Watercolours, as given in their name, are paints that are soluble in water. Watercolours have been around for a very long time, with the oldest recorded evidence showcasing them being from the Stone Age in the form of paintings found inside the caves of Europe.
They’ve been used throughout the course of history and all over the world. Even during the times of ancient Egypt, watercolours were used for manuscripts. Overall, they are a historic means of painting and are still widely used throughout the world to this day.
Any form of art is worth taking up, as it can help you get rid of some stress, while also helping you unlock and see all that creativity stored up inside of you. Watercolours are also some of the paints that are actually very cost-efficient, meaning that they aren’t an expensive means of trying out a new hobby.
Learning how to paint isn’t exactly the easiest thing, however with the right guidelines, you should be able to learn how to do it in a matter of days. Luckily, there are many online lessons that can provide said guidelines.
13 Websites To Learn Watercolour Painting Lessons Online Review
1) Udemy
Udemy has a variety of different watercolour painting lessons on their site that you can take at any given time.
The variety of topics is large enough to cover multiple different important topics that can help people of specific skill levels, for example some courses are much more suited to beginners than they would be for more advanced artists and vice versa.
These beginner courses will be teaching you a variety of fundamentals that anyone would need to know in order to develop a good foundation for themselves.
These fundamentals include things such as all the right equipment you need in order to get started, mixing the colours with water and things such as mixing colours together in order to increase the variety in your colour palette.
These kinds of things come in very handy even when you become a complete expert at painting and are something that every painter that uses watercolours should know.
Some of the courses of the sort will also teach you more about problem solving techniques as well, as it is common for beginners to make mistakes, something that can be quite frustrating at times. More similar and different topics are covered by the site’s courses.
2) LinkedIn
One drawback to these courses is that a few of them are about using watercolours in applications meant for drawing instead of the real thing, meaning that these few courses are probably of no help to you unless you wish to use drawing applications yourself.
However that isn’t anything that you should worry about as there are still many courses left that can help you out. Most of these courses are for beginners, with a lot of them covering the basics that you would need to get started.
For intermediates however, there are some very helpful lessons that can help them with their everyday painting routines.
These types of courses include helpful things such as working with the right equipment and maintaining it, while also talking about a common problem that painters that use watercolours have, which is bringing it all together.
Watercolours have a habit of spreading around the entire place, even if you’re very careful, which is why improvisation is a very important part of things. These lessons can teach you how to figure it out.
3) Lynda
Lynda.com are a platform designed by the people at LinkedIn. It is a place where you can learn about different topics online, including watercolours and how to paint with them.
A variety of different aspects are covered by these watercolour courses, all of which people that are just starting off with watercolour painting will find helpful, while some are great for more advanced painters as well.
Another thing that the courses on Lynda.com have in common with LinkedIn are that a good chunk of them are for painting applications rather than using real equipment to paint on canvases.
There are still more than enough that can help you grow your skills though, so that isn’t that much of a problem.
Their beginner courses the same important topics as most others, meaning that the sites lessons are good enough to help develop a base for yourself. Topics such as inspiration for sketches are also covered, something that every artist struggles with at times as it feels like there’s nothing to draw.
4) SkillShare
Skill Share is a website that is all about helping people discover and grow their talents, and watercolour painting is something that everyone can try out and become good at.
From beginner to expert courses, as well as those that can help you learn about specific things, there are many different topics covered by the many courses available on the site, with each of them being helpful when it comes to learning new things.
From basic things like what kind of equipment you need to get started with to masking fluid, the hundreds of beginner lessons on watercolours available on the site cover multiple topics that can help you develop a strong base for yourself.
Slightly more advanced topics such as modern techniques that can make your paintings look much better are also covered.
These techniques include things that can help you achieve that perfect composition that can make things look much better and more. The variety of topics covered by the lessons on the site can help any painter, regardless of their skill level.
5) Reed
Out of the few courses available on the site, most of them are meant for people that are complete beginners or children.
However a good thing about these courses is that they are provided by trained experts from the top institutes in the world, meaning that you are bound to find them helpful.
The courses for children are also a nice addition, as starting children off with painting at a young age can be a very good thing for them, as they might develop a passion that will last them a lifetime.
These children’s lessons are a lot like the lessons meant for adults that are just getting started with watercolours, however one difference between them is that the children’s lessons are a lot more detailed and a lot simpler.
This is for obvious reasons, as children will find it hard to understand most things from lessons for adults.
6) Study
Study.com have a very vast amount of watercolour courses available on their site, with each and every single one of these courses covering different topics from each other.
Like other sites, Study.com can help you learn more about watercolour painting and how to master it so that your paintings can look better than ever. However one thing that they have that most other sites don’t is that they can teach you more about watercolours themselves.
Watercolours have been used for multiple millennia, as has been mentioned already, and they are still being used all over the world to this day.
Study.com have a wide variety of courses that won’t just be teaching you how to use them, they will also be telling you more about where they’ve been used throughout history and how many great artists have used them as well.
Other than this, there are also lessons that can help you compare them to other means of painting or drawing, letting you decide for yourself if or if not watercolours are the right medium of painting for you.
These courses can be very helpful, while there are lessons to teach children as well, which can make painting a hobby for them.
7) TakeLessons
Take Lessons is a site that can help you learn more about a certain topic through skilled tutors. This means that they’ll all be able to teach you more about watercolours in their own unique ways.
Personal guidance is good when learning anything, however it is especially helpful when practicing something such as painting out, as a tutor can help point out and fix mistakes as they happen, making things less infuriating and making everything a learning experience.
Said personal guidance is something you can receive from all these teachers. All their tutors are skilled and have been using watercolours to paint for many years now, meaning that they are experienced as well.
Most of them are experienced teachers as well as they have been providing lessons to other people for a long time, making them capable of teaching you about watercolours.
8) UniversalClass
Available on Universal Class, this course on watercolours can teach you everything you need to know in order to get started with watercolour painting.
Universal Class are a platform that provide courses on a variety of topics, as you can probably note from their name.
They don’t exactly feature as many topics as other sites, however they can help if you wish to learn more about commonly acknowledged things such as languages, business training and of course, painting itself.
First of all, the lesson will be telling you a little about watercolour painting and how it’s a form of art used by many great and widely known painters as a mean to start themselves of with painting in general.
It is no secret that there are many courses that will make you do some research and do some assignments, along with other things of the sort.
This course however, is completely different, as it attempts to teach you more about painting in a manner that is fun and not time consuming, allowing you to learn more about the form of art at a steady pace. It can help any beginner, adult or child, learn more about the medium of art.
9) CreativeLive
Creative Live is a platform that’s all about helping people grow and become more and more creative. Each of us is creative in our own unique way.
Creative Live acknowledges this and attempts to fix an issue that is found all over the world, which is a lack of opportunities to grow. It is known by pretty everyone that not everyone is fortunate enough to learn more about what they want.
Some people don’t have studios near them to learn dancing, singing, painting etc. which can lead to their talents being wasted, as they have no opportunity to help grow upon said talents.
Creative Live try to help said people by providing them with the opportunity they need to grow in the form of lessons. They have classes on their site for a variety of different things, including things like watercolour painting.
Covering all the basics such as getting the proper equipment for yourself, improving upon mistakes, developing a wider colour palette etc. their watercolour painting lessons can help anyone develop a foundation for themselves.
10) LondonArtCollege
The London Art College was established back in 1931 and is standing to this day in London, teaching hundreds of student more and more about arts.
In 1998, the institute developed their own website, an action that was taken in order to help the college get more up to speed with the times. Their site features some of the lesson they use to teach their own students, such as this one that helps their students learn more about painting using watercolours.
Being a diploma course, the course is more advanced than most others listed on the site so far, however this doesn’t mean that beginners can’t learn from it.
The course isn’t all complicated from the very start, instead it helps beginners by teaching them everything they need to know first.
In its entirety, the course covers important things such as colours, compositions, the tone and other things that are important if you wish to make your painting look exactly the way you want it to.
Covering things such as this, the course gradually gets more difficult as time passes, ultimately teaching you enough to the point where you will have earned your diploma.
11) WaterColorOnline
Watercolour Online is a website dedicated to providing people like you from all over the world with the watercolour painting lessons they need in order to grow their skills.
The site is devoted completely to watercolour painting and no other topic is covered on the entire platform. Featuring both video courses and private video classes, the site lets you study your way.
Their video courses allow you to study at your own pace, letting you access their list of courses whenever you wish, while their private video classes are held only between you and your teacher.
These video classes can be booked at almost any given time. The classes are taken on Skype and each class lasts 45 minutes, an amount of time that is enough if you are a beginner or intermediate who wishes to gradually improve with every passing day.
These courses held between you and your tutor can be used to learn any specific thing, as you can ask them to help you improve in any specific aspect of watercolour painting.
Their tutors are skilled and experienced, and will be guiding you as you practice in front of them, helping you improve upon any mistakes you make.
12) Brit + Co
A site made to help the women of the world acknowledge and improve upon their talents, Brit + Co features courses for topics such as painting, crafting and decorating etc. that can help develop hobbies or unlock your true potential.
They have a variety of watercolour painting tutorials on their site that can not only help you develop a base for watercolour painting but for painting itself.
Watercolours aren’t the easiest thing in the world to work with when it comes to mediums of painting, however they are one of the best to get started with because of how fun they are to work with.
With watercolours, you can have an endless supply of colours in your palette if you know what you’re doing. This is something that can come in real handy, both when painting and when buying new watercolours.
Even in general, it is a very cost efficient means of painting and the lessons on the site can tell you all about the best priced equipment that you can use to get started with.
Other than this, it will be covering simple things such as helping you learn how to create different shapes and objects perfectly without reference.
13) StrathmoreArtist
Strathmore Artist is an online platform made for painters and sketchers alike to learn more about all the artistic things that they are interested in. From A-Z, they cover everything on their site that you could think of from an artistic perspective.
They have an entire section of their site dedicated to helping those interested in watercolours, and this free online workshop is one of the many things you can use on their site to learn more about them.
Covering 4 different topics, 5 including the introduction, this workshop by Kelly Eddington can help you learn all the important basics of watercolour painting that every beginner should know, as they can come in handy even when you become an expert.
The first lesson of the workshop covers the topic of creating a spring landscape. This topic will help you learn more about masking fluids, something that every watercolour painter should know how to do.
The second topic will be about reflecting light and how you can create different effects to make your paintings look more realistic. The other two topics will also be helping in the same way by teaching you important things that will be useful down the road.
Choosing The Best Watercolour Painting Lesson Online
Watercolours are a medium used by many artists to start themselves off with painting, which is also something that you will be learning more about from some of these websites.
While watercolour painting is easy to start off, it gets harder once you get to drawing objects. These courses can help you learn and improve every aspect of your painting, while some of you can also help you learn more about them and how important they’ve been throughout history.
From adults to kids, these lessons can help nearly anybody, however even if they aren’t your style, there are plenty of more lessons out there.