7 Easy Watercolor Brushstroke Drills for Beginners | Round-Up
Quick Tutorials to Improve Your Skills
✅ Quick Overview
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🎨 Practice 7 simple brushstroke drills to build muscle memory and boost technique
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🔄 Videos range from 1–18 minutes, perfect for warm-ups or short creative sessions
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💡 Learn essential strokes like thin–thick lines, C-curves, S-curves, and “dab & pull”
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🔑 Beginner-tested tutorials from trusted artists with clear visuals and helpful tips
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👩🎨 Great for improving brush control and gaining confidence, even with limited time
Want a Simple Brushstroke Practice to Start With?
Before you jump into the video tutorials, you may want a clear first drill you can try right away.
I created the free Watercolor Brushstroke 3-Day Quickstart to help you practice one essential stroke — the Thin Stroke — across three short sessions. You'll begin noticing how pressure, movement, and spacing affect the look of every brushstroke you make.
👉 Get the free Brushstroke 3-Day Quickstart
Introduction
Want to improve your watercolor skills quickly? Brushstroke drills are one of the best ways to strengthen your technique, build muscle memory, and boost brush control — and they're enjoyable.
Today, I’m sharing 7 short, easy brushstroke tutorials perfect for beginners. The videos range from under 1 minute to 18 minutes, and practicing these drills regularly will strengthen your watercolor skills — promise! ✨
Just to be clear, this post is a curated round-up of beginner tutorials I’ve personally tested and recommend for beginners.
Fyi, these brushstroke videos were created by established and talented watercolor artists. Each video includes helpful verbal instructions, commentary on each stroke, and clear visual demonstrations. I’ve painted along with each one myself and share my notes on why they’re great for beginners — plus a few personal tips from my own experience. 💛
Why Practice Watercolor Brush Techniques?
Did you know you could improve your painting skills just by including a few simple brushstroke exercises in your weekly painting schedule?
Brushstroke drills help you:
- Improve brush control with thin, thick, curved, and straight strokes
- Experiment with water and paint control while building muscle memory
- Fit in purposeful painting practice, even with limited time
I’m a self-taught artist who started watercolor painting in 2020. Back then, I considered myself a non-artist — the only creative thing I did was color in a coloring book once or twice a year.
Maybe some of you are like I was, learning watercolor painting from online tutorials and library books. It’s an effective way to learn, plus it’s affordable and enjoyable — yay!
However you’re learning to paint, I want to share my own experience with painting drills. Within 2 weeks of incorporating brush control exercises into my creative time, my brushstroke technique and painting skills showed marked improvement.
So, on those days you have only 10 minutes free to paint? Just do a few of these drills. And when you have more time, begin with a quick brushstroke warm-up.
💡Tip: For those looking for another variation, before you start these brushstroke exercises, lay down a wash first (and let it dry) — you can follow my step-by-step washes tutorial for the basics.
🎨 What Do You Need?
The only things you need are:
- A round brush
- Watercolor paper
- Watercolor paint
- A glass of water to rinse your brush
- A palette to mix your color (optional)
📝 How I Review Watercolor Tutorials
This post is all about 7 Watercolor Brushstroke Drills for Beginners. Here's the method I use to test and review each tutorial I share:
- ✅ Watch the tutorial in full at least once
- 🎨 Gather art supplies
- 🖌️ Paint along with the video
- ⏱️ Track brush sizes, paper, colors, and paint time
- 👀 Let the piece dry and revisit it with fresh eyes
- 📝 Check it against my review criteria:
◦ Under 20 minutes
◦ Beginner-appropriate
◦ Clearly presented and well-paced
◦ Materials listed or easily identifiable
◦ Effective camera angles
◦ Total paint time under 1 hour
◦ Enjoyable and useful - ✨ If it’s a yes — I write the review!
Now that you know my review process, let’s jump into the tutorials!
Featured Tutorials: 7 Watercolor Brushstroke Drills for Beginners
1. Kristin Van Leuven - How to Hold Your Watercolor Brush (10:11)
Kristin Van Leuven is a watercolor artist, author, and instructor known for her loose style and modern approach to painting.
Key strokes: Demonstrates how different brush positions achieve different strokes — for example, use a vertical hold for fine, thin lines and a slant hold for thick lines.
Why watch: Proper brush grip improves control and fluidity.
👉 My feedback: I found this to be one of the clearest and most practical tutorials on brush-holding fundamentals.
💡 Think about it like this: When you use a pen to write, holding it at different angles affects your writing legibility and ink appearance. The same concept applies to your watercolor brush.
2. Susan Chiang - 3 Brush Control Exercises (3:55)
Susan Chiang, a self-taught artist and former architect, shares her knowledge of watercolors through classes and tutorials.
Key strokes: Demonstrates 3 basic strokes: straight lines, thin-thick-thin lines, and twist/curve lines (called "dab & pull").
Why watch: After practicing this drill, you’ll notice smoother transitions between thin and thick lines.
👉 My feedback: Bookmark this video so you can always access it as a quick warm-up!
3. Jenna Rainey - Watercolor Brush Techniques - Part 1 (14:07)
Jenna Rainey is a self-taught artist, author, and educator. She’s passionate about helping others discover their creative potential.
Key strokes: Focuses on basic shapes like circles and demonstrates vertical and slant brush holds.
Why watch: Circle shapes are fun to paint, and knowing when to use a vertical or slant hold is essential.
👉 My feedback: Jenna also includes tips for shaky hands and color bleeds — super helpful!
4. Jenna Rainey - Watercolor Brush Techniques - Part 2 (17:13)
Key strokes: Demonstrates compound strokes (brush pressure + release) for leaves and branches.
Why watch: This is a more advanced technique, but beginners can absolutely tackle it.
👉 My feedback: Leaves and petals are some of my favorite things to paint, so I come back to this video often. 🍃
5. Harriet de Winton - Basic Watercolor Brush Strokes (12:13)
Harriet de Winton is an artist, teacher, and creator of hand-painted wedding stationery.
Key strokes: Covers thin lines (vertical hold), thick lines (angled hold), and advanced strokes like tapered lines, C-curves, and S-curves.
Why watch: Harriet also discusses how to load the brush with paint and move your wrist to make different strokes.
👉 My feedback: The way Harriet explains brush holds and strokes really helped me conceptualize the techniques with more clarity.
6. Emma Jane Lefebvre - 5 Easy Brush Strokes (18:12)
Emma Jane Lefebvre is a watercolor artist and author from Canada who shares her watercolor adventures on YouTube.
Key strokes: Covers 5 foundational strokes, plus a bonus 6th stroke.
Why watch: Includes fun strokes like C-strokes, S-strokes, and dabs (my favorite!).
👉 My feedback: I use this tutorial regularly — perfect for quick 10-minute painting sessions.
7. Emma Jane Lefebvre - The most important brush stroke you need to know! (0.57)
Key strokes: Demonstrates the fundamental thin-thick-thin brushstroke and its variations.
Why watch: These strokes are essential for watercolor flowers and botanicals. 🌸
👉 My feedback: This 1-minute video demonstrates the technique beautifully — it’s a must-watch!
⏩ Quick Access Links: Jump to a Tutorial
💬 Closing Thoughts for Today
Watercolor brush technique exercises are useful to warm up, refresh, and build muscle memory. They’re also great for fitting in purposeful painting even when your time is limited.
As a watercolor artist since 2020, stroke drills remain an integral part of my watercolor practice — besides all the other benefits, I find them relaxing and meditative.
✨ Key Takeaway
Brushstroke drills are one of the simplest and most effective ways to level up your watercolor skills. Start practicing regularly — even just 5-10 minutes a few times a week makes a difference in your creative practice.
🔗 Recommended for You
- Beginner’s Guide to Brush & Water Control in Watercolor
- Wet-on-Wet vs Wet-on-Dry in Watercolor (Beginner-Friendly)
- Choosing the Best Watercolor Paper for Beginners
💛 What's Next?
If these brushstroke tutorials make you want a simpler, more structured way to practice, start with the free Watercolor Brushstroke 3-Day Quickstart.
👉 Start with the free Watercolor Brushstroke 3-Day Quickstart
And when you’re ready to continue, the Watercolor Brushstroke Training Kit gives you a full set of foundational strokes, standard drills, and flexible exercise routines so you can keep building brush awareness and brush control.
With the Training Kit, you’ll explore more strokes, more practice variations, and more repeatable ways to make brushstroke practice part of your watercolor routine.
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