Top Tip to Improve Your Watercolor Art

Jun 21, 2023

I am loving the chance to get outdoors and explore different areas of the city lately, and because of these frequent excursions, I've seen a lot of progress in my plein air paintings.

Painting outdoors presents a lot of challenges, and when we are challenged, we have the opportunity to approach our practice differently. We can experiment with new strategies and revisit methods that have helped us in the past.

This Spring, I've done just that - returned to a practice that has helped me a lot in my early painting practice. And today, I am going to share this watercolor tip with you. 

Enoy this post? Like this pin!

The One Piece of Advice I Always Give Students

As you can see from the picture above, my plein air paintings vary quite a bit - in subject and in scale. 

And if you look closely, you'll see that some of my paintings look more like notes than like full-fledged paintings. This is on purpose, and is a result of me listening to my own advice: paint small and paint often. 

You may have heard me say this before in other videos, and it is a mantra that I stand by.

Especially when you're taking on a difficult subject, a creating a challenging composition, or painting in a new environment, reducing the scale of your painting and increasing the number of reps you get in can make a huge difference. It can grow your skill much more efficiently - and it can be pretty fun too!

How Painting Small Helps You Focus in on Specific Skills

When you paint small, it allows you to try something new out without making a commitment to a whole painting. 

In the sketch in the upper lefthand corner, I was working on negatively painting around the branches and getting a sense of the water below them. 

In the sketch below it - the lower lefthand corner, I was working on cooling down that color in the background, contrasting it with the tree in the foreground. 

The sketch in the upper right hand corner, I was working on composition, and in the lower right hand corner, I was working on depicting a rainy day. 

Painting small and quick can really help you get down those initial ideas or to try something you're not sure will work. You can decide if you want to develop it into a complete, polished painting later.

If you're a beginner, this method is a fantastic way to practice fundamental skills over and over again. The more practice you get - the quicker you get those reps - the faster you're going to progress as a painter.

How Painting Small Supports a Growth Mindset

Sometimes my small paintings turn out great, and other times they are a disappointment. This is also true of my larger paintings, of course, but when a sketch has taken me minutes rather than hours, it is much easier to shrug it off and try again. 

Sometimes even just my drawing for a painting takes a good chunk of time, and when my first wash doesn't turn out like I want it to - or my scene just doesn't come together like I want it to - it can feel defeating. I can sometimes resent the fact that I spent so much time on the painting. 

Painting small and often is a trick that helps me to develop the growth mindset I want to have as a painter. A growth mindset is one that acknowledges failure as a necessary part of learning.

The Decision Lab defines it this way:

"Having a growth mindset means we are eager to learn, adaptive, find value in embracing challenges, and believe that being effortful can improve certain skills, compared to the fixed mindset’s belief that our abilities are unchangeable."

Especially when it comes to artistic talent, we've been taught that there are people with talent and those who "can't even draw a stick figure," as I hear so many people say. While innate talent is a part of the equation, practice, persistence, and the belief that we can develop and grow as artists is far more important. As I say in another blog post, talent is earned and cannot compete with your dedication to the craft. 

Let me say it really clearly - the effort you put in is far more important than whatever talent you were born with. You can see huge improvements, develop over time, and evolve into the artist you want to be, no matter where you're starting from. 

Watercolor Workshop Handbook by Robert Wade

 In his book Watercolor Workshop Handbook, Robert Wade gave me the idea to take a full sheet of watercolor paper and divide it up into several sections with masking tape. When you take the tape off, you have this interesting sheet with different renditions of the same scene - or vastly different scenes together on one sheet.

It's a quick, easy way to paint small, and it turns out pretty cool. 

Painting Small to See Big Strides

There's nothing wrong with painting full paintings, of course, but painting small and often will increase your successes, help you hone in on specific skills, and keep you feeling positive when a sketch doesn't turn out.

After you accomplish something on a small scale, you'll feel more confident trying it on a larger surface - and, chances are, you'll have a lot more success!

Stop Overworking Your Paintings!

Watch my FREE Video Lesson 7 Secrets of Fresh, Powerful Painting.

I send out weekly free tips in teaching. Unsubscribe at any time!