Watercoloring for Dummies

Using Stamps and Watercolor Pencils Can Make Watercolor Painting Easy for Anyone.

If you watched the trace and swirl method video then you already know that I can't draw or paint to save my life!

Well, that was acrylic paint.  Let's look at tricks with watercolors. You can have beautiful watercolor paintings even if you can't draw or paint.

The trick is to use watercolor pencils or markers and stamps with waterproof ink

These are some of the products that I used in the video or suggestions for something similar: 

• ​Paintbrushes
• Tubes of Watercolor Paint
• Watercolor Paper
• Water color Pencils
• Watercolor Markers
• Waterproof Ink Pad
• Erasers
• Paper Towels

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We're starting off with some watercolor paper. You are welcome to try painting with watercolor paint on some regular paper but honestly it makes a big difference when you use watercolor paper because it doesn't smear or bleed like it would on a regular paper or canvas.

I really wish that I could draw a nice and beautiful outline but I am just terrible at drawing. So I start off with a stamp that has some nice big open areas that I can color in and I use a waterproof ink for stamping.

Once you have the stamp design, let it dry for as long as the instructions said. I gave it a good hour before I started painting.

You have a few different options here.

1- You can use some of the watercolor pencils and lightly color in the design. Then all you have to do is just use a little bit of water on your brush to blend it. It's pretty much just coloring!

2 - You can do basically the same thing with watercolor markers. ​

3- Or you can use actual watercolor paints. Put a little bit on your palate and add some water. Then just put a little bit on your brush and blend it into the paper.

​I like to add a few different colors and then a little bit of water on my brush to just blend the colors together. It gives it a nice natural fading effect without a lot of effort.

If you want to add some additional texture you can get a little bit of paint on your brush and flick it or scrape it with your finger and have a lovely speckled effect on the paper. A toothbrush works really well for this also. If you don't want to get paint on your finger you could always use a pen or a credit card or another hard surface but I'm messy!

Isn't that easy? You can keep trying the same process with different stamps!