WaterColor – Common mistakes and how to avoid them

The accidental effects and unpredictable behavior of different pigments are what make watercolor so interesting. This nature of watercolor also calls for watercolor painters to follow extra caution. In this article we will look at some mistakes that watercolor beginners commit and guide you on how to avoid them while making your watercolor paintings.

Basics of Watercolour Painting

water-color-painting
Image courtesy ModernArtImages

Watercolor painting is extremely old, dating perhaps to the cave paintings found in various civilizations. Painting with watercolor can become a very addictive pastime. Watercolor is not a medium to be mastered or conquered. The accidental effects and unpredictable behavior of different pigments are what make watercolor so interesting.

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Step 1 – Benefits of Painting with Acrylic Paints

We are going to talk about the different types of paints, oil versus watercolor versus acrylics. One thing about acrylics is, it can be changed if you make a mistake, when you paint with watercolor, it is a wonderful medium, but if you do lay the paint down a lot of times it doesn’t come back up. With oils for example it is a great medium also, the only problem is the time that it takes to dry.

Step 2 – How to Choose Acrylic Paints

I would like to show you the difference about different kinds of paints that are used in Acrylics. The student basics versus the professional basics. These are four types of paints that I like to use and one is a student grade or academy grade and it does work very well.

Step 3 – Acrylic Painting Color Basics

We are going to show you the basics on the color wheel. Your primary colors for example are red, yellow and blue. Your secondary colors are purple, which are between red and blue, orange between red and yellow and green, between yellow and blue.

Step 5 – Choosing an Acrylic Paint Brush

We are going to show you different types of paint brushes for acrylic painting. First of all we will start with a big one for example. This is for blending. This one here is what we call a flat and we use that to cover more paint on the backgrounds.

Step 6 – Types of Surfaces to Paint with Acrylics

We are going to show you different surfaces to paint on in acrylics. The first we can start with is the original canvas cloth with a spreader sticks. We also have a canvas panel. It is canvas glued on hard panel.

Step 7 – How to Prepare your Canvas to Paint

Today, we are going to show you how to prepare your canvas before you start painting. You can start for example and paint on a regular canvas. It makes it a little rough, but sometimes people like to paint that way.