There are approximately eleventy billion watercolour tips on the internet. I didn’t count them, but you know, roughly. Some are useful. Some are personal preference masquerading as law. And some make beginners worry about things that really aren't important yet. How do you work out what’s what?

If I had to strip it right back, these are six things I think actually make a noticeable difference when you're learning watercolour.

1. Your paper

If there's one material I'd encourage you not to skimp on, it's paper. And I can promise you, it’s the one thing most students skimp on! Is it because it’s the least sexy of the necessary materials? Probably. (Which is sacrilege to a paper nerd like me!) It’s also the thing you paint on, so you tend to mow through quite a bit of it while you’re learning. You need to paint to practice after all and our dear friend watercolour can’t be painted over repeatedly due to its transparent nature.

When a student comes to me and wants feedback or needs help identifying what’s not going quite right, the first thing I ask them is “What paper are you working on?” It honestly makes all the difference.

Good watercolour paper behaves differently. It accepts water, gives you more working time and allows pigments to move in ways that cheap paper simply won't. The cheaper paper soaks it up like a sponge and you end up with a dull, muddy and frustrating result!

Ideally we’d all work on 100% cotton and nothing else. But that would probably leave us all homeless as well. I get it, it’s expensive. There are some fantastic alternatives out there for those early days when you can’t burn through the best stuff. I’ve got a list of my favourite papers here including the paper I recommend for beginners (and it doesn’t even break the bank!)

Sometimes you're not terrible at watercolour. Sometimes you're fighting your paper.

2. Understanding how much water is in your brush

Water control sounds boring. It is also basically the whole game. Having a good grasp of water control is going to make your whole watercolour experience more pleasurable and you’ll see yourself improve in leaps and bounds.

The amount of water in your brush, paint and paper all affect what happens next. Learning to recognise shiny wet, damp, almost dry, bone dry etc. makes watercolour much more predictable.

You can learn the theory, but understanding it really clicks through painting. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, there’s no magic secret sauce or shortcuts here. You can watch as many tutorials as you like but until you put brush to paper and feel it out yourself it won’t make sense. With practice (like anything, really) it becomes easier and you don’t have to think about it so much.

Water, funnily enough, is at the crux of it all.

3. Understanding your colours

You don't need to memorise pigment numbers to make lovely paintings. I mean, you can if you want to but it isn’t necessary.

Understanding warm and cool colours, complements and how your particular paints behave together makes an enormous difference. There’s a whole universe inside colour.

From my experience, some people naturally gravitate to colour and approach it with curiosity. They want to discover the ins and outs, they can’t help but experiment and play. These folks are the minority. The rest of us just hope for the best. If you put yourself in the latter camp, a colour mixing or colour theory course is going to level up your understanding and empower you so much. Colour is not a secret club only for a select few, think of it like a language you can learn.

4. Letting things dry

I realise this is terribly inconvenient. But there’s a reason why one of my catch cries is “patience young grasshopper!” Learning when to leave something alone is one of the most useful watercolour skills you can develop.

I can indeed promise you that if you go back into a partially dry painting and try to “fix it” - no good will come of that. I can also promise you, you will do this many times before you learn that patience always wins.

Confession: I myself tend to be a fiddler and can’t help myself but keep adding to paintings! One of my favourite little hacks is to get a painting to 90-95% done. Then put the paint brush down and walk away! That time and space away from the painting is somewhat magical. You often come back and realise it was finished afterall.

My other little trick when I need to step away is I try to make the break constructive. I refresh my water jar, make a cup of tea or go for a quick walk around the block. When I get back the painting is dry and ready to go again. No sitting around literally watching paint dry.

5. Knowing when to stop

This flows on a little from the previous point but deserves its own distinct section. It’s the question I get asked the most.

There is often a beautiful point where a painting has enough information without everything being explained. I had a mentor describe it to me as “not shutting all the doors”. You need to let the viewer in somewhere and those unfinished bits, or imperfections are great entry points. A painting that isn’t quite finished to perfection, can in fact be more interesting than the perfect version.

I like to think of it as air. Can the painting breathe? If I add more will it begin to suffocate? Every painting needs air to live.

How often do we zoom straight past that point though. Yikes! I still catch myself out sometimes.

Learning to recognise that sweet spot takes practice. I like having a little mantra when I'm getting close to the end, I'll often remind myself: less is more. It stops me getting bogged down in the details and adding things simply because I can.

6. Actually painting

Ouch. I had to say it though. You can watch tutorials, buy brushes, save Pins and read about colour theory until the cows come home. At some point you have to put paint on paper and that is the greatest learning experience of them all. I truly believe you learn something every time you pick up the paint brush. Ten or fifteen minutes counts. Experiments count. Paintings that go horribly wrong count.

Better materials and good instruction help enormously. But progress comes from understanding a few fundamentals and then giving yourself enough opportunities to use them. I have never regretted picking up my paintbrush just to see what happens. Sometimes the painting is great. Sometimes it's absolutely not. But I've always learned something.

Not sure what you’d like to work on next? Each of my online courses explores a different fundamental topic. Take the quiz and it will guide you to the best fit.