r/watercolor101

When I started painting, mountains and forests were my main goal. I live in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies, and the mountains still take my breath away. But I haven’t painted one in months (more than just a faint background anyway). My algorithm was feeding me some amazing paintings this morning and inspired me to try again.

I tried a new technique, spraying my paper and dripping the mountain shape into the droplets. I used DS French Ultramarine and DS Burnt Umber for the stone colour, and I love how they mix and granulate and separate. I then used DS Undersea Green to add some small forest texture. I only used my one cheap Temu calligraphy brush, it’s fast becoming my go-to for almost everything.

I still struggle with how to add contrast to the mountain texture, and I need to work on leaving more white areas, but overall I’m happy with this one!

hey everyone! i’ve been taking weekly lessons for a year now and i just wanted to encourage people to keep going. i’ve seen huge improvements and still find things i want to fix next time i start to paint again. here is a photo and a painting i made of some cut cherries- it took about 6/7 hours for this one.

This is my Kiki fan art. Cheap watercolor on A3 watercolor paper. What do you think about?

Hi everyone!

I've made a bunch of Gansai watercolor paintings for a mobile game I'm working on.

I have a specific vibe or feeling I'm trying to capture. But I'm curious: what vibe do these images give other people?

Especially if you are from outside of Scandinavia; North American, Southern European, East Asian, etc.

If anyone wants to leave a comment, I would be super grateful.

I've been practicing my trees. I've experimented with different styles but I kinda like this one the best. Am I overworking them or going to dark? I mixed Sepia and Sap green.

Sooo I saw a mini travel kit for ACEO painting that someone 3D prints and sells, it’s super cute and looks very well designed and put together, it’s even shaped like a sardine can… but it’s like $200+ AUD 💀 which I can’t justify on my limited income. But I was obsessing over it, so I decided to make my own and lo and behold I found this nifty little container that seemed like a perfect size. I butchered an old pencil tin and made this! It’s a bit jenky but I’m really keen to start using it!
So pleeeease leave your must-have colours for a palette! 😄😄

I've only ever worked with black and white and I haven't really drawn anything since high school. Back then, I just got way too buried in the details. My high school project was a massive 18 x 24 mountain biker that was pen and ink with stipple. I spent months on it, never even finished it.

Watercolor has been great to just jump in and throw some paint down. As you can see, shading and lighting finally starting to come back to me on #3. I'm trying to keep it simple and just work on getting him looking a lot more polished. I also got a good lesson in value when I finally watered my paint way down - it looked a lot better that way.

140# cold press but I also have hot press that I'm trying next because I like the hard ring
Cheap amazon watercolors but I have a set of Da Vinci on the way
Water color pencil as light sketch underneath, and then outlines done with a Pigma
White acrylic pen for the catchlights

I've got some beginner round brushes and detail brushes

Thanks for any tips / critique.

Beautiful flowers always inspire me

ive had these for 5 days and im already seeing the bottom... how can i be less wasteful and save these for longer? this was my first more expensive palette and as happy as i am with them, i seem to be going through it way too quickly, how do i stop being wasteful and try to preserve them more?

I was just thinking about a long-lost acquaintance who could possibly be affected by the fires and felt compelled to paint this. I hope this post finds you well.