My Intro to Watercolor

The first step, getting interested.

Hello!

So far I’ve shared mostly words and photographs, so let’s take a beat to share some art. The medium I’m focusing on is watercolor, and I’m still in the very early stages of learning. I’m also attempting to start a sketchbook practice, which I’ll try to show a few pages of in the future.

Before diving into showing the different art projects, I feel compelled to start with some backstory and context.

The Beginning

I’ve always enjoyed art, but as a kid and teen I was involved in many different activities and never got particularly good at any one of them. Extracurriculars included music (I jumped around learning a bunch of different instruments), theater (musical mostly), and a few sports (volleyball, softball and eventually 1 year of rugby and 1 year of equestrian). I also often had PT jobs after school, on the weekends, and over the summers. I was decent in studio art but never pursued any additional art classes. The main artistic hobby I allowed myself to continue after primary school was photography.¹

More Recently

Fast-forward, I met my husband’s Great Uncle who was a professional visual artist. After retirement he specialized in watercolor and had many beautiful original pieces all around this home. I had a chance to take a tour and ask him about his art. When he passed away, we visited his home one last time to help pack up his items for auction. Unfortunately I knew NOTHING about watercolor supplies at that time, and the only watercolor things I thought to take home were one set of paintbrushes, two small watercolor palettes, and two books.

First set of supplies from Great Uncle Lee.

Though I’m sure I missed out on many beautiful professional supplies (drat), it sparked the interest in learning more and getting started. Something about the fluidity and imperfect nature of watercolor was speaking to me.

I kept an eye on local classes and finally found one in my town in 2023. It was difficult to arrange since it took place during the middle of the workday and my daughter wasn’t in daycare yet, but I went for a couple of sessions and started to learn a few beginner watercolor basics. I’ll post photos of the exercises we did in the next post.

Fast-forward again to 2025. I now have two beautiful children who are still both very young. Making significant time for watercolor has been a challenge, so while raising two little ones I’ve mostly been able to make time for painting some evenings between 9 pm and midnight. So far I haven’t managed to take another ongoing class yet, but have attempted to learn a little through books borrowed from the library, a few one-off online workshops, and some YouTube videos.

Groups

For accountability I’ve also joined a local sketch group that meets weekly. We mostly share stories about life, but we also share what we’ve been working on each week. This group typically has a formal project per season, which I’ll talk more about in an upcoming post.

A few family members were starting to get into watercolor also, and I’ve convinced them to join me on a semi-regular zoom call. We all live in various parts of the U.S. but it’s great to connect, share our art, and do some online video classes together. Sadly I’m the furthest east and therefore have the latest call start, but it keeps it consistent with my regular 9 to midnight painting schedule.²

Thankfully my original teacher is still doing classes locally and I’m hoping to join a few of her sessions this fall.

As a kid I dabbled and it was fun, but it made me a “jack of all trades,” expert in nothing. I’m sad that I don’t consider myself particularly good at anything. So with my limited time as an adult while also trying to earn an income, raise two children, not neglect our poor dog and run a household (the house being another needy dependent), I’ve chosen watercolor as the one thing I’m pursuing right now outside of my responsibilities. I also really want to be learning how to play the piano and how to speak Spanish, but I know that if I divide my time I’ll improve at none of them.

For now it’s watercolor. First paintings up next!

-Lana

P.S. If you’re listening to my voiceovers, I apologize to you. You’ll notice plenty of mistakes. I’m keeping them this way on purpose because I know that if I try re-recording until they are perfect I’d never get there and never post them.

1. Thank you to my good friend AC for doing HS photography club with me. We shot on B&W film and even developed our own film and photos at school. We may have been the only two kids in the photography club…?

2. If you haven’t read Daily Rituals by Mason Currey, I highly recommend it. It is one of my favorites! It’s all about the routines and habits of artists and other famous creatives. If you want to buy it through my bookshop.org affiliate account where I’d make a small proceed on the sale, here is the link.