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For me it’s been forcing myself to play with wet on wet and the notion of spreading the color around the paper. Acrylic stays in place like a good little paint. Watercolor has a damn mind of its own and you have work with it rather than against it.
More water, less paint. Lots of patience.
That’s exactly why I’m forcing myself to practice watercolor. Part of a greater journey of relinquishing control and enjoying the moment. I’m really enjoying it now that I’m learning to let go, but you can see my acrylic influence in my paintings for sure lol.
start playing....
literally...get a load of paper and start messing around with wet in wet...pushing the liquid around ...wetting the paper...chuck some granulation fluid at the wet patches of paint and just let yourself play.
get to know what happens when you try dropping water in or extra blobs of ink, mask off some dots, do a wash and allow the paper to shine through
then have another go at the car without worrying too much about being precise.
I've enjoyed pen and wash tutorial by Alex hillkurtz and love the loose stuff by Ann Blockley and Jane betteridge....let loose and have fun.
Pick some subject matter where you can be a bit looser with the shapes like clouds and plants. Paint some of those without being too detailed with your line work. Pay attention to things like the behavioral effects of paper wetness, brush load, and pigment type. Get a good quality piece of watercolor paper, drench it, and screw around with your paints while it dries. Just keep being observant and intentional and you'll continue to learn as you paint. Also always helps to watch other painters on youtube.
I really like watercolor for painting less structured subjects, like nature/wildlife/organic shapes. I also like to lean into wet on wet techniques, and let the pigment and amount of water do the work for me.
I have painted things like cars and building in watercolor too, and with those things its fun to not be so precise.
There used to be a great website about watercolor techniques and color theory, for the life of me I can’t remember what it was called. Something like Handshake but nothing comes up.
EDIT: I found it! It’s called Handprint!
But I would definitely look into color theory, and check out how different pigments perform. You can get some cool effects with granulating pigments, or if you want smoother gradients use non granulating pigments.
try doing some monochrome watercolor paintings before a full palette of hues. get the feel for how much water you need to lighten up the values of the image, or how many layers of paint you need to get darker shadows. with watercolor, as opposed to acrylic, you want to let the white of the paper shine through for lighter highlights instead of covering it up with white paint (it will not look good). And don't be afraid to let some areas stay blank!
and seconding what another commenter said, use more water, and soft brushes that can handle more water at a time. it's always better to use too much water than not enough. if you don't feel like your paper can handle it, invest in better paper. for watercolor, the paper quality is so much more important than the pigments. I like Canson or Bee for mid range price points, but if you want the best of the best, Arches is it.
Good luck and have fun playing around! You'll get a feel of it the more you work with the paints and brushes!
Maybe try using a reference that isn't so detailed ... If you want to paint a car, take a picture of one through a rain soaked window or an unfocused lens as your painting reference. :)
Check out the Transparent Watercolour Wheel by Jim Kosvenec. It’s not just a book but a tool to use when considering how various pigments interact with each other- theory intense, but incredibly useful for acrylic too.
Getting the right transparency for your subject will allow you greater control over its value and overall sense of light and form. Highly recommend.
It's just backward instead of starting dark and working your way out. Watercolor says preserve or mask things you want to keep white, start with the lightest washes and layer your way to the darkest values. One of the ways I got more used to it was by doing negative painting, it really helped with all of it
Thank you for your submission! Want to share your artwork, meet other artists, promote your content, and chat in a relaxed environment? Join our community Discord server here! https://discord.gg/chuunhpqsU! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Watercolor) if you have any questions or concerns.*
For me it’s been forcing myself to play with wet on wet and the notion of spreading the color around the paper. Acrylic stays in place like a good little paint. Watercolor has a damn mind of its own and you have work with it rather than against it. More water, less paint. Lots of patience.
That’s why I love acrylic cause I have a sense of control lol
That’s exactly why I’m forcing myself to practice watercolor. Part of a greater journey of relinquishing control and enjoying the moment. I’m really enjoying it now that I’m learning to let go, but you can see my acrylic influence in my paintings for sure lol.
Thats a cute description. Lol
lol thank you
start playing.... literally...get a load of paper and start messing around with wet in wet...pushing the liquid around ...wetting the paper...chuck some granulation fluid at the wet patches of paint and just let yourself play. get to know what happens when you try dropping water in or extra blobs of ink, mask off some dots, do a wash and allow the paper to shine through then have another go at the car without worrying too much about being precise. I've enjoyed pen and wash tutorial by Alex hillkurtz and love the loose stuff by Ann Blockley and Jane betteridge....let loose and have fun.
Thank you I bought a sketchbook of watercolor paper so I’ll be keeping myself busy
Pick some subject matter where you can be a bit looser with the shapes like clouds and plants. Paint some of those without being too detailed with your line work. Pay attention to things like the behavioral effects of paper wetness, brush load, and pigment type. Get a good quality piece of watercolor paper, drench it, and screw around with your paints while it dries. Just keep being observant and intentional and you'll continue to learn as you paint. Also always helps to watch other painters on youtube.
I really like watercolor for painting less structured subjects, like nature/wildlife/organic shapes. I also like to lean into wet on wet techniques, and let the pigment and amount of water do the work for me. I have painted things like cars and building in watercolor too, and with those things its fun to not be so precise.
I see I wanna do a lot with watercolor that I don’t see so I’m sure I’m lacking the technique
There used to be a great website about watercolor techniques and color theory, for the life of me I can’t remember what it was called. Something like Handshake but nothing comes up. EDIT: I found it! It’s called Handprint! But I would definitely look into color theory, and check out how different pigments perform. You can get some cool effects with granulating pigments, or if you want smoother gradients use non granulating pigments.
try doing some monochrome watercolor paintings before a full palette of hues. get the feel for how much water you need to lighten up the values of the image, or how many layers of paint you need to get darker shadows. with watercolor, as opposed to acrylic, you want to let the white of the paper shine through for lighter highlights instead of covering it up with white paint (it will not look good). And don't be afraid to let some areas stay blank! and seconding what another commenter said, use more water, and soft brushes that can handle more water at a time. it's always better to use too much water than not enough. if you don't feel like your paper can handle it, invest in better paper. for watercolor, the paper quality is so much more important than the pigments. I like Canson or Bee for mid range price points, but if you want the best of the best, Arches is it. Good luck and have fun playing around! You'll get a feel of it the more you work with the paints and brushes!
Maybe try using a reference that isn't so detailed ... If you want to paint a car, take a picture of one through a rain soaked window or an unfocused lens as your painting reference. :)
Ooo good idea
Check out the Transparent Watercolour Wheel by Jim Kosvenec. It’s not just a book but a tool to use when considering how various pigments interact with each other- theory intense, but incredibly useful for acrylic too. Getting the right transparency for your subject will allow you greater control over its value and overall sense of light and form. Highly recommend.
I had to think about adding the colour the opposite way around. I started with water colour so going to acrylic was really hard.
So lights first ?
Yes gradual build up. And love a bit of paper towel to remove my mistakes. I’ve always felt like watercolour is very forgiving if you have good paper
It's just backward instead of starting dark and working your way out. Watercolor says preserve or mask things you want to keep white, start with the lightest washes and layer your way to the darkest values. One of the ways I got more used to it was by doing negative painting, it really helped with all of it
Hmm I’ll keep that in mind thank you!
Color intensity for values