100 Days of Watercolor: Week One and a Whole Lot of Water

Well, I made it through the first week. Seven days, seven little watercolor paintings, and I have already learned that watercolor has opinions.

I’m following along with a Skillshare class for this project rather than trying to come up with something original to paint every day, and that was intentional. The whole reason I started this 100-day project was to get more comfortable with watercolor, and right now I would rather concentrate on learning how the medium works than worry about what I’m going to paint. After the first seven paintings, I am very glad I made that decision.

One of the biggest things I’m working on is wet-on-wet, and it is challenging. There is this very particular balance between wet enough for the paint to move and so wet that the paint basically says, “Thanks, I’ll take it from here.” I’m learning to let water flow across the paper instead of trying to force the paint exactly where I want it to go, which is probably one of the bigger adjustments for me. Watercolor doesn’t always give you complete control. Sometimes the paint moves beautifully, and sometimes it wanders somewhere you absolutely did not invite it.

I’m also learning that the amount of water in my brush matters just as much as the amount of water already on the paper. One of the things that has started to click for me is that I want less water in my brush than on the paper when I’m working wet-on-wet. It sounds like such a small thing, but understanding that is already changing how the paint behaves for me and helping me understand why some of my earlier attempts did what they did.

And then there is the paper. Watercolor paper matters a lot more than I realized. That’s one of those things you can read a hundred times, but actually painting on different paper makes it very obvious very quickly. How long the surface stays wet, how the paint moves, how much water the paper can handle, and how the colors settle all change depending on what I’m painting on. Apparently watercolor paper isn’t just the thing underneath the painting. It’s actually part of the painting.

Looking at all seven pieces together, I can already see little things I’m figuring out. I’m getting different kinds of skies, playing with softer and harder edges, building darker silhouettes over washes, adding texture, and learning when to leave something alone rather than keep poking at it with a brush. That last one may take another 93 days because apparently “stop touching it” is also a watercolor technique.

I’m not looking at these and worrying about whether every painting is good. Some worked better than others, there are parts I really like, and there are absolutely things I would do differently if I painted them again. But that’s kind of the point. These are practice pieces, and I don’t need them to become anything beyond that.

That’s one of the things I’m enjoying about this project so far. I’m not painting these for a product, a collection, a design brief, or something that needs to end up in my shop. I’m following the tutorials, trying what I’m being taught, paying attention to what happens, and moving on to the next one. There is something really nice about letting myself be a beginner at something and not immediately expecting it to earn its keep.

After only one week, I already know more about watercolor than I did seven paintings ago, and I can see things in these little paintings that I wouldn’t have known how to do before I started. I have 93 days left to keep experimenting, make plenty more questionable decisions about water, and, hopefully, get a whole lot more comfortable with a paintbrush along the way.