Skillshare is a platform that is great for artists! With a huge variety of different classes to choose from, anyone from a beginner to an expert can find something to suit them.
Watercolor painting is a difficult art form that requires a lot of specific watercolor skills and it can be important that you learn these skills from other, talented artists!
So you’ve signed up to Skillshare and you’re looking for the best watercolor classes you can find!
Sometimes it can be hard to know which are going to be worth your time. If you find yourself overwhelmed by the long list of options, then you’ve come to the right place!
In this article, we’re going to take you through a list of the best skillshare watercolor classes we could find.
We’ve made sure to include a good range of different watercolor courses, from those made specifically for beginners, all the way to more complicated classes that will help you develop your skills.
We’ve also made sure to include an extensive FAQ section to help answer any other questions you may have!
Best For Beginners
1. Loosening Up! Perfectly Imperfect Watercolor
So we chose this fun course as the first on our list because it’s a great choice for beginners! It begins with the fun and creativity of watercolor painting without focusing too much on difficult technical aspects.
The entire online watercolor course is 1h and 18m, and it will take you through 8 lessons that will teach you how to paint cats, and flowers and some general lessons in creativity.
Start here if you’re looking for a fun, inspiring introduction to watercolor painting!
2. Paint An Abstract Floral Garden! (Even If You Think You’re “Not Creative”)
This is another great beginner course that will teach you some of the basics of watercolor without too much pressure around ‘lifelike’ or ‘highly skilled’ end results!
By using abstract art as its end goal, this course helps you to develop some basic watercolor techniques and your general creativity!
Like the first course on our list, this is a great one to pick if you’re new to art in general and want to have a good time being creative!
3. Learn To Paint Watercolor: A Step-By-Step Painting For Beginners
This course by international professional artist Will Elliston is another great starting point if you want to get a fast grip on some of the basic techniques involved in modern watercolor painting.
It’s not a long course, with only 12 short skillshare classes, but if you pay attention you’ll end up with some of the most important basic aspects of watercolors covered!
Best For Watercolor Landscapes
4. 100 Days Of Watercolor Paradise
This class is a great pick if you’re looking to learn how to create dynamic, colorful watercolor landscapes.
With 100 lessons, you’ll have a class ranging from 20 to 30 minutes each day that will take you through a different painting to draw.
We’d recommend this class if you’re looking for something that will help build a solid painting habit and teach you a lot of important skills on the way. This class is perfect for early morning sessions before you start your day!
5. Watercolor Landscapes: Painting With Modern Watercolor Techniques
This is a more in-depth course that will teach you some of the most important modern watercolor techniques for painting landscapes.
It focuses primarily on the natural world, and will even go into detail on how to paint flowers and manmade structures such as bridges.
There are 10 lessons here for you to work through and each of them will give you some very specific skills and exercises to practice.
- Learn new skills
- Explore your passion
- Take classes on the go.
"1 year in and still going, their content and courses are great"
6. Watercolor Landscapes In Sketchbook
Here’s another landscape course that will help you learn how to paint realistic and gorgeous natural landscapes.
It has been created with you having a sketchbook in mind, and each short class takes you through some of the most important aspects of this area of painting.
It’s a great basis if you’re looking to start off a watercolor sketchbook with an emphasis on landscapes.
Best For Detailed Watercolor Painting
7. Watercolor Succulent – Step-By-Step Painting
So let’s now take a look at a class that will teach you a lot about the finer details of watercolor painting.
This course will take you through how to paint a succulent plant, and will go into great detail on how you can achieve shading, a dynamic color pallet, and precision with nothing more than a few watercolors.
This one might take you a few times to get right, but it’s a short course so you can easily go back over parts that you found challenging.
8. Paint Stunning Rustic Doors With Watercolors
Although the subject here may seem very specific, this is a great course to choose if you’re looking to learn more about how to paint detailed human structures.
It will cover creating realistic textures and dynamic lighting, as well as how you can use different colors to create different effects.
This course is 3h and 30m long and is fairly extensive, so we’d recommend this to artists who want to learn more about the finer details of watercolor painting.
9. Raven. A Free-Flow Watercolour Masterclass With Jane Davies
If you take a look at the promotional art for this course—the gorgeous image of a crow—then you’ll probably wish that you could paint like this! Thankfully, Jane Davies has you covered.
With supportive mentorship and an in-depth guide on how to paint in this detailed way, you’ll be left with an impressive series of online classes that will teach you everything you’ll need to know!
10. Watercolor: Painting Veggies
This course is suitable for beginner to intermediate and will focus on some of the most important skills you’ll need for detailed watercolor painting.
It’s just over an hour, and it will take you through how to paint veggies with bright colors, realistic textures, and some important techniques that you can take with you.
Best For General Skills
11. Essential Watercolor Tools & Techniques For Beginners
This is a lesson that teaches you some of the basics around equipment and techniques to practice!
If you want some daily exercises and knowledge to set you on the right path, it’s worth taking the time to work through this 18-lesson course!
12. The Magic Of Color Mixing
This course will teach you everything you’ll need to know about colors!
Sometimes it can be very difficult to get the right color shades for your project, so this is an important course if you want to learn how to mix colors and create the perfect pallet for your next watercolor painting.
Best For Portraiture
13. Watercolor Portrait From A Photo
Portraiture is undoubtedly one of the most difficult parts of any painting, and this course will teach you how to create realistic and incredible watercolor portraits, using a photo as a reference.
This one is for more advanced professional artists, but it’s a good starting point for beginners who want to challenge themselves also!
14. Panda. A Free-Flow Watercolor Masterclass With Jane Davies
This is the second pick from Jane Davies’ long list of creative courses. We’ve chosen Panda because of its high attention to detail. It will teach you a lot about how to create any form of portraiture—be it for animals or for humans with watercolor paints!
Best Abstract
15. Art As Adventure: Tap Into Your Intuition & Paint An Abstract Garden
Finally, we’ve selected this cool class that will teach you how to create weird and abstract paintings. This is one that will use some traditional techniques to help pique your creativity and create something free-flowing and unique!
- Learn new skills
- Explore your passion
- Take classes on the go.
"1 year in and still going, their content and courses are great"
Final Thoughts
So that was our list of the 15 best online watercolor classes on Skillshare where you can learn different types of watercolor illustration.
There’s a huge range of different classes that you can try out, so if none of the ones we mentioned seem right for you, take a quick look over the total list on Skillshare and find something suitable for you!
We hope that this guide has helped you with where to begin and that you are now much more confident about how you can use this platform!
If you still have some questions, keep reading for our FAQ section! Good luck with your watercolor journey! We hope that it’s creative and inspiring!
Frequently Asked Questions
Where Is The Best Place To Begin With Watercolor Painting?
We’d suggest you start learning the basics of watercolor techniques. This includes skills such as color mixing, brush strokes, and different washes.
If you can pin these techniques down early, you’ll have a much easier time when trying to paint more complex creations!
How Difficult Is Watercolor Painting?
This depends a lot on the person who is learning, however, it will be difficult at first!
Working with water can be difficult and there are some specific skills you need to learn to stop your paintings from turning into a blobby, wet mess!
However, watercolor painting is often considered one of the most fun and relaxing forms of art!
