Watercolor Painting for Beginners: What You Need to Get Started

Watercolor painting for beginners can seem daunting and overwhelming. As someone who was once in your shoes and has learned a thing or two, I hope this article helps you find some peace of mind by giving you the information you need to get started. Watercolor is a vast art and as such there are a variety of supplies to choose from. Below I recommend the very basic items and brands that are a good starting place to get you painting!

Supplies

  • Paints
  • Paper
  • Brushes
  • Palette
  • Water
  • Cloth, Towels

Paints

Paints are foundational, I feel, when it comes to watercolor painting. Especially for beginners, I think it can be quite daunting to pick out your first set. Watercolor paint comes in tubes or pans, and in children, student, or artist grade. I recommend starting with a basic watercolor pan set like these recommended in an student grade below.

These are great sets because they are both pan sets and come with a palette. Having limited colors also helps you learn color mixing, which is an essential skill with watercolor painting.

Paper

Brushes

Palettes

Miscellaneous Supplies

  • cloth, towels, etc.

Painting Basics

contouring

white space

Mixing Colors

Tutorials

Here are some watercolor tutorials for beginners on Youtube that I highly recommend. As a beginner once myself, learning to watercolor can be immensely overwhelming, especially for someone with no artistic background. There are a variety of types of styles out there, and I highly encourage you explore and experiment with different watercolor painting types. For example, when I first began painting, I really wanted to learn to pain flowers, but over time, I found the abstract tutorials I was doing weren’t something I found I actually enjoyed. It took me time and learning to hone some basic pencil sketching skills before I realized I enjoy hyper-realism and enjoy painting animals versus portraits.

The key to success however is having fun and not treating it like a chore. You don’t need everything to start out with. You need the very basics to see if you enjoy it first before investing a ton of money into this new experience.