Find Drawing and
Painting Articles
Here:

Watercolor Painting Tips

The following watercolor painting tips will help you achieve greater effects in your work:

If your watercolor is off in value, especially if the darks are too dark, you can use opaque or casein color to correct them.
The dark passages can easily be lightened, but the charm of transparent water-color is lost.
Use unsuccessful sketches as a basis for reference.
Redraw the composition in the studio and repaint the subject.
Try to do this as soon as you can, while your impression of the subject is still fresh.
You may be pleasantly surprised to find that your studio painting of the subject has a more "outdoor" look to it with this watercolor painting tip than the one made on the spot.
After all, you observed the subject directly from nature for several hours, and even though the spot sketch was unsuccessful you salvaged your mental observations of the subject.
Use a dry brush to lift the excess color as a wash is completed. This blob of excess color invariably forms when a fully saturated wash is applied. If not removed it will dry darker than the rest of the painted area.
To lighten a painted area on rough paper use a hard eraser or a piece of fine sandpaper.
This method, used judiciously, will often give life to an area that has become deadened because of too many washes of color.
There is a water-color varnish that brightens areas that have become dull through excessive rubbing out and correcting.
It dries with a sheen, but if it is used sparingly it is not very noticeable when framed behind glass.