Mastering Watercolor Consistency: 3 Tips to Keep You Painting

Our studio spaces, whether it’s a room or your kitchen table, will always be the perfect place to paint with our watercolors. It’s a known and familiar even beloved space where we can thrive and access all the tools and supplies we need as we need them.

But what if there’s a trip planned, or visitors are staying and need to be entertained, or the kids are out of school? What if you have a full time job that is taking most of your time? Then what? In those cases, the paints are generally abandoned for other activities and responsibilities.

I don’t have kids but I’ve had full time management jobs that were demanding. I know what it’s like to have your time and energy dominated by responsibilities, or family activities, or whatever it may be for you. In those cases, painting tends to take a back seat for most of us.

When we get busy, painting can tend to take a back seat.

The thing is that the more you practice, the better you get, right? If you have goals of completing a special project, starting a creative business, or just feeling the sweet accomplishment of watercolor painting like a boss, you’re going to need to keep your skills growing consistently.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take time off. In fact, I’m a huge advocate for staying healthy in every way. We all need time to change it up and recharge our creative batteries, or we just get stale after a while. At the same time, if you don’t paint for months, your skills are not going to improve and you will have to wait even longer to see your goals realized.

For me, the trick is to find a balance, but it’s not an easy thing. And it gets trickier when you realize that what works for me, may not work for you. What to do then? I have 3 tips that just might help.

You can’t paint all the time, but you need to paint consistently to see improvement. It’s all about finding that balance.

Tip #1- Find time you didn’t know you had.

Okay, what in the world does that even mean??? Well, while I was working a full-time job, I had no time for anything extra, except a little painting on my days off. But I had this opportunity to teach online with Skillshare.com. How was I going to do this? I figured that out when I started to use the time in the margins. That means I used a few lunch hours per week to script my videos, I used my days off to film, I used time waiting in doctor’s offices, and other appointments to edit on the iMovie app on my iPhone. I used all those moments I could that weren’t scheduled in and I found a way to keep moving forward.

You can do the same thing with painting. I created an on the go painting kit and took it with me everywhere to get the practice time I needed, even if I wasn’t home.

Tip #2- Share your passion!

There were those times when I did not have the opportunity to be alone to paint. Once I was on a business trip and between meetings, some of my coworkers wanted to chat. So I got my paints out and shared them with the others. It became a fun and unexpected bonding experience where we laughed, we relaxed, and we came back to the work sessions really refreshed. I got a kick out of seeing their painting perspectives and they got to learn a bit about my creative passion. It was a win/win!

This is something you can do with your kids, or when hosting friends too!

Tip #3- Create a Watercolor Travel Painting Kit

Even if you don’t plan to travel with your paints, although I highly recommend it, I suggest you put together a travel painting kit. It’s super easy to do with just a few supplies that are small and very lightweight. If done well, you’ll barely know you’re carrying them!

The paints I use are the watercolor colorsheets by Viviva Colors, which are 100% sustainable and vegan btw. They come in a tiny paper booklet and each of the 16 colors is in the shape of the flat square that lasts 2-3 years, like a traditional watercolor painting set. They are handmade with natural dyes from the earth, so they have a super organic feel, and the colors are super vibrant.

Learn more below!

Painting on the go has kept me growing continuously with a very low expense or stress. In fact, I would safely say that I’ve been much happier over all. That was a surprise I didn’t expect, but it makes sense right? Art therapy is a real treatment for mental and physical illnesses of all kinds. Finding a way to paint consistently actually made my life better!

If you’d like to learn how to create a simple watercolor travel painting kit so you can paint anywhere you are, I made a YouTube video about this, which was a lesson that was part of a summer challenge, but the principles work all year around! I share my evolution of travel painting kits, and exactly what’s in my current one and why. I learned a lot of things the hard way, including a funny story about when I was painting on a flight (pre-2020) with some tube paints and the almost disaster I had.

I also made an entire class that you can find on Skillshare.com called Watercolor Painting on the Go where you can actually see me painting with my travel painting kit on a stool in a garden. This kit is so effective, I didn’t even need a table!

Click the button below to watch it on Skillshare, even if you’re not a member. Just sign up, then you can join free for 1 month, watch my class, then watch any others you’d like to while you’re there. :-)

Have you done some travel painting that helped you keep consistent? I’d love to hear about it! Or maybe it’s something you have questions about? Drop your comments and questions below!