Why granulation often disappears when you add more pigment

It feels intuitive to add more pigment when you want more texture. More intensity should lead to more visible granulation. Stronger color, stronger structure. That assumption makes sense on the surface, but watercolor does not respond to logic in that way.

Granulation depends on separation. It relies on pigment particles having enough space and time to move independently before settling. When too much pigment is introduced at once, especially from a very concentrated mix, that space disappears. Particles crowd each other. Movement shortens. Gravity has less room to act.

What looks rich in the pan can become uniform on the paper.

Granulating pigments tend to show their structure most clearly when they are more diluted than expected. Water creates distance between particles. Time allows different weights to assert themselves. Texture appears not because there is more pigment, but because pigment is allowed to behave according to its physical properties.

This is one of the reasons granulation can feel inconsistent or elusive. It appears when conditions are open enough and disappears when density increases too quickly. The impulse to add more is understandable, especially when a surface feels underwhelming. But very often that impulse collapses the very behavior being sought.

There is also a timing aspect. Highly concentrated mixes tend to settle faster.

Drying accelerates. The window for separation narrows. Granulation needs duration as much as it needs space.

Learning this changes how color strength is approached. Instead of building intensity through concentration, it becomes possible to build it through layering and patience. Allowing one wash to dry fully before adding another often preserves granulation far better than loading everything into a single heavy application.

Granulation thrives on restraint. Not as an aesthetic choice, but as a physical condition.