The Pitfalls of Watercolor

Watercolor is not the type of painting you do on a whim—not if you want your work to be entered in a show or given as a gift or even hung in your own studio.

If you don’t give it the attention it deserves (requires, that is), then you will fail miserably.

Here are the main reasons painters have trouble with watercolor:

- Using way too much water (you need some water either on the paper and/or in the paint, but not that much in BOTH places)

- Not using enough paint (for some reason, you think you’re wasting money by actually using the paint you purchased to do what—paint!)

- Using crummy, cheap watercolor paper (you don’t have to buy the most expensive, hand-made paper, but don’t use the bargain-basement brand either, which will ripple and warp at the first drop of water)

- Being heavy–handed (by not learning how to paint with a light touch brush, and I mean feather-light, you will continue to have little control and poor results)

- Not taking time to learn about your palette colors and what they can achieve (quit changing your palette colors every other week)

- Never learning how to properly paint lights and darks, which adds depth and dimension to your motifs (your paintings are either all lights and weak or all dark and muddy--wrong!)

- Not practicing, practicing, practicing (as one professional said, you will go through a LOT of paper before you become proficient)

I hope this helps you to overcome some of the pitfalls of watercolor.

Keep on Painting