Learning the basic techniques of watercolour is fundamental for beginners

I have spent the last two years dabbling with the medium and still stubbornly referring to myself as a “hobbyist-beginner”. I spent the weekend attending my very first watercolour class.

This is what i learned.

Watercolour mess- I think every adult enjoys feeling like a kid allowed to make a “mess”

Everybody knows how to bake a standard cake. But there is a real art to baking a delicious, fluffy and light sponge cake.

Even, though i have baked many cakes in my life. Only when i learned to cream the butter and crack the eggs by separating the whites from the yellow did i really master the sponge cake.

And that same analogy can be used with watercolour art.

I’ve painted a few watercolours over the last two years. Some pretty good and some not so good.

But i have never mastered the basic techniques of:

1. wet on wet — which allows you to create smooth gradient washes (without any harsh lines)
2. wet on dry — which allows you to create texture or build up details.
3. Pulling out highlights — when the paint is wet on the paper, you can dab at it to create highlights, perfect for clouds.
4. Salt technique- this was possibly the most fun! experimenting with salt and water. the results were unpredictable but so worth the unexpected blooms i achieved.

We then got a chance to combine our newly mastered skills with our own loose field of poppies and an abstract floral composition.

By the end of the session everybody in the class had a piece that they were proud enough to frame!

Its not as perfect as the beautiful florals our instructor, Shafeeqa Effendi, creates. But with a little patience and a little practice i am sure we can all improve our skills from novice to artist.

I’d definitely suggest trying out a watercolour workshop in your area, especially as today is the first day of #worldwatercolourmonth

All the best and happy painting!