This was a 3-day workshop Wed-Fri 10/14-10/16/2026 with Laurie Goldstein-Warren sponsored by the Niagara Frontier Watercolor Society.

First, you take a resource photo, make it black and white, then ‘posterize’ it. This puts lines around different value areas, like circles under eyes or the sides of cheeks. It defines different ranges of value from lightest lights to darkest darks. Transfer the line drawings onto the watercolor paper.

I transferred the image with the light box after blowing it up on the computer. (The one on the left was provided by the instructor. The one on the right is my grandson Joe.)

Put resist on the skin and other details as needed, and then the pouring is all about the background. Laurie is a triad painter, like I am. The colors she chose her three from are Quinn Gold, Quinacridone Rose or Permanent Rose (a warm red), Cobalt Blue (primary, little bit granulating), and Antwerp Blue. None of them are staining, which is important for this technique.

Then put watercolor paint from your tubes into separate small containers. Add water and mix until it’s just liquid enough to run, but still as close to full value as possible. Starting with the lightest color (yellow) apply the liquid paint directly to the paper with a pipette. Make sweeps across the paper – an arc, a dribble, – and take a misting spray bottle to any blobs or lines. Pick up the paper and let it flow into different areas. The paper will buckle a bit.

Get rid of any standing water between colors with a paper towel, but continue while it’s still wet, so there’s mixing.

Repeat with red next.

Then blue.

The result is big areas of glowing color.

This was very experimental for me. I’ve never painted with pipettes! I feel the background on the woman got too dark, but it resulted in a richness of color which, though dark, was not muddy. You can still appreciate that there are three separate colors going on. I was more conservative applying background color to Joe’s picture to keep it lighter.

In general, I don’t think I would use this technique because I find all the preparation to be too fussy. One of the joys I find in watercolor is to be able to just sit down and start painting. However, I have been doing a lot of underpainting with florals, and may adopt the pouring technique for backgrounds in the future (but I would skip the posterizing and transferring and masking).