked paintings.

Work With, Not Against: Fighting the medium never works, whether it's ocean currents or watercolor flow. Learn to anticipate and guide rather than control.

Observation is Everything: Those long nights on the water taught me to really see light and shadow relationships. The same careful observation applies to capturing form in your paintings.

Less is More: Minimal brush passes create cleaner results - both in efficient boat work and watercolor technique.

Materials You’ll Need

Here are the materials I use all the time and have for decades. I only buy from Blick Art but feel free to shop where you prefer.

Recommended Watercolor Materials

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