How To Start Watercolor Painting At Home

Have you ever appreciated a beautiful watercolor artwork and wondered “If only I could paint like that.” It is too bad that a lot of budding painters hold back. The reason is, they have no idea of how they can kick off watercolor painting projects. Believe it or not, the joy of making pieces using watercolor is within anyone’s reach. Here, I will assist you in discovering how to start watercolor painting at home so that nothing can hold you back.

Essential skills to master working on watercolors

1. Paint medium

First things first, you need to know the art medium. Watercolor’s transparency is the major characteristic that differentiates it from other art media. This decides the order of laying down your color paint since applying light over dark is a no-no. You should likewise pick up the skill of controlling the paint flow when applying wet into wet. Also, have an idea of the amount of water present on your paper and paintbrush and the way it will affect your piece. 

2. Drawing

It is the base that all other things are based on. Your drawing skills should be as decent as your competency in watercolor painting. 

3. Color theory 

You need to know colors and the best ways of blending and matching them. With this, you will build emotion and mood in your pieces of art easily. Understanding the mixing rules allows you to innovate them when necessary as well. 

4. Design

Design refers to how you arrange your work’s elements for the most desired result. It is considerably about composition. That said, the design also pertains to the application of color and tonal value to paint balanced appealing artworks. 

Essential tools and environment to start creating art pieces with watercolor

1. Brushes

Black Velvet Series 3000S Watercolour Brushes

Remember, you do not have to spend a fortune on this tool. When selecting a paintbrush for watercolor painting, it is significant to get the best value for your money, most advisably, ‘all rounder’ Silver Black Velvet brushes. For example, the Black Velvet Series 3000S enables great precision painting. These hold a fair amount of watercolor paint and water. They are seriously a fantastic starting price for those intending to begin their collection with a brush that is quality but does not break the bank.

2. Paint

Every watercolor paint is not made equal. Low-cost ones are not genuinely watercolors. These are hard to work with. Also, they tend to be chalky and all that once dry. That is why you should never waste your time with them. Most advisably, you get artist-grade paints.

3. Water

Obviously, water is necessary to create paintings with watercolor. You should always have a large container of clean water ready. It does not matter whether you use a variety of different things to contain water, for instance, yogurt containers and small spray bottles. For your ease of remembering which water containers to use, I suggest cleaning your brushes with a jar of water and diluting your paint with a spray bottle.

4. Paper

Please bear in mind that bad-quality paper will entirely cancel out every benefit you receive from making use of quality watercolor paints. So, look for quality watercolor papers. The good papers in this regard are 100% cotton ones. Being professional quality, these are regarded to provide the most desirable painting surface. Cotton delivers unmatched stability and makes sure that your piece will stay beautiful for an extra-long time.

5. Palette

You should have a palette to blend colors. These can be affordable, perfectly adequate plastic palettes or a relatively expensive porcelain version. This tool’s most significant feature to search for is, it has a pure white color and is sufficiently large to contain watercolor paint for your demands. Successful watercolor is subject to execution speed. Thus, continually blending super small batches of color is unpractical. 

6. Workspace

A workspace or studio of some kind is likewise necessary. Wherever it is, this space should be the one you can keep clutter-free and clean in a breeze. Look for a place where you will not continuously get disturbed as well. This may just imply getting up earlier or waiting until your children are asleep.

Recommended educational resources for watercolor painting

There are a lot of resources that will guide you through the first steps of painting with watercolors at home. For example, find them on YouTube. This video-sharing service has many impressive watercolor channels. Take your time and you will find the one(s) that work best for you. Or, should you be the kind of person fond of learning from books, you may want to check out popular watercolor painting books. 

Final words

I hope that the guide above provides you with the necessary insight into the fantastic world of watercolors. But please remember that practice is the key to getting good at watercolor painting. When you paint more, you will hone your skills. As a result, you will grow more quickly as an artist. So, what are you waiting for but go grab your paint brushes?