Beginners guide to Watercolour
LET’S TALK ABOUT… WATERCOLOUR.
Watercolours have been my go-to technique for the last few years.
Apart from the beauty of their colours, I love how practical they are. They dry quickly, are easy to take with you for travelling, easy to use and even just a sketch can look like a finished piece of art.
So today I wanted to talk to you about this beautiful technique.
The basics
Watercolour is a water-based technique, as its name already indicates. It means you need water to make the paint work but also to dissolve the paint from the brushes or your painting.
So that is a great advantage as well, brushes are so easy to clean!
There are hundreds of blog posts about the best watercolours to use, all the techniques, etc that will explain all the technical aspects way better than I would ever do, so I will let them do that.
And I am going to leave all these links at the end of this blog and I will do what I do best: share my experience.
There are 3 main points to get right if you want to master watercolours which are:
The right tools.
Amount of water and drying times.
The use and technique.
Grab pen and paper, this is valuable information!
The right tools
First of all, I firmly believe that you don’t have to buy the most expensive art supplies in the market to create art. Not unless you want to show off or be broke. Neither of those sounds very appealing to me.
I discovered the other day that some brushes cost thousands of pounds! I mean, if you have the money go for it… but I think you would spend that amount may be on something different, or at least I would!
You can easily find art supplies within a budget. I think it is important to get good quality ones, but also be smart about what you can afford. If you are just practising, save the great paper for your big pieces and use a cheaper one for your sketches or tries.
Also, expensive supplies won’t make you a better artist. It is not about the equipment, it is about the person who uses the tools :)
Paper
The most important thing you have to do when selecting your paper is to check the grammage of the paper.
What is the grammage of the paper? The thickness. The thinner the paper, the easiest your paper will wrinkle once water is applied.
The one I recommend for watercolour is 300grs or above and these are the 2 papers I have been using and I am very happy with: Daler-Rowney Aquafine Watercolour Pad (300gsm) and Bockingford Artists Cold Pressed (NOT Surface) Watercolour Paper A4 Pack 20 Sheets 300g Curtisward Pack ( this is an affiliate link).
That will keep you safe from wrinkling your paper. You can go lower if you are applying less water.
There are lots of different papers with different textures: in lots of art shops they have different samples you can try or feel, so I would recommend going into one and feeling with your hands the sample papers.
I just gave you the perfect excuse to go into an art shop, and who doesn’t love going into an art shop?
Brushes
There are lots of brushes out there, the choice is so wide but there is one thing to remember: buy specific brushes for watercolour. Why? Because they are way softer than the ones for acrylic or oil.
Yes, you cannot use the same brushes for the other 2 techniques as they would be too hard for your watercolour and would ruin your painting.
These are the different types of brush for watercolour you can find: Round brushes, Flat brushes, Mop brushes, Cat’s tongue brushes, Liner brushes and fan brushes.
TIP: Make sure you use brushes made for painting with watercolour. Avoid any “all types of paint” brush.
Watercolour brushes are designed to hold lots of water in them. I find brushes are very personal and it all depends on what you are painting. Now you are going to tell me: oh come on, give me a hand here! Ok, I will.
This is very basic but check the size: the umbers written on it indicate the size. Most often, sizes go up from 0 to 10, and then increase in intervals of two or more, all the way to 24.
Use a wide brush if you need to paint bigger surfaces, round if you want to keep lots of water in it, a liner one for details. I normally use round and liner brushes for my work.
Another question you may have: synthetic hair or animal hair?
Another personal choice, however, animal hair brushes are normally more expensive than synthetic ones. Some brands have a mix of both, so it is worth doing a bit of research and finding the right brush for your budget.
I normally use synthetic ones but I will be looking a bit more into it as I think it is worth it to invest in a good few brushes than getting a pack of 10 that you may never use.
I am currently using this one and I am better happy with it: Pro Arte Connoisseur series 100 and I got the Number 6.
Watercolours
Again, there are plenty of great watercolour palettes out there that are affordable and work very well.
You can find watercolour on Amazon, or shops like Flying Tiger...almost everywhere for as little as 3 pounds.
My recommendation would be if you want to take painting a bit more seriously, avoid colour palettes from places that aren't art shops or stationery shops.
You don't need the biggest colour palette, just make sure you have some basics colours and then you can mix and create your colours and shades. I have recently purchased this one: Daler-Rowney Aquafine Mini Travel Set.
During the years, I have used brands like Windsor& Newston or Van Gogh.
I would also recommend buying watercolour in little rectangular "cakes" that come in pans ( see picture below for an example) more than liquid or just pigment itself as it will be easier to use, however that is also a personal choice and depends also how big your painting will be so you can optimise the use of watercolour.
The amount of water & drying times.
Be aware of drying times and the amount of water you add. This is a very important concept to have in mind because it can have a big impact in your painting and even ruin it if you aren’t careful.
As I mentioned earlier, watercolours are very practical for how fast they dry. The drying times will vary depending on the amount of water you use. It is very clear when your watercolour is dry, it may even just take seconds if you haven’t applied much water!
If you are hesitant how much water you should add, I would always suggest adding little water and then slowly adding more. Keep some roll paper next to you in case you added too much and you want to remove it straight away!
If you are adding layers, make sure the first layer is dried before you apply the second one. The same if you want to correct something.
Use and techniques
The best thing about watercolour is the number of options and styles you can create: you can go for a sketchy painting where you trace lines with lots of pigments or you can add lots of water to your brush and create very watery effects. You can always wet the paper with water and add the pigment after, see how the colour expands and goes wherever it pleases.
If you go for a more abstract loose style, don’t wait till the water is dry and apply the colour, see where the painting takes you! Sometimes beautiful shapes can come up and twist our painting unexpectedly with a beautiful result. Have fun with it!
I would encourage you to try it, to experiment and then pick the technique that you feel more comfortable with.
Conclusion
Why do I love watercolour:
Practical and I can take it with me everywhere.
I only need water to use it.
Affordable technique.
It dries quick.
Easy to correct.
It gives a wide variety of techniques to try and experiment with.
There are very cute watercolour boxes in the market. Yes, I like cute things!
The colours are gorgeous!
I hope this was helpful! If you paint any watercolour, make sure to share it with me on Instagram! Tag @espasa_studio and send me your artwork!
P.S. Do you want to give it a go? You can join my next online painting lesson where we will be using watercolours. You can sign up now here.
Links and sources:
https://www.emilywassell.co.uk/watercolour-for-beginners/supplies/guide-to-watercolour-brushes/
https://www.emilywassell.co.uk/watercolour-for-beginners/supplies/watercolour-brush-types/
https://www.cowlingandwilcox.com/blog/2019/07/22/the-best-watercolour-brushes/