How to Use the Wet-on-Dry Watercolour Technique (And Why It’s Perfect for Beginners)
- Kerry Slack Art
- Jun 8
- 2 min read
🎨 What is Wet-on-Dry in Watercolour?
And why it’s brilliant for beginners and beyond
Watercolour painting can be wonderfully unpredictable — but sometimes, we crave a little more control. That’s where the wet-on-dry technique comes in.
In this post, I’ll show you what wet-on-dry means, why it’s such a helpful technique for both beginners and seasoned painters, and how to use it to create delicate, layered artworks — like the simple flower petals we often explore in my watercolour workshops.
🌼 What Is Wet-on-Dry?
Put simply, wet-on-dry means applying wet paint onto dry paper (or onto a dry layer of paint).Unlike wet-on-wet, which creates soft, flowy blends, wet-on-dry gives you:
Crisp, clean edges
Greater control
The ability to layer transparent colours
Lovely overlaps and glowing colour effects
It’s perfect for painting leaves, petals, abstract shapes — and it’s wonderfully meditative too.
🖌 A Simple Wet-on-Dry Exercise You Can Try
We often create this gentle, layered petal piece in my beginner-friendly classes:
Instructions:
Start with dry watercolour paper
Paint a single petal or shape using a light, watery colour
Let it dry completely
Paint another petal, overlapping slightly — using the same or a different colour
Repeat! Notice how the colours stay distinct but softly blend where they meet
🌸 You can see the effect clearly in this example from class
✨ Why I Love Teaching It
This technique is especially great if:
You’re just getting started with watercolour
You want to build your confidence
You enjoy slowing things down
You like to work mindfully and gently
It helps you build a painting layer by layer, giving time to pause and reflect between each one — and there’s something really satisfying about watching the translucent colours overlap.
🎨 Learn With Me in North West London
If you'd like to explore this technique (and many others) in person, you’re warmly invited to one of my watercolour workshops at Harrow Arts Centre.
All my classes are:
Beginner-friendly
Calm, creative and welcoming
Focused on exploring watercolour in a relaxed, accessible way
Taught by me — a full-time illustrator with a love of expressive, splashy style
🖌 Find out what’s coming up here:👉workshops
Or pop me a message if you’d like help choosing a class — I’m always happy to chat.
💬 Final Thought
Wet-on-dry is a gentle, forgiving and fun way to build watercolour confidence. Whether you're painting abstract blobs or delicate petals, it’s a beautiful technique to try — and a lovely reminder that slowing down can create something truly special.
Hope to see you in class sometime soon!
Warm wishes, Kerry Illustrator & Watercolour Workshop Host at Harrow Arts Centre
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