How to Get Started with Watercolours — A Complete Guide

Why Watercolours?

Watercolours are one of the most beautiful and versatile painting mediums out there. They're great for beginners because they're easy to use, dry quickly, and require minimal equipment to get started.

Here in Iceland, we have wonderful inspiration for watercolour painting all around us — the nature, the light, and the incredible colours that surround us.

What Do You Need to Get Started?

1. Watercolours

For beginners, we recommend Sonnet watercolour sets from Russia — excellent value and great quality. If you want to go straight to professional-grade paints, Daniel Smith and Roman Szmal are outstanding choices.

→ Browse watercolours at Föndurlist

2. Brushes

You'll need at least 2–3 brushes to get started:

• Round size 6–8 — versatile, suitable for most techniques
• Flat 1" brush — for wetting paper and washing in large flat areas
• Small round size 2 — for fine details

→ Browse watercolour brushes

3. Paper

Paper makes all the difference in watercolour painting. Always use dedicated watercolour paper, at least 200 g/m². Cotton paper (300 g/m²) is the best option.

Read our in-depth article: How to Choose the Right Paper for Watercolours

→ Browse watercolour paper

Core Techniques

Wet-on-dry

You paint with wet colour onto dry paper. This gives you crisp edges and good control over the paint.

Wet-on-wet

You wet the paper first and then paint onto it. The colours blend together beautifully, creating soft, dreamy effects.

Glazing

You apply a thin layer of paint, let it dry completely, then paint another layer on top. This builds up depth and richness in your colours.

Your First Project

Keep it simple to start! Try painting a basic landscape:

1. Lightly wet the paper
2. Paint the sky using the wet-on-wet technique (blues and purples)
3. Let it dry completely
4. Add mountains and land using wet-on-dry
5. Add fine details last

Tips from Us

• Don't mix too many colours together — 2–3 colours in a mix is plenty
• Start light and work darker — you can always add more, but you can't take it away
• Use plenty of water — watercolours need water to come alive!
• Practise colour mixing — check out our colour mixer

Join a Class!

Föndurlist regularly runs art classes, including watercolour painting. Browse our classes and register your interest.

If you're interested in trying other mediums, have a read of: The Best Acrylic Paints for Beginners and How to Get Started with Alcohol Ink.

Browse our full range of watercolours, brushes, and paper in our online shop.