STRUGGLING with watercolors? Here's what REALLY works

[@paintingandchocolate]

What is your biggest challenge right now with watercolor ?

[@MsMoniqueWilson]

I have 2. Defining my lights and shadows well and overworking.

[@paintingandchocolate]

@@MsMoniqueWilson well noted, these two are big !

[@Yorimotashi]

Taking too long on pieces. I have two WIPs that have been on the shelf for way too long. It feels like a negative momentum.

[@paintingandchocolate]

@@Yorimotashi can you paint smaller pieces then maybe? Or just do one and dry layers to make it faster.

[@ikniet5032]

I think one of the biggest challenges is the ‘drawing’ so to speak. Making something that looks like something. I feel like that’s essential.

[@safala]

Not related to the topic of this video but the landscape painting you showed reminded me of an existing struggle of mine. How do you get a hill to look like it's sloping in some areas, flat in others? Or to put it more simply, how do you paint a hill that looks like a well, a hill and not hill silhouette? Or maybe, to put it more generally, how do you create a sloping effect in landscape paintings?

[@paintingandchocolate]

It's all in the light and shadow play, and a little bit in the strokes (in the watmy I'd do it!).

[@bellawithaquarela]

Thank you for the tips. I definitely feel de need to work on some of these to help me build my confidence. Your classes have been helping a lot.

[@paintingandchocolate]

I'm glad to know they did, thank you for this feedback.

[@MsMoniqueWilson]

Great tips! Thank you :) Silver Black Velvet used to be my favourite brush. But not it's the Escoda Chronos. 90% synthetic 10% Sable.

[@paintingandchocolate]

That's interesting! Thank you for sharing about it !

[@jenniferwood8944]

Thank you!

[@paintingandchocolate]

You're welcome !

[@lallyj7072]

Je m’abonne tooooout de suite ! I need to master all these steps

[@paintingandchocolate]

Contente que ça fasse sens! Alors à très bientôt 🙂

[@rozitasheilarahim8016]

Great tutorial. Question for you, which brand you prefer, Sennelier or DSmith? I've both but I prefer Sennelier as its smooth on any papers and easy to blend on it too.

[@paintingandchocolate]

Thank you. It's hard to answer, both being favorites right now. I prefer that at Daniel Smith they have all these gorgeous colors like moonglow, undersea green and many more!

[@rozitasheilarahim8016]

@@paintingandchocolate thank you. I'll try and find the colours you mentioned.

[@safala]

Couldn't agree more with the point that paper is the most important watercolor supply. While I now have 300 gsm 100% cotton papers to work on when I want, I have not always focused on getting my hand on those in the two years I've been taking watercolor seriously. At first, I used to use normal drawing paper/sketchbook paper (ranged from 90-120 gsm if I remember correctly), then moved to 160 gsm (probably wood-pulp) watercolor paper and 224 gsm cartridge paper at about the same time. And starting about two months ago, I've worked on a couple of paintings on 300gsm-100% cotton paper. The difference is stark and here's I'll sum up my findings: 1. The *drawing paper?* Worst candidate. You can get some okay works out of it once you're familiar with watercolor but just forget about improvement if you use it. The water dries too quickly in some areas and the paper remains damp for too long in others. The color dries too patchy if you don't work with perfect water-paint-speed ratio. The colors might get washed out too. And it warps more than my hair does once it's wet. 2. The only reason *cartridge paper* is not with the drawing paper is because it's thicker than drawing paper. The water retention is worse with this than drawing paper. The colors are too easy to lift out and this may sound great until you realize that the color lifts when you put a fresh layer of water or paint even when you've let your paper get bone dry. But it doesn't lift in places you want it to. And because it dries too fast, it's difficult (though not impossible) to get soft blends with color(s). 3. *160 gsm watercolor paper* was actually good despite being too thin to do too many layers. The colors still lifted with good consistency, it was easy to reactivate the colors and to blend them/ achieve soft blends. And while I wouldn't recommend them for detailed projects or projects you're going to sell or with a lot of water, they are good enough for simple landscapes and such. Warps. 4. *300 gsm cotton paper* is amazing. The paper remains wet for a long time and the water dries in a consistent manner. The paper actually absorbs the water and doesn't let it sit on as a puddle. The paint doesn't lift off with simple brushstrokes or on reapplying the water but it's fairly easy to lift off with very light scrubbing. It can take a lot of water so you can do really layered and/or detailed works. The warping is basically negligible even if you use a ton of water and none if you either stretch your paper or minimal water. I have had zero problems with patchiness. And you can achieve beautiful, soft blends. So my verdict is, even if you use a lower quality paper, use one that is made for watercolors. You will most likely have a learning curve with using the paper, obviously, but it's a lot less steeper than some other options I've mentioned. By the way, I'm not saying good paper is a magic fix, just that they make learning watercolor so much easier.

[@paintingandchocolate]

For sure, watercolor paper for watercolor is a must, thank you for detailing it this well! (but not a must for watercolor pencils I've found because they need so little water).

[@emqhelovesus1391]

So true I have expensive watercolors and I have not painted nothing good

[@paintingandchocolate]

Paper and practice will help, paper really changed the game for me.