The first time you pick up a watercolor brush, everything you know about how paint works suddenly doesn’t apply. The brush is slippery, the water moves in ways you don’t expect, and any error you make is impossible to hide. This lack of control makes most new watercolorists hesitant, and hesitation is exactly why many paintings end up feeling stiff.
The key to confidence when using watercolors is not controlling the outcome, but learning to keep moving forward even if you don’t know exactly how it will turn out.
Learn to let go of control.
One of the things that kills confidence most quickly for new watercolor painters is the need to control every single detail. Watercolor doesn’t work that way. The more you try to control every aspect of the painting, the more stiff and anxious your paintjob looks.
Let some things flow naturally. Let the water make your edges. When you don’t fight the watercolor medium, your hand naturally relaxes, and the results seem more fluid.
Paint faster in the beginning stages of a project.
New painters tend to work so slowly that they become overthinking every single stroke. This creates hesitation, and that hesitation is what leads to muddy, overworked patches.
In the early stages of the project, try to loosen up and get things down fast. Focus on laying in the shapes and major values, rather than details. Painting quickly helps you to trust your intuitive response more than you worry about your mistakes.
It’s OK to paint things quickly and refine later, as long as the basic structure feels natural.
Accept that some parts of your painting don’t need to be finished.
Many new watercolor painters think they have to finish every detail in their paintings, because they’re worried their paintings won’t look complete. But in reality, a watercolor looks better when many of the elements are left open and undefined.
Remember that not every space needs to be filled with a pattern. Leave room for areas where the watercolor paint is light and sparse. This gives your paintings balance and helps your main subjects stand out. Knowing what not to paint is an essential part of painting confidently.
Train yourself to paint without worrying about results.
Confidence in watercolor grows when you stop expecting your practice paintings to always be “good.” If you feel like every painting must be good, you’ll paint in a stressed and tense way, and will feel like you’ve made mistakes too frequently. But when you accept that some painting sessions can be used for experimentation, you become more open and comfortable.
Paint practice sessions with the intention of learning the technique. They can be quick and messy, but as long as you’re getting the information from them, you’ve gained from that time spent. This takes the pressure off, and allows your painting to progress more easily.
Focus on repeating techniques.
Confidence in watercolor develops through repetition. The more you paint the same simple techniques again and again, the more comfortable they become for you.
Once you’ve repeated enough strokes, your hand develops an automatic understanding of what the paint does when you move it in a certain way. Developing that type of natural control is the key to feeling confident in watercolor painting.
Confidence and Watercolor
Confidence in watercolor doesn’t mean being afraid of mistakes; it means being comfortable in the process.
When you don’t overcontrol the process of watercolor painting, and when you learn to trust your own intuition and repetition and observation, you will begin creating more confident-looking paintings naturally.