October 2, 2026
Why do my watercolors look dull?
If your watercolors look dull and washed out, it usually comes from 2 things: you don't use enough pure pigment straight from the tube, and you're afraid of making your palette dirty. The fix is to take creamy pigment from the tube instead of scrubbing the dried "rock" on your palette. Then you don't need to clean your palette, because you can dip the point of your brush into the pure part of the pigment.
Where do dull watercolors come from?
It all started with a question from one of my students, with a photo of her palette. She had the impression that fresh colors require specific techniques. She noticed that the pigments mix in her pans: some yellow with some blue, some blue with some red. Water also mixes with the pure paint, like in her orange. She asked if there were ways to prevent this.
If you look at my palette, it's nowhere near as clean as my students' palettes. Yet I still manage to create vibrant watercolors. So the cleanliness of the palette is not what makes the difference.
Behind her photo, I see 2 fears:
- The fear of wasting pigment.
- The fear of making the pigment dirty.
Why does dried pigment make your colors dull?
The first fear is the fear of wasting any pigment. With tubes, the pigment dries, and sometimes it dries a lot. Some pigments become like rocks when they dry. Cobalt turquoise, for example, gets really hard.
Since you don't want to waste any pigment, you stick with this hard rock and try to rub it to get some color out of it. This is the main issue I see with my students: they don't allow themselves to use pure pigment straight from the tube as long as there is this rock in the palette.
In a live painting session with my students, I showed how I take the pigment. It's pigment straight from the tube. It's creamy, it's not hard like a rock, and it's so much easier to take lots and lots of pigment. The intensity of the color is not the same at all: it's much better with the fresh pigment.
My students don't use enough pigment, and it's not possible to get that quantity of pigment from dried pigment. So if you find yourself scrubbing pigment on your palette because it has dried out, and you don't want to squeeze pure pigment from the tube, the solution is very simple: use the pigment from the tube.
What should you do with dried pigment on your palette?
I never waste any dried pigment anymore. I have 2 use cases for it:
- Very light colors. If I want a very light yellow with new gamboge, I can scrub a little bit of the new gamboge that has dried on my palette. I don't need much pigment to get such a light color.
- Small adjustments to a mix. If I have a green and I want to switch to an apple green, I add some yellow pigment, and that yellow can be dried. I don't need that much pigment to get this apple green hue.
That's why on my palette I always have some dried pigment and I always have some pure pigment.
Do you need a clean palette to get vivid colors?
No. The second issue I see with my students comes directly from the first one. Linked to the fear of wasting pigment, there is the fear of making the pigment dirty. This was exactly my student's question: there is some yellow touching the blue, the blue touching the red, so getting a pure red seems almost impossible because it's already dirty with the blue.
Look at how I create a first wash. I use some gray. I take the yellow, which is already dirty. Then I use some yellow ochre, which is dirty as well. Then I take yellow pigment straight from the tube, and I get a very vivid color. So I'm able to create vivid colors even though my palette is quite dirty.
How do you organize your palette for clean, vivid colors?
On my palette, I have different areas:
- The dirty area.
- The pure pigment area.
- Sometimes, the dried pigment area, which can be dirty or pure.
The way I operate is simple. If I need pure pigment, I use the pure pigment straight from the tube in the pure area. If I want to make my pigment more muted, I use the dirty area.
How do you pick up pure pigment from a dirty palette?
Every brush has a point. I use this very fine point to dive into the pure pigment and not into the dirty pigment.
Let's say you have some dirty pigment on the left side of your yellow. I use the point of the brush and dive into the pure part to get the pure yellow, even though the other side of that pigment is dirty.
That's why you don't need to clean your palette after each painting. You don't need to be so shy that you refuse to make any pigment dirty. You can let it get dirty, as long as you still have a dab of pure pigment you can dive into. That dab of pigment doesn't have to be pure everywhere. It can be dirty on one half, and on the other side you will still be able to get the pure pigment.
This is exactly what makes the difference between a dull painting and a vibrant one. Once the shadows are added on both versions, you can see the difference in the light, and it all comes from these 2 points.
FAQ
Is it wasteful to squeeze fresh paint when dried pigment is still on the palette?
No, because I still use the dried pigment. I use it for very light colors and for small adjustments, like adding a little yellow to turn a green into an apple green.
Should I clean my watercolor palette after every painting?
You don't need to. You can let some areas of your palette get very dirty, as long as you can still reach pure pigment with the point of your brush.
Why are my watercolor colors so weak?
Most of the time, it's a question of quantity. My students don't use enough pigment, and you can't get that quantity by scrubbing dried pigment. Creamy pigment from the tube gives you much more intensity.
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