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Top Rated Course , Watercoloring ,

Watercolor Washes: 5 Essential Building Blocks For Watercolor Painting

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Shelby Abrahamsen (Foxsy)

Class Description:

One of the most essential techniques for a new beginner watercolorist to learn is how to paint a wash. This course is designed to walk you through everything you need to get started with watercolor washes. You’ll learn what a wash is, why it’s important for watercolor painting, and where you will use washes in your practice.

Then we’ll dive into how to do each of the five different washes with step-by-step instructions. Once you’ve learned the techniques, you’ll get to apply those techniques with five projects that focus on each type of wash.

What You Will Learn:

  • What washes are and why they're important
  • How washes are used
  • 5 different watercolor washes
  • 5 paint-along projects using each wash style

Supplies You'll Need:

  • Watercolor paper
  • Large paintbrush (flat/round/mop)
  • Watercolor paint
  • Masking tape
  • 2 jars of water
  • Cotton rag (or paper towels)
  • Heat tool (optional)

Explore Class Projects:

In this class, you'll learn to create these amazing class projects, but more importantly, you'll learn how to create your own pieces in the future.

Class Content

12

About Instructor

Shelby Abrahamsen (Foxsy)

Shelby is the co-founder of Foxsy and the creator at Little Coffee Fox. She is a professional watercolorist, letterer, and artist with a passion for teaching others to reintroduce creativity back into their lives. Shelby lives in Chicago, IL with her husband Jon and her pets Summer, Basil, and Korra.

217 Classes

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Class Details:

  • 📺Live Class Replay
  • 📊Level: Beginner
  • ⏰Time: 1 Hour, 37 Minutes

Class Pass includes:

  • ✓Lifetime Access To Class

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Join a thriving community of over 2,300 students, all united by a shared love for creativity. Together, let's paint a brighter, more creative future.

  • Access 299 courses with 350+ hours of content.
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  • Access the Watercolor Academy, Drawing Bootcamp, & Modern Lettering Academies.
  • Join weekly live classes.
  • Get personalized feedback on all projects.
  • Get real answers to your questions with Creative Support.
Access Everything Foxsy Has To Offer

Be Part of the Foxsy Revolution

Join a thriving community of over 2,300 students, all united by a shared love for creativity. Together, let's paint a brighter, more creative future.

  • Access 299 classes with 250+ hours of content.
  • Work through over 400 lessons and 70+ projects.
  • Access the Watercolor Academy, Drawing Bootcamp, & Modern Lettering Academies.
  • Join weekly live classes.
  • Get personalized feedback on all projects.
  • Get real answers to your questions with Creative Support.
Access Everything Foxsy Has To Offer

Our Students Love Us

Trusted By Over 2,300 Students Like You

  • “As a total beginner when I started, I’m amazed at the amount of skill and knowledge I gained. There’s a wide variety of courses so you can’t get bored.

    There’s always another challenge in the next class. Really appreciated the personal feedback when I submitted projects.
    Janet G
  • “I loved the Watercolor Academy I learned so much and have developed self-confidence in my ability as a budding "artist "

    (I 'm still getting used to this lol)”
    Gail P
  • "This is excellent.

    As a chronic copier of other people's art, the tips offered here will help me with my own creative process and prevent the block that I feel with "what next"."
    Carol R
  • “The Watercolor Academy was a great experience. I learned so much and was able to get feedback on my projects along the way. I feel like I accomplished something when all was completed.

    I would recommend (and I have) the Foxsy Watercolor Academy to others wanting to try out watercolors or improve on their skills.”
    D Carson
  • "Very fun and informative courses.

    The projects turn out very pretty, and the instructor feedback is quick and helpful."
    Vera C
  • “Very good and useful courses for those that want to start or improve their watercolor skills”
    Boryana
  • "This was so helpful! I loved the way Shelby broke down the basics in a succinct way and tips to use while practicing. Lastly, I appreciated Shelby mentioning that everyone is going to have a unique bounce lettering style.

    As someone who is new to brush lettering in general, I've been copying a lot of what I see. I need that consistent reminder to avoid potential frustration, especially as a beginner!"
    Kelsey
  • "I loved this course. I loved how it showed the lesson and then a project that corresponded with that project.

    The explanations were amazing and helpful and I really felt confident in doing the project. This was probably the best watercolor lesson I've ever taken and enjoyed."
    LG Woods
  • "I really enjoyed this course. Instructions and examples were clear and practical and the feedback was really kind and helpful.

    It has improved my lettering knowledge and given me confidence to keep practicing."
    Nic

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We're getting better every day

Foxsy is an art education platform with on-demand creative courses. It’s designed so you can explore and grow your artistic skills.

The courses contain in-depth lessons and step-by-step projects to fuel your creativity and give you the skills to create your own amazing art.

Here at Foxsy, we are working to build a platform where you can have everything you need to give your creativity everything it needs to thrive.

Right now, we are working on building the best collection of online courses around, so you have everything you need to learn the new skills you've been putting off (or help you dust off some old skills).

We're doing this by working with online creators who have been where you are. Our instructors have all decided to make their creativity a focus of their lives. To devote themselves to exploring their creativity and helping others do the same, and many of them are self-taught. Basically, they get it and can help you no matter where you are.

More than that though, we want to build a space where you feel like your creativity matters. We want to give you a community where you can work to embrace your creativity and give it space in your life.

Eventually, we want to change the world though.

That's a BIG want though isn't it? Well, it's the truth. We're working to make Foxsy a place where creativity thrives not only on an individual level but also a place that helps make the world a more creative place in general.

We want to support local art projects all around the globe, expand access to art education, and show as many people as possible that no matter what they've been told, your creativity matters and should be celebrated.

If this sounds like a world, you'd like to see, sign up and help us build something amazing.

We currently have several courses on watercoloring, lettering, and creative journaling. As we grow our course library month by month, we will continue to expand the range of subjects as well.

Foxsy is adding new classes all the time to make sure you have access to a constantly growing pool of subjects and projects.

Foxsy is a paid membership platform, so you need to sign up for one of our membership plans to access everything Foxsy has to offer.

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Ratings and Reviews

5.0
Avg. Rating
16 Ratings
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What's your experience? We'd love to know!
mah-batis02gmail-com
Posted 6 months ago
Amazing

Glazing is hard haha I loved the lessons. Learned a lot. Thank you so much.

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karenjanerealtor
Posted 2 years ago
Great Classes! Lot of Insights!

Lots of tips and watercolor wisdom presented in a fun you can do it way! I’ve been really struggling to get back into being creative with watercolor and figuring out how watercolor works…I use to have some know how. I signed up with Shelby about a year ago. So glad I did! I just finished this Saint Nicholas. You’ll find lots of encouragement, advice and instruction here to get you through.

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Lois
Posted 2 years ago
Drying time, patience, consider a "mess up" as valuable learning!

All the projects were great fun. I learned best when I completed multiples of the same project. Also, the way Shelby had us paint all the washes side by side and dry vs.wet of the same wash was brilliant! Each section was thoroughly explained. Shelby gave me the sense that I really can watercolor!

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lorig2419gmail-com
Posted 3 years ago
Let it dry!

Most important thing I learned in this section was the importance of drying between washes to get the proper effect. As well as the importance of enough water for the gradients. I liked all the hands on exercises. (Sorry about the text on my paintings - used scrap paper.)

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Helpful? One person found this helpful.
jgillis1
Posted 3 years ago
Vital Skill You Need to Know

Another course that you just need to take to be successful in water coloring. Knowing how to create washes is a vital skill. I keep my creations on the wall where I paint and refer to them frequently.

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susan23
Posted 3 years ago
All the modules were very helpful

I really enjoyed the course and the projects. I value to feedback provided and will practice more to try and improve on the techniques. Thank you.

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sunny63
Posted 3 years ago
Confidence Builder!!!!

I enjoyed this course as a newbie to watercoolers. The feed back on projects was great and just what i needed to nudge me along!

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jim
Posted 3 years ago
Water and pigment control

Shelby does a great job explaining techniques and the projects are challenging while not being intimidating. (Actually, for me, a couple of projects were intimidating but perseverance allowed me to learn some techniques that made the process fun)

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birinkova
Posted 3 years ago
So useful

I love this course so far. It is easy to follow, the assignments are fun and not complicated to do. And you get to practice what you have learned right away.

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brittneye
Posted 3 years ago
easy to follow instructions

The instruction was very easy to follow and I appreciated the explanation as to why and not just what, for example when discussing the glaze, the reason we needed to wait for the first layer to dry to prevent color bleeding was useful information

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