How to: Watercolour Flamingo So the key to watercolours is layers! Lots and lots of watery layers. And it’s kind of like backwards painting … instead of applying your dark layers first and then putting your light on top as you would with acrylics for example, you start with nice light washes, and build your colour and intensity up with layers, leaving any negative space that you want at the start of your painting. This flamingo commission was created that way. Watery layers- A little bit of pain