Watercolours are attractive and often used to create an impressionist feeling to a painting. Watercolour helps an artist paint candid pictures in many colours. For beginner artists, watercolour can be an interesting challenge. Consider these beginner watercolour painting tips.
Watercolour Painting Supplies
Begin with the basics for watercolour painting. You will need proper watercolour paper – a thick, almost card-like paper that can be found in arts and craft stores – brushes of different sizes, water colour paints, water, newspaper, paper towels, and perhaps watercolour pencils, which can also be found in arts and craft stores.
Spread the newspaper over the tabletop to keep it clean, and place your paper, container of water, paints and brushes all on top of it. Keep the paper towels handy for drying the brushes after rinsing the paint off.
Watercolour painting can begin with or without a drawing. If your desire is to experiment with expressive colours and shapes, a drawing certainly is not necessary. Otherwise, consider beginning by sketching the desired image – for example, a house in a field with flowers. Watercolour is great for painting landscapes with the focus on one particular object and a wash of colour in the background. Sketch only the outlines of the image and leave the details for the paints. The sketch need not be perfect, as watercolour is about impressionistic art and expressive colours.
Adding Water to Watercolour Paints
To begin painting, dip the tip of the brush briefly into the water and rub it gently into the paint. Watercolour can be difficult to manipulate. A good rule to remember is that the more water in the brush, the lighter the colour will be on the page. The more the brush is rubbed into the paint, the more paint it will gather, and the darker the colour will be.
One of the good qualities of watercolour is that several shades of the same colour can be created by changing the amount of water in the paint. This comes in handy when painting a backdrop such as a blue sky, in which the colour is light near the horizon and darkens as it rises. Consider this idea when painting the flowery field and the sky in the background of the house.
The house in this painting example is where the detail would be. Watercolour pencils are great for creating detail, as they can be sharpened just like pencil crayons. With a watercolour pencil, draw the details in, and add a very small amount of water to the colour from the pencil with a tiny brush.
Watercolour Painting Technique Tips
Beginner painters, remember these tips to make your painting experiment easier.
- Try not to overuse the water. Not much water is needed to wet the dry paint, while too much can soak through and wrinkle, or even tear your paper. Remember to dry the brush after rinsing between colours to help avoid overusing the water.
- Replace the water frequently. The water in the container gathers the colour of the paints rinsed in it, and may taint the colours in the paint set as well as on the page.
- Watercolour colours blend together on the page, especially while they are still wet. Be sure to wait for the paint to dry completely before adding another coat, or painting any detail in a different colour.
- Unlike acrylic paints, it is difficult to paint over watercolour, in case of mistakes. Consider keeping scrap paper for testing colours and paint thickness before touching the brush to the page.
- Watercolour easily shows brushstrokes. Use larger brushes for larger surface areas and smaller brushes for details.
- Watercolour shades tend to lighten as they dry. Consider this when painting darker shades especially.
Good watercolour painting takes practice and patience to do well, yet it is an interesting challenge for beginners to experiment and to expand their creativity.
Michelle Wright - Michelle is an avid reader and writer, with a focus on book, film and music reviews, gluten free recipes, and fiction writing "how-tos."
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