washes of color

What Color Washes Do

by Marci Blattenberger

One of the things that lends what is known as the American style of china painting its characteristic softness and beauty is a technique called "doing a wash". It involves applying translucent layers of color over a fired painting to tone down the color, add atmospheric depth and color excitement.
To add a color wash, use the largest square shader you can for the area and apply a smooth layer of paint, tying areas of the painting together. Generally a wash is used to push secondary elements in the painting into the background....flowers other than the main focal point flower, leaves , etc....and to unify areas of the painting. You can also wash vivid color over areas of the painting to add some intensity.
The great thing about washes is that you can experiment with them to your heart's delight, since they are added on subsequent fires. If you don't like the way they look, you can just wipe them off and try something else...
Below is a very BASIC example of what a difference even a simple wash can make in a painting:

Picture 1: first fire with roses and leaves...I cut very strong highlights. Notice how all the flowers and the leaves appear to be on the same plane.The only thing that makes the top pink rose stand out as the focal point is that is overlaps the yellow rose. Picture 2: In this picture, you can seehow to addition of a simple wash of blue makes the top left rose more prominent by making the bottom two roses appear to recede into the background. The wash also greys the colors which helps the illusion that they are in the background. Picture 3: In this final vase, I wiped a FEW of the lighter petals out on the middle rose...( note that I didnt go back over all of the wipeouts I did originally...I picked out just a few....Also please note that this is far from a finished piece....My intent with this piece was to show the effect of a color wash as simply and dramatically as possible)

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One of the things that lends what is known as the American style of china painting its characteristic softness and beauty is a technique called "doing a wash". It involves applying translucent layers of color over a fired painting to tone down the color, add atmospheric depth and color excitement. To add a color wash, use the largest square shader you can for the area and apply a smooth layer of paint, tying areas of the painting together. Generally a wash is used to push secondary elements in the painting into the background....flowers other than the main focal point flower, leaves , etc....and to unify areas of the painting. You can also wash vivid color over areas of the painting to add some intensity. The great thing about washes is that you can experiment with them to your heart's delight, since they are added on subsequent fires. If you don't like the way they look, you can just wipe them off and try something else... Below is a very BASIC example of what a difference even a simple wash can make in a painting:
*Picture 1:* first fire with roses and leaves...I cut very strong highlights. Notice how all the flowers and the leaves appear to be on the same plane.The only thing that makes the top pink rose stand out as the focal point is that is overlaps the yellow rose.	*Picture 2:* In this picture, you can seehow to addition of a simple wash of blue makes the top left rose more prominent by making the bottom two roses appear to recede into the background. The wash also greys the colors which helps the illusion that they are in the background.	*Picture 3:* In this final vase, I wiped a FEW of the lighter petals out on the middle rose...( note that I didnt go back over all of the wipeouts I did originally...I picked out just a few....Also please note that this is far from a finished piece....My intent with this piece was to show the effect of a color wash as simply and dramatically as possible)