watercolour tutorials

Learn to paint confidently in watercolours.

Over 100 tutorials are waiting for you! Are you picking up a brush for the very first time (yay! exciting!) or have you been splashing paint around for years? You’ll find plenty to love in my growing library of 100+ tutorials.

There's something for every skill level - and with a new post every week, there's always fresh inspiration to explore!

Choose one of these...

Patreon and Renee's Studio have all the same tutorials. Renee's Studio is for folks with an iPad.

Patreon

Renee's Studio

Delightful! I can’t gush enough about how much I have learned from Renee! Each tutorial is well planned with thoughtful instructions and a pace I can follow. As a relatively new painter, my art has become so much better thanks to the time I’ve spent learning with Renee - 11 out of 10!!

— SB

Start learning with me

Learn with me: watercolour tutorials for all skill levels

Every month I add a fresh mix — full-length paintings, speedy sketchbook sessions, bite-sized exercises to sharpen your skills, and fun creative challenges. The aim? To help you paint with more confidence, master those essential techniques, and most importantly, actually enjoy the process (no perfectionism required).

You’ll find lessons on all sorts of subjects — from landscapes and travel sketching to buildings, animals, and more. Everything is filmed in real time (no frantic jump cuts) or broken down into easy step-by-step guides, always with clear explanations and plenty of demos.

Why learn with me?

I keep things warm, relaxed, and encouraging — think less “serious art teacher with a ruler” and more “friendly guide with a paint-stained apron.” With a Higher Diploma in Education and over eight years of teaching watercolour, I don’t just show you how to paint, I explain why the techniques work, so you can start seeing the world like an artist.

And the best part? You can learn wherever suits you — on iPad via Renee’s Studio or over on Patreon. Either way, your subscription unlocks instant access to the whole library of tutorials. You can browse all the tutorials here.

(Psst… all tutorials are in English, but the videos also come with auto-subtitles in French, German, and Spanish — so no excuses!)

Free watercolour tutorial - paint a lighthouse

A free lesson for you!

Paint this lighthouse with me.

You can do this! Let me show you how. A completely free video tutorial when you sign up on either Patreon or Renee's Studio.

We'll paint a soft cirrus sky, a charming lighthouse and dune grasses full of colour and texture. It's so much fun!

Paint a lighthouse with me

Join our Facebook community

Learning is more rewarding when shared with others. As part of your membership, you're invited to join our private Facebook group — a welcoming space for inspiration, feedback, and connection.

Share your work, see how others interpret the lessons, ask questions, and receive friendly feedback directly from me. It's a great way to stay motivated and feel part of a vibrant, creative community.

Renee's lessons have been a wonderful resource for me as someone brand new to watercolor. She is a wonderful teacher, not only in how she guides students through her tutorials, but also in how she structures content – teaching new skills and then building upon them step by step.

My confidence and understanding of watercolor has grown so much, and I thoroughly enjoy each new lesson she creates! T.P.

—TP

I discovered Renee's art on Instagram and quickly fell in love with her artwork, style, and her choice of pigments. I started following her and then quickly became a Patron student. In my short few months of being Renee's Patron, I learned how to paint stone work, roofs, lighthouses, various skies, ocean/waves, flower meadows, birds (the ones with abstract background are my favourite — so much fun; actually, it's the heron with the abstract background that made me become Renee's Patron), castles (whoever thought I could do that!), and I really learned to lean into loose style.

Every Thursday, I look forward to an email notification with a new lesson from Renee. It's always exciting to see what tutorial she has in store for us.

Also, I really like the lesson structure. I get to paint by re-creating via a step-by-step video tutorial, then there's a photo reference with detailed steps to paint and no video, then there are skills lessons, and my favorite is challenges where all we get is a reference! That's one way to gain confidence in watercolor painting by doing the whole thing yourself, leaning into all the lessons learned from Renee's tutorials.

Renee is very encouraging, kind, patient, and provides valuable feedback for every single watercolor painting. I've learned so much in the last few months of being her student.

Read more...

— EM

Just finished another one of @reneewaldenart's online classes. What fun this was!

Thank you so much Renee! I am thoroughly enjoying your classes and learning soooo much!!! :-) It makes some of the things that have intimidated me feel so much more doable. Your generous teaching has been such a gift.

— MC

I’ve been learning with Renee for about two years, and she never fails to spark my creativity. When I first discovered her, I was completely hooked by those gorgeous videos — old stone walls, weathered barns, grassy fields exploding with colour — they felt like stepping into a dream.

Renee has this rare gift of making art feel alive, real, and totally achievable. If you’re even thinking about taking Renee’s classes, close your eyes and go for it. You won’t regret it.

— AK

Student paintings (aren't they amazing?!)

Let's get started!