Begin Your Watercolor Adventure


Beginner watercolorists love The Postman’s Knock for its easy-to-understand watercolor tutorials and high-quality instruction. Discover the approachable beauty of watercolors in The Ultimate Beginner’s Watercolor Online Course.

— explore the World of Watercolors

The Complete Watercolor Kit + Online Course

The Postman’s Knock’s Ultimate Beginner’s Watercolor Online Course and its accompanying kit has all the supplies and information a beginner needs. With 10+ hours of video instructions covering basic, intermediate, and advanced techniques, it’s the most comprehensive online watercolor course available.

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— Dive Into Watercolors

I’m Lindsey Bugbee, and I Love Working with Watercolors

For over two decades, I’ve been practicing with this versatile medium in my sketchbooks and projects. Watercolors offer a transportable, versatile, and stunning way to create a variety of illustrations. There are many blending techniques you can use, surprising color combinations to utilize, and plenty of ways to correct mistakes.

I’m well aware, however, that watercolors can be intimidating. Successful use of watercolors depends on a solid understanding of color mixing, water-to-paint ratios, and the control of water flow. Achieving desired results and mastering techniques like layering, wet-on-wet, or dry brush can take time and practice. The good news? I’m here and happy to teach you everything you need to know.

Sketchbooking

— Begin Your Watercolor Journey

About the Ultimate Beginner’s Watercolor Online Course

The Ultimate Beginner’s Watercolor Online Course is an incredible investment for a watercolor beginner. You’ll start with basic foundational skills (blending/mixing), then you’ll move on to intermediate concepts like contouring. By the end of the course, you’ll be creating portraits of subjects like buildings and people! This course offers the most comprehensive online watercolor learning experience. Once you finish the course, you’ll have the knowledge to paint anything you want.

— What to Expect from the course

Discover the Joy of Watercolors

I had one goal when designing The Ultimate Beginner’s Watercolor Online Course: to get you hooked on watercolors. That’s why we take everything slow and start with the basics.

You’ll begin by making a color chart and plain patterns, then you’ll move on to simple lavender and starry sky illustrations. Next, you’ll practice making shapes so you can understand how contouring works. Then, we launch into my favorite part of the course: the projects! First, you’ll make a vibrant pink peony. Next, you’ll move on to a butterfly, whose tiny wings we’ll embellish with a dip pen. After that comes a Dutch row home, which will teach you the principles of architectural drawing. The last project is a portrait, and its creation requires every technique you learned in the previous lessons.

— Learners Love The Ultimate Beginner’s Watercolor Course

Hear From Students

I highly recommend this watercolor course! I loved Lindsey’s teaching style. She guides you through specific exercises and projects of increasing level of difficulty as you progress through the course. By the end of the course you realize you have learned the basic skills needed to paint any object, not just the specific subjects covered in the course. For me that was invaluable and I’m looking forward to trying the other watercolor tutorials on the TPK site.

Julie

TPK Student

This course left me feeling more confident in my beginning watercolor skills. I have played around with watercolors for years but never saw any improvement as I was teaching myself. Books just weren’t a help at all unfortunately for my learning style. Lindsey has such a down to earth style, and I found the informality comfortable and relaxing. It was like someone REAL was teaching it. It’s hard to explain, but I found the whole format easy to watch and learn from. The last project, a portrait, I figured would come out entirely amateurish and frustrating. Yes, it is amateur, it’s my first, but damn if it didn’t inspire me to want to try another and honestly, it was much better than I thought it would be. 🙂 This course was well worth the money. I find Lindsey inspiring and enjoyable to watch. She’s made me want to continue learning and playing with watercolors. I am very grateful to have come out of the course with that.

Susan

TPK Student

I really loved this course. It ranges from the basics (which I really needed!) to doing something as complicated as a house and even a portrait – things I never thought I’d be able to do, but she made them doable. I love her laid back teaching style – like she is a friend sitting in your living room teaching you how to use watercolors over a cup of coffee. It’s just so calming and comfortable, yet packed with some really great information that one can easily transfer to other projects.

Adrienne

TPK Student

Wow! This course helped me to create watercolor paintings that I had NEVER dreamed I could make! Lindsey makes everything very approachable, as usual. I really learned quite a lot from the basic lessons about shape, color, and shadow. Soon, Lindsey had me layering colors together to create a beautiful flower that just jumped off the page. As the course progressed, I painted buildings, and even a portrait of a person! With the skills that Lindsey taught me, I was able to paint a picture of the home in which my husband and I were married, and then I was even able to paint a portrait of my own beloved dog. I never thought I would be the kind of person who could do any of this, so I think anyone who is even a little interested should give it a try.

Andrea

TPK Student

— Check Out Projects

Ultimate Beginner’s Watercolor Online Course Student Work

Here’s a small sampling of the projects that Ultimate Beginner’s Watercolor Online Course students are making. Some of the paintings are projects from within the course, while others were created using techniques that students perfected while taking the course.

This is the most wonderful time
of the year in Mexico and using some techniques [I learned] in the course I made this!

Paloma L.

Here’s my building painting. My hand was really shaky, so my lines are wonky, especially the windows. I decided to go with it, so it’s more urban sketch looking than an accurate illustration. I was really glad to learn how to render bricks!

Julie G.

I’m quite happy with how the peony turned out as I was dreading ‘realistic’ painting pretty badly.

Alice P.

I took a week-long intensive course in how to design and make a children’s book. There were six women in the class. We were given the Edward Lear poems, and chose two of them each. My two pages are the young lady with the big nose and the old person of Nice (with the geese). We had ONE day to come up with our design, and one day to paint each page. I wouldn’t have had the confidence to do this without your online watercolor class. Your gift keeps on giving!

Christl M.

So happy and grateful to Lindsey for this course! It’s very pleasant and useful! These are my contoured shapes, I learned a lot from this exercise!

Isabella L.

I took my learning from the first portrait [in the course] to make this second one. Dreadlocks — difficult, but I’m happy with my artistic interpretation of Jack Sparrow. I had a lot of fun adding the details on the bandana and vest.

Laurie W.

Just finished the architecture lesson today…one more to go! I don’t want the class to end! As I was working on the building, I did have a little trouble with the pen-and-ink outlining. The ink bled in some spots, but it was not too noticeable after the watercolors were added.

Madalyn S.

Not sure I was getting the shadowing quite right but I like the results.

Marie S.

— passionate watercolorists

Join Our Community

Do you want to share your progress to garner encouragement or critiques? Join TPK’s optional Ultimate Beginner’s Watercolor Online Course Students Facebook group.

This course has an optional Facebook group that learners can join. I’m always so pleased at the kindness and consideration of learners in the group!

— Get The Ultimate Beginner’s Watercolor KiT

Start With Everything You Need

TPK’s Ultimate Beginner’s Watercolor Kit was developed to ensure your watercolor success. It contains absolutely everything you need in order to take the Ultimate Beginner’s Watercolor Online Course, from a pointed pen and waterproof ink to two useful sizes of paintbrushes. Here’s what you’ll find in your kit:

  • Winsor & Newton Cotman set of 24 student grade watercolors
  • Strathmore 400 Series Watercolor Paper Pad (5-1/2″ x 8-1/2″, tape bound, 12 sheets)
  • Two Winsor & Newton Sceptre Gold II paintbrushes (size 0 and size 3)
  • Ziller Soot Black waterproof ink
  • Straight pen + Nikko G nib
  • Mechanical pencil + Staedtler Mars plastic extruded eraser
  • Blunt art syringe
  • Cleaning cloth
  • Art water cup
  • Henna bluebird TPK tote bag

Frequently Asked Questions

Do you have to purchase the Ultimate Beginner’s Watercolor Course and the Watercolor Kit together?

No. You can choose to purchase one or the other, if you prefer. Many learners already have some watercolor supplies that are sufficient for taking the course, and they supplement those supplies with supplies they don’t have. Take a look at the supply list to see if you already have what you need in order to take the course!

How can I gift the Ultimate Beginner’s Watercolor Kit with enrollment in the Ultimate Beginner’s Watercolor Online Course?

The best way to gift the kit and the course together is to purchase the calligraphy kit by itself (as opposed to bundling it with course enrollment). Then, purchase a gift certificate for $50. Email me immediately upon making your purchase at [email protected], and I can include the gift certificate and instructions for how to enroll in the course in the kit package for your recipient.

Does the Ultimate Beginner’s Watercolor Kit ship outside the USA?

Yes, TPK ships worldwide. Please be aware that your government may charge you a VAT (Value Added Tax) or a similar charge before they will deliver. International delivery times vary from 2-6 weeks.

Will my access to the Ultimate Beginner’s Watercolor Online Course ever expire?

Once you enroll in The Ultimate Beginner’s Watercolor Online Course, you have access to its videos and material forever. There’s no expiration date.

What’s your return policy?

I’m happy to accommodate return or replacement requests. If something isn’t right with your kit, or you’ve started the online course and you have determined it’s not for you, email me at [email protected].

I’m in the USA. When can I expect my kit to arrive?

Unless otherwise requested, we ship domestically for free via USPS Priority Mail. That generally puts your kit on your doorstep 2-3 business days after shipping. Under normal circumstances, we ship orders out every weekday. In short, your kit should arrive within a week of you ordering it, if not much sooner.

Sweet Watercolor Fox Painting Tutorial

— Discover the Joy of Watercolors

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