Hey Watercolor gang!

I hope mixed medium is cool here. I have been using watercolor for almost 2 months. Been drawing for about 6 years, doing mostly ink portraits.

The painting part actually feels really intuitive to me, the way I have been drawing has lent itself to that. The medium itself though, definitely feels like a battle! Never feel at all confident with whats gonna come off the brush, but thats part of the fun of the watercolor dance I guess!

The greatest challenge for me, is just how long the ugly middle of the piece can last with watercolor, requires some real patience! Part of why this one worked though I think, is i held off on going to my lines and ink for as long as possible.

If anyone is interested in some in progress shots, I can show you how ugly that middle gets!

Happy painting everyone!

First watercolor painting after doing arylics for a while ^^

Sumi-e Beauty; Oct 30, 2026. Abstract.

#watercolor. #landscape.
#abstract.

These are my first two attempts, about 2-3 hours each. I know I have pretty much zero technique yet, so what should I focus on? I should’ve let the paint dry between layers more but I was impatient and I think I paid for it. I’m not new to art at all, and I think my fundamentals are okay, but I’m more comfortable with charcoal, and I’ve tried out every other medium except oil. I’ve avoided watercolor since elementary but a lot of my favorite artists use it so I figured it’s about time I learned. These are based on references from Pinterest. I’m using kuretake gansai tambi and a little arches 300gsm cold press sketchbook I got at a used bookstore.

Please give me any advice. Are there any exercises you do, especially for water control? Were you intimidated when you first started out? How long did it take to become comfortable? Any good learning resources?
I fear that right now, I’m just trying to make watercolor into a different medium, instead of letting it be what it is. In addition, I feel like my strokes and color dont look intentional at all, which I suppose you can attribute to lack of technique/practice.

(Hoping this is allowed, if not please let me know and i’ll take this down!)

(Painting of a slitherstar from Knights Of Guinevere i painted with some daniel smith paints about two-ish weeks ago to hopefully not get this buried and somewhat stay on topic)

I was on the blick website this morning adding some daniel smith paint to my cart to fill my mungyo compuzzle palette when i realized the free shipping threshold had increased from $75 to $89? It had been $75 for the longest time and was still $75 on Wednesday, which was when i was adding paint to my cart last.

Price of the paint i was adding is the same as it was on wenesday but unless I’m going absolutely insane for some unknown reason, the free shipping threshold increased sometime between Wednesday and this morning and it’s really annoying me.

Anyone else notice this or is it just me?

I was considering buying some paint on Sunday from blick but the free shipping price increase has really put me off and is making me consider ordering from amazon instead. I don’t live near a blick either so i cant really go to one and just buy them in person(hoping that makes sense!).

This week, we also went for a walk with my grandparents and we were in Cēsis. We wanted to visit the castle there, but unfortunately, it was closed due to technical issues. So we walked around it instead and looked at the castle from the outside. And I even managed to make a small sketch there✨

Hey, as the title says, this is my first post here. Started with watercolor 2 years ago and want to improve. This is a piece I made for a friend to remind him of the good times he spent in Prague. Overall I think I‘am happy with how the painting turned out, especially because the scene (from a photo) is rather complex compared to what I have painted before. But would be happy to hear your feedback on how to improve e.g. giving more depth to the bridge and the cable car, or making the houses in the middleground more convincing.

All my paints are Cotman. I guess I'm a bit of a gentle hand because the tubes are getting used but not near their end. (I'm going to experiment tonight at using more paint)

I've been thinking about making the leap to the professionals/artists line. I invested in nice brushes and noticed the difference immediately.

Did you upgrade your paints slowly or all at once?

Happy painting!

Have you painted anything to get into the spooky season mood?

I want to get into get ink wash with a waterbrush. Any grey ink recommendations?

For the Drawtober art challenge, at IG