Watercolor is the newest medium in my studio, and I'll be honest about where I am with it: I'm still learning. I'm working through Lacey Walker's Learn to Watercolor — a page from the book as a warm-up exercise, then into my own work. Learning and making aren't separate stages for me right now. They're happening in the same session, sometimes back to back.

That's a little uncomfortable and also kind of freeing.

How watercolor actually works

Watercolor has rules. It behaves a lot like a magic system in a novel — internally consistent, learnable, but unforgiving if you forget one of the laws. Water only goes where you put it. Paint follows water. If you want a soft edge, you wet the area first. If you want a hard edge, you let it dry. The medium isn't chaotic — it's logical — but it reminds you quickly when you've forgotten something.

The rules are different from acrylics, and the consequences of forgetting them are immediate and visible in a way that acrylics, which you can paint over, don't punish as harshly.

With acrylics I can cover a mistake. With watercolor I have to think a step ahead or live with what happens. Still, in the same way that the ACEO format freed me from overthinking, watercolor is good at reminding me that it doesn't have to be perfect. If it's a bee or a moth, does it really matter if the art still connects with someone?

Where I'm using it

Right now watercolor lives almost entirely in the ACEO format — the same 2.5×3.5 inch size cards I paint in acrylic. However, the paper sometimes needs to be a little tougher. Triptych — Complementary Colors Abstract in my shop is watercolor. Small scale lets me experiment without a large investment of paper or time, and each card is a contained experiment I can learn from without it costing much if it doesn't work.

As my confidence grows, so will the scale. That's how it went with acrylics. I expect watercolor to follow the same path.

Curious about the other mediums I work in? Check out The Mediums I Work In for a deep dive (or to continue down the rabbit hole) into how I got into each one and what they mean to me.