Negative Painting Watercolor: Easy Circles for Beginners
If you’ve been curious about negative painting but have no idea where to begin… this is the perfect watercolor tutorial for you.
In this beginner-friendly lesson, I’ll show you how to use simple circles to fully understand the foundations of negative painting in watercolor. Starting with easy shapes removes the overwhelm and helps you clearly see how layering, depth, and negative space work together.
This technique may look complicated at first… but once it clicks, it feels like magic.
In this tutorial, you’ll learn:
🎨 What negative painting actually is
🎨 How to create layers using simple watercolor washes
🎨 Why circles are one of the easiest ways to understand negative space
🎨 How to build depth without overcomplicating your painting
🎨 How watercolor values create dimension and movement
This video is especially helpful for beginners, or for watercolor artists who feel intimidated by negative painting and want a calmer, simpler way to approach it.
One of the biggest mistakes people make when learning watercolor is trying to paint complicated subjects too soon. Starting with simple shapes allows you to focus on understanding the process — and once you understand the process, you can paint almost anything.
So grab your paints, relax, and paint along with me step by step.
If you’ve ever felt unsure about what to buy or overwhelmed by all the options… then this is for you.
Inside my free mini-course“Supplies I Can’t Live Without!”, I walk you through the exact brushes, paints, paper, and materials I personally use in my own work and classes. And more importantly, why I use them.
Because in watercolor, your supplies shape how the paint moves, blends, and flows. And that directly impacts how confident you feel as you learn.
I’ve carefully curated this list to help you get started right away so you can spend less time guessing, and more time actually painting.
You can explore and shop everything through the links provided inside. These are affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.