This activity will enable you to build up colour from plain water to a saturated paint mix. <ol><li>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.</li><li>Pick up a bit of the clean water with your brush and paint a strip.</li><li>Add a tiny bit of pigment into your water, and paint where you left off with the clear water. Rinse and pat your brush on a piece of cloth or paper.</li><li>Repeat the process by adding a bit more paint to your water until you have a good transition from water to concentrated paint.</li></ol>

Building up colour

This practice will help to paint around the edges of shapes. <ol><li>Paint simple shapes on your dry piece of watercolour paper.</li><li>Paint around these shapes in a different colour. Use different sized brushes - a smaller for more detailed areas and a larger for filling out larger areas.</li><li>Ensure you have enough blue paint (about 50/50 water to watercolor). Keep the blue area moist to pick up where you left off.</li><li>Get really close to each shape without touching the first shape.</li></ol>

Getting precise

In this activity, we will build up colour, working with two colours and transitioning from one to the other. <ol><li>Use colours close together on the colour wheel to create harmony, such as green and yellow, blue and purple, red and orange.</li><li>Mix two separate colours side by side. Aim for a 50/50 ratio of water to paint for each colour.</li><li>Paint a strip of the one colour. Clean your brush, pick up a bit of the second colour and mix it into your first mixture.</li><li>Pick up where you left off, each time adding a bit more of your second colour.</li></ol>

Creating gradients

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.

Getting comfortable with watercolour

Wet paint over a dry area is used for more precise and defined shapes. <ol><li>Start with dry paper and pick up some moistened paint with a large brush, then simply paint.</li><li>The opacity or lack of transparency will depend on how much water you mix in.</li><li>Using the minimum amount of water will leave a sketch-like finish.</li></ol> When the paint is completely dry, notice how the colours tend to fade and look different.

The wet-on-dry method

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. <ol><li>Wet your brush with plain water and "paint" two rectangles with the clear water.</li><li>Pick up moistened paint from your palette and add colour to your first wet rectangle.</li><li>Add dabs of paint to your second rectangle.</li></ol> When your paint has begun to dry, see how different it looks.

The wet-on-wet method

From dabbling with the wet on wet technique to creating gradients, these basic exercises can help you excel at painting with watercolors.