Easy Watercolor Painting Ideas for Beginners
Discover the joy of painting with these easy watercolor painting ideas for beginners. Find easy tutorials plus helpful printable watercolor coloring pages.
Way back when world events caused us all to stick close to home, I decided that it was important for my mental health to have something fun to look forward to each day.
I chose watercolor painting as my ” fun thing”.
One day when we were grabbing our groceries, I wanted to make sure I had basic watercolor supplies in my cart.
Then I made a goal to sit down at the dining room table and painted something.
It has given me great joy. Watercolor painting is simple and relaxing – and I figure that the more I practice, the better I’ll get, right?
So if you, too, would like to begin learning watercolor painting, I’ve researched some great resources for beginners. Let’s learn to paint together. Shall we?
Watercolor Painting Ideas for Beginners
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links for your shopping convenience.
Supplies you’ll need:
One of the things I love about watercolor painting is that it doesn’t require a boatload of supplies! You’ll just need these basic things:
- Watercolor paper (Don’t use just copy paper. It will wrinkle really bad!) – Strathmore Cold Press Paper
- Watercolor paints – Beginner set (This is what I have), Sukura. *Update: I just got this gorgeous professional watercolor paint set and it’s divine! The colors are spectacular!
- Brushes- I’ve been using a size 6 | size 1 | This is a great set of assorted sizes. *Update: If you’re ready to invest in watercolor art, I highly recommend this gorgeous set of brushes – and they come in a pretty case!
- Jar of water – Or this collapsible paint pot is very handy if you live in a small space – or want to paint when you travel!
- Paper towel
- Watercolor sketch templates (see more about that below) – Or here are some beautiful watercolor cards that are ready to paint. I’m loving them as a beginner!
Watercolour Painting Ideas for Beginners: Basic Tutorials to help you get started
As a complete newbie to watercolor painting, I was thrilled to discover so many free tutorials for beginners. Here are 10 that caught my eye.
5 EASY Watercolour Flowers - Perfect For Beginners! (it's easier than you think)
I recently discovered Emma Jane Lefebvre on Instagram, and just love watching her beautiful watercolor tutorials. She has a very active YouTube channel with all kinds of free training perfect for beginners. You're going to love having her teach you the basics of watercolor painting!
Yes, I know this says "Watercolor for Kids", but I absolutely loved Emily's lesson plus free watercolor sketch coloring pages. I'm painting one a day!
I was joking with a friend on Instagram that if her watercolor turned into "blobs", it would just be abstract art!:) Here is an actual abstract art painting that looks super fun and do-able for a beginner like me.
This tutorial claims to be a 10 minute one. Hmm...it might take me longer than 10 minutes for one of these beauties! However, I do find that one of the things about watercolor painting is that I shouldn't overthink the details. Setting a timer for 10 minutes sounds like a fun challenge.
Oh, how I love roses! This great tutorial walks beginners through the proper techniques to paint roses 3 different ways. These easy watercolor flowers are all absolutely beautiful.
Seriously? These trees were painted with crumpled paper! (Sign me up for this lesson...)
Learn the steps of painting 3 different easy watercolor flowers, leaves, and berries here.
I enjoy tutorials that come with a video lessons. Learn to paint a hydrangea while playing and pausing a video. Enjoy painting watercolor flowers with the teacher!
You Do Hue: How to Mix Watercolor Paints to Get Just The Shade You Want
I'm discovering quickly that part of the secret to beautiful watercolor paintings is mixing custom colors. Learn the steps to color mixing for watercolor painting with this lesson.
This beautiful pink peony watercolor painting tutorial has it all - a printable template, instructions, and a video! Peonies were one of the first easy watercolor flowers I tried.
Watercolor Painting Ideas for Beginners: Printable Watercolor Coloring Pages for Adults
As a beginner in watercolor painting, I found myself looking specifically for easy watercolor paintings to copy. I discovered some easy watercolour painting ideas in the form of free printable watercolor templates with line drawings of easy things to paint with watercolors.
Here is a list of some cute watercolor paintings you might want to try, too!
As I get started with the basics of watercolor painting, I LOVE printable watercolor templates that I can transfer onto my watercolor paper.
To transfer a printable watercolor template to watercolor paper, I follow these simple steps:
1. Print the template onto copy paper.
2.Place the template under the watercolor paper and hold it up to a window with light shining through.
3. Lightly trace the template onto the paper.
I find that by using a template as I begin to learn the basics of watercolor painting, I feel like I can have small "wins" right away. That encourages me to keep on painting!
The following are some free printable watercolor coloring pages to help you as you get started.
Isn't this a beauty? I think this printable watercolor flower design would make a gorgeous coloring page for markers as well as watercolor painting.
Well, hello, little cute birdie! This simple template looks like an awesome one for a beginner to try.
Free Watercolor Adult Coloring Book Printable Sheets - Woodland Forest Animals Part 1 (Fox, Bear, Squirrel, Badger)
I found this jackpot for amazing free printable templates for watercolor painting! There are so many pages of cute woodland animals...
Feathers And Flowers Antler Coloring Book Art Free Adult Coloring Book Watercolor Printable
I discovered that this site has a lovely collection of free printable watercolor coloring pages. They're all beautiful! Easy watercolor flowers on antlers? How cute is that?
Art pages for coloring can be used for watercolor if they're simple enough. I think these would work well.
Perhaps not exactly a beginner project, but these succulents sure turned out pretty!
"Bloom where you are planted". Oh, I love this flower cactus watercolor tutorial and template!
Printable Popsicle cards anyone? Wouldn't these be fun to paint and have on hand for Summer gift giving?
Watercolor Painting Ideas for Beginners: Ready to use watercolor coloring books for adults
In my researching today, I also discovered some beautiful ready to use watercolor books. They look amazing for beginners – no printing or tracing necessary! Click on the link to see details and purchase on Amazon.
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Just Add Watercolor Flowers: Easy Techniques and Beautiful Patterns for True Beginners
- Just Add Watercolor Happy Thoughts
- Splash of Color Painting and Coloring Book
Thank you for this post!! My daughter is an amazing artist and I am NOT… like really not. But we’ve pulled out watercolors as something to do together. Mostly she laughs at me. And I laugh at me. But it is the most fun. I need the easiest painting by watercolor projects I can find!
I’ve been wanting to try some painting by watercolor and you’ve given me so many fun ideas! I’m a total beginner so I was worried it might be too hard, but you have shown me there is plenty I’ll be able to do.
I’m always so intimated to try painting by watercolor for some reason, but these ideas have me excited to give it a go! Thanks so much for sharing all of the fun ideas and tips!
I completely forgot how much I enjoyed painting by watercolor as a kid and a teen! Definitely need to try getting back into it as a form of stress relief! Thank you for the reminder and the tips! Your paintings are beautiful!
Thank you! I used to paint with oils but I stopped because I developed an allergy to turpentine. I’ve missed it and painting by watercolor might be just the thing for me to revisit my inner artist!
My daughter has been getting into painting by watercolor and she’s used a few of these ideas and loved them. Thank you for the great ideas!
This is a fantastic collection of watercolor tutorials for beginners – thank you!
I have wanted to learn to paint for so long, but it always looks so complicated… until this painting by watercolor tutorial. Your paintings are beautiful and I can’t wait to try some of these ideas with my daughter (she loves to paint.)
Thanks for making this list – painting by watercolor like this is a favorite pastime of mine and I’m always looking for inspiration. I’ve bookmarked your page so that I have this list all the time.
Such an inspirational post with many options for painting with watercolor. I would love to know if you have any idea of acrylic painting tutorials there might for beginners. Any suggestions
would be greatly appreciated! Thank You!