5 EASY Ways to Paint WHITE in Watercolor 

Incredibly useful information! We love how this shows use of white in watercolor as a purposeful part of the painting and not just correction or "popping highlights". Some of those super-dense, high-hiding whites that come in a little pot can be a little thick and chunky, but many of these were introduced as kind of like "white-out" for graphic artists so the appearance of the original wasn't as important as effectively hiding a correction in reproduction. Sometimes, if you see original line art for cartoon strips, the corrections are big gobs of white that you'd never want to see on your painting! Some brands used to be casein-based so they sealed themselves more than something like Chinese White or gouache would. It's great when old, tried and true art materials have a second act in fine art!

thank you. MOWC likes to use white gel pen, have you tried it?

White is definitely hard. I have even taken the side of an exacto knife to scrape out PATCHES of color. After doing this, you cannot paint over it, you are DONE. It is a very, very risky technique that I hardly ever use.

this is super helpful and I like that you included negative space as it is the best way of preserving white, it just requires planning ❤

Hi Emily, this question has nothing to do with this post. It is the only way I know how to reach you….I am a member of your Mastery membership. I have done the soccer ball daily challenge. I am happy with the results. I want to paint it in a larger format for my grandson for a Christmas gift. However, by the time I am ready to paint the gift the tutorial will not be available to me. Is there a way for me to save the tutorial? I am sure I will need that guidance when I begin the painting. Thank you!

Very helpful…thank you!

White of the paper using Pebeo masking f.or ,Gouche sounds like the best solution. Does anybody use white Gelly rolls? That might work too!

I appreciate your extensive discussion on dealing with handling white in watercolor. It reminds me of your wet on wet sky creation video i.e.,very thorough . I'm only a beginner, but I used white gouache to good effect on one of my abstract watercolor works when I needed to put some white spots on dark purple.

I definitely used to be a purist when it came to watercolor painting early on (and I still try to preserve whites when I can). However, I have grown to use white gouache at times

I wanted to mention a couple methods that I have used either preserve white areas or to create the illusion of white. I use a stylus with a small ceramic blade on the tip to scrap away the color from the paper revealing the pure white underneath. I find that this tool is much more precise than using an X-Acto knife. I’m well aware of the risks using this method, but for me it was the perfect solution to represent droplets of water dropping to the water below from a fountain above. I have also used clear packing tape to freely paint around an area that I plan to paint in later. By using the regular grade clear packing tape rather than the heavy duty tape for this process it is easier to carve around objects in the painting. Instead of leaving areas completely white, I have also painted areas using a very light wash of color or colors so that compared to the rest of the painting the observer will understand or see that area as white.

Thanks for the demonstration and tips Emily! I hadn't thought of using a charcoal pencil. That's so cool. I'm also blown away by your rendering of the cat. 😮 Looked like a lot of fun to paint.

Thank you so much for this tutorial. Lots of great tips. I think I may have to pick up a white charcoal pencil.

that eye is gorgeous! and masking fluid is evil!!😛

Love this - would like to learn watercolor painting.

this was a great video, very useful for me , thank you

Thank you for this great painting Emily 👌🎨.

Really useful video. Thanks Emily.

What product would o seal? Seems like it would have to be a spray?