How to Combine Watercolor and Oil to Get the Best Results

Ale Casanova explains how to improve your creations by combining watercolor and oil painting techniques

Ale Casanova (@casanova_ale) is a painter and teacher with a degree in fine art. He works mainly with oil paints and watercolor to create striking portraits and nudes. His work has been exhibited in cities across Spain and Europe and has enabled him to build a career as a teacher, carry out workshops around Spain, and develop a technique where color and light become focal points in his paintings.

In this exclusive tutorial for the PRO community, Ale challenges what we have always been told: we shouldn’t mix watercolor paints with oil paints given that they are oil- and water-based. He shows us how to combine these seemingly opposing techniques. How? Using an intermediary element. The painter guides us through his process so that we too can mix these techniques and use them to our advantage, no matter our level. He shares tips and helps us to discover new uses for our paints that will give us unexpected results.