This post is about how to start watercolor painting — an easy bulletproof guide for beginners or artists who haven’t painted in a while.

It happens to me. I stress a little when I don’t paint for a while and I start watercolor painting again. I have to fight the perfectionist in me and tell myself that it will turn out well even if I haven’t practiced for a long time. If it doesn’t, it’s not a problem! They’re always ways to fix a painting, or starting over is always an option.

Having a solid process is extremely important to begin watercolor painting for the first time or if you’re coming back to it again.

What stops us from painting and practicing?

We don’t start watercolor painting for several reasons, such as not enough time and other priorities taking over and competing for our time. Perfectionism is the culprit of procrastination, and lack of confidence plays a vital role in everything we do. Lastly, “not feeling like it” is a common blocker of starting something new or challenging.

Not enough time and other priorities take over

There’s only so much time in a day and so many many priorities — not only is the daily list long, there are unexpected urgent matters to attend to pop up left and right. I notice that as I get older, more responsibilities get added on every day — relationships, career, mortgage, home renovations, taking care of others, etc. The todos fill my days, weeks, and months full. It feels like time is running away from me.

I get it. It’s not easy to make time for personal development. But there’s an important reason why we should make time. Our growth and satisfaction in life fuel all the todos and responsibilities we need to do every day. It’s an emotional bank account we need to deposit to consistently to have a fulfilling life. Without that bank account, we will burn out and face consequences of anxiety, depression, and unfulfillment in life. I learned this the hard way, but that’s a different blog post for another day 🙂

It’s super important to do things that you love to create fulfillment in life. Painting, in general, boosts dopamine and feel-good hormones. Additionally, watercolor is a great medium because you can bring it anywhere. It’s highly portable and accessible to use anywhere you are at the moment. Not much is needed. You can carry a watercolor sketchbook, paints, and brushes with you, and you’re good to go to paint anywhere.

Perfectionism

I personally suffer from this disease. I want everything to be just right and perfect, but life is not perfect, and beauty is in imperfections. Life experience taught me that getting better is impossible without trying and failing. And sometimes it’s not going to be perfect, but it’s good to do it anyways, and then share and get feedback. Listen to the input, re-evaluate and do it again. It took me a long time to start my youtube channel. I felt vulnerable. I didn’t know how to edit the videos or make good videos. My first video sucked, but practicing and doing it, again and again, made me better, not hiding and learning in secret and suddenly becoming good. There is a reason why when taking art lessons, the main component of the courses is producing art.

When we start something new, we all suck at it! There’s no exception. What distinguishes excellent from good is that people who are great at something do it consistently. They fail, they succeed, and they learn from the experiences. Moreover, they fail and succeed gracefully – without making a fuss or having an attitude because they know it’s all part of the learning process they enjoy.

Furthermore, we all feel vulnerable when we show our work to others, no matter how confident we feel inside. Art is a form of communication whose purpose is to evoke reactions from others. If you get feedback, good or bad, it’s all great! You evoked something. Pat yourself on the back. It means you made something that triggers something in others. If your art is ignored, you’re probably showing it to the wrong audience. No matter what you make, you’ll have people who like your work and people who don’t.

Let go and instead focus on the process of art making. Practice and experiment, and you’ll get to the point where perfectionism is part of the past.

Lack of confidence

Lack of confidence is related to lack of practice. It’s easy to feel not confident when you are just starting out. Once you do it many times, you will learn the medium and how it works, and the fear of the unknown will disappear.

The same thing goes if you haven’t painted in a while. Feeling rusty and unsure about yourself is natural after taking a long break. I have to go through several paintings that are kind of blah before I feel confident enough to use the medium again and enjoy my fruits of labor.

Again, there’s no way around it. Practice is the key!

Don’t feel like it, or where’s my muse?

I’m sorry to break it to you, but the muse isn’t coming. I wish there was a muse fairy who would sprinkle some magic powder on us — the creative creatures. In real life, the inspiration comes, but in the process of doing it. You probably heard the concept of flow — complete immersion in the activity. That’s what we want. Inspiration comes when we’re in the flow state.

For example, I have to force myself to exercise. I don’t really feel like it. Nonetheless, once I start exercising, I enjoy it and don’t want to stop. The same goes with art making. The hardest part is to begin something, and then it’s easy to continue.

Moreover, I believe we’re all conditioned to do urgent things. In other words, we do it because there’s a deadline or some kind of urgency. It is a great motivator. But something done for pleasure doesn’t have a deadline or urgency. So, how do you stay motivated then?

There are several ways to keep us motivated. We can set artificial deadlines — blocking time on our calendars is useful. Having the tools and space ready and prepared is also extremely helpful. However, the best motivator is to understand deeply why we’re doing what we’re doing. What is the purpose?

I can tell you my purpose in practicing art. When I practice art, I feel alive and happy. Nothing makes me happy as much as when I create. I feel whole and complete. I feel like I get energy as opposed to losing it. And most of all, through creation, I find myself through self-discovery, which is extremely rewarding.

Find YOUR reason why and you will be unstoppable!

Here are some ideas to get inspired and get into a flow state:

Schedule a painting date with yourself on your calendar.
Get materials (color palette, watercolor paper, and brushes) that you like to use.
Surround yourself with creative people (e.g., connect with them on social media).
Set goals you want to reach and have a plan for how to achieve them.
Break big projects into chunks.
Sign up for a watercolor course.
When painting, avoid distractions (keep the phone on silent or put it in a different room).
Challenge yourself — it shouldn’t be so complex that you feel frustrated, but it can get boring if it’s too easy. The magic is in balance.

A bulletproof process to how to start watercolor painting

In this section, I will go over the proven essentials that will help you start watercolor painting with ease and no issue, such as picking a painting subject, the tools necessary to begin and watercolor step-by-step instructions.

What to paint?

First, decide on what you’re trying to say.

Before starting a watercolor painting, decide what you want to say. Art is a visual communication tool. And, if you want to use it as a communication tool, it’s crucial to figure out what you’re communicating and why.

It doesn’t have to be complex, but having a reason and purpose in mind will help you with decisions down the road.

Experimenting is also great. But then, the purpose of your painting is to experiment and learn something new.

Second, brainstorm of subjects you want to paint

You can look for reference photos you like (make sure it’s copyright free), you can paint from real life or still life, or you can look for easy tutorials online (like youtube) as an inspiration.

What do you need to get started?

Location

Find a suitable place to paint where you are not distracted by other things and it’s easy to use your tools. Watercolor is a highly portable medium, and it’s easy to bring it traveling to paint anywhere you like.

Gather your tools

A pencil and sketch paper.
Brushes – big, middle, small, and one specifically for details. Water pen works too.
Watercolor paper, tape, and board or watercolor paper block or sketchbook.
Mixing plate for mixing.
Paper towels (for wiping accidents and drying brushes)
Get two buckets of water cans.
Hair dryer (this is optional but will help speed up drying between layers)
If you want to experiment with painting techniques, you’ll need salt, alcohol, serum wrap, or a sponge —depending on your technique.

Sketch before painting!

It’s good practice to sketch a pencil thumbnail (a small sketch) before starting an actual painting. This was taught to me in art school. A thumbnail with darks and lights helps create better artwork. Watercolor can be unforgiving once we add dark layers, so having a plan for the darks and lights, will remediate any future mistakes. Also, a thumbnail sketch acts as a blueprint and aids with the design decision in composition and layout.

In addition to sketching thumbnails, I like to draw an entire drawing on scratch paper and then transfer it to watercolor paper. You can learn about my process in this post here.

Watercolor painting guide for beginners

1. Use a limited color palette

Pick a limited color palette – 1-5 colors (white and black don’t count). The fewer the color palette, the easier it is to paint. Fewer colors equal fewer decisions. Personally, I believe fewer colors create a more cohesive and harmonious painting. The repetition of elements and colors creates harmony. Our eyes always love to look for repeated elements.

Decide if you would like to use different watercolor techniques. Unless you want to experiment, I recommend simplifying and skipping this step.

2. Paint from light to dark

Watercolor painting is the art of combining many layers. Start with a clear or light color wash as your first layer. As you layer each wash gradually, develop the objects you’re painting.
Then gradually add darker layers of colors to darken the shapes.
Hint: test the mixed color on paper towel or scratch paper.
Always paint the darkest areas of the painting last. Watercolor is unforgiving if we add dark paint to it. So it’s essential to add that step at the end.

3. Paint shapes

Paint shapes and not what you see. In real life, we see shapes that our brain interprets as objects. We want to mimic nature and paint shapes and allow our viewers to interpret the shapes as objects. When I took a realistic painting workshop, my teacher emphasized that painting realism is achieved with an abstraction of shapes. It’s the shapes that form a realistic image. If we draw or paint the object and not the shapes that make up the object, it’s not possible to achieve realism. Instead, it will look like a cartoon version of the object.

4. Test your painting throughout the process

Use a squint test or walk away from the painting to see if it’s going in the right direction. When we paint, we lose track of the bigger picture and focus on the details. The whole painting will fall apart if we don’t get the larger shapes right.

5. Always paint the details last

As stated in the previous paragraph, getting the big shapes right is essential. And, only at the end, if we want to, add details. And maybe the details are not even necessary, and you can skip them altogether. Please note that when adding details, ensure your watercolor painting has dried thoroughly. Otherwise, you might have color bleeds into each other, and the details wouldn’t be visible.

6. Finishing touches

The painting is not done until you put a signature on your artwork. Own it! You created something and now sign it for others to recognize it.
Don’t forget to put a date on the back for future references. I usually like doing it in pencil so I can modify the date format if needed in the future.

Other helpful suggestions

Ooops… you made a mistake. What should you do?

Turn lemons into lemonade. It’s critical to embrace mistakes in painting. The unexpected always gives a painting spontaneity and something fascinating to look at. Watercolor is all about letting the medium do its thing. Don’t try to control it. It’s not going to work. Give it freedom!

When I make a mistake in a painting, instead of panicking, I turn the mistake into a puzzle that I need to figure out. Instead of being frustrated, I stay curious. I ask myself questions — how can I turn this into something even better? When I figure out how to fix it, that part of the painting turns out the best. That’s where creativity is at play. Embrace the mistake as spontaneity and interest in the artwork.

For instance, when I accidentally get paint droplets onto my painting. I embrace it and add other droplets to the painting. Repeating it throughout the artwork makes it look like it’s intentional and captivating 😉

Mental attitude is the key!

Come back to it in a couple of days and examine how you can improve. The worst critic is always yourself. Train yourself to have a great attitude. You are a student of art and life. If you don’t like it, someone will. Do it again and see if you like it more.

I painted this Monstera leaf multiple times. The one on the left looks good. But the one on the right I love! The style is unique and interesting and I captured what I was looking for — the leaf’s uniqueness. Painting the same object multiple times improves my style and allows me to experiment and learn.

Practice, practice, practice

No matter how many youtube videos you’ll watch or think about painting. The only way to get better is to practice painting consistently. Do small sketches, don’t make it complicated. Study your subjects, study nature, and stay curious. Note things you like and don’t. Paint what you love, paint how you like it, and most of all, enjoy the process by not overthinking it or taking it too seriously. Learning is easier when it’s fun.

Also, painting is like riding a bike. Once learned, it’s never forgotten how.

I hope this post was helpful for you. Let me know in the comments below, how your watercolor painting is going 🙂

Love,
Dasha

How to start watercolor painting — a bulletproof guide for beginners

What stops us from painting and practicing?