Watercolouring

I don’t think I would describe myself as an arty person. At school I was a ‘smart’ kid, doing well in my classes and exams, aiming for top grades and good unis. I did do art GCSE, but it was for fun, and not to pursue further. Nevertheless, I love art. I love finding an image or a painting and being transfixed by it. I love the process of discovering a new technique or seeing an image appear on paper. During art GCSE I mostly dabbled in pencil drawing and oil painting. Watercolours intimidated me because they were hard to control – with pencil or oils you could always erase a stray mark, or blend in and paint over things you didn’t like. With watercolours, you couldn’t scrub any out or you would end up with torn paper and muddy colours. As such, I avoided them.

Fast forward 8 years, and I keep seeing beautiful watercolour paintings on my Instagram feed. Gorgeous freehand flowers, striking landscapes and delicate patterns. Around the same time a family friend was getting rid of some old art supplies, and in the bundle happened to be some watercolour paper and brushes. Ever hopeful, I said that I would love to take it. It stayed under my bed for a good while until one day during exams, I was feeling particularly stressed and decided to calm myself down by browsing a lovely art shop in Cambridge. I found myself standing in front of the watercolour pans, looking at all the colours. There are so many brands, and tones, and you have to learn the lingo – half pan, full pan. I didn’t even know what gouache was! I asked the shop clerk for some help and they suggested buying just three pans, one of each primary colour. I told him I had some experience blending oils, so using just three colours would help me develop tone and understand watercolours a bit better. Leaving the shop with three little pans of pigment, I was excited.

The first thing I did with the colours was make a ‘swatch’. I couldn’t think of what to paint, so I decided to get as many different colours from the paints as possible. I was amazed at all the different colours. The red was very vibrant, but the yellow and blue I chose were more earthy, so the palette would be suited for nature drawings. My first attempt at said nature drawings were at the Cambridge Botanical Gardens. It took ages! I wasn’t altogether happy with what I had created, but I had only just begun to get to grips with how the watercolours move, how they change character depending on how you use your brush, or how much water you add, or whether the page was wet or dry. Some bits of the painting ended up a bit of a muddy mess, but it was a start.

So began my foray into watercolours. I dipped in and out, sometimes painting when I didn’t want to revise, and then after my exams finished to relax as well. Sometimes the limit of three colours was frustrating; I just couldn’t make some of the pinks and purples I wanted to include in my paintings, but I had to make do. Over the summer, my boyfriend’s sister had done a clear out, and was getting rid of a watercolour set. I leapt at the chance to get my brush on a greater range of colours! I found an Instagram account that painted gorgeous freehand flowers and went wild. Finally the pinks and bright yellows and deep violets were possible, and I tried to use all possible colours. Slowly over time I got better at knowing what the paint would do on the page, whether colours would blend well and whether they would bleed into each other. My mum mentioned that she would like one, and after a few months I felt confident enough to paint a landscape I thought she would like.

One thing I want to emphasise is that I’m still not very good, and that’s ok. I work on whatever watercolour paper I have around, and paint with some brushes from poundland. I hate wasting paint, so I always leave it on the palette and try to use it next time. But I have really enjoyed discovering a new medium of art, one that forces you to leave it be and accept the first strokes you put on the page, with less ability to change it later. There are some watercolours I have done now that I am very proud of, and I hope I continue to improve and take pride in what I paint, because I can be arty if I want to be.