Well, this is probably one of the most requested videos! In fact, in this Decorative Painting tutorial, I want to tell you something about how to shade by floating colors!

I have been asking myself for a while if it was right to make it, but then I thought that, when I began painting, it would have been extremely helpful for me having a video to watch over and over while I was painting… or also while relaxing on the couch 😊! So… I decided I wanted to share what I know about how to shade by floating colors and I began thinking how I wanted to make this Decorative Painting tutorial.
Well, it’s important to say that of course a tutorial is different that a real class, where I can follow you step by step, where we can see together how to fix mistakes, or also where we can concentrate on what is giving you a hard time while painting. However, this Decorative Painting tutorial can be the starting point and can help you to have a better understanding about how to shade by floating colors.

Along with highlighting, shading with floats is extremely important when we paint and there are many things we need to keep in mind when we float. However, there are different ways of floating colors… for example, some people use angular brushes and some others flat brushes, some people use a short-hair mop and some others a long-hair mop… and some don’t’ use the mop at all!

I have tried different methods over the years and in this tutorial, I decided I wanted to shop you the way that works the best for me!

Shading by floating colors is one of the basics techniques of Decorative Painting ad they’re extremely important to achieve a quite realistic effect, so that our paintings don’t seem flat and all the elements have the right shape and depth. However, highglights are very important too, and this is why I have another tutorial about how to highlight.

Shading and highlighting are complementary techniques, both with the same importance.
They are used to paint any Decorative Painting design, from beginner projects like Winter Trio Tags to intermediate or advanced projects like Believe in the Magic or Fall Lover.

As I mentioned before, there are some things that we need to keep in mind regardless of the method that we decide to use to shade by floating colors.
For this reason, I decided to split the video in two parts: theory and practice!

Regarding theory, there are two things that I consider the “pillars” of the technique: knowing where the light comes from and finding the right balance between water and paint.

So are you ready? Just relax and watch this Decorative Painting tutorial about how to shade by floating colors!

Let me know what you think about this technique and if you have any questions… I’m here to help!
Have fun painting! Ciao, Marika