18 Day Watercolor Challenge - Beginner Friendly

Engage in a blind contour watercolor exercise that trains observation by focusing on angles, shapes, and lines of a subject while drawing with a brush rather than looking at paper.

Master value hierarchy in watercolor by building from dark to light and planning washes. Identify darker values and lighter values, and refine edges through careful layering.

Practice focusing on color and values by painting a simple tube, using pale washes, lifting to reveal white, and building value, shadow, and color relationships through controlled edges.

Master wet-in-wet watercolor by using tea, milk, and honey mixtures on varying paper moisture, understanding timing, cauliflowers, and how dilutions affect color saturation.

Master high-key watercolor by focusing on light values and grayscale studies. Explore monochromatic color experiments using everyday objects like scissors and tape to control value and light.

Experiment with high-key color in watercolor by building pale washes, layering reds and blues, and controlling transparency to create light, airy shadows.

Practice low-key value studies to emphasize value over exact color matching. Learn to create a color version using chromatic or tonal options while preserving shadows.

Explore chromatic color in watercolor by injecting color into a gray subject, mastering value and palette decisions, and taking creative liberties to develop your own style and focal point.

Practice a refrigerator challenge by selecting three items of varying shapes, arranging them near each other, and sketching simplified forms with a single light source to study value.

Learn to join objects through value, simplifying scenes and connecting forms before color, using examples like egg carton, cheese, and a bottle to train visual connections.

Practice a simple connected value study using three to four values, building a cohesive composition with light washes, dark layers, and negative space painting.

Develop a loose watercolor approach by starting with simple shapes, building value connections with pale washes, and letting the painting evolve while maintaining edges and light relationships.

Create a cool color watercolor study using viridian and ultramarine with a touch of crimson. Explore color harmony through chromatic and neutral palettes, and add subtle warm pops for contrast.

Explore color harmony by using a chromatic palette of saturated colors or a tonal palette with less saturation, guided by a strong value hierarchy in still life studies.

Master tonal watercolor by building a value-based palette of greens, blues, and neutrals, using complementary colors and squint to push light and depth.

Explore negative space painting by painting the background around a subject to reveal edges and form, using blues, yellows, and browns on lemons and a vase.

Learn to paint upside down to sharpen observation, explore local color and negative space, and build confidence by resolving edges and values with watercolor.

Join the final watercolor challenge, pairing two techniques: blind contour and upside-down painting, with tonal layering to build a warm, neutral-toned still life rich in highlights and shadows.