Each of these painting ideas makes use of the unique and beautiful characteristics of wet watercolor.
15 Easy Watercolor Painting Ideas for Beginners (2022 Updated)
Do you desire to paint with watercolor paints but have no idea where to start? Then, you are in the right place. Here are simple watercolor painting ideas for beginners that cover just about anything. These will help with the success of your first fantastic watercolor painting projects. Otherwise, if you find watercolor inspiration, they will work to spark your creativity.
Essential supplies to prepare
Watercolor painting is among the most accessible mediums should you intend to get involved in painting. The cost of materials is not too high, and you can make great art pieces.
1. Watercolors
Sennelier French Artists’ Watercolor Metal Set of 12 Half Pans
First things first, to create easy watercolor paintings, make sure you get quality watercolor paints that suit artists and students of all ages. These are super versatile, available in tubes or cakes, and simple to use. You can use them to paint art pieces quickly without much preparation. You are usually all set with these watercolor paints, brushes, paper, and any water jug (say even an old cup). They likewise dry fast should you have not used water to saturate the paper, being another perk. Further, you will not have difficulty creating desired effects. For example, build up color layers and overlap translucent paint layers so that your work appears luminous.
2. Paintbrushes
Black Velvet Series 3000S Watercolor Brushes
See to it that you get the right watercolor brush, preferably those from Silver Brush . Price is likewise reasonable without sacrificing quality. For instance, with the ability to hold a sharp point and considerable water capacity. The Black Velvet Series 3000S performs seriously impressively. Above all, you can use the watercolor brushes from this brand to create various effects when painting.
3. Watercolor paper
Arches Watercolor Papers
Paper tends to make a whole world of difference in the result. There are two popular choices in the art community these days that we highly recommend. The first one is the all-around professional-grade watercolor paper from Arches . Being 100% cotton, it gives the best surface to paint on. It is safe to state that Arches watercolor papers are worth every penny, considering their sophistication, consistency, and durability. The other favorite option is Fabriano Artistico . These make an unmatched basis for your simple watercolor painting. They boast a toothy and even for water absorption and a practically spongy feel.
One thing to note: Should you plan to use plenty of water in your watercolor painting, stretching the paper before you begin to prevent cockling is significant. Aside from the tools addressed above, you may need tissue paper (for example, a paper towel), a pencil, and an eraser. Speaking of pencils, we recommend using 2H or H. When choosing erasers, see to it that they are white without leaving any mark.
As you have prepared the essential supplies and have the perfect setting and mood, let’s start realizing one or some of the watercolor paintings ideas to be mentioned right below. Ultimately, all that genuinely matters is, you begin painting! Instead of overthinking it and wasting plenty of time, just start! You will be happy that you did because it is that easy.
15 Simple watercolor painting ideas for beginners
1. Shapes
One of the easy watercolor ideas is working on a simple shape. You can paint appealing abstract art pieces with those shapes and even irregular lines and figures. Perfect them with discrete colors. Consider using ombre and gradient effects as well.
2. Cactus
It is another enjoyable watercolor painting idea for your inspiration. Whether you decide to paint cacti on your canvas, a bookmark, or decorate them on the diary. They will surely make your day. For instance, make equal boxes from the paper—sketch cacti of different sizes and shapes in each container. Then, move on to the most fascinating part – Mix and create various green shades to color them. Use a black marker to paint spines.
3. Trees
Source: Watercolor by Shibasaki via Youtube
You can put your shading to the test with this tree painting tutorial . Trees have a lot of leaves and branches. That is why they can be a relatively challenging subject to work on for newbies with watercolors. But this painter uses the easy technique, saving your time and at the same time delivering an amazingly detailed result. After you complete the work, how about you give it to your loved ones for their living space and whatnot. As one of the most brilliant art gift ideas , beautiful landscape painting will calm the recipient and remind them to appreciate the pure bliss of nature.
4. Misty mountains
Source: Kasturi Roy via Unsplash
Artist Kasturi painted this beautiful mountain scene. Give it a try and see whether you manage to imitate Kasturi’s style. (via Unsplash)
Are you fond of faraway places? Then, how about creating a fantastic misty mountain scene painting. First, paint the distant hills and sky with a gray wash. Use a small amount of green color to create some trees. Follow up using blue and green to lightly paint a couple of faint trees. Then, in the painting’s background, create a few dark green trees. As you are working on landscape art pieces, we suggest making their foreground dark compared to the background to give them a great sense of perspective. If you are also interested in painting clouds with watercolor, ensure to refer to these tricks .
5. Abstract art
Should you have a hard time determining what to paint, now and then, making abstract arts is fun. It is genuinely one of the beginner’s watercolor painting ideas. You may add contrasting colors by using the wet-on-wet technique. The colors will ultimately generate great fluid effects when flowing randomly. It is likewise okay to splatter and move colors around using the paintbrush to get various styles.
6. Big brushstrokes
Source: Sandsun via iStock
Your watercolor artworks do not always have to have fine details. A bold and big way of painting can be impressive and give the desired outcome from time to time. Pick a larger paintbrush from your paint set and create movement in the piece by painting with loose strokes. Should you paint at a fast speed, doing so may be easier.
7. Folk art
Source: Kasturi Roy via Unsplash
You can find folk art in many countries globally. Yet, Russia and Eastern Europe might be the most famous for the intricate traditional art pieces. After creating a vertical line on the paper, you make a rough drawing of a few symmetrical leaves and flowers (as in the example painting above). Use watercolors to fill in the designs. Should you apply two different colors near one another, see to it that the adjacent color is fully dry to prevent the colors from bleeding into one another.
8. Sunset
Other simple watercolor painting ideas? How about you paint a mesmerizing sunset artwork using only yellow, red, and orange paints? Separate the paper into sea and sky parts by making a straight line segment. Apply the gradient technique to paint these portions. This way, the red will turn into orange and then become yellow. Use black color to add other elements.
9. Free bird
Birds tend to depict hope, purity, peace, and freedom. They are the main subject of many watercolor paintings. How about you add yours to that collection? Create a tree branch with flowers and leaves. Follow up with drawing a cute bird. Use blue paint for the color of its wings and head. And let the rest be white.
10. Watermelon slice
Painting fruits, for example, watermelon slices, is one of the most fantastic watercolor painting ideas for beginners to try out. Start with creating a triangle whose bottom is round. Next, apply water. Paint and move the red color around. Please avoid adding an excessive amount. After it gets dry, fill the bottom with light green paint and move it slightly upwards. Finish by drawing a few seeds.
11. Galaxy
Artists like painting these. You do not have to follow any rules. Just unleash your creativity to create an aesthetic starry sky. It is okay to use a single color (various shades) or different colors. You can make stars by splattering white paint (flicking bristles over the paper) or leveraging a white pen.
12. Sunflowers
Sunflower is another simple watercolor painting. It is interesting to work with the vibrant yellow. You can blend the yellow paint color with orange and red for resulting various shades. Then, fill the petals with light and dark shades. Follow up with adding dark brown color to the center. For other strokes of genius related to flower watercolor painting, you can check out this ultimate guide .
Two worlds
Why not see where your imagination takes you by depicting two people from two worlds in your work of art? After dividing your paper into two equal parts, portray the fire world on one side using bright shades. Use cooler colors on the other side to depict the water world. Next, you can paint a black tree positioned somewhere between the two worlds.
13. Dress Designing
Are you into fashion? If so, you can become a painter cum fashion designer using watercolor paints. Paint models putting on various dresses with different styles. Apply ombre and gradient techniques to design the clothes. It is likewise acceptable to leverage colorful markers to create multiple patterns. Unlock your creativity and make one-of-a-kind dresses.
14. Ice cream
Should you be finding easy watercolor ideas for summer or spring, we suggest creating cute ice cream cones. What is cool about this idea is that you can become genuinely adventurous with the paint colors you select and make your pieces as vibrant as you want. There are various ways of painting cone ice cream. For example, in the cone portion, you create small squares. Add light brown shades to the squares. Try and draw your ice cream with more layers. Use various paint colors with each color.
15. Autumn leaves
Source: Gathered. how
Many people like to fall for good reasons. The fall colors change the landscape into lively shades of ochre, orange, and red shades. You can have fun gathering fall leaves to paint as a simple watercolor painting project. First, paint yellow (the lightest color). After that, apply oranges or reds. You have two options in this regard. Wait for the base coat to fully dry before adding orange or red shades on the top. Or use the wet on wet technique. We mean, when the color below is still wet, paint a bit dark color on the top. Finally, add a brushstroke stem.
Easy Watercolor Ideas for Beginners
It’s not easy coming up with new ideas for painting but one of the best ways to find inspiration is simply to find time to play with colors and enjoy the beautiful characteristics of watercolor. And one of the most interesting things about watercolor paint is the way different colors blend and diffuse in “wet” situations.
Most of you have probably heard of the watercolor technique known as “wet-on-wet”, but there are various ways to exploit this method of painting and the way colors combine when they’re still damp. All produce amazing and fun results…
Each of the watercolor ideas below make use of “wet” paint in different and playful ways.
You can download the template and reference images for painting these subjects below, or simply use them as inspiration for your own interpretations.
Fuzzy Birds Wet on Wet Painting Idea
Try this painting for yourself ! Click the button below to download the worksheet for this painting.
One of the best known wet-on-wet techniques involves dampening the surface of your watercolor paper before you apply a layer of paint. Hence the name “wet-on-wet” because you’re applying wet paint to a wet surface.
This technique is ideal for painting these fuzzy watercolor birds.
And you can pretty much just paint any shape you like and see what kind of results turn up !
Start by taping down your sheet of paper onto a flat board. This will help the paper to stay flatter when you apply water.
The first step is to brush the whole surface of the sheet using clear water. For this I use a large hake brush. A big brush like this is ideal for adding large amounts of water or paint quickly.
Keep brushing the surface with vertical and horizontal brush strokes to make sure the whole sheet is evenly dampened.
Mix up a bright color from your palette and start painting an oval shape. Notice how quickly the paint spreads outwards when the paper is very wet. Add some more paint to the center of your shape to strengthen the color.
One of the attributes of wet-on-wet painting is that the paint tends to appear lighter than wet-on-dry techniques after drying because the surface water dilutes the paint slightly.
Mix another bright color and paint a second shape. Work quickly so that the surface of the paper is still damp and the pigments disperse on the surface.
Mix up a darker color to paint the underbelly of your imaginary birds. Here I’m using a dark purple color which is the result of mixing the blue and red paints together. Like this the dark color is in harmony with the original brighter hues.
Next I used a lifting technique to lighten a small part of the shape. I do this using a blotted brush so that it picks up some of the color from the paper. Lifting can also be done when the paint is dry, but this technique works better when the paint is still wet. It’s a very useful method for varying the color intensity and values in watercolor painting.
Notice also that the surface of the paper is starting to dry. The pigments spread less quickly into the light toned shape that I just created. To add some more texture to my fuzzy shape I continue to add some dabs of strong red. Again, this color spreads out much less than when the paper surface was completely wet.
Leave the paint to dry completely before moving on. To add the details of the beak and the eyes I used some white gouache. (Gouache is water soluble like watercolors but it’s much more opaque).
For the color of the beak I just mixed some yellow watercolor to the white gouache.
Then using pure white gouache I painted the eyes and a few white dots on the body to add some more texture.
Do the same for the second bird, then mix up a dark gray color. I just used a fairly strong mixture of Paynes gray to add some feet to each bird.
I think this is a really fun painting idea which exploits the wet-on-wet characteristics of watercolor beautifully. Try to play around using different colors… You can have fun making all kinds of different fuzzy creatures
Easy Watercolor Lines and Dribbles
This next idea involves quickly painting a series of horizontal lines then joining the wet lines together with dribbles of paint and water. Because the process happens while the paint is still wet, the different colors merge creating interesting blends of color and texture.
Again, start by fixing down your sheet of paper onto a board. Then choose six colors to paint your lines. I used pure colors from my palette which I knew would create brightly saturated results. The colors I picked were:
- Hansa Yellow Deep – Pigment number: PY65
- Pyrrol scarlet – Pigment number: PR255
- Phthalo Green BS – Pigment number: PG7
- Phthalo blue GS – Pigment number: PB15:3
- Quinacridone rose – Pigment number: PV19
- French Ultramarine – Pigment number: PB29
Think about where you’re going to apply the lines before you start to paint, and if needed use a pencil to draw a few evenly spaced guidelines. Note that I left a bigger gap at the bottom of the sheet so that there is room for the dribbles of paint to flow down the page.
Also I used a flat ¾ inch brush so I could paint thick lines of color quickly. The whole idea is for the paint to remain wet so you can get the colors to mingle together.
Load your brush with a strong mixture of yellow paint and apply a nice wet line across the top of the page.
Rinse your brush well then move down to paint the red and the green lines underneath. Reload your brush with paint to make sure the lines are very wet.
Next, take a small round brush, dip it in water, and use this to paint a few random vertical brush marks downwards through the colored lines.
The different colors will begin to blend together across the thin vertical lines. To boost this process, tilt your board upwards and use gravity to encourage the drips of paint to flow down the sheet. Pick up some more water with your small brush and dab the top of the vertical dribbles so you get even more drips running down the paper.
Paint the next three horizontal lines using nice wet brush marks, then tilt the paper upwards again to repeat the process of making vertical dribbles.
Use plenty of clear water on your brush so you get all the colors to drip down the sheet and mix together.
Now you can leave the paint to dry. As the colored pigments settle they create an attractive random blend of diffused colors, typical of the way watercolors flow when they’re wet.
This idea can be applied to all kinds of different patterns and color combinations.
