So, you want to learn watercolor painting? Well, in a world filled with plenty of ugliness, this is one thing that is a world of beauty at your fingertips. Watercolor painting is really not that hard. With a few tips and a little bit of imagination, you can become pretty decent at this without having to give up your first born in the process.

Let’s start with the grip. The basic grip for holding a watercolor paint brush is almost identical to the way you would hold a pen or pencil for writing. However, by simply adjusting the grip slightly, you can come up with some very interesting results. But starting with the conventional grip, since it’s similar to the handwriting grip, try writing your name. You can either print it or use script.

Okay, let’s now use a different grip. Try picking up the brush as if you are pinching it between your index finger and thumb. You can alternate between a tight pinch and a loose one. Then, take the brush, using each grip, and move it around the canvas. Notice the difference between the brush strokes using this grip and the standard grip. Notice the strokes are much fatter and with the looser grip, more free and less controlled.

Let’s try one more grip in this article called the screwdriver grip. Yes, you’re going to hold the brush as if it were a screwdriver and you were going to use it to screw something into a piece of wood. It’s a little awkward at first, but eventually, you’ll get used to it. Because there is a very limited range of control with this grip, it forces you to draw very simply. This is a great technique to use for sketching.

There are other grips that you can use but we’ll stop there. Yes, just by changing the way you hold your brush, you can get a variety of textures and effects on your canvas.

 In this article, I’m going to share some techniques for brush control. Some would say that this is probably the most important part of watercolor painting. Without proper brush control, depending on what it is you’re trying to accomplish, you’re not going to reach your intended destination…whatever that may be. So hopefully, this article will help you get there.

While it’s not possible to go over every brush control technique, I will cover a few of the main ones. The first technique is called bands of color. It’s actually very simple. What you do is choose a color and draw some kind of a line with it, preferably curved. Then, you take another color and, right underneath the first line, try to draw an identical line in shape with the second color. You then repeat this with a third, fourth and so on. The resulting image is going to be quite interesting if done right. The key is leaving just enough space between each line so that the colors don’t wash together.

Another really cool technique is thick and thin. This is where you start out painting a line so that it begins thick but then begins to thin before going back to thick again and so on until you’ve completed the entire length of the line. This is accomplished by simply applying lots of pressure at the start to create the thick part of the line and then easing up to create the thin part. It’s a very effective technique.

Then of course there is the wrist flick technique. This is really good for painting things like grass. The technique does take a little practice but once you master it, it’s so cool. Say you want to paint a grass blade. What you do is start at the bottom of the canvas, where the grass would start (as if it were growing out of the ground) and then flick the brush upward. With a little practice, this will actually begin to look like a real blade of grass. That is of course assuming you’re using the correct watercolor.

These brush control techniques only scratch the surface but should get you started on your way to creating some nice designs.

 There are a number of basic skills that, as a watercolor painter, you will need to learn. This article is going to briefly cover just a few of them. For more information, please check my signature.

The very first thing you will need to learn how to do is draw a flat wash. You will start by mixing a generous amount of medium intensity paint on your palette. You want to use a flat brush. A Winsor and Newton 965 will do fine. You then want to saturate your brush and paint a thick straight line from left to right on your canvas. Four to six inches in length is fine.

After drawing the line, you want to repeat the procedure making sure that you start at the bottom of the first stroke. The flood of the first stroke should evenly flow into the second stroke. You then want to repeat this for a third, fourth and fifth stroke and so on. After you are done and the canvas dries, you should end up with an even toned square of color as if the whole thing were painted with one stroke. Like I said, it takes practice but is very important to master this.

Similar to the flat wash is the graded wash. The procedure is almost the same except for each line that you draw, you’re going to use a slightly lighter mixture of paint. So on your palette, you’re going to have to include several mixtures in order to get the right effect. When you’re done, the top of the square should be the darkest, the bottom of the square the lightest and as you go from top to bottom, the color gets lighter and lighter. Again, this takes some practice but is important to be able to master.

Finally, for this article, there is the glazed wash. This is where you overlap colors to make interesting designs. Get a palette with different shades of yellow, red, green and blue.

Pick any of the colors and draw, using a 1 inch flat sable brush, a straight line about 6 to 8 inches wide. Then rinse off the brush and choose another color. The color itself isn’t important. What you want to do is draw another design slightly overlapping the first one. You will notice how the second color slightly modifies the first one. Keep repeating the process using different designs and overlaps.