How do you add white details to a watercolor painting?
While there is such a thing as white watercolor paint, it’s not as simple as adding white highlights like you would with acrylic or oil paint. You cannot use white watercolor to make an area white on your painting.
Watercolor relies heavily on the paper’s white for highlights, but there are many easy ways to effectively add white to your paintings.
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Some ways of adding white to watercolors look more natural than others. How you add white will be purely up to your artistic preference.
Below I go over several different ways to add white to watercolor paintings along with my go-to way to do so. Let’s get into it!
How To Create White Accents In Watercolor Art
Leave White Space
This is the simplest way to keep those white highlights in your painting, but it is not always the easiest.
Masking Fluid
If you aren’t confident in leaving white space, use masking fluid! This ensures the area will stay white even if you accidentally paint over it.
If watercolor is your main medium, I suggest having a bottle of masking fluid because it comes in handy.
White Gel Pen
A white gel pen is a simple and efficient way to add white. This is good to do for highlights, not necessarily large areas of white.
A white gel pen is so easy to control. You can confidently add highlights to wherever you need them.
Oil Pastel
Oil pastel is a unique way to add white highlights to a watercolor painting. I’ve used this technique several times because I enjoy using oil pastels. It’s not for everyone, but a white oil pastel can create interesting textured lines on a watercolor painting.
