Watercolor - Drybrush

In the last year, I have shared with you photos of old barns that I have seen along the roadways. I remember one barn in SC that had a big wreath up on it and one locally that had an old truck in the barn. So, you know this stamp was one of my favorites. Barn wood is a perfect opportunity to use another watercolor technique called dry brush. Yesterday, we worked wet into wet, but today, you work over a wash (after it dries) with a brush that has pigment on it but very little water.

Apply paint to your brush and use a paper towel or tissue at the base of the brush to wick up the water in the brush. Then take the brush to the areas that you want to create a wood grain look and apply the pigment to the paper.You can even spread the bristles of the brush out for even more dry brush look. The texture of the paper works to your advantage as it gives you that rough look of barn wood.

Add a clear shiny dimensional application (like Diamond Glaze or Crystal Lacquer) on the windshield, windows and headlights once the painting is all finished and it is really cool! Here again, I could not decide which colors I wanted to go with, so I did two different combinations.