White Watercolor Paint: The Differences & How to Use Them

When I researched white watercolors for my courses, all I found online were a bunch of long-winded articles making assumptions about the use of white. Often these articles are written for word count and sometimes not written by artists at all! Lengthy intros about breaking the rules, when in reality the reader is just here to learn about white watercolors.

You don’t want to know my philosophies on breaking the rules in art. No nonsense here! We will get straight to the point on how you can use white watercolors.

What is white watercolor paint?

Most watercolors consist of pigment and a few additives mixed with water. Watercolors as a medium are transparent and allow light to go through the colors and hit the paper. What makes white watercolor paint different is that it’s made with titanium dioxide. This semi opaque compound can be mixed with other colors to create lighter tonal values in your colors. See the example below where I mixed white watercolor paint with other pigments. You get varrying degrees of opacity. The colors turn milky almost like acrylics. White watercolors make different colors more opaque. In watercolors, how opaque a paint is directly affects how transparent these colors will be on the paper.

Using White Watercolor Paint

Watercolor paint comes in different degrees of opacity; transparent, stain, and opaque. Artists choose to use white watercolors for many different reasons. Sometimes using white doesn’t make sense. Artists mix white with other colors to create tonal value. However, tonal value can also be achieved with just the use of water. Depending on what you plan on painting, you may choose water over white paint. I love to use white when painting botanical leaves, clouds, and glass. Depending on how opaque you want the paints to be, you would pick a different white. There are different types of white paint.

Titanium white = very opaque

China white = more blue tones, less opaque

Zinc white = very transparent

Right (with white watercolors), Middle (water), Left (Gouache)