7 Lessons I Learned From My Early Watercolors
When I first started watercoloring, it was my form of creative escape.
I was in a creative rut; working 12 hour days behind a desk job that was as draining as it was uninspiring. What I really missed was working with my hands.
I would come home exhausted and just wanted to do something fun and challenging, but didn’t want to embark on a lengthy single project like a large scale acrylic piece that would require a dedicated physical area and take time to set up and take down every time.
In the past, I painted acrylics, but they took months to complete so would always sit half-abandoned, which added more guilt to my ever-growing to-do list instead of releasing me from it. Watercolor was cleaner, portable, and more immediately satisfying.
So, I “downsized” my art and decided to teach myself to watercolor instead.
“How hard could watercolor be?” I shrugged, naively. Pretty damn difficult, it turns out.
I cannot tell you how many times I had to summon my patience, resilience, and determination. Not only is watercolor the opposite of every art technique I’d ever learned for acrylics, it was also impossible to undo your mistakes. With acrylic, you could simply scrape off or paint overtop of something you didn’t like. Poof, gone! With watercolor, painting a second layer would at best, muddy it up, and at worst, buckle and break your overworked and fragile paper. UGH. But it was the kind of challenge that I knew I needed.
Looking back at my first few pieces, I see some much eagerness and lessons learned. I wanted to paint everything, try everything, test my hand at everything indiscriminately. Here’s what I can see:
Lesson #1
(Duh, but) It just takes practice.
We all know “you have to start somewhere” but I still love showing it through this example. Looking at the left piece which I painted in April 2016, I can find a lot of criticism in this tiny sketch, but I can also find lessons I took away from it.
Lesson #2
Afraid of the blank page? Plan it out.
My inexperience meant I needed a crutch to help me break through the blank page that was staring back at me. In my case, it was pre-planning everything to the exact stroke, which is not surprising in hindsight knowing my personality.
Lesson #3
Personal style will come through play.
I had no idea what my style was and that was actually quite liberating. I would follow other artists and try out their style, seeing how I could spin it to be my own. Some days, as in the lesson before, I’d meticulously sketch and outline the subject before I started painting. Other days, I’d freehand with no plan, like this one.
Lesson #4
Materials aren’t everything, but they do matter.
When I first started out, I’d use some super cheap watercolors I happen to have lying around. In hindsight, I appreciate their cheapness because it meant I wasn’t precious with them when I needed to waste a bunch of color on tests and practice (cue crumpled up paper balls in a trashcan). Still, those old colors were muddy, mixed poorly, and were always kind of Crayola-looking.
Lesson #5
Play Outside the Watercolor box.
Lesson #6
Contrast is the queen of visual interest.
Lesson #7
Personal Style takes longer to build than skill
When I first started out, I was studying everything, being inspired by everything, and painting everything. From fashion to flowers, line art to amorphous blobs, I had no idea what I liked or where I could add my personal touch, so I just tried my hand at everything.