GIVEAWAY UPDATE: Before I announce the giveaway winners, just know we're all winners because you can all download my FREE watercolor ebook ( bit.ly/floralebook ). Okay, now for our FIVE WINNERS! They are... DRUM ROLL... Brittany Shinehouse, Lucy E, Angela Daly, Frieda Schnell, and Watercolour Art in Cape Town! CONGRATS!! Please email us at hello@jennarainey.com to let us know where to ship the paintings! Happy painting everyone! xoxo
Studying colour theory - this is such a game changer! I started doing this when I read your first book and my goodness! Learning about which colours mix well, how they mix and how to compliment colours has really upped my game 🤍
Can't believe I stumbled across you and your worthy videos. I love the idea of two jugs of water! Simple but smart tip. I love your verbal "flubs" best of all. A real person with ideas to share. Thank you!
Thanks for this video. I’ve been researching cotton paper so this was very helpful. My favorite tip was the paper towels. I always forget about using those.
I learned that you are a really rad teacher! All ten tips were very handy. I have been learning watercolor for about two years now so I have heard these tips before, but for some reason it’s just more fun coming from you. Thank you for another great video! I am already looking forward to the next one. As Always, Much Love and Respect from North Carolina, Stacy
I thank you for this info. I have been disappointed in the fading of my watercolors. I’ll try the better paper and upgrade my paints as I’m able. I like your style .
I've watched so many of these 10 tips so it was refreshing to hear a new one. The cool & warm water jars vs. The clean & dirty. I'm definitely going to try it.
Thank you for this helpful video! I love that you showed how to break down watercolor into shapes!!! Also puddles cause hard lines! Can you tell I’m somewhat new!! 🥴. Thanks again for all your videos!! 💐💐
You're so welcome Ginger, and I hope that these tips help you in your watercolor journey! Enjoy the process as a new watercolorist, because that's the point - have fun!!
Breaking everything down into basic shapes was the biggest thing I learned. I don't normally think about what I'm painting in terms of basic shapes like that, and I think it can cause some over-complication that's unnecessary. Thanks!
I have always thought that I needed to get a good technique down before I invested in good supplies but my work is still looking so sad. Knowing that paper quality makes a difference gives me so much hope!! I’m going to be trying new paper ☺️
YES! Supplies are crucial to taking your painting to another level. Try Legion Stonehenge Aqua Watercolor Block Paper: amzn.to/2GDaYH9 -- I think you'll love it!
Jenna, I’ve been having a problem with water control I have just started trying to watercolor weekly I love your tutorials and tips! Thank you! And I also love your humor you are very relatable and that is very refreshing!
Love the tips, they are so basic but important, specially when your starting, I wish I knowed that when I was starting 😅 my favorite was the one with the high quality materials they do improve your painting and maybe I'll add that if you sketching with pencil before you apply the watercolor you should pass an eraser, so the lines are almost visible, because once you put the watercolor and dries you won't be able to erase the lines 💔 so helpful all the videos you are making specially the free part 🥰🙏🏻
One of the things I learned is to break down what I’m painting into basic shapes. Loved this video and can’t wait to watch others and learn more from you!
I'm SO glad I found your channel. Favorite tip: I had several but..... using a paper towel for things other than just reducing water on your brush. I've always wondered if it was looked down on when you use it to make clouds or the things you mentioned. I also liked #11. Don't be so hard on myself. That's a tough one. I look forward to learning more from you! 👍
FRIEDA! I have excellent news: YOU are one of our five winners! Congrats! Please email hello@jennarainey.com to let us know where to ship the painting!
Thanks for the tips! I’ve been painting in watercolor for about 10 months. It’s a fun medium. I love it! I have faced the challenges of too much water on the paper and hard edges. I can definitely use the tip on the damp brush over hard edges. I still struggle with too much water on my brush when something is drying. I’ve been keeping a dry paper towel in my hand (or on my table) to blot it off before putting the brush on the paper. Every painting I do teaches me something. My biggest challenge is knowing when to leave the painting alone and call it done.
I love that, that you said every painting teaches you something! That's awesome and a great perspective to have! Keep up the practice, keep learning and growing, and enjoy the process! Happy painting!
I have a lot of hard lines, when I lift the brush, it always leaves a pool of color. and every petal and leaf has an edge. I'm going to try tapping off the water on paper towel and try the Easy Watercolor Flower video again.
I have to go back and watch this again. I am a multi mediums artist. I tend to find techniques used in one discipline and use them somewhere else. I got lost on your macrame. I really like it. I'm trying to cat proof my plants which is considerably easier than plant proofing a cat. I love the concept of macrame, It just most the time they need a little updating and I think I figured It out some design modifications. Off to the pottery wheel and metal shop. Thanks for the nexus.
This is the first video of yours I have ever seen and I am excited to find you!! Definite thumbs up 👍. I’m new to watercolors and have fallen in love. I really needed to hear your top about color theory. Mixing or choosing color has been the most intimidating part of my new love. Thanks for the advice!
I think the most important is to not let mistakes get to you...there are really only happy accidents!! If you made no mistakes you would not be learning or improving! Thanks for the great videos!!
I love the tip about good paper. 😊 You can get some really good deals on watercolour paper sample packs to help you decide which paper works best for you without bankrupting yourself. 😄 I bought a pack a few weeks ago, and although I've only tried one sheet, the colour difference in paint I thought I 'knew' was quite startling! Water control is still something I'm learning - I either get too much or not enough. 🙄 With regard to basic shapes, I like to take a photograph of whatever I want to paint, and put it through a drawing app, then I add a layer and work out the basic shapes in a contrasting colour.
Gaina paper is such a game changer! Water control IS really tricky for a lot of people getting into it, so don’t feel bad, just takes more practice getting used to... and very cool technique about the photograph!
Hi Jenna The watercolour paper tip is great. I use Arches for practising and you are correct it's so expensive. Will give the Stonehenge a go. Thank you for the video. Lots of useful tips.
Loved this entire video! I love arches paper, so hearing that there’s an equal in quality but more affordable is a huge help! I also love what you said about brushes- this is something I’m learning, that it isn’t always about what others recommend but what works for me! Thanks for sharing these tips, Jenna!
Fantastic video! I went to my first watercolor lesson the other day, but I definitely learned more from this video and Part One of Tips for Beginners than the three hour class I went to! Thanks so much.
I love your way of presenting how easy and interesting watercolor painting is. Im from the Philippines, i wonder how I can reach you for more inspirational and instructional lessons. Beautiful Jenna!
Thanks for watching!! Controlling water can be really tricky, but just keep up that practice and you'll get it eventually. Like I said, unless you're doing a big wash, you really don't need that much water... Happy painting!
Thank you! I am a newbie and loved to learn there is an alternative less expensive paper that is available, that is actually good quality! Also will be ordering new brushes! One of my favorite favorite things about you videos is that you have so many links😊 I never have to wonder where to find something you offer! 💗
Thanks for sharing Theresa! If you haven't seen it already, I just came out with a floral composition tutorial ( ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-6tkxPmHs3Lo.html ), that could be a big help for you in the composition world. Happy painting! xoxo
My favorite tip is getting good quality supplies. When I was first learning watercolor on my own, I would get frustrated because I bought cheap paint, paper, and brushes. I would get so frustrated that it wasn't turning out the way I wanted and gave up for a long time. I took one of your seminars in 2016 and saw a huge difference when I used better supplies.
These were all very helpful. I’ve been practice a year now and really wanting to take it to a higher level. Getting very frustrated I have been thinking it’s all about the paper. So I’m taking your recommendation on paper selection. Can’t wait to try it out!!! Glad I found your channel!!
I am so glad you found this channel and I do hope you love the paper as much as I do (I am confident you will - I'm also confident better paper will ease some of the frustration you've been experiencing). Happy painting!
Usually I keep a clean water, but I’ll have to try the cool colors versus warm colors as my “clean water” is always dirty by the end of painting. Thanks for the tip!
Hello! Another great tip RE keeping your clean water - and even your dirty water - cleaner is to daub your brush out on paper towel (etc) before you dip into your water. If my brush is really loaded with pigment, I'll even wet it and unload into my palette to save that expensive paint for later.
I never heard anyone say "I promise you're going to forget what I just showed you and do it the wrong way" (until you review and practice), that comment relaxed me (and made me laugh), but it gave me SO much more confidence. Yay! and thank you!💕
Oh. Brushes! I finally bit the bullet and spent the money needed to buy your recommended brushes from USA, two brushes plus postage about $65 dollars, only just acceptable. Then, sadly I had to pay import duty which took the total to over $100!! My goodness. But, the improvement in my painting was noticeable so I’m pleased and I do like them, a lot.
Whoa, Kath! That is expensive! Sorry to hear about all those fees, BUT very glad to hear that they made improvements to your painting! Just be sure to take care of them and they'll last such a long time for you. Happy painting!!
Hello from Minneapolis Minnesota! Jenna, I just found your channel today and subscribed right away! Finally there is a channel out here that speaks to me! One question regarding your water jars being for either cool or warm colors. It looks like you work through your project without clear water. Does keeping the jars separate enough to keep your brushes from carrying the last color along with it to your clean paper? Or, is clear water the way to go? Thank you!
Tracy! Welcome to the Jenna Rainey RU-vid Fam! I am so glad that these videos (and I) connect with you!! As long as you are properly using the warm/cool water cup method, and truly swishing around the right color in the right cup, you'll be all good! I don't use any clear water, just the warm/cool, and it works great for me. If you continue watching my videos, you WILL find that I am super not type a or ocd about my painting, I really go with the flow and don't worry too much about things mixing up or whatever... I know that's a bit of an adjustment for some viewers, definitely do what's comfortable for you! Happy painting!
It’s also nice to come back and look at a painting a few months later if you don’t love it. 50% of the time if I hate a painting and put it away for a while, I’ll come back and love it the next time I see it. Fresh eyes:) That’s a great tip.
Tuesday Nyx that is so true. Also, so many times I don’t like a painting until I finish it. You really need to have a full range of values to like a painting.
I personally do this, taping down the watercolour paper with masking tape/painters tape on a flat surface you’re working on. Also, the warm & cool cup idea is Genius ! I use clean & dirty , no wonder it ends up muddy
The taping down works great too! I love working on a block of paper, so I don't really need to tape it down - but tape works great for loose paper for sure!
So many great tips! How can I choose just one. Well I can’t, so my two favorite tips were study color theory (loading that video now) and using a paper towel to create texture and lift paint. As always, your video was so helpful and so enjoyable to watch. Thanks Jenna!
my tip is to use puddles in your palette. mix the pigment in so you dont have to constantly mix the color again. i didnt know that for a long time and it really helped me improve 😊
Wonderful videos, thank you for the help. Did you ever get around to trying Princeton Aqua Elite? Interested to hear your comparison to the Heritage brushes you love so much.
I hear ya, overworking a piece can happen before you even realize! It's good to stop yourself, take a breath, look at your piece with fresh eyes, and make the most of the white space!
Not sure how I landed on your channel but I'm SO glad I did !!!! I'm fairly new to watercolor and find your suggestions (and encouragement) very helpful. Subscribed :)
I agree with using a"snappy brush". I tried a round Silver Black Velvet brush, that gets raves on other channels, and when it's placed down an paper and bends as you paint, it stays that way when you lift it off the paper. HORRIBLE! I returned it the next day.
I do a lot of small detail work on flowers, animals, portraits, etc. and for some reason I cannot get the detail I need using Princeton brushes. The tips, for some reason, just don't work for me even down to the smaller ones. I have purchased 3 or 4 sets of brushes to try and find the right ones and it's so frustrating. I would love to find a set of detail and/or spotter brushes that would work!
I have been using NOT great paper - CAS Art heavyweight cartridge paper - after I did a workshop and that artist recommended it. I liked that it wasn't heavily textured because I scan everything in and manipulate on Adobe and sometimes that texture is impossible (sometimes it is pretty). Any tips for this?
Learning Color theory is the one thing I'm really struggling with. I agree about paper, 100% cotton is so much better; I found Bee Paper, from Canada, was very affordable, quality 100% cotton paper.
One thing that really stood out to me in this video is how important color theory is. I am fairly new to watercolor. I took some art classes in High School but that was a long time ago. So color theory...didn't even know that was a thing. I will be downloading your Free Watercolor e-book to learn more. Thanks Jenna!
I’ve paid a good amount of money for watercolor classes and haven’t had “professional” teachers explain terms the way you do. “Hard Lines”....never heard of it and you made so simple to understand. The basic techniques are critical building blocks for great outcomes. Thank you 🙏. Your supply tips are wonderful, especially the rationale in the 5th tip for Princeton brushes. And lastly, the color theory was just the right tip to help...I got right on it and the knowledge has inspired me.
My biggest take away from this video is water control and embracing my happy accidents. I’m new to watercoloring so I find myself taking my art too seriously. Perfection should not be my goal at this point. Learning and embracing the process should. ❤️
Thanks for sharing Dana!! Definitely enjoy the process and don’t be afraid to make mistakes and learn from them, but make sure to have fun because that’s the point!
One of the things that I have learned from you is after laying down initial pigment color to watercolor paper, while it is wet to add pigment to my brush from the lump of dry pigment without rewetting the brush and dropping the darker color directly to the wet color on the paper. Thank you Jenna for keeping me thinking about how to do watercolor well.
I suffer from hard line syndrome and always thought the reason was that I wasn't using enough water, but then it got worse, and I still didn't make the correlation! Thanks for that!! Totally learned something new!
Jenn Hall the old hard line syndrome, gets us all from time to time... check out my wet on dry video too for more help in that department. ALSO! Cactus video coming out next Saturday, we do a lot of wet on dry, so that’ll help too!
Hi Jenna! Thanks so much for these great tips!! They are all golden nuggets! As a beginner I can definitely say that the right supplies (especially paper) make already a huuuge difference (especially because we don't have great control yet!) and the color theory is a very big topic and I totally agree with you that it can really boost the results of our paintings! What I would add - and this is just an integration to your tip about supplies/paper that could still help some beginners - is to really try to explore and practice with good paper without worrying too much of its price because THERE ARE ALSO WAYS TO REUSE OUR SCRAP PAINTINGS (there are plenty of videos and ideas on how to do it nice in the web)! This awareness personally helped me sensibly to release the pressure and enjoy fully the process! As beginners, the price of good material is sometimes higher than the budget and it's human to feel the pressure to have to perform like a Pro on a 100% cotton paper (and not just putting there our experiments and blobs:)) because it costs more, but the truth is that only through the experience, experiments (and the blobs yeah:) ) we can improve, and the idea that not all of those blobs and tests despite not so good will have a second value is helpful, creative, fun and environment friendly too!
I know it, with the prices of high quality supplies! That definitely freaked me out at first, but once I got the good supplies, that was a game changer and I never looked back! Glad to hear it's been helpful for you too!! Happy painting!
Wonderful tips. I have no background but found a teacher who was willing to take me on. I’ve been with him for 3 years and am learning so much. Your videos reinforce what he says. I definitely need a course on color theory. Will explore all my books my teacher has given me as he cleans out his library. I am such a happy retiree now. Thanks.
The hardest thing about watercolor is the paint to water ratio! Still working on how much water to rinse off my brush before dabbing it into the paint. Thanks for the reminder. Also, Jenna, do you spritz all your paints before beginning to paint? I 2nd what everyone else is saying about color theory and compostion. I often seem to paint too quickly because I'm afraid of the paint drying too fast, so not noticing color or compostion until I'm done and then realize the mistakes. All in a days work! Thanks for your talent Jenna!
Hey Karen! Water can be tricky! I do not spritz before I paint... If you watch my tutorials (like a floral tutorial or something), we really show every step of the process -- not hiding anything, what you see is exactly what I'm doing! Hope that helps!
Studying colour theory. I have recently reviewed warm and cool colour theory to improve blending and colour composition for my art work. Back to the basics! Practice, Practice, Practice ...and patience! What may look like a mistake today can turn into the masterpiece of tomorrow! “Embrace those accidents!”
I haven't watched through this video yet, but you said "instantly" so I'm going to assume practice isn't one of the tips. Let's see if I'm right. Heheh
If you want to use the canson xl paper and don't care about lightfastness, liquid watercolor which is dye based actually works better on the cellulose paper vs cotton. Cotton paper will make your pigment based watercolor look it's best, it will actually be brighter.
I saw the most instant better results by using quality paper and paint so that would be my fave tip! Ok I know that’s two tips but both are so important 😆😍
Love your tips, can’t wait to be as good as you. I’m 79, hope I have enough time to practice practice then achieve. My father was a sign painter and he blew neon. As a child it was just what he did for a living. I now realize how creative he was.
My favorite tip is actually #1- the paper. I've been working through everyday watercolor and had even bought the paper recommend, but still had been using multi-purpose paper notebooks. I just tried actually using the paper you recommended, and it WAS actually instantly improved!
Thank you for the tip on watercolor paper. I am hoping that is the key to my painting looking better. What kind of paints matter the most? Pan paints of tube paints? Student grade or professional? I am new to your tutorials, but have learned a lot already. Thank you for your time and talent!
Hey Linda! Depending on what paper you're using, yes, it makes a HUGE difference. Quality in supplies really helped take me to the next level. Here is a video I did on the paints that I use and love ( ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-znFCv-rCSe4.html ), I think that may be insightful for you! I use professional level tube paint in my own palette. I love these paints, but you do need to find what is best for you and what excites you. xoxo
Ooh I want to learn more about color theory for sure! I’m going to rewatch the video you mentioned. I also like what you said about using what works best for you. I’ve finally gotten to a point where I’ve begun developing my own style and using colors that inspire me, and it’s made me feel much more confident in my paintings. 💕
