When I started painting in watercolor, I quickly became obsessed with its techniques, and up until now, I spent thousands of hours sitting at my desk, painting, making errors, but eventually also finding my way to making pretty loose style floral compositions.
I have been developing (and I am still doing it!) the so-called “muscle memory” that is important to improve my skills, give me confidence to keep painting, and eventually helped me to find my own style (that is always evolving).
Everyone can develop their own muscle memory: it takes time as well as practice, practice, and again, practice. Basically, this means that you need to make watercolor painting a habit, and in this article I’d like to share how I made watercolor painting a habit for myself, so you can make it, too.
How to Make Watercolor Painting a Habit:
1. Schedule Your Painting Sessions
This means, find a time during the day or at night that you set aside to only paint.
For example, I prefer to paint in the morning because I feel more relaxed and I can challenge myself with a better spirit (I don’t get too upset if paintings don’t turn out the way I would have liked).
For this reason, I find myself painting almost every morning before work.
You don’t have to follow the same routine as mine, but I encourage you to find a suitable time of the day where you can dedicate some time to paint for yourself and develop your muscle memory.
These painting sessions don’t have to be too long either – invest the time you have at your disposal and try to make the best out of every session. Remember, even 5 minutes can have a big impact on your muscle memory!
2. Paint for Yourself More Than for Others
Enjoy the process of painting for what it is, every day!
If you like to share your watercolor journey with a community on Instagram, for example, this is totally fine, but try not to obsess over producing Instagram-friendly paintings from each and every session. If you don’t enjoy painting, you will not create a habit out of it.
Yes, some paintings are not going to be pretty! All of us experience these moments, and that’s part of the journey we need to accept. So, relax, don’t obsess with videos and pictures, and just paint!
3. Find Fresh Inspiration Every Day
When you want to paint but you don’t feel inspired, I would suggest that you watch a video on YouTube of one of your fellow artists and paint along. So much can be learned by watching tutorials!
YouTube videos are not the only way to get inspired. I personally find Pinterest and Instagram very useful, too.
In this video, for example, I share how I find my inspiration through the colors around me, and I bet these ways can be useful for you, too!
4. Create Your Watercolor Painting Nest
With this, I mean to create an environment that motivates you to paint.
For example, if you have a desk or a table that you can use just to paint, this can help you to think that every time you sit at that table, you allow yourself to dedicate time to painting.
Or, do you love scents? You can light up a candle when you paint, to make your session more enjoyable.
5. This is a Journey, not a Sprint
It is not easy to create the habit of watercolor painting.
Also, it takes time to adapt to a new routine and sometimes, there is no time to paint! And this is totally fine!
Be kind to yourself and accept that sometimes we don’t have control over all the events that life puts in front of us.
If you cannot paint on a specific day, just start to paint again as soon as you can.
Be consistent with your painting to improve your skills and create beautiful watercolor pieces.
Create a routine and build the habit of painting step-by-step, being kind to yourself and enjoy the journey along the way.
I’d love to see your progress in watercolor painting! Tag me on Instagram on your posts if you’d like and let me know also if you found these tips useful.
See you in the next post,
Luisa