Frustrated with watercolor painting? It’s probably your materials.
Watercolor painting has a bad reputation for being one of the most difficult mediums to learn. This is a perpetuated myth more than likely brought about due to using low quality products. With the right materials and guidance, anyone can learn this beautiful medium. It is no different than learning any other skill. It just takes time, practice, a willingness to learn, and the right materials. I struggled early in my watercolor journey due to buying the cheap materials because I was afraid of wasting the good materials. This lead to alot of frustration early on because I just couldn’t replicate the same results from tutorials I was following online or I couldn’t fix the mistakes I was making without my paper turning to mush. One day I received a gift card for Xmas through Amazon and bought a pad of Arches 100% cotton cold press paper. I told myself I will only use one sheet to test. So I did a side by side comparison of all the fundamental washes and it was like night and day. The washes I couldn’t get to blend smoothly, the cauliflower blooms and backruns because my cellulose paper kept drying too fast. The paper pilling from trying to lift paint or erase an errant brush stroke. I was about ready to give up on watercolor altogether and come to find it wasn’t my technique. It was the paper. Save yourself the frustration and buy good quality materials when first starting out. Let’s put an end to the bad reputation and welcome new beginners to the medium by showing them the way! I will be updating this list as I test out new watercolor products. Good luck on your watercolor journey! If you have questions don’t hesitate to ask!
