The more water you have on your brush the more likely you are to create splashes or droplets. However, the more water you have in your mixture the lighter colour your splash will dry, sometimes producing a bit of an underwhelming effect that you may not have been hoping for.
Splatter Painting Techniques
Incorporate splatter painting effects in abstract art projects on paper, canvas, or fabric. Do these projects outside or indoors in a protected area.
Splatter painting creates an entirely different effect than brushstrokes. Splattering diffuses or scatters paint over the paper or fabric being painted. Below are some different techniques to create various results – from large droplets to a fine mist of paint. Kids can try using whatever paints they have available, although some techniques work better with certain paints.
Splatter painting can be messy – but it doesn’t have to be! Children who know to be careful shouldn’t have a problem. Cover the work area with newspaper or a vinyl tablecloth. Whichever splatter technique is being used, keep the brush near the paper. There’s no need to fling the paint off a brush with vigorous arm motions. Of course, kids can always do these projects outdoors so they are freer to make a mess.
Splatter Painting With a Stencil
Create a splatter print of an object with an interesting shape – this technique is great with leaves. The print shows the negative space, or the space around the object. To find an object that will make a clear print, look at the silhouette or outline of the object as opposed to specific details on the object. Only select objects that can get covered with paint.
Make a stencil by cutting a shape from paper, lightweight cardboard, or fun foam. Cookie cutters offer clear shapes to trace and cut out. Set the object or cut-out shape on a piece of paper and then use one of the following techniques to color the space around the object.
Toothbrush Splatter Painting
Dip an old toothbrush in tempera or acrylic paint. Hold the toothbrush over the object or shape. Run the handle of a paintbrush or a stick over the bristles of the toothbrush. This will cause the paint to flick off the toothbrush. Keep the toothbrush close to the paper so the paint doesn’t splatter where it shouldn’t go. Reposition the toothbrush to splatter paint around the entire shape. Lift the shape or object.
Spray Bottle Splatter Painting
Put food coloring and water or a liquid watercolor in a spray bottle. Set the nozzle to a fine mist and spray the area around the object.
Screen Splatter Painting
Set a piece of window screen or cheesecloth over the object. Use the toothbrush or spray bottle to color around the object while going through the screen to create a fine spray pattern.
Dropped & Thrown Paint Designs
This process creates large drops or splatters of paint as opposed to the finer mist from the above techniques. Fill a brush with paint. Hold the brush over the paper and give a slight flick of the wrist so large droplets of paint hit the paper or fabric. This method doesn’t require the use of a stencil; instead, drop or throw the paint on the paper or fabric to create large splatters. Attach the paper to a vertical surface to create a different effect since the paint will run down the page instead of staying in place.
Use any of the above techniques to splatter paint large objects like tee shirts or bandana. Dropped paint works well on smaller objects, like sneakers and socks that have too many angles and small sections to easily use a stencil.
Splatter prints allow children to paint paper or fabric with drops or sprays of paint. Explore using different types of paint – the water content of the paint will create different results. Also try other abstract painting techniques, such as using dropped strands of yarn or marbles.
What can watercolour splatter and splashes be used for?
Watercolour splatters and splashes can be used for a number of practical effects such as texture on a sandy beach, or the stone and pebbles of a path. I have found splattering with white gouache a particularly useful technique to represent ocean spray.
Of course, your splashes and splatters don’t need to have a practical purpose at all, you can use them just to add a bit of fun and liveliness into your sketch.
Examples of Watercolour Splatters and Splashes
First, let’s get clear about what we are discussing. Below are some examples of watercolour splatters and splashes from mine and others work.
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Ian Fennelly adds some splatters to the ground of his sketch above to indicate stones and pebbles.
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Paul Wang adds some splashes to his sketch adding overall atmosphere. Some of the splatters in the trees give a bit of a leafy vibe too.
Most of the examples above feature a subtle use of the splattering technique to add extra interest and atmosphere. Less is more when it comes to employing this technique in your work.
If you would like to know more about my favourite urban sketchers and how they have influenced me, check out this post.
Want to improve your watercolour skills with awesome instructors? Check out 3 of my favourite classes on Domestika:
- Creative Watercolour Sketching for Beginners
- Experimental Watercolour Techniques For Beginners
- Artistic Watercolour Sketching: Dare to Sketch
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Techniques to Create Watercolour Splatters and Splashes
I hope this post will take some of the guesswork out of creating watercolour splashes and splatters and shortcut the time it takes you to get the effect you’re looking for.
Let’s get into things and look at 3 different techniques can use to get splattering.
#1 – Hit the brush with your finger
The first technique I ever tried in order to create splatters was to tap the brush with my finger. I find holding the brush as close to the end of the handle as possible (the opposite end to where the bristles are) and tapping it like you were tapping a cigarette (sorry, I don’t even smoke but this was the closest example I could think of).
This technique produces a subtle splatter effect which I find the most controllable out of all of the techniques we will discuss. However, it can be quite underwhelming too. Especially if your water to paint ratio is off. We shall discuss this in the next section.
You can also hit the brush against the finger of your opposite hand. This produces a slightly stronger effect.
#2 – Hit the brush against another brush
Similar to hitting the brush against your finger above, you can hit it against another brush and this produces an even more pronounced, yet slightly less controllable effect.
I think this is because you are hitting the brush against another hard object so the impact is more forceful than hitting against your finger which is slightly mores pongy and therefore absorbs a little bit of the impact.
#3 – Flick the bristles with your finger
A third way of producing splatters is to rake your finger against the bristles themselves. This produces a strong effect, however, it’s fairly uncontrollable!
