Watercolour can be daunting for beginners and some experienced artists alike.

However, with some easy warm-up activities, you'll begin to understand how watercolour really works and become comfortable with your paints.

Adding wet paint to a wet surface is used for painting landscapes, simple skies, or soft watercolour washes. It gives a flowy look as we don't have much control over how our paint reacts.

1. Wet your brush with plain water and "paint" two rectangles with the clear wat...

Wet paint over a dry area is used for more precise and defined shapes.

1. Start with dry paper and pick up some moistened paint with a large brush, then simply paint.
2. The opacity or lack of transparency will depend on how much water you mix in.

This activity will enable you to build up colour from plain water to a saturated paint mix.

1. Start with a dry area of watercolour paper. Put a small amount of water into your palette and a dab of concentrated paint next to it.
2. Pick up a bit of the c...

In this activity, we will build up colour, working with two colours and transitioning from one to the other.

1. Use colours close together on the colour wheel to create harmony, such as green and yellow, blue and purple, red and orange.
2. Mix two separa...

This practice will help to paint around the edges of shapes.

1. Paint simple shapes on your dry piece of watercolour paper.
2. Paint around these shapes in a different colour. Use different sized brushes - a smaller for more detailed areas and a larger f...