Variegated wash: three colours that keep their own edges
A variegated wash is the opposite of a graded one. In a graded wash you want the colours to dissolve into each other completely; in a variegated wash you want them to touch, mingle at the border and then stop. The whole technique lives in the gap you leave.
Viridian — Transparent cool green, low tinting strength.
| Pigment | Parts | Hex |
|---|---|---|
| Viridian | 3 : 6 (50%) | #3F7A4E |
| Raw Sienna | 2 : 6 (33%) | #C08A4A |
| French Ultramarine | 1 : 6 (17%) | #2E4A7D |
- Wet the whole 20 x 28 cm block with a 40 mm hake and let it sit until no shiny patches remain.
- Load viridian generously and drop it into the left third with three touches; do not stroke.
- Rinse and drop raw sienna into the right third, leaving a 4 cm dry gap in the middle so the two colours meet on their own.
- Touch one brush-tip of ultramarine into the upper edge to cool the top of the panel.
- Rock the board once, gently, front to back — one pass only, otherwise you get a marbled mess.
- Do not touch it again. Variegated washes are finished at the moment you stop moving; every extra stroke flattens them.
- Dry flat and expect roughly 15% shrinkage at the border as the pigments settle.
Leave a dry gap on purpose
Beginners put the second colour directly against the first and end up with a grey seam where the two bled together. The fix is counter-intuitive: leave a 4 cm band of wet-but-unpainted paper between them. Capillary action carries each colour into the gap from both sides and they meet as a soft, irregular frontier.
The width of the gap controls the result. Two centimetres gives a narrow, almost linear meeting; six centimetres and the colours may never meet at all, leaving white in the middle.
Why viridian and raw sienna
Viridian is a transparent, cool, slightly granulating green with very low tinting strength relative to phthalo. Raw sienna is an opaque-ish warm earth. When they mingle at the frontier, the green cools and the sienna warms without either turning grey, because their hues are nearly complementary but their values are close.
Substituting sap green for viridian will work, but sap green is a convenience mixture that separates on the paper, and you will see a brown halo around the green edge within ten minutes.
The single tilt
One gentle rock of the board encourages the two colours to run toward each other and pulls the whole wash into a slight diagonal. Two rocks produce a marbled pattern that looks accidental rather than designed.
Tilt only along one axis. Rocking front to back and side to side in the same pass is how a variegated wash becomes mud.
What matters
- Leave a 4 cm unpainted gap; capillary action brings the colours together on its own.
- Three-colour limit — a fourth pigment will almost always grey the frontier.
- One tilt only, one axis only. More movement means marbling, not variation.
- Expect about 15% border shrinkage as granulating pigments settle.
Handling note — Technique notes only. Follow the pigment manufacturer's safety data sheet for handling, ventilation and disposal.