6 Reasons Why Watercolor Painting Is So Hard

Anyone who has worked with paints will tell you watercolor painting is the hardest to learn when compared to oils and acrylics. And although the results are gratifying, the process itself makes many give up on it midway. Even artists who love drawing and possess professional drawing skills will flounder at the face of watercolor paint at first.

But why is watercolor painting so hard to master, probably has to do with the fact that it does not forgive mistakes; there is a steep learning curve that contemplates the water ratio and fluidity, which mostly comes from the frustrating process of practice and making a lot of mistakes.

6 Reasons Why Watercolor Painting Is So Hard

We will go over the main reasons why water-coloring is difficult and explain how you can make things easier. We have listed seven reasons below.

Reason One – Planning Each Stroke – The Steep Learning Curve of Watercolor Painting

For anyone who has started painting recently, this particular painting medium can be pretty daunting because it has its own set of rules.

Making the sketch light, waiting till the paint dries before you apply paint again, and the transparent nature of the colors are some of the unique things you have to pay attention to in only watercolor paintings.

Nonetheless, if one is aware of all these nuances beforehand, you can better prepare for it. The thing with water coloring is you don’t jump into it and wait for the art to take its shape. You have to plan every brushstroke and not make a mistake.

It is easier said than done, but that’s the approach and mindset you need starting from your beginning stages regardless of how messy your art style is. As you learn watercolors, you will get a better grasp of these things.

Reason Two – Covering Mistakes is Difficult – Watercolor Paintings Do Not Forgive Mistakes

The main reason behind watercolor being a difficult medium and why being a watercolor artist is so challenging is that you don’t always learn from your mistakes.

In oil or acrylic painting, you have chances to paint over the paper, but with transparent watercolor, erasing and covering a mistake is pretty difficult. Overdoing it can ruin the white paper. So, you don’t get many do-overs compared to any other media.

One thing you can do to make it easier on you is to apply very soft brush strokes at first. Once you’re more confident about your art, you can apply more paint and move on to faster painting.

Reason Three – Understanding its Flow – Fluidity and Transparency of Watercolor

The fluid nature of watercolor is one of the first obstacles that beginners face. As water’s nature is to spread, it does exactly so once you put it on the paper. The pigment particles of the color combined with the water create an art form that is unique to watercolors only.

However, dealing with this can be confusing for an amateur. Therefore, beginners need to pay extra attention to their strokes. If the brush is too wet, they need to scrape it or use a different brush. On the other hand, another mistake followed by being extra careful is making conservative strokes.

Watercolor painting needs to be free flowing. The strokes should come easy. It would help if you did not strain it in fear of making a mistake. If you take too long making each brushstroke, it will dry out the palette. But to prevent it, you can use a spray bottle.

Reason Four – Some Needed Supplies – Watercolor Paper and Utensils

A great calligrapher might not need to choose their pen, but an artist needs their palette and paper. Cheap watercolor papers can halt your progress and demotivate you. Paper is one of the most important aspects of watercolor paintings. The paper needs to be strong enough to withstand the strokes of the brush and the wet paint. If it’s too weak, the paint will tear through the paper, and all your work will be ruined.

And while you should go for thicker paper when working with watercolor paints, the rest of the utensils don’t need to be in the expensive category. You need good brushes, but more importantly, you need to have them in numbers.

Using the same brush over and over again will deteriorate not only the paper but also the quality of the finished painting. So, you need to switch to a clean and dry brush when you can. The other must have is a palette, sponges, scrapers, masking fluid, etc.

Reason Five – After Drying – The Unpredictability of Watercolor Medium

It can be a tricky situation when you have little idea of your own work but know that most watercolor artists go through the exact same thing. In most other paints you can see the exact color wheel you’re working with. The same color you pick is the one you paint on paper. But when it comes to watercolors, what you put on the paper and the final result after drying can be very different.

Beginners are most shocked by seeing this. When the water evaporates, the paint is lighter than when you drew it. It means you can never truly be sure of where you’re going.

And this painting is all about mixing colors. Often when you mix a color and paint it, after drying, the color is of a lighter or different shade. Then you have to redo the entire thing. You will need to go back and forth before you can execute the perfect result.

One thing you can do to make it less excruciating is before you paint directly on the canvas, mix your colors and let them dry somewhere else to see what the final outcome is.

Reason Six – Water Ratio – Understanding the Ratio of Paint and Water

You can never completely understand or control the combination of water and color pigment, but once you accept that, you can start to bring a balance to your art. The same problem occurs when trying to put paint on paper. Excess water will ruin the paper as well as the consistency. Different pigment requires different consistency, and the mixing technique requires a sharp sense of combining colors.

Also, if you’re not happy with your color mix, you won’t be happy with the painting either. There’s a chance you’ll put on muddy colors, and then you will have to correct it by using other watercolors. Another thing to be careful of when mixing is overusing the wet brush.

Ideally, you should not mix more than three colors, and you should always change to a dry brush afterward. Remnants of previous paint or wetness will ruin the next batch of paint you mix.

Bonus Track – The ‘White Dilemma’

Watercolors that are true to their elements never use black and white pigment. There is no true white paint in watercolor. When highlighting or white is required, masking fluids and tapes are used. But that too is a measure of preserving the white because you don’t want the wet watercolors spreading over the canvas.

While black paint is somewhat common now, originally, black and white paint wasn’t a part of watercolors. It is also a reason painting with watercolor is so difficult. With no white or black, there is very little space to highlight and outline your art.

Hence, the artist has to be extra careful with outlines, and that in itself is one of the many challenges an artist needs to conquer when painting watercolors.

That is why we previously mentioned that proper planning is required when using watercolor. As you need to preserve your whites, you need to visualize where your shadows will fall or where they will be the brightest.

To make this easier, it is always recommended to draw using references. References make the task of visualizing easier, and if you have a good reference, you learn a lot about shading, lighting, saturation, etc.

Final Words

The hurdles of watercolors may seem scary, but once you get over the initial adjustment phase, you will find yourself learning one of the most delicate and fresh paint mediums.

Finally, if you’re still overwhelmed by the question, why watercolor painting is so hard, our suggestion would be to keep practicing in the proper way. That is, you need to prepare and plan the strokes carefully. Keep working in this manner and water coloring will no longer be difficult for you.