1You need practice and experience to achieve the results you want. Start with one technique and develop your skills step by step. Give yourself time.
2Preliminary sketches are important: they help you shape your watercolor illustration and act as a guide. A pattern of your design may be helpful in bringing your painting project to life. For example, when you start out on a project, do some practice sketches on a spare piece of paper to get a better feel for the shapes and proportions.
3Tracing is allowed! This method will help you reproduce the shapes of your design and transfer them onto the paper. This is of course rather difficult, but not impossible, with thick paper. Detach a sheet from your watercolor pad and hold it up against a window over your pattern. The light from outside will make the lines of the pattern show through the watercolor paper, allowing you to transfer them to the paper with a pencil. You can then secure your watercolor paper to a firm surface with masking tape to prevent it from becoming corrugated when you paint. An old wooden board would be a suitable surface.
4You can also transfer your pattern directly onto the watercolor paper by blackening the back of your pattern with a pencil. Then fix the pattern paper with the blackened side onto the watercolor paper and trace over the lines of the pattern with a hard pencil. The lines will be pressed through the pattern onto your watercolor paper. However, take care when using this method as there is a risk that the pressure applied with the pencil may produce visible grooves in the watercolor paper.
5Another way of transferring your desired pattern onto the paper is to use a prepared stencil, which will enable you to draw in the rough outlines of your design. Print off a design pattern, cut it out and lay it on the paper. Take care to ensure that your pattern stays firmly in place and does not slip when you draw around the contours of the stencil.
6Don’t lose heart if something doesn’t go to plan. Success takes practice and you can only learn by trial and error. As you get more familiar with your working materials you will become more confident and feel better working with them.
7Work with the light-dark contrast to create a feeling of space in your picture. The use of other contrasts can also strengthen the impact of your illustration and create tension (warm-cold, large-small, soft-hard, etc.).
8As you work, pay attention to how much water and paint you are using and their relevant proportions. Wipe off excess water and paint to avoid unwanted puddles or blobs and prevent the color from running. You can make things easier for yourself by using a thin black fineliner pen or colored pencil for delicate parts of your picture, such as eyes — if you use your brush, too much water or paint can soon make the color run when applied to the paper, and the results can be anything but delicate.
9When making your preliminary sketch, focus on the essentials by simplifying the lines and contours of your design. Try not to lose yourself in the details. My old art teacher once said: “Paint what you can see and not what you think you should be seeing.”
10Your style of painting will develop with time, just like your handwriting. The more you try to draw your designs with a free hand, the more successful you will become. Find out what you are capable of with a lot of practice, patience, and composure.