AMANDA’S TOP TEN TIPS FOR SPECIAL EFFECTS

• Using any of the four special effect techniques discussed here requires practice and experimentation, although watercolour always offers us the miraculous opportunity of happy accidents.

• The techniques can be used as a total feature or simply an interesting addition or highlight to your painting.

• Explore the work of other artists and really look at how they have used their colours, brushstrokes, subject matter, glazes, washes, tones, light, whites, mood, subtlety and atmosphere.

• You will be inclined to favour your own style and this can range from being very tight and illustrative, to loose and impressionistic or random and abstract.

• Within any of the above styles there still needs to be a level of competence, which comes with practice and experimentation.

• To move towards a more romantic or atmospheric painting, the special effects do not have to be as extreme as those shown in this article but they can be employed subtly when needed for a painting.

• An artist is constantly aiming to produce their best work. If you only paint owls, make sure it’s the best owl it can be by using a few special effects to create a more interesting painting – for example, sprinkle salt on the wings to make them look fluffy.

• Who can forget the famous painting at the V&A, A Bull in a Storm on a Moor by David Cox (1783–1859)? This painting has an enormous feeling of mood because the artist experimented with the alchemy of watercolour and what it could do.

• Experiment, experiment, experiment! Watercolour offers so much to be discovered and explored.

• Special effects can create special art.