Unlock Your Creativity with Watercolor

Everything You Need to Know to Get Started with Watercolor Essentials!

Course summary:

Watercolor Essentials is the perfect starting point for beginners looking to truly understand watercolor materials and techniques. It’s also a great class for intermediate to advanced students to fill in gaps in their education. The goal is to make painting easy and simple!
Many artists working in watercolor struggle with selecting the right paints, brushes, and paper to achieve their desired effects. They fight with the materials and struggle to consistently get good work. Once they begin painting, common challenges arise, such as:
Using the right materials for the right technique
Controlling the right amount of paint
Understanding water ratios and when to apply them
Mastering fundamental techniques like graded washes, smooth blends, and vibrant color application
Beyond technique, many students feel lost when planning a painting—unsure of where to start or how to bring their vision to life.
This course breaks everything down into simple, structured lessons with engaging video tutorials and practical assignments, helping you build confidence and skill with every brushstroke.
This class is where your foundation is built. It will prepare students for more intermediate and advanced learning in watercolor. 
Watercolor painting featuring a bicycle and boats, showcasing a vibrant and artistic scene with soft brushstrokes.

What You’ll Learn:

How to choose the right materials: paints, brushes, and paper for your desired effects
The key to mixing colors for rich, vibrant results (without making muddy mistakes)
How to control water and pigment for smooth blends, gradients, and washes
Essential brush techniques to create texture, depth, and dimension in your paintings
Step-by-step guidance on planning a composition before putting paint to paper
Watercolor painting of a cozy café next to a yellow house, featuring soft brushstrokes and warm tones.

About the Instructor

Photo of Lee White.
Lee White

Lee White is a children's book illustrator based in Colorado. He has been illustrating books for the past 20 years and has over 30 titles to his name. He also teaches all his painting secrets at SVSLearn.com and workshops around the country.

Created by illustrators, for illustrators

What's Included:

Watercolor painting of a tree, featuring soft brushstrokes and natural color blending.
Painting Assignments
Mini-projects to help you apply what you've learned
Watercolor portrait of illustrator Lee White, featuring soft brushstrokes and artistic texture.
On-Demand Video Lessons
Short, focused tutorials to guide you through each technique
Watercolor painting with shades of purple, featuring fluid brushstrokes and artistic texture.
Practice Exercises
Hands-on drills to reinforce your skills
Watercolor painting of boats on the water, featuring soft brushstrokes and a serene color palette.
Premium Course Content
7 days of premium video content to guide you step-by-step through the process of mastering watercolor painting.
Stack of watercolor gradient papers with soft, blended colors creating a textured and artistic effect.
Live Q&A and Critique Session
Get personalized feedback and ask questions. 8 live sessions with the instructor to ask questions and get personal feedback.

SCHEDULE & Curriculum

*All times are Pacific Time

SIGN UP NOW!

Sign up now to claim your space by April 4th, 2025.

TESTIMONIALS

I went into this course with a very basic understanding of how a children's book is designed. Now I feel like a pro! I understand how pages are put together, when to focus on each part of the process, how to control the speed and flow of the story, how to design pages, how "rough" a dummy should be and what it should look like when it's ready to submit. I feel so much more confident in my ability to do this thing that I've been dreaming about for so long! Watch out publishing world, because I'm coming at you! Thanks guys for all the value you've packed into this course.

Kirsten M

This is my second focused course with the SVS team and really, I just can't say enough great things about them. Talk about a distillation of knowledge and talent and years of experience broken down into bite size pieces. This is one of the best online teaching teams I've encountered and I've been doing online schooling for many years.  Great course and will get you there if you are serious about self-publishing.  

Akua A

I really enjoyed and got a lot out of this class. As someone with a background in visual art, who came to SVS mostly to brush up on skills and learn some advanced techniques, I was a bit skeptical about how useful this would be. However, I found the breakdowns, demos, and technical advice to be extremely helpful and relevant! Definitely recommend this course for creatives at all experience levels.

Maggie M

I had big hopes for this course, and it delivered. The lighting demos were invaluable and the assignments were a great extension for applying the concepts. For me this was the "Aha!" moment that I have been waiting for.

Erin C

This course really changed the way I think of light and shadow, I had seen countless books/tutorials explaining "how to shade a ball," but Lee White was the only one who really talked about how to use lighting practically with big scenes, or how to apply lighting to the style you want to make. It was so helpful and really helped me overcome my fear of making more complicated drawings.

Liz T

I very much loved this course, David's structured approach and ease to explain a complex topic in a very congruent and elegant way helped me accomplish things I did not know I was capable of in my drawings and, best of all, I understand exactly why that is now. Thank you!

Ana G

Frequently Asked Questions

Ready to start your journey?

Everything You Need to Know to Get Started with Watercolor Essentials!