Watercolor Tutorial: How to unblock your creativity

Learn the technique to turn watermarks into characters, to lose the fear of watercolors and break the creative logjam with Alinailustra

Creative blocks are something all artists have to deal with, no matter their discipline or experience. The blank page can intimidate us, but it’s important to get rid of the fear and not stop practicing.

Alinailustra (@alinailustra), an illustrator and graphic designer, shares the keys to an exercise that will unblock your creativity and transform watercolor marks into scenes and characters. Find out more in the video below:

1. Paint marks onto the paper with watercolors

Start painting marks in different colors on the paper. If you prefer, you can also mix colors into the same mark. We don’t need to concentrate on achieving perfect forms: the object of the exercise is to play with unusual compositions to train our creativity. But make sure that each mark is different from the rest: the variety is important!

2. Look at the marks

Once you’ve created the marks, the time will come to start looking for characters in the forms that have been created on the papel. If needed, you can turn the page until you find a shape that looks like a character. Start where you want, there are no wrong options!

3. Start adding details

Now it’s time to start creating! With the pencil, draw details into the marks to turn them into characters. It’s very important that you don’t simply draw the outline: the mark determines the shape of the figure, and if you trace the perimeter it will simply look like you’ve coloured the inside of a drawing.

Once you’ve defined your characters, use a water-resistant pen to go over your drawing marks and make them stand out from the watercolor. You can take advantage of this moment to add more elements if you need to.

4. The only rule: creativity

It’s important to understand that the only limits on this exercise are the ones we put on ourselves. Every drawing can have a different focus, we can mix characters, animals, and creatures with scenes and scenery… in the end, there’s no rule for this exercise apart from freeing up our creativity and not being afraid to experiment and have fun.

If you have enjoyed this tutorial, remember that Alinailustra can help you create scenes and characters from your imagination with watercolor and gouache, from scratch. Her online course is called ‘Illustration techniques with water and gouache’.

You may also be interested in:

- 'Botanical watercolors for stamps', a course by Isabela Quintes
- 'Naturalist illustration of birds with watercolors', a course by Antonia Reyes Montealegre
- 'Illustration with watercolors: recreate your most iconic scenes', a course by Carlos Rodríguez Casado