What I Discovered About Watercolours - 4 Lessons I've Learned

Feather Charm

6 hours ago

5 min read

Hello Everyone!

As you all know, I’ve been trying to improve my art skills, and that mostly comes in the form of doodles and drawings, but I’ve also branched out into watercolours. I love watercolours, because those who paint with them, professionally, or even as a pastime make such beautiful images. Granted, I’ve been practicing on and off, and there are times when I pick up a pen or brush and I don’t know what to create, but with every image I attempt, I am slowly improving. Not by much mind you, since I don’t practice every day (if you’ve seen my bullet journal flip throughs, you’ll know), but slowly, with every piece I create, I am slowly improving my skills. So, here are a few things, I learned about watercolours.

1. Wet Vs Dry

Did you know watercolour paints react differently to different states of your paper or canvas? I somewhat knew that, when I started practicing. I mean, when you’re a child, you’re given watercolour paints, to work with, because anything more substantial and it can be dangerous. When I was a child, I painted all the time, with watercolours, because it was the least messy (according to my mom). Now that I’m older, and I’m discovering other mediums of art, I’ve learned quickly the difference between painting on wet paper than on dry paper.

When you paint on wet paper, the colour is going to spread, a lot. It’ll be much more faded, and if you’re trying to blend something together, you’ll need to be careful about how much paint you add to your piece. I learned this the hard way. A lot of my earlier pieces ended up being just one colour, because the wet paper blended my colours too much. Now, I’ve learned to only wet the paper slightly (otherwise it will warp and crinkle). On the other hand, if you paint on dry paper, all the colour will be left in one spot. Yes, it might spread, but it won’t spread as quickly as it does on wet paper, so you’ll need to add more water to the page, in order to get it to spread, although, too much, and again, it spreads too far. So, getting the balance right is pretty tricky, and I’m still working on it.

2. Pressure Dictates How Thick Or Thin Your Lines Are

Just like in calligraphy, how much pressure you apply on your brush head determines how thick or thin your lines are going to be. I’m still working on this one, because a lot of the time, my lines tend to be thick, no matter how lightly I press my brush to the paper. I do tend to be heavy handed sometimes, because I normally work with watercolour pens, so it doesn’t drop as much colour as the actual paints. It's something I still need to work on.

Again, going back to childhood, you don’t really learn this, when you’re painting rainbows or drawing stick figures and houses. As long as the colour lands on the paper, you’re golden. However, I’m only recently learning how to apply as little pressure as I possibly can, so that I can come out with thinner lines, on my page. This is particularly useful, if I’m drawing tree branches or veins on a leaf. Now, the trick I’m trying to learn is to transition those lines to thicker ones, so I can make the body of the leaf more easily.

3. Work With The Background Colours First

One of the more recent lessons, I learned about watercolours, is that you need to work with the overall colours first, as in the main background colours. Let me explain. If you’re painting a pine tree, start off with the main lighter green and brown colours first, then add the darker colours and details that you see, like the darker leaves and the shadows. By doing that, you’re already doing half the work. You won’t need to worry about the paint blending in with each other, especially if you wait for the initial colours to dry first, because details are usually added on dry paper, and darker colours are added last.

I know for many artists this is already a given, but remember, I’m a beginner, I’m only just discovering what I can do with the paint I have. Not only that, but for me, it’s a slow process, because I have so many other things I’m doing, and I only have so many hours in the day to do it. Unfortunately, practicing my watercolours isn’t on the top of my to-do lists. Anyway, rant over, back to the topic at hand. For beginners like me, it can be difficult knowing where to start. We already want to know how to create the same images as professional artists, but find ourselves making so many mistakes, and on occasion, giving up, because it’s just too hard to get the lines right. That’s why, learning this lesson was new to me, and I’m actually grateful I now understand the concept. So, for all you beginners out there, start with the lighter background colours, and work your way from there. It does make it much easier.

4. Watercolour Requires Patience

As someone with a lot of things to do, patience isn’t a luxury I can afford. I genuinely need to be getting on with other things, so, waiting for my pieces to dry can be irritating. Now, I know I can always set it aside and do my other tasks, while I wait, but I tend to forget things easily, so if it’s set aside, it might be set aside for days, weeks even, before I return to it, and by that time, I might have forgotten what it was I wanted to paint. So, it isn’t easy, especially if you’re someone who doesn’t have a lot of patience as well.

Of course, you can cheat this, by using a hairdryer, but again, for me, it still requires some patience, especially if the paper is very wet. There will always be damp spots, even if I use the hairdryer, because I don’t actually dry it for long enough. So, I end up still blending lines together, when I’m not meant to. However, if one day, I do decide to dedicate the entire day to practicing, I might just develop enough patience to create a piece I can truly be proud of, but for now, that’s going to be a much later task.

What Lessons Have You Learned About Watercolours?

Honestly, despite my complaints, I do still love practicing my watercolours. Even if most of the images I paint are still amateurish, knowing I can create something artistic, even if it’s not the best work in the world, gives me pride. It still helps my creativity, and it helps me learn more about the art world, a space that I have always been afraid to venture into, because there is so much to learn, and a lot of it is subjective.

Well, that’s it from me today, I’m going to go and practice making a small watercolour flower, and maybe I’ll show it off to you, one day. For now, please don’t forget to like, subscribe, comment, share and follow me, here on Feather’s Charm, on my YouTube channel, on my other social media channels (Instagram, Twitter/X, TikTok), and on Patreon. Your support really does help me make more content like this, for you guys.