Watercolour & Sketching Course: Beginners

Learn to paint landscapes with our watercolour and sketching course for beginners, as part of our painting short courses in Sydney.

Embark on a journey into the captivating realm of watercolour through this engaging and enjoyable sketching and watercolour course. Students will lightly outline their basic sketch using a pencil, ensuring the papers texture remains intact. Moving on to essential aspects of watercolour painting—Transparency, Lightfastness, and Staining—your tutor will explain how understanding these properties is crucial for achieving desired effects and preserving the integrity of your artwork.

Following the sketch, we'll guide students step-by-step through painting a landscape, emphasising layering, colours, and shading techniques. Techniques like wet-on-wet and wet-on-dry will be introduced to bring the sky, sea, and various landscape elements to life. We'll also delve into the importance of lights and shadows, demonstrating how to maintain the brightness of the paper and add volume through well-placed shadows. Students will further learn to depict water reflections and texture, enriching their watercolour compositions with depth and detail.

Learning outcomes

By the end of this sketching & watercolour course, you should have:

• An understanding of sketching onto watercolour paper without damaging the texture of the page
• Experience with watercolours and how to transition from one colour to another
• Experimented with wet-on-wet, wet-on-dry, and dry-brushing methods
• Introduction to how to paint a simple landscape scene and create water reflections and texture

Course content

What will be covered in this watercolour painting workshop?

• Wet-on-wet: Wet the paper with clean water and then apply watercolour paint to create soft, blended effects mostly used for backgrounds.
• Wet-on-dry: Apply paint to dry paper, for more precise details in the second phase.
• Dry Brushing: Use a mostly dry brush with minimal water to create texture.
• Gradients: Create smooth transitions from one colour to another, how to use slope to make the transition smoother.
• How to emphasise volume by adding shadows
• Introduction to lights and shadows, how to maintain lights by keeping the white of watercolour paper

Intended audience

Who is this painting course for?

This class is perfect for beginners who want to try something new or add to their creative repertoire.

Course venue

Rozelle Campus

2A Gordon Street, Rozelle NSW 2039 (corner of Gordon St & Victoria Rd on the grounds of St. Joseph's Church)

Course materials

What to bring to class

• Option 1 -  Bring along your own materials (click here for the material list)
• Option 2 - Purchase a kit at the checkout. * purchased kits can be collected from the front office before class.

For this course, we recommend using premium-quality materials, as they significantly impact the outcome of your artwork. Watercolour is one of the most complex techniques, and high-quality materials can make the process more manageable and enjoyable.

All materials have been carefully selected to maintain the high standard of the course. Fabriano is the preferred brand of paper, but Canson Montval Watercolour Pads 300gsm A3 can be used as a more affordable alternative.

*Materials kits are ordered from our supplier and can take up to a week to arrive. If you enrol close to the start date, you may receive your kit at the second session instead of the first.

Additional information

Please note the following:

• Closed-in shoes required
• Please wear old clothes
• Long hair must be tied back