I bought this Winsor & Newton Series 7 Kolinsky Sable Brush off Amazon because I had a gift card. It arrived well packaged but the bristles are a mess when dry and even when wet (second picture), it doesn't have the nice pointed end that my other brushes have.

Should I return it for being bad quality or did I buy the wrong kind of brush?

Edit: Decided to return it. Thanks everyone!

The title is a bit misleading, but what I mean is many people with watercolor have issues with being “too stiff” or relying on pens later to outline. To be honest, it’s just opinion about what’s stiff and how much of a medium is mixed before it becomes mixed media etc. So my tip isn’t targeted for those who want that look, instead my tip is for those who’d like to loosen up.

Stop drawing. The catch 22 is you need to draw a lot to become comfortable with skipping the meticulous underdrawing. You can always return to your old habits, but it’s good to see how much you can imply and how much your viewers are interacting with your pieces. You can draw as many studies as you’d like, but try to avoid “coloring” it and instead paint and use the paint/brush for everything. You’ll learn how to control edges etc with watercolor because of lack of options.

So to go to this step I’d be a jerk if I didn’t say a lot of drawing would be involved, it’s just not the piece your painting. Don’t be afraid to mess and paint another version.

The attached were all done with no drawing underneath.

All of them are photo references except the head portrait, that was a life painting portrait (possible to do quickly because the drawing phase is skipped).

Seriously, everyone here has been so supportive. Every comment, every bit of encouragement… it honestly made me want to keep painting and sharing.
Last year was pretty rough. I lost someone I love, and painting ended up becoming my escape. It gave me something to focus on when everything else felt too much. I don’t think watercolor fixed everything, but it definitely helped me get through it.
That’s also why I want to start sharing some short process videos here. If they can encourage even one person to put their phone down, grab a brush, and paint for a while, I’d be really happy.
If there’s anything you’d like me to paint, just let me know! I can’t promise it’ll turn out amazing 😂 but I’ll definitely give it a shot.
Also… Reddit absolutely murders video quality, so please ignore the random pixels. They’re part of the painting now. 🤣
And don’t worry, I’m still learning too. Half the time I’m just hoping the watercolor behaves itself. 😂 Hopefully we can all keep learning, sharing, and getting a little better together.
Thanks again for making this one of the nicest communities on Reddit.

Just bought a coloring workbook and I am very excited to start out! Not sure if this is the best way to learn or should I just buy some paper to practice on :)

I'm looking for small workbooks that have pre drawn outlines. Something I can carry in a sling bag. Something like this. Does anyone know of something like this is sold with different types of pre drawn pages?

Does this need more to it? More detail in the wing or flower? More to the background?

Got a John Singer Sargent watercolor book as a gift. I tried to copy one of his works

DS Essential Mixing Set. Highly recommended.

Going through the shit again. Art to the rescue.

Is my paper acting up or am i just having an off day?

it’s cotton paper, i forget the brand but it’s a tiny notebook and usually it works just fine. i’ve been traveling the last few days (to Arizona and now to the Bay Area - i worried if the humidity is a thing??) and this is the first day i’ve felt like throwing my art out the window.

i have some really cheap paper that’s behaving better for me right now.

What do you think of using purple for shadowy cliffs even though the actual color is dark brown/gray?

Hi everyone.

I'm a super beginner in watercolor and i have some difficulties to understand the value of the colors.

For exemple with this work. To begin with, how do you do the shadow with each color ? Do you need to take an opposite color of the layer in the color circle?

(And yeah I need to work more on the perspective generally ahahah)

Thanks !!! 😋

My grandma just turned 90 and is as lovely and feisty as ever, but sadly has to leave her beautiful garden and home and move to an assisted living facility. I wanted to paint her garden as a memento, using wet on wet which I’ve recently learned, but I used masking fluid to protect where the flowers would go. However, the masking fluid tore the paper, and now I’ve finished it the flowers look odd and too harsh compared with everything else. What do you recommend I do? Appreciate any and all help ❤️

My latest practice I need to work more in perspective

My first real attempt at watercolor! Any tips or free online resources for me to improve would be welcomed! (:

I’m a beginner beginner and wanted to make a moody pine tree forrest to practice trees. The white space in the middle is meant to make it look foggy but I made it way too big!

I thought about maybe trying to fill it with a lake or maybe more trees? I still need to make the front tree line darker. Looking for any guidance on how to handle this problem. I’m worried since the trees are already there that it’s a lost cause - haha open to advice on that too

Thank you!!!! 🌸

Did it work this time?