How watercolor can become your friend

People often ask me for some basic tips on watercolor, so I thought I write a little guide about my experience!^^

Disclaimer: This is my personal opinion only. You don't have to agree with all points but you should know I wrote all of them to the best of my belief!

Finding the right tools

I think this is the hardest step. Bad quality supplies can mess up your results and you will lose your fun. That's the reason why I disliked painting with watercolor at school: We only used cheap tools like thin paper which crinkles or brushes which lose hair. Honestly, it's not fun at all picking up all lost hair on your painting or having a finished picture full of wrinkles!
Only when I was lucky to get better quality watercolors, brushes and papers, I fell in love with this traditioal medium!
You don't have to buy the most expensive tools, just make sure buying a higher quality than ordinary "school quality"!
I recommend buying art supplies in a shop for artists.
I noticed that watercolor tools are expensive at the beginning but you will have fun with them for a very long time, because they have a high coverage.

There's a huge variety in watercolor papers. Doesn't matter if you prefer fine paper or paper with texture. I only recommend using real watercolor paper with at least 250g/m². My favorite brand is Canson because their papers are good and affordable. Since I had many mispurchases in papers, I recommend testing the papers before buying, maybe you can ask artist friends or ask a shop if it offers samples.

About brushes I can tell that you shoudn't use cheap ones without a proper tip. It's a matter of taste whether using synthetic or sable brushes. I prefer Kolinsky sable since it always has a fine tip, no matter which size and it keeps more water. However, it's made of real animals, so it's also a matter of attitude. Since they last life-long at good care, I think I won't need to buy them ever again. I treat mine with a great respect.
I recommend buying one or two good quality brushes. I personally only work with one main brush and some cheaper ones for applying white ink.
My favorite "secret tool" is the Aquash Brush by Pentel. It's a brush you can fill water in it, so it's perfect for blending! However, I have to re-buy it like once a year.

Watercolor paints can be in form of pans or tubes or even liquid. For beginners I recommend pans because they are easier to handle.
The brand doesn't matter that much, just don't take the cheapest ones. I use Schmincke, Winsor & Newton and White Nights, and since recently, I like Colorex watercolor ink too.
It's also a matter of taste how many colors you need. Basically, you only need the primary colors and white and black. However, mixing colors can be exhausting and my favorite colors like turquoise or pink are hard to mix everytime. Plus, ready-to-use colors are brighter than mixed ones.
So I would say you should buy any colors you like. It's totally fine to have many colors. I'm too lazy to mix too!
For skin color I use neaple yellow reddish by Schmincke.

Using watercolor

Watercolor isn't that hard to use. You only need to practice to get a feeling of the drying time or the amount of water in the brush.
I always use the "wet-on-dry technique", meaning I apply wet colors on dry papers. And I always wait until the color dries completely before painting the next layer. This helps to control the water and colors.
Have patience and really, let the watercolor dry. In most cases and depending on the paper, you can make the color wet again to blend if needed.
If you want to make gradients, it's ok to use the "wet-in-wet technique", but be careful. If you feel that the colors get out of control, use a tissue to remove the spare color.

For details, I like combining watercolor with watercolor pencils. I personally draw details with pencils and then I blend them with my waterbrush.

If you make mistakes, it's possible to remove the colors depending on the paper. Make the color wet carefully and dab it with a tissue to remove the color.

I hope it helped!
If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
Have fun!

Here's a watercolor tutorial I made some years ago.

And here you can watch my speedpaint videos.