Learning to Watercolour – Day 1

I started learning to watercolour quite a few times now 😉 but none of the online courses I have taken really taught me what I needed to know…like how to load a brush for example, and especially, how to bend a leaf the way I want it to! Then I discovered Jenna Rainey’s book called “Everyday Watercolor” and it is teaching me everything I need to know as a beginner…like how to properly wet my brush to start with! So today will be the start of my 30day journey with her book, as I try to become a better watercolour artist and I hope you’ll join me and support me in my endeavour. I have also created a Facebook & Instagram page just for my watercolour creations, so if you want to follow me there too, that would be sooo great!

So the first day of the course started with just playing with one colour and adding black… and learning how to load my brush! (Have you understood that this point has been frustrating for me LoL!) I was trying to create nice bleeds from one square to another and instinctively I drew my squares into a circle! Does it mean I’m a well rounded person or do I feel the need to protect myself or…

This piece was all about trying to control my water on my brush so as to eliminate the puddle at the end of a brush stroke, or at least control where I put it but still have enough water to create bleeds into another square… It was not easy. Is it possible to eliminate the puddle completely or is it just part of the joys of water colouring?

This piece is actually part of Day 2. I’ve drawn circles before, but not doing it the right way so I thought I’d try again. The movement of holding my brush upright and rotating my wrist is not easy but I’m getting there. Whats puzzling for me is why I get “veins” in my circles? Is it my paints, paper, amount of water…? I’m using DaVinci Maestro Kolinsky brush, Winsor and Newton watercolours and Canson cold pressed 300g paper, although its the other side of an already painted paper so I’m going to try again today on a clean new paper to see if something changes.

Thanks for stopping by and any helpful tips would be much appreciated! Have a great day!