5 Tips to Get Past the Ugly Stage in Watercolor Painting

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Getting Past Ugly in Your Art

Making art often stalls in the Ugly Tunnel. On your pilgrimage to a finished watercolor, there’s a crossing in the journey where the pigments, composition and overall look of your work in process can get a bit wonky.

It’s important that you avoid stopping there. It would be easy to walk away from the art at this stage, because none of it looks encouraging.

This is especially true if you’re not sure how to paint through the discouraging scenery. Nevertheless, keep hiking.

A Thousand Decisions in Art

Every time your brush touches something – the pigments, the water, the paper – you’re making a decision.

If you don’t have ready answers, this can be exhausting.

Which color should I use?

How should I mix that color?

How much water should be in the pigments to get the right value?

If I put this shape in the painting, will it help or hurt my goals for the finished art?

When you’re just starting to paint, your sequence of movements between brush and paper can result in that ugly, where-am-I-going stage of making a watercolor.

It’s important to keep going to avoid a studio full of half-finished paintings.

Have Perspective, and Courage

Have courage. We are talking about pigments and paper. This is art, and we aren’t rescuing a drowning puppy. {Deep breath.}

If your painting fails, shrug it off, note the lessons in what to avoid in the next one, and start again.

Muscle-memory is developed with any repetitive action.

Do you have to think hard, and concentrate fully to button your shirt, or clasp and zip trousers? You can probably do these things without even looking – just by feel due to repetition and muscle memory.

Have you watched a child trying to master those same movements? They need help, and encouragement to keep from getting frustrated.

Take a deep breath, pick up your brush, and play with your paint. Those thousands of painting decisions will shrink with practice. Pinky promise.

Your brain will remember – without strain – how to mix a cool green, or feather a soft edge – with practice.

Leaving your art perpetually unfinished guarantees your lost chance for a favorable outcome. And rare success smothers your confidence.

Embrace the possibility of ‘mistakes’, and remind yourself that this is how learning works. Keep on painting.

Considerations and Tips for Finishing Your Art

There is no law against unfinished watercolors. I’ve left plenty of paintings in the Ugly Tunnel, so I’m speaking to myself as much as I’m sharing these mental notes with you. Here are a couple of things I’ve noticed about unfinished paintings. And some tips for getting them out of the tunnel sooner rather than later. [Share this with a friend who needs a boost.]

• The longer a painting sits, the older it gets. That is, the passion to paint that scene fades. If you’re not feeling it, paint something else on the back of the paper, and consider the verso of your new painting a previous lesson, completed.

• While we work on other art, and polish our noticing skills, the early mistakes in the unfinished painting bloom before our eyes. Oftentimes, it makes more sense to paint that image over again, fresh. If the subject still entices us – start over, rather than struggle to repair floundering elements. We’ve improved since that painting was started, so let’s leave our mistakes over there, and begin again.

• When All the Things in the painting are yelling for a solution simultaneously, segment the composition to work in parcels. In the painting above, I worked in quarters; upper right, upper left, lower right, lower left. It was more relaxed to focus on fenced acreage – with frequent breaks to step back and take in the whole property for cohesion.

• If you’re perpetually distracted by the entirety, lay printer paper over the parts of the painting you’re not working on. Tape paper together like a surgical sheet draped with a cut-out over your workspace. You can do the same thing to your reference material, to match what’s visible on your painting. Curtain the stage to keep your focus centered on one scene at a time.

• If you feel stuck, prop the painting and your reference materials up, and put a chair at least 8 feet away. Grab a notepad and a cup of something to drink, and have a seat. Look at your painting, and your reference materials – back and forth – through squinted eyes. Take notes on whether your values are right, if your shapes need adjusting. Notice the path your eyes follow to “read” the image. If you don’t have 8 feet of space, put your back to the painting, and look at both the painting and the reference in a mirror over your shoulder. Jot down some adjustments and To-Do’s, and get back to it with your very own marching orders. Be the Boss.

Lend a Hand Up

This amazing community of painters has magic cupboards full of ideas to get past the ugly phase of a watercolor. Please share your tips and tricks with us in the comments. Painting is a solo endeavor, but there’s accelerated learning in a community. Creators need each other to stay encouraged, and move forward with conviction and purpose. All hands in for a Yes on that?

Thanks for stopping by and I’ll see you in the next post!

Belinda

P.S. I needed a solution to store full sheets of watercolor paper (22×30), and I found these perfectly sized folders. I’m using one for unframed watercolors, and the other for storing watercolor paper flat and clean. How do you store watercolor paper?

Art Quote

Love is the most powerful and underused force for change in the world. For me, love is the effort to help others flourish – and it often begins with lifting up a person’s self image.

Melinda French Gates

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