A chance to enjoy some 'still' time

WATERCOLOUR painting is a very popular hobby, often overlooked for the benefits it offers beyond the ability to create a picture. It can encourage you to get out to the countryside, see things you hadn’t looked at before and, probably most importantly, spend some “still” time doing something you enjoy.

To begin painting in watercolour all you need is a few tubes or pans of paint, a brush and a sheet of paper. Compared with many other media, the process is relatively simple. This journey of discovery and creation can offer some frustrations, but can also be a real pleasure if carried out in a structured and fun way, gradually building up the skills and confidence necessary to create personal masterpieces.

Before you get the brush in your hand, here are some pointers:

Don’t expect instant results. Remember learning to ride a bicycle? You probably fell off a few times. Remember learning to swim? You probably sank towards the bottom a few times. Here’s the good news: The potential for physical injury when learning watercolour is less than either of these.

The more you practise the better you will get. Gradually build up confidence by doing lots and lots of doodles rather than attempting full-scale paintings. Your progress will be faster.

Just start with a few colours. Buy a few tubes of colour to start with – student quality from good manufacturers are fine for practice. When you squeeze it out it will be fresh and clean and ready to go. Remember the unique properties of each of the colours for future use.

At any stage in your painting, if it’s not fun, stop painting. Think about all those jobs you would be doing if you weren’t painting. Smile and start painting again.

Watercolour paints are generally transparent. This means it’s not easy to hide mistakes by covering with more paint. When you apply paint on top of dry paint, the effect will be similar to laying coloured sheets of glass on top of each other. Watercolour paint is not impervious when dry. It can and will be loosened with subsequent attacks of the brush and has a wonderful ability to produce mud in direct proportion to the amount of agitation it is given.

Buy good paper. Only use paper specifically made for watercolours and treat it with respect. A pack of 20 sheets of good paper will cost about £10, so if you end up with a painting, that’s a bonus.

Be frugal with brushes. The first three brushes you should have are: rounds numbers 6 and 12, which come to a fine point, and a rigger, which comes to a needle point. The best quality for watercolour is Kolinsky sable. Next best is sable, then sable and synthetic mix then synthetic.

Respect your tools. Paint, paper and brushes have all been designed to help the painting process. Watercolour papers have surface texture, the paints give more than colour, the brush has more painting zones than the pointed bit.

Use a white palette with flat mixing wells. This will enable you to see the approximate strength of colour as it will be on the paper and will help your observation of some of the chemical properties of the paint.

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