How to Make a Watercolor Painting!

A step-by-step guide on how to make an amazing watercolor painting!

I started watercolor-ing about 3 months ago and have enjoyed it so much! So I decided to make an instructable on how to make a painting and some of the tips that I have found to make it easier!

Here are the supplies you will need to get started!!

- Watercolor/Painting Paper(regular paper is too thin)

- Watercolor Paints-I have Watercolor brush pens,Liquid watercolors and a regular Watercolor palette

- Water

- Paint Brushes

- Cleared area

-Masking Tape(optional)

-Reference Picture(I just did a google search)

-Extra Paper(for testing colors)

-Paper Towels(for blotting/fixing mistakes)

Start by making sure that your work surface is completely dry and clean-(you can see in the last picture that I didn't check very well and so the top corner is wet on both sides)

Next, tape your piece of paper to your surface,this is optional but really helps to keep your paper still,your table clean,and it gives the finished product a nice edge!

Only overlap the tape about 1/4" to 1/2"

Then wet your whole paper lightly with plain water- this will make sure that your paints blend evenly-

-Tip#1 you will need to do this fairly frequently so keep a large brush clean just for this!

Start by testing whatever color you are going to be using,once you have a good color start painting!!

You need to paint a thin layer of blue over the whole paper-

To paint your sky-

Begin with painting in the top corner and working your way across the top,

Next slowly and watering down your paints as you go paint towards to bottom

Tip#2 always start with a lighter color and add more to make it darker!

To paint your ocean-

Paint a thin line dividing the sky from the ocean-not too dark

Start filling in the ocean! Make the ocean slightly darker then the sky

As you can see in picture #6 my paint wasn't blending very well so I got my big brush and re-applied a thin layer of water just like I did in the beginning

In picture #9 you can see how much better that looks:)

Tip#3 Paint the edges darker to the focus is on the center of the painting

At this point your paper will probably be wet so you need to let is completely dry before going to the next step!

Tip#4 it is completely normal to have your paper"ripple" it will get better as it drys! Also this is where the tape helps to keep it flatter

Tip#5 if you are finding little balls on your paper it means you have too much water on it and you should blot some off with a paper towel

Starting with the sun!!

I started with using my watercolor brush pen but because I had added water first it was very faint and so I switched to my palette colors and it looked much better!! pics#1-4

Next the sunrise!

First I re-wet the paper

Then I first tried using my liquid water colors but I didn't realize that my brush had a little black paint on it and so it ended up a really bad color so I blotted it off and added some lines with my red brush pen and then went tried again with my palette colors and again so much better:) pics #5-11

Tip#6 keeping your work wet enough makes it so you can dab off mistakes!!

After that I went over my sun again to make it darker and more defined.pics#12-13

Now I started on the Islands/rocks in the background

I started with just doing a layer of light brown to mark out where they are

Next I mixed together black and brown to make them darker and added more layers to define them.

Here's my puppy Archer seeing if he can help:)!

Tip#7 use extra water when combining colors so that the mix well

After that I added a thin line of black to really make a definite border to the water

Then I used a brush with just water to make it look like there was a reflection on the water

First I added some more pink to fill in the gaps between the rocks

Then I darkened the water by adding some more layers

Tip#8 make sure the paper is dry before adding a color you don't want to mix!

And then I started on the boat!!!

I had never drawn or painted a boat before so it is definitely not the best but it was fun to figure out

I started just making the outline and then filling it in

Next I added a shadow on the water and it made it look twice as good!!

I mixed black and blue together and then used my dark blue watercolor pen to add some more depth

Almost done!!

At this point I was happy with how it was looking so I just needed to finish the details!!
I started with adding more pink and using very watered down pink to blend it into the sky

Next I added more blue at the top and darkened the edges

Then I added more layers to the sun and added some birds by making a quick slightly angled line in each direction!!

Then I finished it off by signing it!!!!

Tip#9 if you take a picture and look at that you can see better what you want to fix!!

Now that you're done with your painting it is time to finish up!!

First I pulled off all of the tape

If the tape starts sticking to the paper(pic#4) slide your thumbnail under the edge all the way to the other side and then pull off from the middle (pics#5-8)

If you have excess water remaining on your paper then use a paper towel and gently press down on the paper

Lastly I cleaned up my area!!

If you blended any colors together on your watercolor palette then make sure you clean that well before putting away

And here are some of the others I have made!!!