Watercolor
Loose, bright paintings in 30 minutes a day.
Learn watercolor as a beginner
Watercolor rewards a few core skills more than talent: controlling water, laying a wash and mixing color. This beginner course builds those one Step at a time, then puts them together into five small finished landscapes. If you can hold a pencil, you can follow it.
The path
- 1
Level 1Free Washes and Color
Five small landscapes
14 Steps, about 28 minutes each. Total beginners. If you can hold a pencil, you can do this.
- Chapter 1: Water, paint and paper. Flat, graded and wet-on-wet washes, real brush control, and your first finished landscape.
- Chapter 2: Color, value and light. A mixing chart, a value scale, trees, and a glowing sunset painting.
- Chapter 3: Landscapes on your own. Water and reflections, fixing mistakes, mountains, a painting from your own photo, and your best landscape yet.
- 1Show your groupPaint your first flat washAn even rectangle of one color, with no streaks or blotches.
Watercolor is pigment mixed with water and painted on paper. Unlike acrylic, it's transparent: light passes through the paint and bounces off the white paper, which makes watercolor glow. The white of the paper is your white.
A flat wash is an even layer of one color. It's the most basic watercolor technique, and it teaches you to control how much water is in your brush and on the paper.
The detail beginners miss is the bead. Tilt the board slightly, and paint horizontal strokes, each slightly overlapping the one before. A bead of wet paint should form along the bottom edge of each stroke. Pick it up with the next stroke. That keeps the wash even and prevents streaks.
Here's an example. A sheet taped to a board on all edges, then taped into four rectangles. A puddle of blue mixed, the consistency of milk. Board tilted. A stroke across the top. Next stroke overlapping, catching the bead. Down the rectangle. At the bottom, a dry brush touched to the bead to soak it up.
Right is an even rectangle with no streaks or blotches. Don't go back into a drying wash; it causes blooms. Don't lick brushes; some pigments are toxic.
- 2Fade it out: the graded washA wash that goes from strong color to almost white, smoothly.
- 3Let colors mingle: wet on wetTwo or three colors blended softly on wet paper, like a misty sky.
See all 14 Steps
- 4Control your water and brushA page of brush marks: thin lines, thick lines, dots and a crisp shape.
- 5Show your groupPaint your first landscapeA finished small landscape: a soft sky and layered hills.
- 6Mix any color from threeA color chart of the mixes you can make from one yellow, one red and one blue.
- 7Light and dark: valuesA 5-step value scale and a tiny painting using only one color.
- 8Paint treesA row of pine trees and a leafy tree that look like trees, not lollipops.
- 9Show your groupPaint a glowing sunsetLandscape two: a bright sunset sky with a dark silhouette in front.
- 10Paint water and reflectionsA practice of a lake with trees reflected in it.
- 11Fix mistakes by liftingYou can lift paint to fix a mistake and to add light, like clouds and sun rays.
- 12Paint mountains and a lakeLandscape three: layered mountains reflected in a lake.
- 13Paint from your own photoLandscape four, painted from a photo you took or chose, with no video.
- 14Show your groupPaint your best landscape yetLandscape five, and all five shown together.
- 2
Level 2Unlocks after Level 1 Florals
A framed botanical from life
20 Steps, about 41 minutes each. Painters who finished Level 1 or can already lay a wash, paint wet on wet and mix their own colors.
- Chapter 1: Petals and leaves. Brush-pressure strokes, natural greens, five kinds of leaves, simple flowers, and a finished wildflower card.
- Chapter 2: Loose florals. A loose rose, layered peonies, buds and fillers, a planned composition, and a full loose bouquet.
- Chapter 3: Depth and a wreath. Glazed layers, leaves painted by negative space, white saved with masking fluid, and a finished floral wreath.
- Chapter 4: A botanical from life. A real flower drawn from life, colors matched, layered, detailed and finished: a botanical study ready to frame.
- 1Show your groupPaint petals in one strokeA page of single-stroke petals and three simple five-petal flowers.
Single-stroke petals are the foundation of loose watercolor florals. One press of a round brush makes a petal shape: pointed where it starts and ends, wide in the middle.
The shape comes from pressure. Touch the tip down, press the brush flat as you pull, then lift back to the tip. The bristles spread and narrow naturally.
The detail beginners miss is paint consistency. Milk-consistency paint flows smoothly and makes soft, even petals. Too watery, and the petal floods; too thick, and it drags and streaks.
Here's an example. A round brush loaded with milk-consistency pink. Tip down, press, pull, lift: one petal. A page of petals, some fat, some thin. Then three five-petal flowers: five petals arranged around a center point, each starting at the center. A dot of yellow in the middle while the petals are damp, so it bleeds softly.
Right is a page of single-stroke petals and three simple flowers. Level 2 assumes washes, wet on wet and water control from Level 1. Don't lick brushes to shape them; some pigments are toxic.
- 2Mix natural greensA chart of at least eight greens mixed from your blues, yellows and a touch of red.
- 3Paint five kinds of leavesFive leaf types: a single-stroke leaf, a two-stroke leaf, a fern, a eucalyptus stem and a leaf with veins.
See all 20 Steps
- 4Paint wildflowersThree kinds of loose wildflowers with stems and leaves.
- 5Show your groupPaint a wildflower cardA folded card with a small wildflower arrangement, finished and signed.
- 6Paint a loose roseThree loose roses built from a dark center out to light, open petals.
- 7
- 8Buds, stems and fillersA page of buds, berries, sprigs and filler flowers to finish arrangements.
- 9Plan a bouquetThree small thumbnail sketches of a bouquet and one chosen layout.
- 10Show your group
- 11
- 12Paint by negative spaceLeaves that appear by painting the space around them, in three layers.
- 13Save whites with maskingA small floral where masking fluid saves crisp white stamens, veins or highlights.
- 14
- 15Show your groupFinish the wreathFlowers, buds and berries added to your wreath, with a highlight or two saved by masking.
- 16Draw a flower from lifeA careful pencil drawing of a real flower and a leaf, at life size.
- 17Match colors from lifeSwatches mixed to match every color in your flower and leaf.
- 18Layer the botanicalYour flower and leaf painted in light first layers, then glazed for form.
- 19Add detail and textureVeins, stamens, edges and textures added with a small brush and dry brush.
- 20Show your groupFlatten, sign and frameYour botanical study flattened, signed and framed, plus your best Level 2 pieces displayed together.
Level 3Unlocks after Level 2 Urban Sketching
A sketchbook of your town
Where it ends: a painted journal of your year
Questions about learning watercolor
How long does it take to learn watercolor?
Level 1 is 14 Steps of about 28 minutes each, around 7 hours in all, split into 3 chapters. Go at your own speed: one Step a day, or a whole chapter in a sitting.
What do I need to start watercolor?
You'll need student watercolor set, 12 colors (pans), watercolor paper pad, 140 lb (300 gsm) cold-press, 9x12 in, round brush, size 8 or 10, synthetic, two jars of water, paper towels, pencil and eraser and masking or painter's tape. Expect to spend about $26 to start Level 1.
Can a complete beginner learn watercolor?
Total beginners. If you can hold a pencil, you can do this.
What will I have made by the end of Level 1?
Five small finished landscapes and the washes, color mixing and water control behind every watercolor.
Is this watercolor course free?
Yes. Level 1 of every hobby on Eras is free, and every Step links free lessons from great teachers online. Eras Plus is an optional subscription that opens the levels after it.
Free lessons in Washes and Color come from The Mind of Watercolor, Little Coffee Fox, East End Arts, Watercolor Painting (Beebly), Camilla Damsbo Art, Lets Paint Watercolors, Kristin Van Leuven, Emily Olson Art, Julia Lis Art, The Virtual Instructor, Emma Jane Lefebvre (EmJ Watercolour Studio), AhmadArt, Karen Rice Art, Paul Clark. We link to their work and never copy it.
Cover photo by Sarah Brown on Unsplash