Watercolour painting

Any one of these will take you to YouTube from where you can select your own video to watch. There are over 100 free videos to help you!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WSQP5bdemo

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VG9fG6jQlP0

www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKUAFH0DZnQ

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YxsrToHA3U

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VG9fG6jQlP0

1. Learn about the colour wheel and which colours affect others. Learn how to mix colours from Red, Blue, Yellow.
2. Learn about light and dark and paint these in first. (Even before you start to paint make a simple sketch, a kind of map of what you are looking at)
3. Remember you do not need to know how to draw to be able to paint! You could trace your picture! Why not? Some of the Masters did just that. You will progress from that to painting your own subjects. Take your time.
4. Do not be afraid to put paint on a blank sheet of paper. It looks scary at first, but it isn't really.
5. Do not try and put everything you see in to the picture. You are allowed to leave things out. Artist's Licence is what that is called.
6. Start on something simple, maybe a flower? Look at the shape of the petals, how one laps over the next, or curls up, or has shadow beneath it. Or an apple, orange, cherry, ball. Try a square and notice where to put shade.
7. Start simple and slowly and allow yourself to make mistakes. Most artists throw away more than they finish.
8. If using acrylics slightly water the paint down on your pallet, and remember you have to work quickly before the paint dries. Clean all brushes after use or they will go hard and then you will not get the paint off. Cover your pallet with cling film if you have left over paint so that you can use the left-overs next time. If you don't the paint will go hard and you will have to throw it away. Very expensive!
9. Remember that as things get further and further away they slowly get smaller. However, all heads of people stay at the same level so adjust the body length, so that you create depth. You can also draw one hill on top of another, faint at the back getting darker towards the front.
10. Look at where the light is coming from. ie above, below, left or right. Light is not the same as shadow.

Have fun experimenting and do not be too hard on yourself.

Look up what NOTAN means on Google. They are the steps to follow once you are wanting to become more professional.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAALuHwiOg4

Buy an inexpensive pad of watercolour paper and just play around with the paint to start with. See how the paint reacts with both dry paper and damp paper and how it helps you to blend the colours together. Go darker with your tones as they will always dry lighter. Then practice with rough bold shapes - fruit for instance; apples, oranges, bananas are good. Bottles. You don't have to be good at drawing - it's the tone and texture that are important in the early stages. The most important thing is to have a go. If you can't get on with watercolour try acrylic, which has the same texture as oil paint but is water soluble.

I would love to put pen/paint to paper but don't know where to start. Can you give me some ideas please?

Here is a link you might find interesting. It is about the female Impressionists. If you haven't heard of them before it is because of the times they lived in. No recognition for women in those days.

www.famsf.org/press-room/women-impressionists-berthe-morisot-mary-cassatt-eva-gonzal-s-marie-bracquemond

To see what they painted just type their names in Google and click on images.

Lilylilo Love the pink flower, very eye catching. LouiseMLP great cat, you can just imagine that tail swishing.
Granmary18 Lovely little landscape! Does this place exist or was it from your imagination. Very nice.

aggie I love your painting of the tulips! Honeypot great painting of wild flowers. So delicate. Glissen, nice one of the girl blowing the dandelion seeds.

Sorry, not that link, this is the link I meant:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ewfn5Y8_Xs

This link below: www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zz_urNsuow will show you how to make an affect that you can turn in to things such as morning glory flowers or dandelions. Use SEA salt not table salt. Just add on a bit in a deeper colour minus the salt with a paintbrush to make the bottom of the flower and use a straw to make the stalk and leaves. Just having fun....using watercolour paint.

This is a portrait of a slave/soldier. I did a project on slavery for my exam. The Arabs used to capture slaves and make them in to soldiers.

What a brilliant idea! I would love that too. Very relaxing. Perhaps I could paint something like this abstract I did and pretend I was in my garden.

If I did I would paint the bricks with acrylic, but you could paint in emulsion I should think too.

Depends what you want the subject to be, but any pale colour is fine. On a small scale, in our last house our downstairs loo was tiny and dark so I turned it into a meadow, so the top half was a pale blue base and the bottom half pale green (both left over paints). I started off just intending to do sheep in a meadow but it sort of carried on. When I got a bit down I would vanish off in there and add something - a tiny scout camp or a hunt coming over the hill, a butterfly or two. Visitors would sometimes be in there some time!

Another painter here ! I prefer portrait painting and have also done the `life ` classes . Unfortunately I always give my stuff away and could never display one of my own pictures in my house ! I would just feel uncomfortable about it . I am really enjoying the Landscape/ Portrait artist of the year programmes on Sky arts at the moment . I would think you would have to use either spray paint of what we used to call gloss to do a MURAL Tricia . Painting the whole wall first is a good idea !

The only paintng I am any good at is painting the walls

I might just try it! Thanks.
I though of painting the whole wall magnolia first?

I used to do Muriel's. Loved it. I've always had a problem with that blank sheet of white paper, but somehow never had a problem with blank walls!

I used acrylics very successfully and varnished over the finished result with clear varnish which made it washable. It didn't seem to make any difference what the wall was painted with, plain emulsion or satin finish.

Lovely!
Nothing to do with watercolours, but I've had an idea for a few years to paint a mural on a wall made of breeze blocks in our barn. It's behind a section we sit and eat in on warm summer days.
What kind of paint should I use?

One I made earlier:

This is fun if you think you cannot paint. Great for shrubbery too, use brown or green, black if you like and paint any flowers you like. Put the paint at the bottom then blow the branches using your straw.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPIhsvUysGo

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4s3Fla9k9tE

If you are painting rocks, use sea salt and sprinkle it on a colour block. Allow it to dry then wipe away the salt. Great effect.

So that's how the cling film thingy is done! I'll certainly be trying that. It would be great for dry stone walls.

Thanks for the praise Greyduster, I still cannot get my head around watercolours though. I am not a purist as you can see. Just getting back in to painting and drawing after years of a painting block.

Here's an idea to get you started! You will love experimenting, I hope so anyway. Just give it a try, even using your child's watercolours.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zz_urNsuow

I'm so envious of you painters - I wish I could do it but I have no talent at all for that. It must be so satisfying creative and peaceful.

I have just had a look at your photo gallery, Yorkshiregel. Respect!

I'm no expert - for every one of mine that's worth a second look there are half a dozen in the bin, but wet in wet, if you can learn to control it, is a wonderful technique. My biggest problem for years was not controlling washes, but learning to put enough colour onto the paper. You will know that watercolour always dries lighter than when it is put on, so you need to go darker to avoid colours looking washed out. Sometimes that's scary - a leap of faith! I like your little study.