The Little Art School’s Joanne Robinson shows you the equipment you need and some watercolour techniques for beginners.
Painting watercolour is a great medium to get you started in painting. It doesn’t require lots of equipment, and it doesn’t make a lot of mess. You don’t need a studio or an easel or lots of space; just a few items and a small box to store it in.
The dictionary definition of ‘watercolour’ is:
‘Artists’ paint made with a water-soluble binder such as gum arabic, thinned with water rather than oil, giving a transparent colour.”
See our video – Watercolour Techniques for the Absolute Beginner
The Key to Watercolour – the Wash
The key to watercolour is simply water and how much you use.
A fundamental fact about watercolour painting is that you must learn to make a wash – simply adding water to your paint or the other way around – paint to water.
The more water you have in the mix, the lighter the wash becomes.
Don’t add white to lighten the watercolour; just add more water.
Before we dive into the watercolour techniques for beginners, let’s first discuss the equipment. Painting doesn’t have to be expensive.
Watercolour Essential Equipment
Here is an essential list to get you started in watercolour painting:
- Watercolour paints
- Watercolour paper
- Brushes
- A palette
- Clean(ish) water
Watercolour Paints
It can feel overwhelming when you wander into an art shop and look at the watercolour paints available.
Pans or Tubes? Student or artist quality? How many colours? Which colours?
Let’s keep it simple.
When starting to use watercolour, you only need a small box with a couple of blues, reds, yellows, and neutrals.
Our Online Art Courses (Introduction Course and Level One) include a Cotman box, and we are big fans of the colour selection and the quality.
Buy a Windsor and Newton Cotman box individually.
Watercolour Paper
Is watercolour paper important? Categorically, YES, the kind of paper you use is essential to your watercolour journey.
The most common mistake beginner artists make with watercolour is buying lovely paints but then trying to paint on the wrong paper.
Use watercolour paper!
Watercolour paper comes in different weights, from the too-floppy 150 gsm to the almost-like-cardboard 850 gsm.
If you can help it, don’t use anything under 300 gsm.
At the Little Art School, we stick with our trusty 350 gsm, which can be used without stretching. It’s got a lovely texture and is a great all-rounder when you’re starting out.
It will withstand lots of water without warping and won’t break the bank.
Buy the watercolour paper we use in our webshop.
Watercolour Brushes for Beginners
When I first started painting, the selection of brushes at an art shop used to make me panic. Now I know that when you’re starting out, just having three brushes covers most things.
On our beginner courses, we send our artists round brushes in sizes 2, 6, and 10. The combination gives a brush for washes, another for fine detail, and one in between.
As you build your skills, adding to your brush collection can become a source of joy!
Watercolour Palette for Beginners
With watercolour, you just need a simple palette to mix washes; we start our artists with a small dimple palette.
However, you can use the lid of your paint box or even a plate—any surface that will allow you to pour a few drops of water and add paint.
Now we have the equipment sorted, let’s paint!
Watercolour Painting Techniques
You’re good to go once you’ve got your paints, paper, brushes and palette.
Grab a jar of clean water and try painting a few washes on your paper.
Put a few drops of water on your palette to mix a wash, and then add some paint with a damp brush.
The more paint you add, the darker the wash will be. If you add more water, the wash will become lighter. It’s worth noting that watercolour dries a bit lighter, so if your wash is very light, you might want to add more paint.
It’s impossible to check how strong a wash is when looking at it in the palette. You always need to have a bit of tester paper ready so that you can paint a little of the mask on paper to see if you’ve got the strength of colour you’re looking for.
At the Little Art School, we only throw away old watercolour paper once every inch has been used. Only then does it go on the recycle pile.
Watercolour Wash Techniques
Now, let’s try some washes:
Flat Wash
A flat wash is the most straightforward wash.
- Use your largest brush and start at the top left-hand corner of your paper;
- take the brush along the paper in a definite stroke,
- lift it off, then start the next stroke on the left again, ensuring that your brush is touching the first wet stroke,
- keep going for as much of the paper as you want to cover
Graded Wash
Do the same as above, but add more water to the paint as you go down the page to get lighter.
Graded Colour Wash
Instead of using just one colour wash, mix two or three washes and gradually add in your next colours.
Wet on Dry
This is a way to build up the painting with layers. Work light to dark and ensure the paint is dry before putting on the next layer.
Wet on Wet
This is what watercolour is all about for me! The excitement of dropping wet paint into wet paint and letting it make its own way.
Lifting Out
Whilst the paint is still wet, you can remove an area with a kitchen roll, a sponge, or a dry brush; this is an excellent way to create clouds, for example.
Exercises and Techniques for Watercolour Beginners
Curves in Watercolour
Whether you are drawing or painting, the best way to achieve a lovely curve is to really relax your arm.
Sometimes when you are hunched over a painting you tense up your arm and hand.
When drawing or painting curves, I try to sit back, exhale, and relax, allowing my hand to hold the brush or pencil lightly and create a lovely, flowing curve.
Try Painting Hills
Try using the ‘wet on dry’ to create a simple painting with hills receding.
Paint your paper with a light wash in a single colour. Allow the wash to dry. Add a little extra paint to your wash, then (with a relaxed grip on your brush!) paint a curved line about three-quarters of the way up the page, giving you your distant hill.
Allow to dry, and then add a little more paint to the wash and paint another hill halfway down; keep repeating until you have three or four layers of hills painted wet on dry, which become progressively darker as you get lower on the page.
Try Painting Leaves
One way you could have some fun developing techniques to paint wet in wet would be to try painting some autumn leaves.
Draw a simple outline of a leaf on a piece of watercolour paper or in your watercolour sketchbook.
Now mix three washes: a red, a yellow and a brown, using burnt sienna with a few drops of burnt umber.
For this to work, make sure that you have plenty of paint in the washes. Watercolour dries lighter, so if the wash is too watery, it will almost disappear once dried.
Now, use your brush (number 6 works well) with a bit of clean water to paint the whole inside of the leaf. Now, drop your washes onto the wet paper. Don’t worry about the paint outside the lines; the water will act as an invisible forcefield!
Let the paint mingle with each other, but don’t try to control it; just enjoy the effect.
Try Painting Reflections
Working ‘wet in wet’ is a great way to paint reflections. The key to painting reflections is to avoid hard edges; by dropping the paint onto wet paper, the edges will naturally blur as the paint merges.
Try Painting Clouds
Mix a blue wash and paint over an area with a flat wash (see above).
Then, moving quickly, as the paint still needs to be wet, use a bit of tissue scrunched into a ball to lift out some of the paint and leave little clouds behind.
You can also do this with a dry brush. Placing the dry brush over the wet paint lifts the paint and acts as an ‘eraser’- a little bit of watercolour magic!
Lines in Watercolour – Thick, Thin, Short and Long
You can paint a line with watercolour and vary its thickness in two ways.
The first is to use a different-sized brush for fine detail—a number 1 or 2 round brush works well.
If I’m looking for very, very small lines, I might use a tiny brush, a size 0 or even 000. This brush is so small that the lines almost disappear.
If you want thick lines, then move up a brush size accordingly.
The other way to vary the width of your line is to vary the pressure you apply to the brush. I often only use a number 6 brush, painting lightly with the tip for a fine line; applying more pressure and brush bristles will give me a thicker line.
A Mantra for Newbies at Watercolour
Light to dark.
Start with the lightest values and build up to the darkest tones.
When painting with watercolour, remembering the mantra ‘Light to Dark’ is always worth remembering.
Great Books for Watercolour Beginners
The Collins ‘Watercolour for the Absolute Beginner’
Sections written by Alwyn Crawshaw, Sharon Finmark, and Trevor Waugh provide a great introduction with many practical exercises.
Charles Evans ‘Watercolour Rescue’
A ‘must have’ for the beginner watercolourist: a small book packed with insights and practical solutions.
Learn from Your Watercolour Mistakes
Remember that mistakes are your stepping stones when you start watercolour painting.
Think of your art practice in the same way as a pianist learning to play. Don’t expect to get it right each time; just keep trying!
Summary of Watercolour Techniques for Beginners
- The key to watercolour painting is the wash.
- Equipment does not have to be expensive or wide-ranging.
- Buy the right watercolour paper – over 350 gsm.
- Test out the wash techniques.
- Practise with the watercolour exercises above.
Online Art Course
If you’d like to learn to draw and paint following a structured and progressive art course, look at our Drawing and Painting Course at the Little Art School.
Our Online Art Course allows you to work independently and at your own pace.
Unlike other online courses, we send you all the art materials you need to complete the course.
The Little Art School provides a nurturing environment and a thriving online community that comes together in a spirit of kindness and help.