If your watercolour looks too pale or comes off the brush in a puddle, start by looking at two things. How much water is in your paint mix, and how much is your brush carrying to the paper?

My favourite way to get a feel for the first part is to paint three swatches with the same colour. I call them tea, coffee and cream. Once you see them side by side, it’s much easier to choose a mix for the mark you want to make.

Tea, coffee and cream

Tea is a loose, watery mix that gives you a pale wash. I’d reach for it for a soft sky or the first layer of a petal.
Coffee has more pigment and gives you a stronger colour while still flowing easily off the brush. Try it for the main colour of a leaf.
Cream is the most concentrated of the three. It still needs enough water to move off the brush. Try it for a deeper shadow or a few dark details.

The names are a way to remember how the mixes look and move. Your blue might be much stronger than your yellow, so a quick test on scrap paper will tell you more than a fixed ratio.

Try it with one colour

Grab one paint colour, a brush, a palette and a scrap of watercolour paper. Start with dry paper so you can see what the mix and the brush are doing.

Paint your tea swatch. Mix a little pigment into water until you have a pale wash. Paint a small square.
Paint your coffee swatch. Add more pigment to the mix and paint a second square beside the first.
Paint your cream swatch. Make a more concentrated mix, using enough water for the paint to glide off the brush. Paint your third square.
Let them dry and compare. Which would you use for a first wash? Which would you save for the darkest part of your painting?

What if my brush leaves a puddle?

Even with a good mix on your palette, a brush that’s carrying too much liquid can leave a bead of paint on a tiny square. After rinsing, lightly touch the side of the bristles to a paper towel before loading your brush. If you’ve already got a puddle on the page, rinse and blot the brush, then touch the tip to the puddle’s edge to pick up the excess.

Watch me mix all three

In the video below, you can see what tea, coffee and cream look like on my palette and how each one goes down on paper. Paint your own swatches alongside me and keep them nearby for your next painting.