Negative Painting Watercolor: Star Shapes (So easy and simple)
If negative painting has ever felt frustrating or confusing, this simple watercolor exercise is a wonderful place to begin.
In this beginner-friendly tutorial, I’ll walk you through how to paint layered star shapes using negative painting techniques in watercolor. By starting with easy, recognizable shapes, you’ll begin to understand how negative space works — and why this technique creates so much depth, glow, and dimension in watercolor paintings.
Negative painting is one of the most important watercolor skills you can learn because it teaches you how to see shapes, layers, values, and movement in an entirely different way. Once it “clicks,” it opens the door to painting florals, trees, landscapes, animals, and so much more with greater confidence.
This lesson is perfect for beginners, especially if negative painting has felt intimidating in the past. We’ll keep things simple, approachable, and relaxing as we paint together step-by-step.
Sometimes all it takes is one small exercise for the process to finally make sense.
So grab your paints, let the colors flow, and enjoy the magic of negative painting.
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.