5 Must-Know Do’s and Don’ts of Watercolor Painting for Beginners

1. 5 Must-Know Do’s and Don’ts of Watercolor Painting for Beginners Painting with watercolors is fun as well as challenging. This medium offers one with great scope for letting out their artistic instincts and desires. It does take a good amount of practice to master this art form though. As beginners, you may find it difficult working with this medium in the start, but consistency is the key to unlocking the immense potential of watercolor painting. To make your journey of painting with watercolors a little easier, here are 5 do’s and don’ts of watercolor painting that you should be taking care of: Do’s  Before painting with colors on your watercolor paper, test them out on a separate rough piece of paper. This will give you an idea of what the color looks like on paper and how much water you’ll need to mix with the color to get the exact desired shade.  Keep your color palette simple and harmonious. The more colors that you use in your painting, the more you run the risk of turning it into a chaos. Using limited colors helps in keeping the different elements of the painting in sync with each other.  Use masking fluid to protect the areas in your painting that you don’t want to paint over. To apply the fluid only use your old paintbrushes that you no longer use for painting.  With watercolors, there are a variety of paintbrushes for you to choose from. Experiment with the different sizes, bristle materials and shapes of brushes until you find the ones that work for you the best.  The water that you use for cleaning your brushes in between painting should be clean at all times. So use large amount of water in a big container, this will prevent the water from getting dirty too soon. Don’ts  Don’t be stingy when preparing your paint, mixing only a little amount with water. Else you’ll have to keep mixing over and over and you might not even end up with the same desired shade every time.  Don’t overdo when painting with watercolors. Ideally, the colors in a watercolor painting should look luminous and transparent. By trying to fit in too many minute details in your painting, you may end up taking away this crucial attribute from your artwork.  Avoid worrying too much about having control over the colors. Since the medium uses water, colors will have natural fluidity and will move around. Don’t fuss over completely expounding your painting subject, it’s okay to allow the watercolors to only implicitly suggest the subject.  Don’t waste money on buying cheap quality paints. In watercolor paintings, the color paints that you use make a huge impact on the final result. Using high-grade watercolor paints will ensure that your artwork looks just like what you imagined it to be.  Don’t get discouraged by the mistakes you make and give up on this wonderful painting medium. With time and consistent efforts, you’ll learn how to fix and even avoid the mistakes. Source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/5-dos-und-donts-der-aquarellmalerei-f%C3%BCr-anf%C3%A4nger-david-parkinson/