7 Real-Life Moments That Inspired The Watercolor Guide Thousands Now Keep By Their Side

By Mia

Founder, Study Watercolor

A small note before we begin
We never expected this guide to reach so many people. Thank you to everyone who's used it, shared it with a friend, and sent us photographs of what they've painted. We're working hard to keep up with demand.

What started as a small notebook on my kitchen table is now a guide that's being used by painters in their 30s, their 50s, their 70s, and well into their 80s.

 

I'm Mia, the founder of Study Watercolor. I put this guide together because of seven specific moments that nobody had warned me about when I was learning. I thought I was the only one struggling with them. It turns out thousands of you have been struggling with the exact same things quietly, the way a lot of us learn to.

 

Here are the seven moments, and why so many people now keep this guide nearby every time they sit down to paint.

01. Sitting down to paint with plenty of time on my hands and nothing to show for it

01. Sitting down to paint with plenty of time on my hands and nothing to show for it

When I retired, I finally had what I'd wanted my whole life: time. Time to read. Time in the garden. And time to try something I'd been promising myself I'd try for thirty years watercolor.

 

I bought a beginner set. I sat down at the dining room table on a Tuesday morning. I tried to paint a flower from the garden.

 

What I ended up with looked nothing like a flower. It looked like a brown puddle with a stem.

 

The problem wasn't me. It wasn't my eyes, or my hands, or some lack of natural talent. The problem was that nobody had ever explained the order when water goes on, when paint goes on, when to stop and let it dry. The guide walks you through this on the very first pages, with clear photographs of what each stage should look like before you move to the next. The first time I followed it properly, I painted something I was actually proud to keep.

02. Watching tutorials where the instructor goes far too fast

02. Watching tutorials where the instructor goes far too fast

You've probably been here. You find a video that promises "easy watercolor for beginners," and within thirty seconds the instructor is whisking the brush across the page and somehow it's beautiful and you have absolutely no idea what they just did.

 

You rewind. You watch again. They still skip the part you needed.

 

I had to sit through dozens of these before I realised they all do the same thing — they show you the beginning and the end, and they leave out the middle. The middle is where everyone gets stuck.

 

The guide doesn't skip the middle. It slows down, shows you what should be happening, and gives you time to look at it carefully before you do it yourself.

 

You read it at your own pace. Nobody is rushing you.

03. Quiet afternoons that used to feel long, now feel full

03. Quiet afternoons that used to feel long, now feel full

After the children moved out and my husband retired, the house got quiet in a way I wasn't expecting. We were happy, but the afternoons felt long. We'd both find ourselves looking at our phones too much, or watching daytime television we didn't really want to watch.

 

Painting changed that for me. I'd put on the radio, sit at the kitchen table with a cup of tea, and follow one of the exercises in the guide. An hour would go by and I wouldn't notice. I'd look up and feel calmer than I had in weeks.

 

The guide includes short exercises designed for exactly this fifteen or twenty minutes, no pressure, nothing to finish. Just permission to slow down and use your hands.

04. My granddaughter asked me to paint with her and I didn't want to say no

04. My granddaughter asked me to paint with her and I didn't want to say no

The first time my granddaughter asked me to paint with her, I almost said no. I didn't want her to see me struggle. I didn't want to be the grandmother who couldn't even keep up with a six-year-old.

I said yes anyway, and we sat at the table together. I followed the basics from the guide. She painted whatever came into her head. By the end of the afternoon we both had something on the fridge.

 

"That's now one of our things. Every time she comes to visit, we paint."

 

The guide includes simple side-by-side exercises that work for grandparents and grandchildren together — they don't require either of you to be talented, just willing to sit down and try.

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05. Picking up a brush after sixty years of telling myself I "wasn't artistic"

05. Picking up a brush after sixty years of telling myself I "wasn't artistic"

The story I'd carried with me my whole life was that I wasn't an artist. My sister was. I wasn't. A teacher told me when I was nine that I should stick to other things. I believed her for sixty years.

 

I was 68 when I picked up a brush properly for the first time. The guide didn't talk down to me. It didn't assume I remembered anything from school art classes. It didn't use jargon I had to look up. Just plain language and clear pictures, in an order that made sense.

 

Two weeks in, I painted a magnolia I was genuinely proud of. Three months in, I was painting at least twice a week. The story I'd told myself for sixty years turned out to be wrong.

 

You are not too old. You are not too late. The guide is built for people who have been telling themselves they "aren't creative" for a very long time.

06. Making a guide that doesn't try to sell you something on every page

06. Making a guide that doesn't try to sell you something on every page

Most "watercolor guides" online are short pamphlets designed to push you toward an expensive course or an enormous paint set. I'd looked at a few of them when I was learning, and I always felt slightly tricked by the end.

 

I didn't want to do that to anyone.

 

So I made the opposite. The guide is genuinely a thousand techniques, not a brochure. Wet-on-wet. Wet-on-dry. Dry-brushing. Layering. Lifting. Salt textures. Mixing colours that actually look right. How to fix a painting halfway through when something's gone wrong. Florals, landscapes, simple portraits, animals.

 

It's the guide I wish someone had handed me on day one.

07. The letters that come in every week

07. The letters that come in every week

When I first put this guide together, I thought maybe a hundred people might find it useful. What's happened since has been one of the most moving experiences of my life.

 

A woman in her seventies wrote to tell me she'd been widowed two years ago and hadn't found anything that felt right until she started painting in the mornings.

A retired teacher told me she paints with her grandson every Sunday now, and it's become the thing they both look forward to all week.

 

A man in his eighties wrote to say he hadn't picked up a brush since he was a boy in school, and the guide had brought back a part of himself he thought was gone for good.

 

"Reading these letters is still the best part of my day."
 

This isn't really a guide about watercolor. It's a guide about letting yourself try something again.

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Our guide comes with a 60-day money-back guarantee. If it's not right for you, tell us and we'll refund you in full. That's our "happy painters promise".

UPDATE! Our Watercolor Guide has unexpectedly gone viral across social media. We did not anticipate this happening, and we're working around the clock to keep up with downloads. For this reason we're temporarily limiting free access. Click below to grab yours now!

This time limited offer is in high demand and free access keeps closing out.

OFFER ENDING SOON

Free Access Risk: CLOSING

GET FREE TODAY

This time limited offer is in high demand and free access keeps closing.

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343,000+ Painters Have Used Our Guides

Letters from painters of every age and skill level

"I'd told myself for fifty years I wasn't creative. I was wrong. Three months in and my husband can't believe what I'm painting."

— Patricia, 71

"Calm and clear. I've tried other guides and felt rushed every time. This one finally lets me breathe."

— Margaret, 64

"I paint every Sunday with my grandson now. We both look forward to it all week. I never thought I'd be the grandfather doing this."

— Robert, 68

"I lost my husband two years ago and hadn't found anything that felt right. Painting in the mornings has changed my year."

— Eleanor, 73

"I'm 82. I haven't held a brush since I was a boy. The guide brought something back I thought was gone for good."

— George, 82

"No jargon. No condescension. Just clear photos and plain language. It's the only one I've used that didn't feel like it was written for someone half my age."

— Susan, 66

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