painting a watercolor gradient

Painting a color gradient requires precision with a capricious medium. Not just a steady hand (which I often don’t have), but knowledge of how each pigment will move within the water and interact with the other pigments and with the paper. This knowledge can only be learned by practicing, experimenting, and trying and failing over and over and over again.

You can only really control only a few things in watercolor painting—the qualities of the colors you choose, how much water you use, and where you place my brush on the paper. Everything else is luck, chance, and adapting to whatever happens. It’s easy to be afraid to put the brush on paper, to make a decisive mark, knowing that it might not work out.

One of my favorite mantras while I paint is “Let’s just see what happens.”

And I’ve started to use those same words when I catch myself having an anxiety spiral—I can’t control what happens, I can only control how I respond to what happens.

Color gradient | a smooth and gradual blend from one color to another

Painting in watercolor is an opportunity to learn to embrace imperfection, adapt to the unexpected, and accept that sometimes you just have to give it your best shot and see what happens.

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