How to Watercolor Painting

By acrylgiessen.com and Martina Faessler

If you love the aesthetic of watercolor paints and have always wanted to make your own painting, you are in luck! Whether you have never picked up a paintbrush before, or are a seasoned artist, this book will cover everything that you need to know when using watercolor paints, as well as provide you with 10 different step-by-step tutorials on how to paint certain images. From creating dreamy sunset scenes, to painting the most realistic clouds, we have all of your watercolor needs covered!

 

In addition to that, our book is equipped with five detailed and informative tutorials to help you get started, ranging from how to mix your watercolors, to the best techniques that you should be familiar with! Along with learning what the best watercolor pencils are, our 320 pages of content are packed with helpful tips that will leave you feeling like a true watercolor professional at the end.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Martina Faessler
• Release date: Dec 30, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223703150

Book preview

About this Book | Introduction

Watercolor paintings make up some of the most beautiful artworks in the history of the art world! When thinking about renowned watercolor paintings, you might be thinking of the many idyllic works created by J.M.W. Turner, or the infamous flower watercolor paintings of Georgia O’Keeffe. Many artists, both past and present, have experimented with watercolor painting, as it is a relatively easy medium to work with, and produces truly stunning works. Even Vincent van Gogh, most notably known for his heavy and thick impasto painting technique, dabbled around with watercolors, producing nearly 150 watercolor paintings during his life!

The reason that watercolor paints are so versatile to work with is that almost everything can be painted using watercolors, meaning that your possibilities are endless! Watercolors are known for their playful nature, as the colors easily merge with one another, which allows you to create fascinating artworks. The great thing about painting with watercolors is that no specific skill level is required; both beginners and professionals can use watercolor paints when selecting their preferred medium.

If you love the aesthetic of watercolor paints and have always wanted to make your own painting, you are in luck! Whether you have never picked up a paintbrush before, or are a seasoned artist, this book will cover everything that you need to know when using watercolor paints, as well as provide you with 10 different step-by-step tutorials on how to paint certain images. From creating dreamy sunset scenes, to painting the most realistic clouds, we have all of your watercolor needs covered!

In addition to that, our book is equipped with five detailed and informative tutorials to help you get started, ranging from how to mix your watercolors, to the best techniques that you should be familiar with! Along with learning what the best watercolor pencils are, our 320 pages of content are packed with helpful tips that will leave you feeling like a true watercolor professional at the end.

If you would like to find even more inspiration and exciting painting tutorials, we encourage you to check out our website as well as our pages on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest. While you are at it, you can even sign up to our newsletter to receive regular updates on our new blog posts.

Improving your artistic skills has never been this easy! Read on for our easy-to-follow tutorials on how to use watercolor paints, and what you could paint once you have mastered the medium. You’ll never know what you are capable of if you never try!

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WATERCOLOR TECHNIQUES

Watercolor is a very playful medium, there are so many ways in which one can make watercolor paintings. However, when starting watercolor for the first time it can seem confusing and overwhelming to make creative decisions. In this tutorial, we will be breaking down various watercolor painting tips and techniques into eight different types. The aim is to help you develop the watercolor basics by making a series of easy watercolor paintings that establishes confidence in you when painting with watercolors. Hopefully, by the end, you will have more confidence in how to watercolor.

Before You Begin

It is important to understand that when you watercolor there is no specific way of doing so. What is great about watercolor paint is that it can be applied in a variety of ways. We will be going through various watercolor techniques within this tutorial by breaking them down into digestible steps. We will also utilize them within some easy watercolor paintings, giving us a better sense of the watercolor basics. Most importantly our aim in this tutorial is to have fun, so feel loose and free as we go through this watercolor painting tutorial.

watercolor techniques 9b

Necessary Materials

Firstly we want good paper, any watercolor paper is good and can be bought in your local art shop, however, make sure the grammage of the paper is above 300GSM. We will use a set of watercolor brushes, however, you can use various brushes for various effects. And lastly, we will be using a set of pan watercolors. Depending on where you are in the world and what is available to you is completely your choice. Lastly, we will use some masking/scotch tape to keep our paper down and in place.

Preparation

We want to make sure we have a good paper as a prerequisite. If we do not have a good paper it does not matter how good we are, the paper will have a great effect on the outcome at the end. Secondly, because we are using a water-based medium, our paper will inevitably warp due to the water’s warping capabilities. So let us make sure we use some scotch tape to tape down our paper. Lastly, because we will be exploring various techniques, let us divide our page into 8 segments using our scotch tape as the tool to divide our page.

watercolor techniques 1

Watercolor Techniques

for Beginners

Watercolor is quite a loose medium which means it can be hard to control. Therefore, a great suggestion is to allow yourself to be very free during this process. Unlike drawing, watercolor has a different physical approach so let us come into this tutorial with a lack of perfectionism and precision in our mark-making. However, there are a few watercolor tips and techniques to help guide your mark-making within this tutorial. As we learn how to watercolor we will break down the watercolor basics by doing some easy watercolor paintings. Doing some easy watercolor painting will free us from trying to make it amazing.

Funny enough, the more carefree you are, the better it is when painting with watercolor. Let us begin.

Technique 1: Lifting the Paint

Lifting is a very specific way of lifting paint off of the surface of our paper or canvas to create marks. This can be a great technique for creating negative space for either painting without other colors interfering or it can be a great way to create light marks or even clouds. let us make some clouds with this technique

watercolor techniques 1a

Let us begin by giving our first section in the top left of our page a light coat of water on the surface of the paper. This is an essential technique for your watercolor basics repertoire.

watercolor techniques 1b

Once we have a thin coat of water evenly spread out on our paper we can be quick about applying a light blue that resembles the color of an afternoon sky. Once we have the color on the paper we should act whilst the color is still wet. Either with a clean dry brush begin to firmly rub off the paint.

watercolor techniques 1c

We can also make these marks with either a paper towel or some crumpled-up tissue. Try to give a slight squiggle motion to create the appearance and shape of a cloud.

watercolor techniques 1d

This is a very easy watercolor painting as this technique works well with clouds. However, we can apply this watercolor technique to create negative spaces for a variety of features when painting with watercolors.

Technique 2: Developing Dark to Light

This technique is quite a unique way of making marks. What we do here is we, in a very unconventional way, but darker colors before our lightest ones. This is how we do it: Start by priming the next section of your paper with a thin coat of water.

watercolor techniques 2a

Once we have a thin coat of water on our surface we can begin by applying an interesting dark color. Start by placing the light blue that you may have already mixed as a first layer and try to act quickly by then applying a darker blue.

watercolor techniques 2b

Whilst it is wet we can add some purple and black on the edges so that it may seep into the wet paint mixing and creating an interesting color combination. This is a good technique to add to your watercolor basics. Give the paint a moment to get damp so that it is not completely wet. What we want to do now is place another color in little spots such as red and yellow on the damp paint. This will create little cauliflower back runs (we will define cauliflower back runs in detail later on). However, essentially what it does though is create little explosions of color.

watercolor techniques 2d

Then allow the paint to completely dry for about one hour, then feel free to apply various kinds of light colors including white. This is a great way to create more abstract combinations or something that resembles an organic composition such as Lillies on dark water.

watercolor techniques 2e

Technique 3: Making a Seamless Gradient

Let us move on to something a little more simple like a gradient. That being said, making the gradient seamless does require attentiveness to the application of the paint on the surface. If done right, it can come out looking beautiful and it is an essential technique for various reasons such as landscape backgrounds, horizons, and many more.

watercolor techniques 3a

Let us premix a color for this gradient, let’s say red. Once again, with a water primed surface, let us give a stroke of thick red paint at the top of the section onto the wet surface. Whilst still wet we want to act fast and smooth, so with gentle strokes from left to right bring the paint down to the bottom of the section. Keep consistent with your strokes as you go down to the bottom of the section. As you go to the bottom of the page the color should fade from the brush keeping to top more saturated whilst it slowly fades as the paint reaches the bottom of the segment.

watercolor techniques 3d

Whilst the page is still wet you can go over it again with another layer of the same color or a different one following the same pattern of movement. However, make sure you consistently stroke the paint down to the bottom of the page creating a seamless gradient. Once your paint has dried the gradient should have dried in a way that shows no distinctive lines that separate the dark and light moments. The gradient should be seamless. This can take some practice so keep trying until you get it.

watercolor techniques 3e

Technique 4: Creating Splatters

The splattering effect works well with watercolor painting. To achieve this effect is an easy and fun activity that can be used to create textures, stars, and even a galaxy. Let us create a mini galaxy with this technique.

watercolor techniques 4a