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Trinket Treasure

💧 Drowning paper & muddy mixes? Let’s fix 3 common watercolour hurdles

Published about 19 hours ago • 1 min read

"Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time." ~ Thomas Merton

Hi Reader,

Watercolour is a magical medium, but let's be honest—it can also be wonderfully unpredictable!

When you're painting at home, it’s easy to run into small technical friction points that make you feel like you're fighting your supplies instead of enjoying the flow.

Today, I want to unpack three of the most common watercolour hurdles my workshop students ask about, along with quick, practical fixes you can test out at your desk today:

Welcome to all the new subscribers, if you are on this list you attended one of my workshops or signed up on my website and we are now art friends - stick around we are going to have so much fun together!

1. Why is my paper buckling and pooling paint?

  • The Culprit: Using lightweight paper or standard cellulose sketchbooks.
  • The Fix: Switch to 300gsm 100% cotton paper. Cotton fibers absorb water evenly, staying flat and letting your pigment bloom smoothly without creating unwanted puddles.

2. Why do my mixed colours look dull or muddy?

  • The Culprit: Mixing too many pigments together or pairing warm and cool shades that cancel each other out.
  • The Fix: Stick to a split primary palette (a warm and cool version of red, yellow, and blue). Limiting your mix to just two primary pigments at a time keeps your glazes clean, bright, and luminous every single time.

3. Why are my paint washes leaving harsh, chalky edges?

  • The Culprit: Working with a dry brush on paper that has already started to dry.
  • The Fix: Master the wet-on-wet technique! Dampen your paper evenly with clean water first before dropping in your paint—this lets the colour spread organically with soft, atmospheric edges.

🎁 Need a Little Palette Help? Grab My Freebie Starter Pack!

I’ve recently updated my Free Watercolour Starter Pack! It’s packed with gentle beginner guides, essential technique breakdowns, and colour mixing cheat sheets to get you playing with watercolour with total confidence.

We’ll be breaking down more step-by-step guides, supply comparisons, and palette cheat sheets on the blog soon so you always have a handy reference guide in your pocket.

Until then, pull out a piece of 300gsm paper, test out a two-pigment blend, and have fun playing with your water-to-paint ratios this week!

Warmly,

T (Simply T)

Trinket Treasure

Mixed Media Artist & Educator - Creativity Enabler

Here we do arts and crafts the easy way. Art does not have to be labor intensive, messy or take hours to complete. Simplified techniques using basic supplies so that the projects are quick and easy to complete in a short amount of time, relatively mess free yet satisfying enough for passionate creatives. Subscribe to my community to get tips, techniques and creative inspiration delivered to your inbox.

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