A small guide to Paper Choice

This is a small site about watercolor painting. Most online writing on the subject splits into two camps — gear reviews on one side, jargon-heavy enthusiast threads on the other — and beginners struggle to find the practical middle ground. The aim here is the opposite: notes that came out of years of painting the boring parts of watercolor painting.

If you are completely new, start with paper choice — that is the foundation that makes the rest easier to learn. Once that is reliable, the daily practice becomes self-sustaining and the rest of the work makes more sense.

Wet-On-Wet

Wet-On-Wet comes up sooner than most beginners expect. The first time you actually have to deal with it is often a week or two in, and the temptation is to look up exactly what to do, follow that advice, and move on. The trouble is that wet-on-wet responds to the specifics of your situation more than most other parts of watercolor painting, and generic advice tends to almost work and then slowly stop working.

A more durable approach: understand what wet-on-wet is for, not just what to do about it. Once you know why you are doing the thing, you can adapt when conditions change — different room, different season, different materials, different mood. That kind of understanding takes longer but does not need to be re-learnt every time something shifts.

Colour Mixing

A useful exercise: write down everything you currently do for colour mixing from memory, without looking anything up. Then do the same thing tomorrow without referring to today's notes. The differences between the two lists tell you which parts of your colour mixing routine are reflexive and which are still being figured out. The reflexive parts are where habits have set; the inconsistent parts are where deliberate attention will pay off.

Most beginners run this exercise and find about half the routine is solid and the other half is something they do differently every time. That is normal — and a clear map of where to focus next. Approach colour mixing with that map in mind for a few weeks and the inconsistent half will steady up.

A practical look at first subjects

Common Mistakes

Common Mistakes is the area of watercolor painting where habits form fastest, both good and bad. After three or four sessions of doing common mistakes a particular way, your hands stop thinking about it and the pattern becomes automatic. Re-learning a bad habit later takes weeks. It is worth being a bit careful at the start, even if it slows you down.

The way to be careful is not to be perfect; it is to be consistent. Pick one approach to common mistakes and stick with it for ten sessions before changing anything. If something is not working after ten sessions, then experiment. Switching after every session is the surest way to never get good at any approach.

Wet-On-Wet

A useful exercise: write down everything you currently do for wet-on-wet from memory, without looking anything up. Then do the same thing tomorrow without referring to today's notes. The differences between the two lists tell you which parts of your wet-on-wet routine are reflexive and which are still being figured out. The reflexive parts are where habits have set; the inconsistent parts are where deliberate attention will pay off.

Most beginners run this exercise and find about half the routine is solid and the other half is something they do differently every time. That is normal — and a clear map of where to focus next. Approach wet-on-wet with that map in mind for a few weeks and the inconsistent half will steady up.

Notes on Wet-On-Wet

Layering

Layering is one of the small areas of watercolor painting where written advice consistently underplays how much variation there is between people. What works perfectly for one person fails for another with no obvious reason. This is not a sign of mystery or talent — it is just that layering interacts with personal habits, environment, and equipment in ways that no general guide can fully cover.

The practical implication: take any specific recipe for layering as a starting point, not a destination. Try it for a few sessions, notice what is and is not working, and adjust deliberately. Within a month or two you will have your own version, which will be better than any generic advice for your situation.

Paper Choice

Paper Choice comes up sooner than most beginners expect. The first time you actually have to deal with it is often a week or two in, and the temptation is to look up exactly what to do, follow that advice, and move on. The trouble is that paper choice responds to the specifics of your situation more than most other parts of watercolor painting, and generic advice tends to almost work and then slowly stop working.

A more durable approach: understand what paper choice is for, not just what to do about it. Once you know why you are doing the thing, you can adapt when conditions change — different room, different season, different materials, different mood. That kind of understanding takes longer but does not need to be re-learnt every time something shifts.

None of this is meant as the last word. watercolor painting is a hobby in which experience reliably outperforms instruction, and the only way to develop that experience is to keep observing. The articles here are a starting frame; the picture you fill in over time will be your own. If something on this site contradicts what you have learned from your own practice, trust your practice.