Painting Beyond the Brush: Unleashing the Power of Drawing in Watercolor

Every medium comes with its own set of challenges. For watercolor, John Salminen (Ep.38), says he sees his students struggle with drawing.

But what do drawing skills have to do with painting?

When it comes to watercolor….Everything.

Drawing skills matter because as a transparent medium, you have limited options for fixing your missteps.

If you, for example, get the arm in the wrong palace on your watercolor paper, you can’t just cover it up with an opaque layer. There are no truly opaque layers. So you either start again or you create a painting you might not like.

For this reason, the ability to draw is even more critical because it means you’ve increased your chances of getting the right shapes in the right places.

Put it to Practice:

If you find yourself frustrated mid-painting, try to locate the source. Do things seem like they are in the wrong place or just slightly at the wrong angle or with the wrong curve?

This might mean the source is drawing.

The good news is you don’t have to stop painting for 10 years while you build your drawing skills. But it may mean for the shorter term, you’d benefit from using something like the grid method to get your drawing down or even transfer paper.

Having the drawing correctly on the page before you begin with watercolor paint, will make a big difference later on in the painting.