from being distracted by movement in the background. Backgrounds should be plainly tinted. Some neutral tint (neutral meaning 'neither' in the sense that it belongs to no very definite colour), fawn, buff, or grey. Then your colour-group will have every chance of asserting itself.
When using water-colour always work from light to dark. That is, sketch your painting with a light colour. If you sketch it with a dark tint, then that tint will either run, and spoil your delicate tints, or else it will outline the edges with a harsh dark tint like the edges of clouds in a stormy sky.
Also avoid 'body colour'—or flake white. White paint is thick and opaque. Once white paint enters our painting, there it must continue. We cannot make dabs of white paint without a patchy effect. White gives a different texture, and, being thick, takes all clearness and sparkle, all richness and depth.
A common fault into which young artists often fall is to paint the white clouds in a landscape with white paint. But the delicate colouring of the clouds should be sketched with the faintest tint (the prevailing tint of the landscape), and the white paper left to give the effect of the white clouds.
Never be afraid of using pure colour. To enrich or deepen shadows, to sharpen high lights, to lend sparkle or brightness, place the pure tint straight on the paper without mixing or putting it first on the palette.
To soften and blend your tints take a full brush and flood the water on the paper and let the colours mingle on the paper.
Should you have an unpleasingly harsh effect, do not tinker at your painting. Let it dry. When it is quite hard and bone-dry take a brushful of clear water and pass it over your drawing, and work on the drawing when it is moist.
Small children find it amusing and instructive to map out discs or squares and fill these spaces with colours. By blending, mixing, and playing with a few tints you realize the immense variations that can be obtained by judicious handling.
