Watercolour for Beginners
A kind, unhurried first go at watercolour — a small kit, the strokes that matter, and eight little paintings you’ll actually finish.
Included in Morning Post membership — $79 a year · Cancel anytime
Not an art degree — permission and a method. What to buy (very little), how water does most of the work, and eight small, finishable paintings that end pinned to the fridge or posted to a grandchild. “I can’t draw” is the entry requirement, not the barrier.
It’s for anyone who’s said “I can’t draw” since school.
The eight lessons
1The Shoebox KitEverything you need fits a shoebox — and half of what the shops would sell you can wait.2Water Does the WorkWatercolour isn’t brush control — it’s water management. One idea, and everything follows from it.3Your First Postcard: A SkyPostcard-sized on purpose — a graded wash, a horizon line, and something finished today.4Gum Leaves & BlossomEucalyptus greens from two pigments, and the press-and-lift stroke that makes a leaf.5Light & Shadow, SimplyOne light source, shadows with colour in them, and the white that’s just clean paper.6A Paddock or a BeachThe three-band landscape — sky, distance, foreground — and why the detail stays up the front.7Postcards of Your Own LifeThe jacaranda, the caravan, the veggie patch — somewhere you love, in three honest shapes.8Your Painting HabitTwenty minutes with the morning cuppa, one posted postcard a week — you paint now.How to get it
Morning Post membership
This class and the other 17 — plus both Morning Post workbooks, all four mysteries, and everything we build next. Covers your household.
Become a member — $79 a yearNo password — we email you a link · Any phone, tablet or computer · Cancel anytime
Pairs well with Gardening for Health & Happiness and Better Photos with the Phone You Own.
Questions worth asking
I haven’t painted since primary school.
Perfect — the class assumes nothing, starts postcard-small, and treats every wobble as texture, not failure.
What do I need to buy?
A small pan set, three brushes and a pad of real watercolour paper — the whole kit fits a shoebox, listed item by item in lesson 1. No easel, no studio.
How does painting work in a narrated class?
Each painting is broken into a handful of visual steps — you pause between steps and paint along at the kitchen table.
Morning Post Classes — friendly general guidance for your own kitchen, garden and family. Narration and illustrations are AI-assisted under human editorial review — editorial policy.