How to learn to paint watercolor

Basic steps for watercolor painting:

1. Preparation. Get all your tools ready and lay out the paper, preferably secured to your drawing board or table with clear tape.

2. Draft. Use a pencil to lightly draw the shape of the picture or object you want to depict.

3. Color mixing. Squeeze out the required paint into a soybean-sized lump into a space on the palette. Dip a medium-sized paintbrush in water. The principle is that the pen should be wet without dripping (you can suck it on a rag). Then dip the paint and put it on the palette. Mix thoroughly on the other grid.

4. Color. Gently apply the mixed watercolor onto the painting. After it dries or is blown dry by a hair dryer, you can mix a slightly heavier color of the same color and paint it for the second time. Be careful to leave some areas and don't paint it all over like the first time.

5. Continue coloring. Once one color is applied, add another color. The method is the same as before.

6. Observe the overall situation and fine-tune the areas you are not satisfied with.

In watercolor painting, the amount of moisture can directly affect the transparency and penetration of color. The speed of strokes can produce different fluency and rhythm changes in the picture. Jade players say: "Jade is more valuable than moisture." If the water content of watercolor painting is well controlled, the painting will have a "moisturizing" feeling like jade. This moistening feeling will make the human body feel the nourishment of water, the charm of water, and the natural aura of water.

Because watercolor pigments do not contain powder, it is easy to produce transparent and bright effects when mixed with water. But it is also extremely sensitive and uncertain. Therefore, excessive overlaying and alteration should not be allowed during the laying process, otherwise the picture will appear rigid and stagnant, thereby weakening the hearty characteristics and charm of the watercolor painting itself. In the process of painting with watercolors, it is best not to mix some powdery pigments. Usually, only white powder is used to add a little highlight and other special parts. Generally, powdery paints are not put in the paint box. Even if white is used, it is watercolor white paint.

Watercolor painting pays great attention to white space. The so-called "whiteness" of watercolor painting means that a certain blank space must be consciously left during the coloring process to make the entire picture appear breathable, bright and ethereal. This is similar to the principle of planning ink and using black in the art of Chinese calligraphy and painting.