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Watercolor Sketching

Watercolor Sketching is one of the most interesting forms of painting that most of us artists enjoy doing.

Most of it happens in a Sketchbook.

Again for a majority of us, a sketchbook is very personalised & private thing.

I have always stressed upon the habit of keeping a sketchbook in order to make significant improvements to your drawing & painting skills.

In recent social media posts even the top-guns of Watercolor, Alvaro Castagnet & Joseph Zbukvic mentioned the importance of it.

I personally have benefited so much from my Sketchbooks.

Now, for the sake of this post’s relevance let’s narrow down a bit to the topic of Watercolor Sketching (obviously most of the time on a Sketchbook).

I have learnt a lot as i said and thought maybe i could share a few tips, so that you figure out things well in advance & not have to struggle like I did initially:

1. Use minimal tools/supplies

The very essence of sketch-booking is to stay minimal. Use very minimal tools/art supplies while doing watercolor sketching. This way, you have to worry less about which tool to use & how. Rather your brain accepts the fact that you have a limited time, a limited tool-set & also a limited palette, out of which you have to bring out the maximum.

Watercolor Sketching

Image Credit: Sweta Kaushik

Speaking of a limited palette, try doing watercolor sketching sometimes with only the primary colors(Red, Blue & Yellow). You will learn so much sub-consciously about color theory. You will learn so much about paint mixing. You see, minimalism has its perks.

2. Paint loose

Watercolor Sketching for me is almost all of the time “quick sketching”. Therefore to be quick, it is very important to paint loose. Painting loose is very much relevant & connected to the next five tips that you will get in the post.

Watercolor Sketching

Image Credit: Namchai Saensupha

Quick tip: Use a relatively larger brush to paint loose. You cannot be quick with a smaller brush. Any round brush with a pointed tip will do the trick

3. Quick planning

Once we know that we need to paint loose, the first & foremost thing you will need to do is a little planning. Just make a quick assessment of how you will compose the work. In this little phase you should figure out what you will include & most importantly what you will exclude in the composition. Once you have made that rough roadmap in mind, you will have a very easy & free-flowing watercolor sketching experience.

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4. Suggest. Don’t insist

Watercolor Sketching

Image Credit: Namchai Saensupha

Since you have already planned out your work & is painting loose, the next big & important step is to capture the essence of the scene/object. Your brushstrokes should suggest the shape, mood, light & form of the subject. You cannot afford to go into intricate details & insist that what you are painting is indeed that particular thing. For example, your loose brushstrokes should trick or rather suggest the brain to believe that the tree you have painted is in fact a tree. That is also called optical illusion & you should take the fullest advantage of it.

5. Make the maximum use of light & shadows

In continuation with the previous tip, I will explain to you the importance of light & shadow in a painting.

Watercolor Sketching

Image Credit: Mukta Changmai

To give you a context, let me remind you that we are painting a three-dimensional scene/object on a two-dimensional piece of paper/surface. If you do not indicate the light & shadow in a painting, the work will just be a flat gathering of paint washes. But once you start adding shadows, you get two benefits-First is that your highlights(where you would suggest light falling on the object) gets more prominent & relevant. And Second & the important one is that our brain gets tricked into thinking & considering it as a three-dimensional thing.

So again, I would suggest, you make the maximum benefit of this very very simple trick.

6. Keep the work minimal yet interesting

Watercolor Sketching

Image Credit: Mukta Changmai

This is again something related to point no-3, which suggests a quick planning before you start out. Your composition should be minimal yet you should find an interesting aspect in it while you plan. Most of the time that interesting thing can be a focal object/point where the viewer’s attention is immediately gained. You can easily make powerful compositions if you give a little attention to this trick.

7. “Save your brush-strokes as if they were money”-Alvaro Castagnet

This tip is directly from one of the finest Watercolor artists of our times, Alvaro Castagnet. I am a huge fan of his works & follow him on social media & never miss out any updates from him.

Watercolor Sketching

Image Credit: Mukta Changmai

Recently he put out an instagram/facebook story of a work of his with a caption which read roughly something like this- “Save your brushstrokes as if they were money”

His point was simple. Achieve more out of less brushstrokes.

This is what my whole post is all about. In Watercolor Sketching, you have to be quick, paint loose, use maximum use of the light-shade concept, stay minimal & paint minimal. It is not very hard once you figure out what to do & how to do.

My personal suggestion would be that you start keeping a sketchbook for yourself where you can fearlessly paint & experiment stuff.

In-fact watercolor sketching usually begins with the habit of keeping a watercolor sketchbook.

Please do let us know in the comments what works best for you in Watercolor sketching & we would be happy to see you share your works too.

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