A wash is a painting technique in which a paint brush that is very wet with solv

ent and holds a small load of paint or ink is applied to a wet or dry support su
ch as paper or primed or raw canvas. The result is a smooth and uniform area tha
t ideally lacks the appearance of brush strokes and is semi-transparent. A wash
of diluted ink or watercolor paint is very often applied in combination with dra
wing, as a quick and effective supplement to linear techniques. This technique i
s called pen and wash, wash drawing, or ink and wash.[1] Normally only one or tw
o colours of wash are used; if more colurs are used the result is likely to be c
lassified as a full watercolor painting. In East Asian traditions Ink and wash p
ainting is a very important technique, all applied with brushes, especially for
landscape painting; again only one or two colours are typically used.
A wash is accomplished by using a large amount of solvent with little paint. Pai
nt consists of a pigment and binder which allows the pigment to adhere to its su
pport. Solvents dilute the binder, thus diluting the binding strength of the pai
nt. Washes can be brittle and fragile paint films because of this. However, when
gum arabic watercolor washes are applied to a highly absorbent surface, such as
paper, the effects are long lasting. This is the reason why watercolor is the m
edium most often utilizing washes. The drybrush technique can be considered the
opposite of a wash.
The wash technique can be achieved by doing the following:
With water-based media such as inks, acrylic paints, tempera paints or watercolo
r paints, a wet brush should be dipped into a pool of very wet and diluted paint
. This paint pool should be evenly mixed and dispersed to prevent uneven pigment
load on the brush. The loaded brush should then be applied to a dry or wet supp
ort. Washes are most often applied with large brushes over large areas. The area
s in which a wash effects can be controlled with careful application of the wash
, and with the use of liquid frisket or rubber cement.
With oil-based media such as oil paint, a similar technique as outlined above ma
y be used, though instead of water the paint pool should be well diluted in solv
ent, such as turpentine or mineral spirits. The loaded brush should be applied t
o a dry or solvent soaked support. Because oil paint has a longer drying time th
an water-based media, brushing over or blending a wash can extend or even out th
e appearance of the wash. American artists Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Morris
Louis, Sam Francis, Paul Jenkins, Helen Frankenthaler, Jules Olitski, Friedel Dz
ubas, Ronnie Landfield and several others are famous for creating washy, waterco
lor-like effects in oil and acrylic paintings in distinctive and radical styles
and versions of this method, and which is sometimes called stain painting.