With so many people turning to art as a hobby, there are countless avenues for people to indulge their creative senses. From painting to drawing and sculpture, all of these arts allow you to express yourself in ways that you didn’t think possible before you picked up a brush (or a pencil). But, if you’ve never tried your hand at watercolour painting, you might be wondering what it is and how it works.
In this article, I will talk about what watercolour painting is, what materials to use and what the basics of watercolour painting are.
What is Watercolour Painting?
Watercolour painting is the process of using paints containing water, pigments and binding agents on a paper or other absorbent surface.
Watercolours are quite different from other types of paints, as they are transparent and use wet paint to create images. It’s because of its transparent characteristics and its historical use by famous artists such as Albrecht Dürer , that watercolour painting has become so popular.
Preparation Before Watercolour Painting
If you’re thinking about trying your hand at watercolour painting, the first thing you’ll need to do is equip yourself with the right tools. From brushes and paints to palettes and paper, there are main resources that you need. My goal here is to give you a basic rundown of what you’ll need to get started, so you can get out there and experiment.
Materials You Need for Watercolour Painting
To get started, you will need some basic supplies that you can find easily in stationery shops, you don’t need a lot of materials to get started which is what makes watercolour painting easy for beginners to start with.
The first thing you need for watercolour painting are, you guessed it, watercolours and paper.
Watercolours
There are tons of watercolour styles and brands and you can buy them in sets or individual pieces. If you are a beginner, you can choose a set of colours and then focus on other comprehensive colours as you get better.
Watercolours come in 3 grades:
- Kids
- Art Students
- Artist
People who are starting out as beginners will find watercolours for art students as the perfect place to start their painting journey.
You can buy a set of colours so you don’t have to focus much on mixing the colours and just start painting with a palette.
Papers
It’s important to apply your watercolours to high-quality paper. Though watercolour paper is the best choice, other quality papers may work, too. I use Chitrapat paper, Arches, Fabriano as it gives a good texture to the watercolours that I use.
Chitrapat paper is an inexpensive Indian brand of paper which I often use and like it a lot.
Watercolour paper is used with watercolour paint because of its absorbency. Unlike regular paper, watercolour paper allows paint to sit on top of it until it dries. If you use standard printer paper with watercolour, the paint will bleed at the edges because the paper is more absorbent.
Paintbrushes
With watercolour brushes, there is a wide variety of brushes that can create different effects. If you’re just getting started or you’re still learning how to paint with watercolour, you may not need an extensive collection at first. Two or three brushes will suffice when you are starting out. Some basic brushes that you can have are round brushes and flat brushes in sizes 3, 4, 6, 8, 10,12. Some finer brushes allow us to create more detail work and larger brushes for washes and filling up.
Glass of Water
The most important thing in watercolour painting is using 2 glasses of water, one to clean off your paintbrush and one to hydrate your colours and dilute them. You also need a cloth or tissues to clear excess water and blot your paintbrush.
You can also use other stuff to help you out when painting with watercolours:
- A board to keep your paper on
- Painter’s tape or masking tape to stick your paper on the surface
These additional materials are optional and can be skipped.
Basic Watercolour Painting Techniques
When you first try out watercolour painting, there are a few things to keep in mind that make it easier. Learning how the paint works on paper and how to use your brushes are pretty important.
Wet on Wet
Painting with watercolour can be done a couple of different ways. Wet-on-wet, which is typically used for painting landscapes and skies, it can be difficult to draw a perfect line with this method. It is also great for painting in large stripes of colour because it gives us a nice smooth effect.
Wet-on-dry
Wet-on-dry is a technique that’s used to achieve more precise and defined shapes. Most illustrations are done in watercolour by painting a wash on paper, then applying paint on top of it after it’s dried. Because watercolour is translucent, you’ll see the bottom layer if you look closely.
Dry Brush
Dry brush is something you might not know about if you’ve never heard of it before. It can be done with a dry brush or with a mostly-dry brush dipped into paint. Afterward, spread it over paper and the result will be a textured mark that’s perfect for hair, or other weathered textures. You can use this technique to make precise lines and shapes which can’t be done with the aforementioned techniques.
These are the three basic techniques that are used when you are a beginner.
Wrapping Up
Thank you for reaching the end of this post and making the start of your watercolour journey with me. You can check out my Easy Floral Series on Instagram which is for all the beginners out there.
This is just the first of my many watercolour posts, and if you have any questions or ideas that you need to discuss, please comment below.
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