Watercolour pebble paintings

This is a lovely activity for new (and experienced) watercolour painters. It is full of exploration and experimentation, and you frankly cannot go wrong!

Draw some pebble shapes. You could begin with single pebbles, or pile a few up, the choice is yours! You don’t have to be too exact either, you only need a basic shape.

Now you can explore some colour mixing. Pebbles are rarely just ‘grey’ or ‘brown’, they have so many other colours hidden in them. Can you see the blues and purples here?

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Making your own browns and neutrals in various shades and tones is as easy as mixing a red hue, a yellow hue, and a blue hue together. Experiment with what different amounts of each hue will do, and see how many different pebble colours you can make. Remember you can make a mixture lighter by adding more water. You might like to label what you used to make each variation, so you can reproduce it again.

Once you are satisfied with your collection of colours, begin using them on your painting. Wet a pebble shape with plenty of water, making sure the paper is shiny but does not have puddles (if you add too much water, you can use a cloth or dry brush to remove some water). Choose your first colour, and drop a little onto the paper. Go slowly. Watch how the colour spreads. Add a little more in places, or a little water in other places. Now try bringing in another colour, noticing how the two combine.

If you have drawn a collection of pebbles touching each other, you have a choice to make. Painting the neighbour to a still-wet pebble will lead to some of the colour of one bleeding into the other. Some people like this, and enjoy using the result to lead their painting. If you don’t want this to happen, you will need to let the wet section dry first.

You can keep on exploring colour, but you can also add some other materials for more effects. Sprinkling salt on a pebble makes some interesting granular effects, and alcohol spray does similar. Cling film can suggest the idea of seams in rock, or wait until your pebble is nearly dry and no longer shiny, and paint some water onto it to form a bloom. What other effects can you create?

By Emily - watercolour student