A bleed in watercolor is when your paintbrush touches an area that is still wet on your painting, and the color from your brush bleeds into the wet area.

Bleeds can be a fun way to use the natural unpredictable characteristics of watercolor, but bleeds can be frustrating when they happen on accident. In this post, I’ll give some tips on avoiding bleeds, how to use them in your watercolor paintings, and how to fix them if one happens on accident.