Watercolor Painting Gets EASY When You Know THIS!

Most watercolor beginners make the same mistake. They try to paint everything they see. Every rock, every line, every little shadow. And that's exactly why watercolor starts feeling difficult and messy. With this video, I want to show you how what you choose to paint or not paint simplifies watercolor and makes it much more fun and beautiful. So first, let me show you the reference I'm working from today. There are rocks everywhere. Textures everywhere. Shadows, clouds. It's a very detailed scene. And that's exactly why it's a perfect example. Because what most beginners will do when they see something like this is to try and paint everything they see. And that's where watercolor gets hard before even starting. Because mistake number one often happens before any paint even touches the paper. And that's spending too much time on the sketch. When people feel unsure about watercolor, they try to compensate by drawing everything very precisely first. Every edge, every crack in the rock, every little detail. But this medium actually works best when the sketch stays as simple as possible. This painting, the arch is clearly the main subject. That's where the eye should go. So I sketch it, but only the main outline. Nothing complicated. Now, mistake number two is avoiding wet in wet. Because it feels intimidating. A lot of beginners think that the wet in wet technique is something only intermediates or advanced painters do well. So instead, it might be tempting to paint everything carefully on dry paper. Section by section. To control every edge. The problem with that is that the elements of the painting often end up looking disconnected from each other. So here, I wet the entire sheet first. Everything. The sky, the arch, the ground. All of it. So some people might think that the right move is to carefully contour around the arch to keep it perfectly dry. But if watercolor is going to be fast, loose, and look natural, we actually don't need to do that most of the time. Over the years, I found out that it's best to preserve shapes like these only if we absolutely need pure white. And it's not the case here. So I just started applying blue paint to the sky. You can see some of it creeps into the arch. And that's completely fine for three reasons. First, this is a base layer. And a base layer is always meant to stay light. So even if a little color enters the arch, it won't affect the final result. The arch actually has shadows inside it. So having a little color there from the start already creates a useful underlayer. And third, a smart and limited color palette helps. For example, I'm only using three colors here. Blue, red, and crinacridone gold. Blue and the warm tones of the arch naturally mix into browns, which means that the colors will stay harmonious across the whole painting, even if a little bit of blue gets on the arch. That's why I also brought the blue down into the rocky ground area without hesitation. Even though the rocks are brown in the reference, that blue underlayer will help create depth and shadow later. Remember also that everything melts together when you paint on wet paper. The colors overlap naturally. The edges stay soft. And the painting develops much faster. So practicing the wet in wet technique is one of the biggest reasons watercolor gets easier faster. When you work on wet paper, you're not fighting the medium. The paint moves and blends and softens on its own. If on the opposite you try to control everything too much, things are likely to get tight and overworked. Now if the wet in wet stresses you out because the paper dries too quickly, there are solutions. One is to use a good 100% cotton cold press paper because it holds moisture longer. You'll also want to wet it well and long enough like I showed in the beginning. Another solution is simply to let the sheet dry, re-wet it, and keep going. Break the painting down into many layers if you need to. Now mistake number three appears once the base layer is done. This is when beginners and people in general start over-detailing the background to find more direction. They might start drawing the mountains in the distance with strong edges or even paint every cloud in the sky because it feels safe to see the painting come together early. But look at the scene again. The arch is the star here. So if we want a watercolor to look a bit more free than the photo, that's the style we're going for. Why spend the same amount of attention on the mountains behind the arch? Instead, I wait until the paper is almost dry. The paper still has a little moisture, so the edge stays slightly soft and fuzzy. But it's not wet enough that they get out of control. And that's exactly what we want. Color is also important. And you'll notice that whatever you look at that's in the distance, it looks kind of faded. That's why I paint the mountains with a very light wash of crinacridone gold mixed with blue. I mudded that gold color on purpose to render that effect. Thanks to that, the mountains will look pushed back, lighter, and less defined than the arch itself. I add just a few lines to suggest shadows and slopes, but I keep it quick and simple. The goal isn't to copy anything exactly. It's to create enough information so they read as mountains without competing with the arch. And now thanks to that wet-in-wet base, we already have something very useful. All the main colors are blocked in, the painting feels unified, and the arch will have room to stand out later. Now let's move on to the main subject. Because the arch is naturally more defined, this is where wet-on-dry becomes useful. But this technique comes with several small twists that a lot of beginner lessons don't really talk about, so keep watching. Another common mistake at this stage is going straight into heavy, almost opaque paint and lots of detail. And you might even have noticed that some paintings might force you to do this, to use thick paints just to push a busy background back. If that sounds familiar, please let me know in the comments below. Since my background is light and loose, I don't have that problem, and my logic on something like this arch is to take it slow and just start with a base layer again. Meaning I keep the paint very light and watery still. So this time it's just a localized base, it's just the arch, and it's on dry paper. I block in the main color with crinacridone gold and red. But notice that even though the paper is dry, water still plays an important role. That's what most people miss about the wet-on-dry technique. After I place paints, I dip my brush into water and I pull the color across the rest of the arch. This spreads the pigment fast enough to avoid harsh lines. It keeps everything light and smooth, and it keeps the painting process faster. And the reason I didn't do this earlier when all the paper was wet is because now, for this arch, we need more control over the edges. Plus, I was okay with blue getting on the arch, but I wouldn't have liked crinacridone gold to muddy my blue skies. As you can see, there's a little bit of planning to watercolor, but once you've done it several times, it becomes easy to anticipate and make that kind of decision. At this point, the arch doesn't stand out much yet, even though the contours are defined. And that's normal. Watercolor develops step by step. And if you're a beginner, really, I encourage you to take it slowly like this. Try and build depth gradually rather than adding everything at once. A tip here, since the paint is a bit wet on my subject, I start suggesting some of the rock shapes and formations. That way, those first details stay loose, even though I'm technically using the wet on dry technique. Another tip to unify the colors and start adding vibrancy is to use the glazing technique. So for example here, I glaze a light layer of crinacridone gold over the arch. This layer still contains quite a bit of water, so the effect stays subtle. And now the arch begins to stand out more clearly already. And this is the stage where many painters become afraid of going too dark, so they'd rather leave it at that and the painting will look flat. But shadows are what give the arch some structure and realism. So I mix blue with crinacridone gold to create a deep brown, and I begin placing shadows where I see them in the reference. The key trick here is softening hard edges if you like my painting style. That's why every time I add a darker stroke, I use a clean and damp brush to gently soften the edge of it, so the shadows stay natural instead of looking harsh against my light base. And that leads to another mistake, which is to take permission when reaching the end of the painting to try and copy every detail exactly, or just painting too much detail. So instead of recreating every single line from the reference, it's much more effective and quick and easy to just take inspiration from it and recreate the overall impression. To do that, I alternate between the dry brush technique to suggest rock texture and messy strokes. Nothing too precise, I'm not even looking at the reference that much. I like to soften some of those details with my clean and damp brush still so they don't look harsh everywhere. At this stage also, I find it's helpful to rely more on what looks good in the painting than on copying the reference. Water still plays a big role here. For example, on the ground area, I simply wet the paper locally to drop in color. It's the wet in wet technique once more, but localized. That allows the paint to spread and form natural rock shapes without needing to draw every texture. So it's pretty much the same thing I did on the arch, except here, that shape is way bigger, it's gonna take a long time, so it was better to just wet everything right away. The painting already looks convincing, but I want to use that advantage of the glazing technique again. I want more vibrancy. So I mix a very thin wash of lemon yellow and paint it over the arch. And notice that because watercolor is transparent, this glaze not only brightens the color, it also unifies the entire rock formation, and it also softens some of the earlier details at the same time. But you still get to see them underneath. This is a great way to add richness without adding more detail. Or it's also a great way to mute too much detail. I add a few touches where I think I need some. And if you ever feel unsure about adding more detail, about if the painting's finished or not, the best thing to do is to step back from it for a moment, because distance or even just taking a break make it much easier to see what's actually needed. Now that the shadows are strong and the colors are vibrant, highlights will make the arch feel even more realistic. That's why I wet small areas and I just paint with a paper towel. I'm able to create lighter shapes that suggest the sun hitting parts of the rock. This step makes the arch look even more realistic while keeping everything looking light and natural without drawing anything new. And when you look at the painting now, you'll notice something important. Very few details were actually painted. Most of the realism comes from layers, color variation, and suggestion. And if you take one thing away from this video, it's this. So if you'd like to learn more of my techniques and how I use them to simplify watercolor painting, you can explore my self-study courses and I'll link them in the description below. Thank you so much for watching and I'll see you next time!