I’ve been experimenting. It’s been a long time since I used my watercolours, but I’ve been mesmerised by the many tutorials and reels on Instagram, as well as the fab artwork they seemingly easily produce. So rather than keep watching and wondering what if, I had a go.

I was quickly reminded that it’s been a long time since I used my watercolours, and as you can see they’ve probably had minimal use previously.

My watercolours - two rows - in a wooden box with a white mixing tray at the front end of the box

But I figured it couldn’t be hugely different to other crafts, even though a paintbrush is perhaps a less familiar tool. So I thought I’d start with something easy and explorative, as well as useful - what colours are what, and how they were different on wet and dry paper. It’s the wet paper approach that had really caught my eye, and it worked well in real life too.

Trying all of the colours on wet and dry applications. In the central column of 'wet' colours I've doodled flowers in black pen. The names of the colours are written alongside each.

Where I think it really works is with the doodled flowers, which are in pen rather than with a brush. Again they’re rough and unplanned but they also show that that’s ok, and I think this is something that I’ll be exploring further.

It was definitely worth watching some ‘how to’ videos before I started, both for inspiration and practical tips. The most practical tip was to have two water jars, one for cleaning brushes and allowed to get dirty, and the other for applying on the paper and paints. And it’s working. The other tip related to this which is probably even more important is to keep your mug of tea in a separate part of the desk so you don’t dip your brush in that by mistake!

Eminently sensible.

A dirty and clean lidded jar of water on an upturned lid on my desk

Not feeling quite brave enough yet to go freehand, but wanting to do more than squiggles. I decided my next step would be some ‘watercolour colouring in’ and so I found a design which could be printed. Of course this meant it was on usual printer paper, rather than the paper I’d used for the colour test in my sketchbook, and so it performed differently.

A first attempt at "colouring in" using watercolours and rough blending, with the colour palette sheet in the background

But it worked well enough for what I wanted. The blending is a bit rough, the colours are over the lines - but it was great fun, worthwhile and part of my learning journey. Now I just need to be braver and try something freehand - though I’ll be watching a few more of those tutorials before I start.

My finished colouring with watercolours - over the lines and all

I’ve a feeling I’ve a few more afternoons ahead of me experimenting and refining (or picking up) some technique!