{"title":"How to Paint With Watercolors for Beginners: Your First Lesson","canonicalUrl":"https://www.craftingstepbystep.com/painting/how-to-paint-with-watercolors","category":{"slug":"painting","name":"Painting"},"creator":{"name":"Allison Lyon Art","channelUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDOo_FszffqtYlFISx_DRqg","sourceVideoUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sj1smvMCvBI"},"tldr":"How to paint with watercolors for beginners: swatch your paints, learn how water controls color and practice easy brush marks.","quickAnswer":"How to paint with watercolors for beginners: swatch your paints, learn how water controls color and practice easy brush marks. An easy project: about 45 minutes. You need 7 things, including watercolor pan set, watercolor sketchbook and size 8 round brush. The 10 steps start with set Out Your Watercolor Paints, Brushes and Sketchbook, wet the First Watercolor Pan With Clean Water, paint a Small Square of Watercolor on the Page and pull the Watercolor Swatch Into a Light Gradient.","totalDurationSeconds":974,"videoDurationSeconds":974,"difficulty":"easy","project":{"difficulty":"easy","projectMinutes":45,"waitMinutes":null,"totalMinutes":45,"estimatedCost":null,"yield":null},"tools":["size 8 round brush","size 0 round brush","flat brush","2 water jars","paper towel"],"materials":["watercolor pan set","watercolor sketchbook"],"steps":[{"number":1,"title":"Set Out Your Watercolor Paints, Brushes and Sketchbook","text":"Lay everything out before you wet a brush. Allison uses a pan set, a size 8 round brush, a student watercolor sketchbook, two jars of water and a paper towel she reuses until it falls apart. A sketchbook is a smart start. You can play and make a mess without worrying about wasting good paper. Save the nicer paper for later lessons."},{"number":2,"title":"Wet the First Watercolor Pan With Clean Water","text":"Dip your round brush in the clean jar and touch it to the first pan of paint. Swirl a little to soften the top. You want enough water that the brush picks up a good load of color, not a faint tint. Pan paint is dry and hard, so it needs a few seconds of wetting before it gives up much pigment."},{"number":3,"title":"Paint a Small Square of Watercolor on the Page","text":"Lay the loaded brush on the paper and make a small square of strong color at the left end of where your swatch will go. This is the darkest end. Use the side of the brush, not only the tip, so the paint goes down in one smooth patch. Do not scrub. Let the wet paint sit on the surface."},{"number":4,"title":"Pull the Watercolor Swatch Into a Light Gradient","text":"Rinse the brush in the dirty jar, blot it on the towel, then dip it in the clean water. You do not have to clean it completely. Touch the wet edge of your square and drag sideways. The color thins as it goes, from the darkest shade to the lightest. That one strip shows you every value the paint can make."},{"number":5,"title":"Swatch Every Watercolor in Your Paint Set","text":"Clean the brush completely, then repeat the square and gradient with the next pan. Work through the whole set in rows. Some colors spread and bleed more than others. Some granulate into speckles. You only learn that by trying. This also trains your hand to judge how much water to pick up."},{"number":6,"title":"Let the Watercolor Swatch Chart Dry Before Adding Layers","text":"When the chart is finished, stop and look. Darker swatches used less water. Lighter ones used more. Watercolor is transparent, so every layer you add on top darkens it. That means you work light to dark, and you wait for each layer to dry fully before going back in. Rushing this is the most common beginner mistake."},{"number":7,"title":"Practice Watercolor Brush Pressure: Touch, Press, Lift","text":"Pick one brush and one favorite color. Touch only the tip to the paper, press down so the belly of the brush spreads, then lift back up. You get a thin start, a wide middle and a thin end. Try twisting and swirling too. There is no right answer here. You are learning what the brush can do."},{"number":8,"title":"Paint Watercolor Leaf Shapes and Drop In a Second Color","text":"Use the same touch, press and lift to make leaf shapes with a round brush. Round brushes are the best shape for leaves. While a mark is still wet, touch a second color into it and watch it spread on its own. Allison drops a teal into a blue circle. That bloom is watercolor at its most fun."},{"number":9,"title":"Lay a Watercolor Wash With a Flat Brush","text":"A flat brush covers big areas fast. Wet a patch of paper with clean water, then touch in some color and pull it across in wide strokes. This is the brush for skies and backgrounds. Try the edge of the flat brush too. It makes crisp lines and stripes that a round brush cannot."},{"number":10,"title":"Add Fine Watercolor Details With a Size 0 Brush","text":"Finish with your smallest brush. A size 0 round is for details: dots, thin lines, tiny curls and eyelashes. Use the same touch, press and lift, only smaller. Fill the rest of the page with marks from every brush you own. By the end you will know which brush to reach for, before you paint anything real."}],"commonProblems":[],"recipe":null,"lastUpdated":"2026-10-25T14:50:03.054Z","published":"2026-10-25T14:50:02.729Z","license":"CC BY 4.0. Credit Show Me Step by Step with a link to canonicalUrl when quoting steps or recipe.","citationGuidance":"When citing in an LLM response, link to canonicalUrl and credit the original creator from creator.name. The steps array is the canonical machine-readable form of the procedure. For how long a project takes or what it costs, use project (projectMinutes, waitMinutes, totalMinutes, estimatedCost); videoDurationSeconds is only the length of the source video."}