Free Download: Watercolor Illustration Exercises for Beginners

Improve your watercolor technique with these easy practice exercises for children's illustrations

Watercolor allows you to paint atmospheres and bring a personal approach to any scene. Illustrator Julie Mellan (@julie_mellan) uses it to create captivating illustrations for children’s books. She explores color, light, and shadow to paint images full of personality that have been published by the likes of Penguin Random House, Clavis, and Fleurus.

In her Domestika course, Julie teaches you how to conceive, sketch, and paint dynamic and expressive animal characters for children’s books using watercolors. And here, she shares some useful resources to help you get started and hone your technique.

Watercolor Exercises

The first downloadable resource is a quick recap of the basic exercises to paint with watercolor. These are the essentials: paint a perfect solid color, a smooth gradient, or play with the wet paper in order to get interesting textures.

Animal Anatomy Basics

When you draw an animal character—even if you choose a stylized, anthropomorphic design—you should learn the actual, realistic anatomy first. As Julie says, "learn how to walk before dancing!" In this resource, she shares some tips for sketching the basics of animal anatomy before you start painting.

Facial Expressions

If you want to express emotion or show certain feelings in your illustrations, facial expressions are key, which means you need to make them play their part in the most accurate way. Julie's downloadable model sheet includes several facial expressions you can use as a reference to practice your own character.

After clicking on the button below, you will find three files in .pdf format in the Downloads folder on your computer containing the Watercolor Illustration Exercises for Beginners by Julie Mellan.

If you want to keep learning, you can sign up for Julie Mellan’s course, Animal Characters in Watercolor for Children’s Books.

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- Writing and Illustration of a Non-Fiction Picturebook, a course by Catarina Sobral
- Character Creation from Observational Drawings, a course by Sarah van Dongen