Watercolour Painting Tips: 5 Challenges Every Artist Must Overcome
The journey into watercolour painting can feel like opening a door to a magical world of colours and creativity.
But, let's be real, it's not always smooth sailing.
I can tell you from personal experience that some of those ‘beginner’ hurdles can often crop up repeatedly even if you have been painting for a while! So grab a cup of tea ☕, sit back, and let's dive into some common challenges facing a watercolour painter and how to conquer them!
1. Fear of Making Mistakes
The Challenge:
One of the biggest obstacles is the fear of making a mess. You might worry that one wrong brushstroke will ruin your entire painting. This anxiety can paralyze you before you even start.
How to Overcome It:
First off, remember that mistakes are part of the learning process. Think of each oops moment as a stepping stone rather than a setback. I like to remember that mistakes is really a miss take… implying that like any movie director will tell you, it takes plenty of ‘takes’ to make anything.
Embrace the unpredictability—after all, some of the best discoveries happen by accident!
Watercolour gives us a chance to practising letting go of control. Painting with the an outlook of let’s see what happens is so much more fun (and easier on your creative heart) than expecting marks to appear on the page exactly as you saw them in your head.
Also, if something does go awry (I don't think things go wrong as such, just perhaps not exactly as you want them …yet) it gives you a great chance to see just what you can do about it. Because contrary to popular belief, watercolour can be manipulated a fair bit - this blog post will tell you all about how to fix watercolour mis-takes, if you are interested.
So with that in mind, forget about making mistakes and paint with abandon - or as we like to say in the Happy Painter’s Hub, with a bold hand and a glad heart.
2. Managing Water Control
The Challenge:
Water control can be tricky. Too much water and your paint flows everywhere and the colours are wishy washy; too little and it looks dry and patchy and wont apply easily to the paper.
How to Overcome It:
Managing the water, and the consistency of the paint (ratio of paint to water) really is the key to watercolour.
Unfortunately it is not a one size fits all solution. The humidity of your environment, the absorbency of your brush and the quality of your paper will all influence your results. The best way to learn is to get painting.
You do need water to make the paint move. The paint will flow on any part of your page that is damp, either with paint or clean water.
The pigments will continue to move and settle until the page is dry which is partly why watercolour is such a fascinating medium to paint with.
Experiment with different brushes and papers until you find what works best for you. A good tip is to have a paper towel handy to blot excess water from your brush or paper. You can blot something that is too wet using a rag or kitchen towel or even a dry brush.
Knowing that you can take paint and water away as well as add it was very liberating to me! Play with painting simple shapes using them as an experiment to see what happens if you use more or less water, add or remove paint etc. It’s a lot of fun, and the best way to get comfortable with how much water you need for different effects.
Wish you had a step by step guide for this?
Then check out Better Beginnings for Watercolour Painting to learn how to embrace ease and collaborate with the watercolour instead of fighting to control it.
3. Choosing the Right Materials
The Challenge:
The array of materials available can be overwhelming—what kind of paper?
Which brushes?
What brand of paints?
How to Overcome It:
You don't need the most expensive supplies to create beautiful art. I always say the best supplies for beginners are the ones they will actually use. Actually this is really not just advice for beginners. If you are a seasoned painter and upgrade to expensive supplies it is very easy to start feeling the pressure to make something ‘good’ that is worthy of those supplies. That means they are not the best supplies for you.
The best supplies will have you actually painting! Start with student-grade materials which are more affordable yet fun to use if you are going to feel worried about ‘wasting’ the good stuff 😉.
Gradually upgrade as you become more confident in your skills. You might even find you don’t need to. There are plenty of lovely paints available that won’t break the bank. Like these, for example (this is a blog post not an affiliate link, btw)
I often recommend starting with a basic set:
300gsm cold-pressed paper (preferably cotton),
a large round synthetic brush that comes to a nice point, and
a range of basic colours that make your heart happy (a small set is fine, you don’t need many).
Supplies can be one of the most delightful parts of an art practice but they can be overwhelming.
If you are brand new to watercolour painting and would like to find out everything you need to know to feel comfortable in the art supplies store I have a free class just for you.
Click the button below to enrol today. 🤗
The Beginner’s Guide to Watercolour Supplies
I have a lot to say about supplies and whether a beginner should go for artist quality supplies from the very start. This link will take you to it 👉 so click here if you would like to read more about how to choose the best supplies for watercolour painters.
4. Understanding Colour Mixing
The Challenge:
Mixing colours can sometimes lead to muddy or unexpected results instead of the vibrant hues you're aiming for.
How to Overcome It:
The usual advice is to create a colour chart by mixing primary colours (red, blue, yellow) in various combinations. This will give you a handy reference guide for future projects.
Personally I find this tediously dull!
But so many people delight in swatching colours and creating colour wheels, so please don’t be discouraged from doing so if it is something that calls to you. It is, of course, a helpful exercise, if you like that sort of thing.
I prefer to take a little bit of knowledge (which I will share below) and get on and paint a simple subject, rather than a colour wheel or row of colour swatches.
Colour Mixing Cheat Sheet
Most of us remember from school that we can mix the primary colours to mix the colours in between (orange, green and purple). If you mix all three primary colours together, they cancel each other out and make a neutral - what some will call mud.
This is useful to know!
It means that you can create muted (desaturated or greyed down) versions of your vibrant colours by adding a tiny touch of the colour that is opposite on the colour wheel.
And if you prefer vibrant colours then don’t let those opposite colours mix (blue and orange, for example or red and green).
A simplified way to thinking about this is to remember not to mix warm (tending towards red/yellow) colours with cool (tending towards blue) if you want to keep them clean and vibrant.
I have a longer blog post about all this with lots of colourful (and muted 😉) examples which you can see here.
And if you have ever tried to mix a lovely sugary, baby pink and found it tricky - this post will tell you exactly why… (because its not just you, and there is a solution of course!)
5. Finding Your Unique Style
The Challenge:
Comparing yourself to others can make finding your own style feel impossible.
How to Overcome It:
Remember that every artist's journey is unique—your style will develop naturally over time as you explore different techniques and subjects that resonate with you personally. Keep experimenting and don't be afraid to diverge from popular trends if they don't feel authentic to you.
The funny thing is that you do already have a style - you actually cant help it. Style usually just means that your work is recognisable as yours. In the beginning it is less obvious. All you have to do is to paint more and it becomes clearer.
Style is something that is continually evolving too. We gather inspiration from our environment, books, lessons, teachers but also fabrics and colour schemes that we like. Shapes that feel pleasing to us and subjects that are personally meaningful.
We are the filter that sorts through all of that to produce our own unique combination. That is your style. And it is why I love art. When we see an artists work we get a privileged glimpse at the world as they see it. Perhaps tiny beautiful things we might have overlooked or outlooks we may not have considered.
How magic is that?
Now I do know that if finding your style is something that troubles you, then being told to paint more is just infuriating.
If you are more of an action taker and want to be more proactive about filtering through your world to find your style I have a class all about that too.
Its a lot of fun and you can find out more about it here.
I also have a blog post that delves into this idea of whether you have, need or should find a style. Want to read that next?
Here’s the link 👈 to that blog post
Final Thoughts
Embarking on your watercolour adventure is like setting sail on an ocean of endless possibilities—there will be waves but also breathtaking sunsets along the way!
Every challenge you tackle teaches you something new, and there's nothing quite like the feeling when something finally clicks.
So pick up those brushes and give it a go. Don't worry about getting everything perfect - just focus on enjoying yourself and seeing what happens. After all, that's what makes art fun - it's not about getting everything exactly right, it's about enjoying the process and making it your own.
Happy painting!
Are you on your own painting journey?
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