Guides

Each guide takes one thing beginner and early improver painters struggle with and settles it, using the spectral reflectance of watercolour paints measured on a spectrophotometer rather than another opinion about colour.

They’re listed by problem. If one of these is the thing you’re finding tricky, that’s the one to read.

• Mixing light and medium skin tones in watercolour

  Your skin tones dry grey, or chalky, or read as a mask rather than a face, and the tube marked flesh tint made it worse.

  Four light-to-medium tones, each measured at shadow, mid and highlight, with 36 recipes across three paint sets.

• Mixing dark skin tones in watercolour

  Your dark skin tones go flat or sooty, and you cannot tell whether the problem is your mixing or the size of your palette.

  Four dark tones, sampled the same way, with 36 more recipes and what actually changes further down the scale.

If you’re interested in why these guides can be trusted rather than what to do with them, here’s the method.