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Watercolor Painting for Beginners – A Quick Guide

Watercolor Painting for Beginners A Quick Guide © Cindy Briggs

Watercolor Painting for Beginners – A Quick Guide

A Quick Guide to Watercolor Painting

Sometimes I get asked for a quick guide to watercolor painting. People say that I make watercolor painting easy. That’s because I simplify the process so you can be more successful. After all, I believe the ability to create is within everyone. It’s just you and your brush and time to explore the possibilities.

If you watch my videos, you’ll see that I often sketch with a continuous line using a fine point permanent marker in my fun Quick Sketch Watercolors.

Regardless if I paint from an actual subject or from a photo, I just let the lines flow freely. Pushing yourself to draw with a continuous lines will give you a more organic drawing experience and soon you’ll discover your own distinct signature style. Just simplify the shapes, and don’t overthink it. That’s the first tip.

Practice by drawing organic objects, like flowers. Use a continuous line to draw the outer shape of the flower, then work your way inside to add the petals and other details. Try to keep your pen down the whole time to keep the flow going. You can also start in the center if you’d like, the key is to keep going.

Easy Watercolor Painting Tips

Once you’re happy with your simple line drawing, the next step is to fill it in with watercolors. Since this is a beginner’s guide, just try to paint through all the petals at once, varying your color as you go around. It will keep your painting fresh and spontaneous.

Painting a Sunflower

If you’re painting a sunflower, for example, paint through the petals (don’t paint each petal separately) and use different shades of yellow as you go around. A good combination would be Lemon Yellow, Quinacridone Gold, and New Gamboge.

Do the same with the leaves and the stem. Use at least two different kinds of green, like Green Apatite Genuine and Phthalo Yellow Green. Don’t forget to add a dash of yellow to the greens to make the colors relate to each other, and vice versa. Let the colors mix and mingle beautifully on the sketchpad. In the center, wet first then add Burnt Sienna or Permanent Brown plus oranges and greens and watch the colors mingle.. Then step back and see what you’ve got!

You can see my video on Youtube on how to draw and paint a sunflower from the Market.

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