25 EASY Watercolor Painting Tips
In this blog post, I’ll share my best 25 easy watercolor tips! This blog post is great not only for beginners but any level of watercolor artist. Implementing these tips will help you quickly become a better artist and painter!
Watch the video for more details!
I'm excited to share with you 25 easy watercolor tips that will help you become a better artist! These are tips I wish I knew when I started watercolor.
Tip #1 - Use Limited Colors
When starting out, you don't need to purchase a ton of different colors! In fact it's better to start with the primaries, doing so will force you to learn color mixing and color theory (which is important for creating eye-catching art). And not to mention it's easier on the wallet. I go more into color mixing and color theory in my beginner watercolor class Discovering Watercolor.
I suggest starting with cadmium red (or magenta if you want more vibrant and modern colors), cadmium yellow, and some kind of blue (I like phthalo blue). If you're painting a lot of nature, you may want to also purchase burnt umber and payne's gray. You can also just start with a simple pan set like the Classics from Art Philosophy. You can click here to see the watercolor paints I recommend for beginners!
Tip #2 - Push the Values (lights and darks) in Your Paintings
Value is the lights and darks in your artwork. When people look at art, they see values first and colors second. Values are the most important when it comes to creating good art!
So, to take your art to the next level, give them a push! Make your darkest colors - darker, and your lightest colors - lighter. Try to stray from "gray" paintings. Below is a value scale for reference:
Based on this value scale, try to use numbers 0-2 and 8-10 the most in your artwork.
Tip #3 - Stop Trying to Make Perfect Art
I know, you want to make the best art you can! But making art is not easy, especially when just starting to learn. At the moment I'm learning acrylic painting and have gotten so frustrated...I just want to be good already!
But I like to tell myself this when feeling discouraged: You have to get all the bad paintings out of the way in order to get to the good ones.
Stop trying to make masterpieces all the time. Don't give yourself any expectations. Remember to create for the JOY of creating, to enjoy the process. Stop caring about the end result so much. You'll find by doing this, you will feel FREE. You'll enjoy creating art so much more.
By giving ourselves permission to not care about the end result of our art, we will in turn find freedom with our artwork. We'll find that we paint our emotions and from our soul more than only from a reference photo (that we spend more time studying and looking at than our actual work in progress).
If you'd like to learn the other 22 easy watercolor tips, click on the video at the top of this post! I have so many more to share with you :)
I hope this was helpful! Keep on creating!
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