Watercolor Journal Weekly

Getting Started With the Watercolor Journal Weekly Practice

I've been keeping a watercolor journal for about eight years now, and the Weekly challenge that comes out of the Watercolor Journal Weekly community was one of the first structures that actually kept me consistent. Most people pick up a brush, paint something, give up two weeks later, and wonder why. The weekly format works because it gives you a deadline without being brutal about it. You show up once, you do one page, and you're done. Simple. The basic idea is straightforward. You get a theme every week — usually something like "texture," "reflection," "a cup of coffee" — and you translate it onto paper using watercolor. Some weeks are loose and gestural. Others require more planning. The point isn't to make a masterpiece; it's to build the habit of sitting down with wet paint and figuring out what happens.

Watercolor Journal Weekly

It started as a blog and online challenge, and over the years it grew into a broader community around travel journaling and watercolor sketching. There's a Facebook group, an Instagram presence, and archives going back quite a few years with themes, examples, and discussions. The original site is at watercolorjournalweekly.com if you want to dig into past prompts. The community itself is fairly low-key, which is part of what makes it sustainable. No pressure, no judging, just people sharing their pages. I should say upfront that this isn't going to turn you into a professional painter. It won't fix your color mixing either. What it does is force you to make work on a schedule, and that's rarer than most people think. The hardest part isn't the technique — it's showing up when you don't feel like it.

What You Actually Need

You don't need much. A small sketchbook — I use an A5 hardcover one because it lays flat and doesn't warp as badly — some student-grade watercolors, a couple brushes, and something to ink with. That's it. I use Winsor & Newton Cotman for the paints and a 4mm round and a flats 6mm for brushes. For ink, a Sakura Pigma Micron 05 is what I reach for most days. There's a temptation to upgrade everything. Buy the expensive paper, the professional paints, the fancy brush set. Don't. Student-grade watercolor is fine for this. The paper matters more than the paint, but even that gets exaggerated. A $12 pad of Strathmore 400 series mixed-media paper will handle most weekly pages without buckling. Watercolor paper is ideal, sure, but it's also expensive and you'll waste a lot of it while learning. Mixed-media paper is more forgiving if you make mistakes and want to go over things again with ink or dry media.

How the Weekly Process Actually Works

Here's what a typical week looks like from my end. The theme drops on the site, usually midweek. I read it, think about what I want to paint, and sketched a tiny thumbnail on scrap paper if the idea feels complicated. Most weeks I skip that step. Then I set aside about forty-five minutes on a weekend day, pour myself some water, and start. The process is: wet the area, lay in the lightest color first, let it dry partially, then add midtones, then darks. If you're doing a flat wash, load the brush well, paint in one direction, don't go back over areas that are already drying. That's how you get blooms and dark rings, and for a weekly journal page, you usually don't want that unless it was intentional. Once the paint is dry — and it needs to be fully dry, not just surface dry — I go over it with ink for lines and details. Then I add a date, maybe a short caption, sometimes a price I paid for something or a note about where I was. The writing is what turns a random painting into a journal entry.

Common Problems and What I Do About Them

The biggest issue people run into is paper buckling. Wet watercolor paper curls as it dries, and if your sketchbook isn't heavy enough, the pages will warp and neighboring pages will stick. I solved this by switching to a hardcover sketchbook and taping down the edges lightly with washi tape while it dries. Four corners per page, peel the tape off once it's bone dry. Takes thirty seconds extra and saves half an hour of flattening warped pages later. Another problem that comes up constantly: colors turning muddy. This usually happens because people are mixing too many pigments together or going back over areas that are partially dry with a dirty brush. The fix is simpler than you'd think. Limit yourself to three colors per page maximum. If you need a fourth, it's probably because you didn't plan the palette. Pick your three, mix your secondaries from them, and stop. Your pages will look cleaner immediately. I also ran into a specific edge-case issue a couple years ago. I was working in a hotel room with the heating on full because it was January, and the paint was drying so fast that every time I tried to blend two colors, the edge had already set. Hard edge, visible line, ugly result. I ended up just using a spray bottle to mist the page lightly between color applications, which slowed the drying enough to blend properly. Not a perfect solution, but it got me through the week. Now I just avoid painting in overheated rooms altogether.

Things the Community Gets Wrong

There's a tendency in the Watercolor Journal Weekly circles to treat every page like it needs to be Instagram-ready. It doesn't. Some of the best pages I've seen from other participants are the ones where the paint is barely holding on, where the ink lines are hesitant, where it looks like someone actually thought about what they were drawing instead of performing for an audience. Perfection kills the practice faster than anything else. Another pitfall is over-planning. People spend two hours researching reference photos, sketching compositions, and mixing exact colors before they ever touch the paper. By the time they start, they're exhausted and the page feels stiff. The weekly format is designed to be fast. Forty-five minutes to an hour max. If it's taking longer, you're probably overthinking it.

When This Approach Doesn't Work

Let me be clear about where this falls short. If you're trying to develop advanced painting technique — glazing, wet-on-wet control, detailed botanical illustration — the weekly challenge format won't help much. It's too fast-paced for that kind of deliberate practice. You'd be better off with structured lessons or a longer-form course. The weekly journal is about building consistency and visual thinking, not mastering a specific technique. Also, the theme-based approach doesn't suit everyone. Some weeks the prompts will feel arbitrary or irrelevant to your life. That's normal. Paint something else if you want. The community doesn't police participation, and nobody cares if you ignore a prompt and paint a tree instead. If you want something more structured than the weekly challenge, you could look into a dedicated watercolor class or follow a book like Watercolor Answer Book by Sarah Simblet for technique work alongside your journal practice. They complement each other without overlapping too much.

Getting In

Head to watercolorjournalweekly.com, browse the archives to see what past themes looked like, and join the Facebook group if you want the community aspect. Or just start on your own. The challenge is optional. The habit is what matters. Pick a theme, grab your sketchbook, and paint one page this week. That's all there is to it.