All across the country last fall, parents woke up to the fact that schools would not be returning to normal. Were you like me, a mom looking forward to free afternoons to practice your favorite craft? I love to paint with watercolors, however, it’s something I don’t have a lot of time for.
Whether you have been home schooling this year, or you are a teenager, like my son who is being home schooled, I hope you remember to make creating art part of your lessons.
Below are some simple exercises to get yourself used to working with watercolors, without the intimidation that many of us feel at the idea of creating your first painting. I recommend you try some of these first, and then tackling that first painting will seem much more simple.
To help you get started, I’ve created a Beginner Watercolor Supply shopping list for you.
Why Art is Not An Option
I think art is so important for children, especially teenagers. Yet, schools have for many years been cutting their art budgets, despite studies showing that creating art helps in so many other areas of study including the sciences and math.
One of the reasons we returned to home schooling was because my son’s high school replaced an experienced, respected art teacher with a less qualified instructor who had no training in teaching multiple levels at the same time, which left the more advanced students on their own for most of the class period.
So do not think you can’t teach art at home, even to a teenager, because you can probably do a better job than many schools out there.
And if you want to learn art on your own, whether it’s drawing, watercolor painting, or sculpting, now is the perfect time.
I’ll be posting more beginner tutorials to help you get started in the next few months!
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Paint with watercolors basics
Painting with watercolors isn’t that scary. You just need a plan and some supplies.
In coming up with our own art plan last year, I questioned my son about how the art teacher he had liked so well when he was attending the high school full time had organized his class. He said, “Primarily we did sketching, but we learned to paint with watercolors, and sculpt with water based clay”
So that’s what we do also. Except we use polymer clay since we don’t have an expensive kiln to fire things in. Oh, and some Copic Markers too, because we both love Manga and Anime!
Start with These Easy Watercolor Techniques
I’ve been drawing for over ten years, but it wasn’t until last year that I really started learning to paint with watercolors.
Even though I’d taken a color theory class with a local artist, and another class taught at my neighborhood library, the complexity of painting still scared me, as well as the fact that watercolors are not the most forgiving medium.
I decided to start simple, paint with a limited pallet, and learn one technique at a time.
Many beginning high school art classes begin teaching watercolor in the first semester, so don’t feel like you need to put off painting until you or your teen’s drawing skills reach a certain level. The main thing is not to feel overwhelmed learning too many new skills at once.
Teaching watercolor along with drawing will keep your interests higher! I love to draw, but when I’m working on a painting, I really start to feel like an artist.
So whether you’ve always wanted to learn to paint with watercolors, or you will be homeschooling a teenager this coming year, and want to teach them traditional art methods, start simple like I did, and remind yourself that mistakes are part of learning. To discover what you need to get started, download my Beginner Watercolor Supply Shopping List.
3 Books to Help you Learn or Teach Basic Watercolor Techniques – Check Your Library for Lots More
The first book I purchased when I started learning to paint with watercolors was this one: “Watercolor for the Absolute Beginner”, by Mark and Mary Willenbrink.
While I didn’t exactly do any of the step-by-step paintings, I did learn a lot about different washes. A watercolor wash is one of the basic watercolor techniques beginners learn. Diluted paint is applied to a large area of the painting either as a flat or variegated wash to achieve a smooth result. It’s often used for backgrounds or skies.
This book also teaches how to add texture with salt, plastic wrap, or aluminum foil to make an impression in the paint.
Next, I checked out a book from the library, “Painting Watercolor Trees” by Terry Harrison. When one lives in the forest, painting trees seems a must! Recently, I purchased another of Terry Harrisonbooks – this one is entitled, “Painting Sea and Sky.
But what I love to paint most is portraits. Unfortunately, I haven’t found any books to recommend. The best ones I found were for acrylic paints. However, I have watched some YouTube and Instagram videos. Mostly I’ve learned by trial and error, and lots of practice.
If you want to get good at something, try to practice it everyday.
Paint with watercolors Must Have Items
1. Paper
Watercolor paper comes in various weights and textures. Paper that is at least 140lb holds up better through layers of washes and blending.
Another choice to make is whether to use coldpress or hotpress paper. Coldpress paper has a rougher texture, and is more forgiving of mistakes, and easier to blend when you are just learning. Hotpress has a smooth texture. Some painters can achieve an almost photo-like effect with it. There is also Rough, which has the most texture.
2. Brushes
I have a lot of brushes because the books I first read on watercolor painting told me I needed them. But I mostly only use a few regularly. For example on a portrait I recently painted I only used a round 2, round 4, and a 0 quill mop brush. For most all of my paintings I wet the paper at the beginning with a 3” flat brush. Some people insist that animal hair brushes are better, such as sable and squirrel. While I’m not a card carrying member of Peta, I don’t think animals should be killed when synthetic products can be used instead with almost similar quality.
3. Paint
There are two grades of watercolor paint, student and artist. The difference between the two is the artist grade has more pigmentation, and the colors are more vibrant. Also, professional grade are just easier to control. They are a bit pricier but it’s due to using professional grade materials. A bright spot is that a tube of watercolor paint lasts a long time.
If you’re looking for something more inexpensive, Windsor & Newton has a student grade line called Cotman. You can get a set of 12 for around $30, and sometimes find them ½ off with a coupon.
It’s fine to start with as little as 6 colors: 3 primary warm colors, and 3 primary cool colors. If you want to paint skin tones you will also need burnt sienna.
For a complete list of materials to get started with, check out my Beginner Watercolor Supply Shopping List which you can download, and take with you to the art store, or when shopping online. Check off supplies as you add them.
These are the basic colors you need to start painting with watercolors:
- Primary colors, red, yellow, blue – in both warm and cool tones
AND if you have a bit more money to spend:
- Warm and cool greens
- Two browns
What do I mean by warm and cool color, you might be wondering. As one artist said, it’s all relative. Cool tones have more blue undertones, warms have more yellow-red undertones. So for example, with the color red, Cadmium red is more orangey, and Alizarian Crimson more blueish.
One more thing I want to mention before we move on to talking about the rest of the supplies is color mixing. Color mixing is a whole talent unto itself. It takes a lot of experience to mix the same color multiple times. Or to know which red and blue make the shade of purple you are looking for. But there are lots of books and online guides to color mixing!
4. Other supplies
Aside from these, you will need a pallet, watercolor tape, paper towels or Kleenex, brush cleaner, and a jar to hold your brush rinsing water.
This will get you started, and if you’re like me, you’ll continue adding more colors over time. Watercolor paint lasts a long time. Some of my paints are over 10 years old. They had all dried out in their tubes when I decided to paint with watercolors again. But I cut open the tubes, re-hydrated the paints, and they still work just fine.
I love to paint with watercolors! It’s fun and challenging, and if you are wanting to learn yourself, or as part of a home schooling art curriculum, now is the best time.
Making art together has really created a close bond between my son and me. Don’t let hesitations stand in your way, or fear, otherwise you could end up looking back ten years from now wondering why you didn’t start sooner. Remember, just start simple, paint with a limited pallet at first, and explore one technique at a time.
Also, if you are not ready to paint your own sketches, you can use coloring pages which many online artists have been offering for free. As they say, there is no time like the present.
