Explore watercolour

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

■ Overcome problems associated with lack of confidence

■ Build your mark-making skills

■ How to work with reference material

In over 20 years of teaching watercolour painting, I am used to seeing familiar and repetitive problems, some of which are caused by a lack of conviction or, at least, a reluctance to step out of one’s comfort zone to face what must be done.

First comes the practice of cherry picking, in other words, choosing to start by painting those parts of a subject that we are confident about, leaving until later the awkward, less familiar parts, to which we suspect we may not have a solution. There are several downsides to this. One is that at least some parts of the painting are likely to be executed in the wrong order. As I’ve said in a previous article, the timing of the placing of watercolour marks and