In the last 5 watercolor demonstrations that I have done, it has dawned on me that I need to mention to my students about using fresh pigment. When I say fresh pigment I mean having pigment in your palette that is workable and not as hard as a rock. I find many students trying to grab fresh pigment from their palette when all they have on their palette is hard pigment that will only give them enough pigment to make a tinted wash.

You may wonder why one needs fresh pigment, well the answer is to be able to control the watercolor pigment in a wet wash. If you have your paper wet and you use a small amount of pigment, that is considered a tint of color. Now if you want to float your pigment and control a soft edge on a wet surface you need to be able to pick up enough fresh pigment to control that soft edge to only bleed out a very controlled distance. You can only do this with the use of a lot of pigment. Too much water and it becomes uncontrollable. 

The Holbein paint I use has a big advantage over other paints when it comes to drying pigment in your palette.
Holbein watercolors do not dry out to a hard clump when left in the palette to dry. Instead, the Holbein watercolors become instantly rejuvenated with just a touch of water and when dry they feel very rubbery to the touch. The reason Holbein instantly rejuvenate is that they don't mix OxGall into their paint. Most of the other paint manufacturers put in OxGall for transparency. I believe if you float your pigment in a wash every color even an opaque will look transparent.

So when controlling your edges in a wet watercolor wash, make sure you use fresh pigment or use Holbein watercolor paints because they always stay fresh and become instantly rejuvenated with just a touch of water.

Use your watercolor thick in a wet wash!

David