[Skillshare] Watercolor painting for beginners

Learn how to watercolor paint from artists who can take you from beginner to expert. In this step-by-step tutorial, learn the basics of watercolor painting.

5 Steps to Watercolor Painting

Though it’s tempting to dig right in, there’s some prep work to complete before you begin watercolor painting. These steps will ensure that your journey of learning how to watercolor paint is smooth and successful!

Step 1: What You’ll Need to Start Watercoloring

One of the best things about learning how to use watercolor paint is that you don’t need many materials. In addition to plain water, you’ll need the following:

• Watercolor Paints

There are enumerable styles and brands of watercolor paints, and you can purchase them both in sets and as individual paint pots. To keep things simple for beginners, choose a comprehensive set. You can move on to building your own palette as your skills improve.

Watercolor brushes are unique in that each brush creates a different effect. If you’re a beginner and still learning how to paint with watercolor, you won’t need an extensive set—the basics will do—but you may choose to expand your collection as you continue your creative work in watercolor.

Watercolor paint is, well, wet, so you need a specific type of paper to protect your work. When you’re just starting out, opt for basic watercolor painting paper. As you develop your watercolor technique, you may consider paper stretching to help your paint more cohesively adapt to the painting surface.

Many artists like taping their watercolor paper to a board or other hard surfaces to keep it in place as they work. Your board doesn’t need to be anything special, just a flat surface, and you can use professional painters tape or masking tape to affix the edges of your watercolor paper to the board.