your watercolor journey starts here
Welcome to the Foxsy Watercolor Academy! You’re standing at the beginning of a transformative 12-week journey that will push your limits, challenge your skills, and open your artistic world.
There are four sections to the Watercolor Academy, with each section lasting for three weeks. Below you will find all the courses and resources you need to succeed during your time in the Academy, but feel free to reach out if you have any questions along the way.
Each section has a section overview video. Watch it first to get an idea of what to expect — and what is expected of you. Remember, the guided curriculum is just a suggested framework to keep you reaching new heights, but you don’t have to follow along if you don’t want to! There is no grade you must achieve and no detention if you don’t turn in your work.
You are the main character here. Foxsy is just your humble guide.
watch this video first
Materials Q&A
Completed – Replay Available
Join Foxsy Cofounder Shelby Abrahamsen for this live Q&A event where we’ll discuss everything you’ll need for the Foxsy Watercolor Academy.
This is a chance to say hi to your fellow Academy students, set your goals and expectations for the next 12 weeks, and ask whatever questions you have about materials as the Academy officially begins.
Replay available for Foxsy Students
Section 1: Root
This section will serve as the foundation for your entire experience in the Foxsy Watercolor Academy. The skills you learn in this section will give you a strong basis to start your watercolor journey.
Section One Overview
section One at a glance
Your Goal:
Complete Both Courses
Duration:
3 Weeks
One of the most exciting aspects of picking up a new hobby can also be one of the most overwhelming: supplies. There are so many options to consider when it comes to your supplies, but fear not! Shelby Abrahamsen is here to help with her course Watercolor Supplies For Beginners. Watercolor Supplies For Beginners covers all of the basic materials you will need to get started with watercolor painting, from paper to paint to brushes. Shelby will present several options when it comes to supplies, with a few recommendations from her personal experience.
Learning the basics of watercolor can be a beautiful (and surprisingly intuitive) process. Join me as I share the things I have learned over the last 5 years by using watercolor paints! In this course, we’ll explore how to intuitively paint with watercolor, adjust your mindset to create a magical experience, and how to plan a painting. My goal for the end of this course is for you to feel confident in your painting.
Section One Check-In
Completed – Replay Available
Join Foxsy Cofounder Shelby Abrahamsen for this live check-in. You’ll cover all the courses from Section 1, including reviewing all the main points from both courses.
From there, you’ll get an overview of Section 2 so you know what to expect. This is a great opportunity to ask questions and discuss the journey thus far with instructors and fellow students alike!
Replay available for Foxsy Members
Section 2: Trunk
So far you’ve learned about materials and some basic watercolor techniques, but now it’s time to dig a little deeper on some essential skills in the second section of the Watercolor Academy.
Section Two Overview
Section Two at a glance
Your Goal:
Complete All 3 Courses
Duration:
3 Weeks
Not being able to balance the paint-to-water ratio in your painting can be REALLY frustrating. Luckily, Miranda Balogh is here to share her tips, tricks, and strategies that will help you understand the flow of water. First, we'll discuss what exactly water control is and where it comes from when painting with watercolors. Then, we'll discuss common problems beginning watercolor artists experience with both water and pigment. Finally, we'll review your brush and common watercolor techniques before diving into two easy-to-follow, step-by-step projects. By the time you finish this course, you'll have an easier and more enjoyable experience while painting with watercolors because you'll feel confident in your water control skills.
One of the most important skills you can learn as a watercolor artist is how to layer your watercolors. Most new watercolorists overlook this essential skill and end up frustrated with their work because it doesn’t turn out the way they expected. The truth is, watercolor is meant to be layered – like, a lot. If you try to create a painting with only a few layers, you will end up with something that is flat and lacks contrast or visual complexity. Layering adds immense depth, color intensity, and deep contrast that you can’t get any other way with this medium. This course will walk you through the basic steps to layering, as well as my five best tips for layering effectively and two projects that focus on layering.
One of the most essential techniques for a new beginner watercolorist to learn is how to paint a wash. This course is designed to walk you through everything you need to get started with watercolor washes. You’ll learn what a wash is, why it’s important for watercolor painting, and where you will use washes in your practice. Then we’ll dive into how to do each of the five different washes with step-by-step instructions. Once you’ve learned the techniques, you’ll get to apply those techniques with five projects that focus on each type of wash.
Section Two Check-In
Completed – Replay Available
Join Foxsy Cofounder Shelby Abrahamsen for this live check-in. You’ll cover all the courses from Section 2, including reviewing all the main points from all courses.
Discuss the lessons and projects with your classmates, ask questions, and share your journey thus far.
Replay available for Foxsy Members
Section 3: Branches
Hopefully you’re starting to feel a sense of confidence in your core skills, because now it’s time to start branching out into all the exciting ways you can create with watercolor. This section opens up your options quite a bit, giving you a chance to learn what excites you the most.
Section Three Overview
Section Three at a glance
Your Goal:
Complete 3 Elective Courses
Duration:
3 Weeks
Welcome to Watercolor Negative Painting For Newbies! Join Shelby Abrahamsen as she breaks down a technique known as negative painting, where artists paint in the negative space of a composition rather than directly on the main subject. It might look hard, but Shelby will show you how it works with two quick, easy lessons. With practice, you'll find that it's an excellent tool to have in your watercolor skillset. To put all of your newfound negative painting skills to work, the course will conclude with two step-by-step projects. Project 1 focuses on directional negative painting, while Project 2 focuses on deep negative painting. Don't forget to submit your projects for personalized feedback!
Welcome to How To Play, Experiment, And Plan With A Watercolor Sketchbook! Over the last fifteen years, Shelby Abrahamsen has learned A LOT about working with watercolors. The most important lesson? Understanding the importance of just playing with her paints! There is so much possibility when it comes to painting loosely and experimenting with watercolors. In this course, Shelby will guide you through getting in the correct mindset, overcoming first-page fear, using your sketchbook to develop your confidence and style, and how to plan paintings with rough sketches and thumbnails. So stick around to see how a watercolor sketchbook can unlock your painting skills and launch you forward leaps and bounds!
By themselves, lettering and watercoloring are two very lovely art forms. Put them together, and you have a dynamite combination that will create some truly stellar pieces. In this class, I’ll be sharing how you can harness this skill to make some lovely lettering. First, I’ll run through a quick lettering refresher before touching on basic color theory. Then I’ll demonstrate how to control water and pigment to achieve different effects before jumping into showing you two very different lettering styles. Finally, we’ll create three gorgeous lettering projects together, starting with a simple project and working our way to lettering with all the colors of the rainbow. By the time the course is over, you’ll have the skills to create a huge array of colors, forms, and styles that will leave you feeling like a lettering champ.
Monochrome art is eye-catching and unique because it uses a single color to illustrate an entire piece. Best of all, when you explore a color’s full range of tonal values—from the brightest tones to the darkest tones—you enhance your painting by creating greater depth and dimension. But many watercolorists aren’t sure how to build up values to create such bold visual contrast. As a result, their paintings often look flat and rather dull. Fortunately, this course walks you step-by-step through four monochrome projects that each focus on mastering a different color’s range of tonal values—that means you don’t have to worry about juggling multiple pigments in one painting!
It can be tough to come up with ideas for your art. Sometimes you can’t think of anything at all, while other times you might feel like you need something new and fresh to push your creative boundaries. Enter Roll for Inspiration! This fun, easy, and adaptable dice drawing game is the perfect way to explore new themes, styles, and subjects in your art. The random tables can help you come up with all kinds of unorthodox ideas that could become your next masterpiece. In this course, I’ll show you how this dice drawing game works and how it can help you create something incredible. From the first steps all the way to the final piece, I’ll walk you through using the tables, tweaking them to fit your needs, and using references to help you grow. You’ll also get to see me take a fresh idea from start to finish.
Whether you’ve been making art all your life or you just started trying your hand at drawing for the first time, it’s easy to get stuck with your art. You can feel hesitant about drawing your ideas or simply not have any inspiration to get you started! The best thing you can do to break out of this rut is to take art less seriously and just make something. In this course, you’ll learn how intuitive art will allow you to get your hand moving and your creative gears turning. I’ll explain this technique in detail, showing you why it works and how to do it yourself. In addition, I’ll give you 13 easy tips for filling up your page without too much fuss. Finally, I’ll show you these techniques in action, showing you how to sidestep inspiration and just get to the good part – making art!
Nothing elevates a painting quite like an extra kick of texture, and watercolor is perfect for creating a textured look. It doesn’t matter if you’re an experienced painter or you’re just taking your first steps – adding texture can be a fun and easy step that gives so much life to your art. Whether you’re aiming for something subtle or bold, you can find something that will be sure to excite in this course! You’ll learn 13 textures using household materials, with each texture getting its own video to fully explain the technique. Then paint along with me for two texture-packed projects to help you learn how to apply the techniques to actual paintings!
Journaling can be an enormously rewarding experience regardless of the type of journaling you do. Whether you use your journal for planning, tracking, recording, or simply as a creative outlet, adding watercolor can kick your practice up to the next level. Watercolors provide endless creative opportunities, but many are nervous to try it. In this course, I’ll lay out everything you need to take on watercolor journaling without fear. I’ll give you a deep dive into the materials that you need, my recommendations, and how to choose the supplies that are right for your skill and budget. Then I will show you how to combat perfectionism and be willing to make mistakes as you learn and grow. After that, I’ll explain my whole page planning process from the penciling to the painting, explain the basics of the bullet journal, then finally show you eight beginner-friendly watercolor techniques. At last, we’ll dive into three watercolor journaling projects that you can create right alongside me to help build your confidence and skill.
Take your painting to the stars with watercolor galaxies! This technique looks stellar when complete, but it doesn’t require a ton of effort or skill to create the final look. In this course, I’ll show you just how easy it is to create stunning celestial bodies with only a few layers of paint. I’ll take you through all the supplies you need for creating your own watercolor galaxies before walking you through each step of the painting process. Then we’ll create two projects from start to finish using all the techniques from the lessons. Once you get a feel for this process, you’ll want to start adding these heavenly bodies to your work left and right!
Section Three Check-In
Completed – Replay Available
Join Foxsy Cofounder Shelby Abrahamsen for this live check-in. You’ll cover courses from Section 3 and discuss the new techniques you’ve learned over the past few weeks.
Discuss your favorite lessons and projects with your classmates, ask questions, and share what electives you took.
Section 4: Leaves
You’re in the final stretch now! Take a moment to appreciate how far you’ve grown since just a handful of weeks ago. You’ve given yourself an amazing gift by focusing on your passion, and now it’s time to let that passion bloom with this final section.
Section Four Overview
Section Four At a Glance
Your Goal:
Complete 3 Elective Courses
Duration:
3 Weeks
In this class, students will learn the tips and techniques for painting a rustic-style cottage door. It is preferable that students have some prior knowledge of working with watercolors before they start with this painting. After taking this class the students will understand the basic techniques used and they will be able to come up with their own variations of painting doors.
In this class, students will learn the tips and techniques for painting a rustic-style cottage door. It is preferable that students have some prior knowledge of working with watercolors before they start with this painting. After taking this class the students will understand the basic techniques used and they will be able to come up with their own variations of painting doors.
In this class, students will learn the tips and techniques for painting a rustic-style cottage door. It is preferable that students have some prior knowledge of working with watercolors before they start with this painting. After taking this class, the students will understand the basic techniques used, and they will be able to come up with their own variations of painting doors.
Section 4 Check-In | Academy Wrap Up
Completed – Replay Available
Join Foxsy Cofounder Shelby Abrahamsen for the final live check-in. You’ll discuss the final chapter of the Watercolor Academy and all the amazing art you created.
You’ll get to talk about your overall Academy experience, favorite courses, and the next steps in your watercolor journey.
Final project
It’s been three months since you began the Foxsy Watercolor Academy, and you’ve accomplished a lot. You should be proud of yourself — just getting here is a major achievement. But there is one final challenge for you, if you dare take it on.
For your final project for the Watercolor Academy, you have one objective: create one painting from scratch using the fabulous new skills you’ve learned.
This painting can be as big or small as you like, and of any subject that interests you.
If you need some help coming up with ideas, try the Roll for Inspiration course!
Once you have completed your painting, snap a photo of it in good lighting and submit it!
For bonus points, submit the photo you took of your first project so we can see your growth as an artist!
Common Questions
You’ve got questions, we’ve got answers.
Access The Watercolor Academy
Annual
Membership
Become a Foxsy member with a monthly or annual plan and access everything Foxsy has to offer for as long as your membership is active!
Annual:
$164 per year
Lifetime
Watercolor Academy Access
(one-time fee)
Get lifetime access to the Foxsy Watercolor Academy. No recurring fees to worry about!
Lifetime Access:
$299 One-Time Payment
