Brushes are a common point of failure for many people starting out, and most don't even realise this is part of their struggle! What to use? What not to use! What to buy? How to get the best out of the brushes you have... Take a few moments to learn about my brushes and hear my recommendations on what to use for realistic watercolour painting. It will make a BIG difference to your work and enjoyment.

Paper is something Im asked about so often... It really can be a never ending discussion, and an overwhelming prospect for many starting out to consider. In this lecture I discuss my own preferences quite simply, and although its a bit like choosing a best friend for another, I point out many things youll need/want to consider when choosing paper for yourself. 

The Humble Water Jar...? Perhaps! But it is actually quite important, so lets take a quick look at this topic and make sure yours is going to serve you well. Its the little things, remember?

Tissues...? So essential, but so easily overlooked... lets change that shall we!  

This lecture takes a look at the important role of masking fluid in the water-colour painting process. Although it doesn't feature highly in my own work, it is important to understand its purpose, potential and use. Used correctly, it is a wonderful material, so we need take a better look at this medium here 

One of the biggest struggles students battle with - is their workspace or work environment. It seems such a simple thing to consider, but so often it is an unwittingly, scrambling mess that unnecessarily bamboozles and clutters students from the start. The good thing is it is very avoidable! This is an critical aspect of having a healthy workflow and an enjoyable painting experience.  In this topic we explore our workspace a little deeper. 

Our selection of palette is critical. Beyond the palette itself, understanding the physical layout and establishing an intimate knowledge of our palette becomes as important to our workflow and process, as perhaps our fingers themselves. Using our palette is a certain kind of art form in itself so its extremely important to know what to look for. 

What could be more important than our paint?! In this lecture we take a closer look at paint, paint quality, characteristics, troubleshooting, colour families, paint selection... and what to buy and why. We experience a lot of problems, frustration and wasted money when we don't get our paint selection right. Getting it right is essential, so this lecture aims to help you make a better informed selection

My approach to colour and how I use it is a theory free combination of logic, simplicity and instinct. Logic I can teach. Instinct I can help you develop. Simplicity... well we can just celebrate that! When instinct or an abstract knowledge can be conveyed in simple logic, we can begin to understand new perspectives and see new possibilities as a result. Dont let colour theory confuse you, just let yourself fall into the feel of the medium, fall in love with it, learn its language and it will be the most rewarding language you will speak. 

This lesson is 'instinct articulated' for you as a first step. The palette and pigment layout is a critical relationship that must be intimately understood and considered. This lecture helps us to understand the basic principles of my work processes and helps you to prepare your palette as practically and effectively as possible. Here, I seek to explain my approach to colour use, the relationships between different 'colour families' as I see it, and demonstrate how this relates to your palette lay out and use for the greatest comfort and success. 

The reference collection process is half the fun! Where do we start? What are we looking for? What do we need to create a painting for ourselves? There are plenty of things to be mindful of in this process. It is not painting in itself, but it is everything to do with painting. It is the soul, the connection, the spark and the information we build from. If we don't get this stage right, we have nothing worthwhile to create! Have you ever heard of the comment 'see the world through the eyes of an artist' This is exactly this process, it is the origins of our inspirations.

From inspiration, we start to form and create a physical painting. This process is about maturing the seeds of our thoughts, to substance. What happens after the reference collection process? How do we transform what has inspired us, our ideas, our images and drawings into a physical painting? The drawing and image transfer process is so critical to successful outcomes in our work. Understanding the process will not only improve your work out of sight, it will improve the efficiency of your painting process as well. In this lesson we explore the processes involved in making this happen practically, cleanly and thoroughly.

Choosing colour for a specific painting, subject or element can be challenging. There is no firm rule in my book for colours, i love and use them all, and you will too... But lets be practical, lets find a strategic starting point, and a process to help you get started in the right place. This lecture is about simplifying the colour selection process, and how to narrow your colour selection down to a manageable, appropriate and digestible palette to work from.  

Textures bring diversity, emotion and interest to our painting. One of the best things about watercolour is the remarkable textural qualities that come naturally with this medium. The variations we can achieve by adjusting our balances, mixes, movements and timing are endless and its imperative that we learn to understand its nature, qualities and potential so we can harness it to our greatest advantage. There are so many textural effects we can achieve in watercolour, so lets take a look at some of the most important approaches for you to explore and have fun playing with. 

There are plenty of approaches to painting watercolour, but this tutorial looks specifically at MY staple diet for painting techniques and everything you'll need to learn to create realistic and botanical watercolours. I take a look at the three fundamental areas I work with - washes, glazes and dry brushing, and demonstrate how these three techniques come together to give fantastic final results.  

This lecture gives you the first round of practical exercises and activities specific to developing the techniques needed for painting realistic watercolour and botanicals. These simple exercises explore 'wet on wet' 'even washes' and achieving 'tonal variations' Its not about creating a masterpiece, its about learning through play... so pick up the brush and have some fun with these exercises. Try different balances, ideas and approaches, even different sizes and paper to really familiarise yourself with the medium and materials.

The techniques themselves aren't terribly hard to understand in theory, but they take a little time and practice to get a feel for. Once you've established a handle on these approaches, its simply a matter of refining the techniques to a finer and finer degree. Your balance, how far you want to take it, or how you choose to apply it is totally up to you. The key is practice of course!

Note* Worksheets and Drawing Template is available in the 'Materials List and Exercise Worksheets' section of this tutorial

This lecture gives you the second round of practical exercises and activities specific to developing the techniques needed for painting realistic watercolour and botanicals. This series of exercises steps things up a little for some challenge, looking at achieving a variety of effects with 'tonal variations' 'multiple colours'  'textures' and we take this even further to some basic 'glazing' as well. Again, its not about creating a masterpiece, its about familiarising yourself with the medium and capabilities of the watercolour medium. Playing also helps us to get over those initial anxieties of putting paint to paper. Remember, try these exercises in different sizes and papers to understand the differences. 

The techniques themselves aren't terribly hard to understand in theory, but they take a little time and practice to get a feel for. Once you've established a handle on these approaches, its simply a matter of refining the techniques to a finer and finer degree. Your balance, how far you want to take it, or how you choose to apply it is totally up to you. The key is practice of course! Try your hand at these exercises, designed to explore and refine the skills needed to produce your best work.  

Note* Worksheets and Drawing Template is available in the 'Materials List and Exercise Worksheets' section of this tutorial

The materials list itemises everything you'll need to paint realistic and botanical watercolours in my online tutorials

The Exercise Sheet is a simple line drawing template to use for the exercises set out for you in the 'Play Time' section of this tutorial. Its a good starting point for you to practice the image transfer process, and to stick to a defined, relevant practice.

*PLEASE NOTE ~ The challenge of sourcing materials individually can be a huge and daunting task, so I have collaborated with Eckersley's Art Supplies store to supply all my students with a complete start up kit. The kit offers you a one-stop shop for all the materials you'll need for my tutorials, and at a discounted rate, and they will ship internationally. The kit is available through Eckersley's Art Supplies Online, or you can locate it on the 'CLASSROOM' tab of my website. My Start-Up Materials Kit includes a 10x14in sheet of Langton watercolour board. 

MY COMPLETE MATERIALS LIST - RECAP (This is my FULL working watercolour painting materials kit)

• Pencils, 2H, HB and 2B

• Mechanical pencil 0.5 mm HB

• White plastic eraser

• Scotch tape  

• Art Basics brushes, soon to have my own brand… sizes 000, 1, 3, 4, 5 with GOOD points and a cover sleeve on them)

• Palette (a KLIK Palette)

• Masking Fluid (colourless)

• Ruling pen

Watercolour paints artist quality Windsor and Newton

Paint colours

• Sepia

• Windsor Violet

• Perylene Maroon

• Permanent Rose

• Permanent Magenta

• Windsor Red

• Indigo

• French Ultramarine Blue

• Raw Sienna

• Burnt Sienna

• Olive Green

• Permanent Sap Green

• Payne’s Gray

• Cobalt Blue

• Cerulean Blue

• Green Gold

• Windsor Lemon

• Cadmium Yellow

• Scarlet Lake

Paper/board

• Langton Watercolour Board 10x14in

Final thoughts... and thanks so much for joining me here in my Paint Realistic Watercolour and Botanicals course! Its time to take a minute now to digest now I know, but I am really look forward to getting our brushes wet and seeing you in my hands on step by step tutorials that will follow this one. I hope that this tutorial has answered many of your questions, relieved your fears and quandaries, provided you with some clear direction and strategies to approach watercolour painting, and that it has ignited a beautiful flame to fuel you on! I really hope you'll join me on this continuing journey.

Practice grows the seeds of theory, thoughts and ideas to fruition. There is no secret like practice. There is no goal as important as enjoyment... I shall see you again! 

Happy painting ~ Heidi Willis