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Watercolor for absolute beginners

Why watercolor is accessible to everyone.

I’m convinced that anyone can get started with watercolor. Provided you know the basics a bit, you will soon get something nice on paper.

However, that doesn’t mean that everything will be beautiful right away.

Like the work above, which is quite nice but not perfect at all: the legs are too short, the figures have no neck, the colors run out, etc… It doesn’t even look like the original I found on Pinterest.

But it is the beginning of a learning process. And as time goes on, my timeline of watercolor works will hopefully show an evolution. Every watercolorist has his/her own style.

Not that I dare call myself a watercolorist. Not at all. Rather ‘dilettante in the watercolour technique‘.

Experimenting

According to watercolour artist and teacher Jenny De Hooghe, everything starts with experimentation.

By using different amounts of water and letting colors blend softly into each other, you will learn how watercolor gets its unique transparency.

The color triangle

It helps to first understand the color triangle a bit.

Some mixtures produce fresh, surprising shades. Others tend to brown and become duller. But even those can have their charm.

You might be tempted to skip that color triangle, but trust me, it’s your foundation.

Source photo: Ellywa on the Dutch Wikipedia

In addition, you also have the tertiary colors, or the nuanced colors.

You get these by mixing a primary color with a secondary color that is next to that primary color.

When you mix blue with green, you get the beautiful azure blue. Or yellow with green, then you get a yellow/green color that lends itself very well to leaves.

If you’re looking for brown or gray colors for shadows, mix colors that are opposite each other on the color triangle. These can be red and green, for example.

Pigment and water

Watercolor is watercolor: literally water and pigment.

Pigments are fine powder particles that give color to paint, ink, chalk or pastel.

The more or less pigment you add determines the atmosphere of your work.

For example, I noticed that I used too little pigment for my first watercolor attempts. As a result, they look a bit bland on the site. Since I add more pigment, I get deeper colors and my watercolors ‘stick’ better on screen.

Pigment mixing

When you want azure blue, mix 70% blue and 30% green pigment. Test it out on a palette. Add blue or green pigment, depending on the color you want.

Add water

Water dilutes your pigment but does not change the color; it only makes the color lighter.

Brush techniques for watercolor

The way you use your brush requires a form of letting go.

With watercolor, you let the brush flow along and the pigment flow into the water.

Not your hand steers, but the water guides. In other words, you don’t paint, in the sense of ‘applying paint strips’.

At least not for a first layer of background, sky, or foreground. Later, when that first layer is dry, you can paint the following layers in a more targeted way.

I know, it sounds a bit ethereal. And yet it works that way.

What do you need to get started?

Getting started with watercolor paints is easy. You only need:

• Watercolor paint (preferably a set for beginners)
• A thick and a thin brush
• A palette or an old board to mix colors
• A jar of water and a cloth
• Adhesive tape to stick your paper to the table. As a result, the paper will not bulge (or at least less) due to the water.

These are the broad outlines that I have remembered from my course and with which you have the basics. Take a little paint, mix with water on your palette and let your creativity run wild. Just go!

On the internet you will find countless websites with useful information to help you get started.

Two sites that explain and show the basic techniques for beginners very clearly are those of Staedtler and iHobbyes

Although they promote their own materials, you don’t have to purchase anything to make full use of their clear and accessible explanations.

On Pinterest you will find hundreds, if not thousands of examples and tips.

And if you would like to see a real watercolor artist at work, take a look at Jenny De Hooghe’s Facebook page.

Here are some of my first attempts, if you’re interested…

Emma