The Art of Watercolour
Like Duolingo, but for The Art of Watercolour. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
For the part of you with thirty open tabs that never became anything.
21 levels across 4 sections, about 42 minutes end to end, roughly 8 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Making Your First Marks, Building Depth and Texture, Thinking Like a Watercolourist, and The Science of Supplies. It starts from scratch.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in The Art of Watercolour
- The fundamental difference between watercolor and other paints
- Using gravity to control the movement of a wash
- The 'bead' is a reservoir of wet paint that keeps the edge from drying
- Connecting a new stroke to a dry edge causes visible lines or streaks
- The bead must be carried down the paper continuously
- Dry paper fibers act like a sponge and pull moisture in instantly
- Identifying the 'bead' as the mechanism for seamless washes
- Adding wet paint to a drying wash creates 'blooms' or 'backruns'
- Watercolor is most vulnerable to damage when it is in the 'damp' phase
- Understanding how paper dampness affects paint absorption
- Mistakes must be left alone until the paper is 100% dry to the touch
- Knowing when to stop touching a drying wash
- Wet-on-wet allows paint to bleed and spread automatically
- Adding wet paint to a wet surface eliminates hard edges
- Wet-on-wet is the primary way to create 'dreamy' or blurry effects
- Dry paper acts as a boundary that stops the flow of water
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives The Art of Watercolour the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
When you mix your paint on the palette, what should the texture look like?
Get it right to open this lesson and 20 more in the app.
Where The Art of Watercolour takes you
Learn to harness the fluid beauty of water and pigment. This course takes you from your first wash to creating luminous, professional-looking paintings by mastering transparency and light.
- 1
Making Your First Marks
- Your First Wash
- Taming the Water
- 2
Building Depth and Texture
- Layering and Glazing
- Edges and Organic Textures
- 3
Thinking Like a Watercolourist
- Mixing Without Mud
- Planning for White Space
- 4
The Science of Supplies
- Choosing Paper and Brushes
4 sections · 7 units · 21 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
You pick the voice
The Art of Watercolour is taught in the Explain Like I'm 5 style: no big words. promise.. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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Start The Art of Watercolour today.
Download Tomo, search The Art of Watercolour, and play your first lesson in under a minute.