Do you have struggles with watercolor painting?
Let me tell you something:
I've been painting with watercolors for a few years now and I've probably had the exact same struggles as you have now. But the more I painted, the more things I've learned. Thinking back I wish there were some things I knew sooner! Now to save you from these struggles in your watercolor journey here are the 10 Things I wish I knew sooner!
#1 Differences withing the Red, Yellow and Blue Color Family
Colors can be either warm or cool and depending on how you mix them together you either get a super vibrant or a more duller version.
#2 Reading the Label
Do you just go for the pretty colors without checking the label? I did that too but watercolors can have a lot of different characteristics.
#3 Different Drying Stages
Watercolors are not wet during painting and dry when they're dry! They slowly change from one stage to the next in their drying process. This is super important when it comes to creating gradient effects or other wet in wet techniques.
#4 Importance of Watercolor Paper
Watercolor paper has a huge impact on what your painting and your watercolors will look like! Washes can look streaky, have lots of backruns and look really uneven and dull when you're paper has a bad quality.
#5 Working in Layers
It never even occurred to me that when it comes to watercolors it’s not only about painting with wet paint and creating different watercolor effects, but it’s also about painting in layers to create depth in your painting!
#6 Brush Size
When I first started out I got myself a small set of different brushes that pretty much had the same size. Which made it a struggle to paint larger areas on the paper. Having one much bigger brush will save you a lot of trouble.
#7 Synthetic vs. Natural Brushes
But you don't just want a bigger brush but also a brush which can hold more water! Natural bristles tend to hold a lot more water than synthetic brushes. (But there are also good synthetic brushes that hold a good amount of water!)
#8 Using 2 Jars of Water
Are you struggling with dirty colors? Especially yellows that are always a bit greenish? Start to use two jars of water. One to clean your brushes and one to load up your brush with clean water.
#9 Porcelain Mixing Palette
In a porcelain mixing palette the paint stays in one place and you can mix it much better than in plastic mixing palettes.
#10 Quality > Quantity
I realized that investing in a few high quality art supplies will make your life so much better. You don't need 200 different colors. Invest into a few basic colors and good quality watercolor paper.
Watch my video below where I go more into detail on the 10 things I wish I knew sooner to prevent you from struggles with your watercolor painting and supplies!
Here are the links to my other videos I mentioned:
- How to Avoid Muddy Colors when Painting – Color Mixing Secrets Demystified for Beginners
- Improve Your Watercolor Paintings With This Simple Watercolor Technique【 Negative Painting 】
- What Is The Best Watercolor Paper? Improve Your Watercolor Painting
- CHEAP vs. EXPENSIVE Art Supplies – Does The Price Really Matter? Testing Watercolor Paint & Paper!
- DOs & DON'Ts: Watercolor Struggles / Mistakes & How to Avoid them for Beginners!