10 Tips for Beginner Watercolourists
- Do your first couple of pictures monotone. Try to achieve a full range of tones in your painting. You will find the more water you mix with your paint the lighter the colour
- For the first four weeks of my beginner courses we use only 3 colours; Permanent Rose, Raw Sienna and Cobalt blue. From there students learn to mix a wide variety of colours, including greys and browns. The other benefit of a limited palette is beginners are not overwhelmed by choice of colour and can concentrate better on the artwork in front of them
- Choose simple compositions or subjects to start with; ie. one flower instead of a whole bunch. This way you can concentrate on your technique rather than what part of the picture to work on next which can lead to feeling overwhelmed
- Work top to bottom and light to dark. Build up layers to develop the painting as a whole rather than perfectly finishing one area at a time
- Use synthetic brushes. They are easier to control than animal hair because they are stiffer and hold less water
- Be aware of how dry or wet your paper is and only put more paint into a wet area that is thicker than what is already down. Do not try adding more paint to a section that is almost dry
- Invest in a heavy weight rough paper from a known brand. It is easier to paint on and the quality is apparent in the end product. Buying a lighter weight paper is false economy because on the 300gm+ paper you can work both sides. If you want to reduce costs, try working smaller
- Tube paints are easier to work with than pans when painting indoors. Student quality of a known brand is fine if you are starting out
- Join a community for support and inspiration. This could be in a class, at an art society self-help group or online artist community
- Celebrate your successes. Frame your best work and put them on your wall or online for friends and family to admire. This will motivate you to keep painting.