Getting Started

You can begin with a few colours, suitable paper, one brush and a plate. Here is what each supply does, and when the rest is worth adding.

There is no reliable number of minutes between watercolour layers. The look and feel of the paper give a better answer than the clock.

There is no fixed ratio of water to paint. Judge the mixture, the brush and the paper by sight, then record your own paints with a strength strip.

If you are returning to watercolour after years away, the instincts you built are still there. What has not kept pace is your picture of the materials, and that gap is worth closing before you spend any money.

Most early frustrations with watercolour come down to the same handful of problems. Understand what they are and why they happen, and the medium becomes considerably less mysterious.