How to Finish a Watercolor Painting

One of the most critical stages of the watercolor painting process is right before you begin those last watercolor steps to polish up your scene. The decisions you make here can make or break your painting. 

So let’s explore this stage of your painting process! Keep reading for 3 simple ways to make the most of these final moments with your watercolor painting. 

Tips and Tricks For the Home Stretch 

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3 Final Steps in Watercolor Painting

Let’s set the scene: you’ve chosen a scene, determined a focal point, outlined a composition. You’ve planned out your painting, made all the impromptu decisions throughout the first and second wash, mixed colors, created distinct values, and worked wet-into-wet against the clock. 

By this point, you’re bound to be fatigued. Maybe you’re ruminating over a mistake back in the first wash, maybe you’re feeling disappointed by the results so far. Or maybe you feel really great about what you’ve accomplished and are scared to ruin it in the last minutes of the “game.”

You’re in the final stretch, and the first piece of advice I am going to give you is - take a break. 

Feel Free to Step Away and Rest.

It’s possible that the best decision you’ll make in these last moments is inaction. If nothing else, at least pause long enough to check in on how you’re feeling and what you need. Maybe that will look like sitting down on the couch with a glass of water for a few minutes and heading right back to your painting. Maybe it will look like finishing the painting the next day. 

Acknowledge that you might have a bit of decision fatigue at this point in the painting process. The last thing you want to do when you’re in this state is to push forward into the next stage where choices are so crucial to your final product. 

My second piece of advice is one that you might disagree with slightly. There’s a bit of a personal preference revealed here, so let me know what you think and whether this advice aligns with your style and mode of painting.

When the subjects in your painting start to resemble their real-life counterparts - stop.

Okay, like I said, this is a golden rule for me, but it may differ slightly for you. I gravitate toward and appreciate a loose, impressionist scene. Your personal style may be different; you may want more precision and realism. Think, then, about what equivalent guideline you can make and follow in your painting process. 

Because the last thing you want to do is to overwork your painting. Overworking can cause you to lose some of the beautiful, painstaking work you’ve done in the earlier stages of painting. It can cause you to divert focus from your main idea or throw the painting off balance.  

So whether you stop at resemblance or at another guidepost you set for yourself, make sure you slow yourself at some point to allow for some critical thinking around your next steps. 

My final piece of advice is another strategy for slowing yourself down and making intentional decisions at this crucial stage. 

Step back frequently. 

By this I mean physically step back from your painting. We can get so hyper-focused, leaning into our watercolor scene for hours. Even if you’ve taken a break between the second wash and third wash, take it slow and periodically put some distance between you and the painting as you add those finishing touches. 

This gives you the necessary perspective to assess whether you’ve adequately highlighted the focal point of your painting, whether you’ve achieved a full range of values, and whether you’ve added details in a pleasing, balanced manner. 

What’s So Important About the Last Watercolor Step?

Completing your watercolor can be tricky because you risk:

• Overworking your painting, 
• Making a critical mistake that upsets the scene, or
• Losing yourself in details without a focus on the painting’s main idea.

To avoid these risks, reserve these last steps for a time that you are feeling focused. This way, you can make deliberate, intentional decisions. Oftentimes, you can feel fatigued after the first two washes. There’s no reason not to step back, take a little break, and come back to your painting for those finishing touches when you’re well-rested and calm.

Reminders When You’re Finishing Your Watercolor

It’s a good idea to separate this final stage of painting from the rest. Especially after working wet into wet during the first stages of the painting, you need to reset and remind yourself you’re not working against the drying of the watercolor paper anymore. This is a step-by-step process, and this final one has an outsized effect on your watercolor painting.

So, even when you’re anxious to finish the painting, excited to see it come together, remember to take a short (or long) break. When you get started again, be on the lookout for when your subjects begin resembling your reference photo or real-life scene. And, finally, physically take a step back from your painting in progress to see what you’re doing from a slightly different vantage point. 

I hope these simple tips give you the permission you may need to slow down and make more intentional (and therefore more successful) decisions in the final stages of your watercolor painting process.  

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