There’s a version of watercolour painting that’s careful, measured, planned. The reference photo pinned up, the composition sketched out, the colours mixed and tested before touching paper. I do that version too.
But the version I come back to every day — the one that keeps me sane, keeps me honest, keeps me improving — is the other one. No reference. No goal. Just pigment, water, and whatever my hand decides to do.
Sketching freely with watercolours, without thinking about the result, is an inexplicable pleasure. It’s also, I’ve come to believe, the most important practice a watercolour artist can have. Not the commissions, not the finished pieces. This — the daily loose sketch. My meditation.
Why Loose Sketching Makes You a Better Artist
When there’s nothing at stake — no client, no finished piece, no Instagram post planned — your hand starts to move differently. More honestly. The marks you make when you’re not trying to impress anyone are often the most interesting marks you’ll ever make.
Loose watercolour sketching builds the muscle memory that makes confident painting possible. The instinct for how much water to load onto a brush, how far a pigment will bleed, when to stop. These aren’t things you can think your way into. They come from repetition — and the most painless repetition is play.

The Practice
My daily sketch has almost no rules. Wet the paper or don’t. Pick colours that feel right, not colours that are correct. Let shapes emerge rather than drawing them first. If it fails, turn the page. There are no failed sketches in a practice journal — only information.
Most of my best ideas for finished paintings came from these sessions. A colour combination that surprised me. A mark that suggested a wave I hadn’t thought to paint. The loose sketch is where the unconscious gets a say.


If you paint — or want to start — this is the one habit I’d recommend above everything else. Fifteen minutes a day, no pressure, no audience. Just you, a brush, and whatever the water decides to do.
The prints in my shop are the finished, considered versions. But they all started somewhere close to this.
From surfers, to surfers.

















