Simple Watercolor Painting (No Art Skills Required)

Hello you lovely Remodelaholic readers! Colleen here, DIY’er behind Lemon Thistle (DIY, Home Decor and Hand Lettering). I’m excited to be back with you today sharing how to create this simple watercolor piece of art for your home. Even if you’ve never worked with watercolor paints before, I’m sharing all my tips for you to make this simple design. It really is SO simple and you can be finished within 20 minutes. Heck, you could even make a set of three to hang in a series in under an hour- what’s not to love about that? 

I’m sharing all the step-by-step instructions in a DIY video, but I’ll write them out for you below as well. This is a REALLY simple piece to pull off- it really doesn’t take much skill (if any!) to paint it which is my kind of art. Ready to go?

How to Make Your Own Simple Watercolor Art Painting

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You’ll Need:

• Watercolor Paper (this is SO important!)
• Watercolor paint of your choice (I’m using liquid watercolor for the example)
• Paintbrush (I used 2 large round ones)
• Palette (or little dish for paints)
• Container of Water

Start by adding water to your paint in your pallet. Load up your paint brush and touch the edge of your paint blob. Do this a few times until you have some colorful water (that’s watercolor, baby!). I like to start with it pretty watered down like this so I can add more color instead of trying to was it out afterwards. I don’t actually MIX the blob of paint. I just touch it with the tip of my brush to get a little bit on the brush. You can always mix in a bit more color but you can’t take it out. 

First things first- paint yourself a nice big circle.

I like an organic shape so I wasn’t too picky about the edges on mine- I love that they’re uneven. If you wanted more perfect, go ahead and use a pencil to trace out your shape first (you can totally erase it after!). 

My biggest ever tip? KEEP IT WET! Don’t let your watercolor on your paper dry. Keep your painting wet until you are DONE blending. You can keep adding color and blending as long as it hasn’t dried. Go ahead and darken one edge or spots on your circle by adding more watercolor (just tap your brush on your painting where it’s wet). It’s like magic watching it blend… you do nothing. 

When you’re happy with your circle, dip your paintbrush again and draw a nice long line through it.

I used black for this (my circle was just blue). It will bleed and blend in all sorts of wonderful ways. You can add some more color to your line and circle if you like or you can step back and admire. 

I chose to add some spatter as well. Just tap your paint brush gently to spatter the page.

I like that this gives it a bit of a space-y feel… kind of like a planet. 

That’s it! Frame it up, then proudly display your art! If you enjoyed this tutorial and tested it out we want to see! Tag us on social @colleenpastoor and @remodelaholic so we can check it out (and give you virtual high fives). 

Plus, see how to paint two more abstract watercolors in just a few minutes here. 

Be sure to pin this to save it for later!

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