It appears that roughly every year or two, I develop a desire to paint with watercolours. This year, it seems to have stayed with me for a bit longer than… ever before, I think? I reached for watercolour paints around mid-May, when I was making some DIY birthday cards. I enjoyed painting my little designs and have painted quite a few more since then! A lot of my watercolour creations were summer themed, and since we’re deep into summer now in the northern hemisphere, I thought I’d share my creations with you all. I’m not a professional artist, but that’s the whole point! Some of these doodles required a bit of patience and effort, but some literally took 10 minutes to finish. If you have some forgotten watercolours at the bottom of a craft supplies drawer, maybe it’s time to bring them back to life?

Watermelon slices

One of the first of my watercolour creations this year was this small painting of a watermelon – the ultimate summer fruit, if you ask me! For this design, I did look up reference photos of watercolour watermelons. But once I had a rough idea of what I wanted to paint, it was pretty simple.

Frankly, if you want to try painting with watercolours, a watermelon is a great theme to start with! You basically only need two colours of paint: red and green; I did use a bit of yellow too, to create a lighter shade of green. Now, if you’re a watercolour beginner, like me, here’s a tip that will elevate your painting. Don’t stop at watercolours themselves! Black liner pens will add definition and quality to your designs.

I used an ultra thin black liner pen to outline the watermelon, deliberately making the outline a bit wonky. I wish I had made the red part of the watermelon a bit darker, but I guess some watermelons are pale red/pink, so that’s fine. All in all, it turned out cute.

Starfish and seashells

Is there anything that screams ‘summer’ more than a beach and the sea? I’m not sure! My next painting was exactly that. Sand, water, a starfish and some seashells. This illustration was a bit of a challenge for me: I wanted to try painting something without a sketch, without overthinking, and without trying to be perfect.

It was around 10pm and I just fancied painting something before bed. And I did!

I decided to try wet-in-wet painting, something I haven’t done in a long time It was fun, but I feel like the cheap watercolour paper was really difficult to actually get wet. I was also too lazy to get up and grab a larger brush, and wetting half of the page with a small brush took me ages.

I started with the sea, then moved on to painting the starfish and the seashells. Then, I went back to the blue paint and added another layer of blue water, only partially overlapping with the previous one. It’s summer, the first layer was dry in like 2 minutes!

Then, I painted the yellow sand, and then added another layer of blue water. Finally, I added some darker yellow grains of sand.

For my final touches, I used coloured pencils to outline the starfish and the seashells. I also used a white paint pen to add extra details. Another quick summer themed watercolour painting was done in 10, maybe 15 minutes! It’s not perfect, but for a quick project, it turned out cute. And, most importantly, I had fun painting it!

Hala Gasienicowa – watercolour postcard from the mountains

Something I have wanted to do for a long time is painting postcards based on my own photos from my day trips and holidays. And finally, I decided to give it a go!

A few weeks ago I had a chance to visit my beloved Tatra Mountains in the south of Poland. The day I returned to London, I looked through the photos from the mountains and picked one to turn into a watercolour postcard. It’s a view from Hala Gasienicowa, one of the most picturesque places in the Polish mountains.

I’m definitely not an expert when it comes to watercolour landscapes, but I tried my best. I didn’t spend too much time painting this picture – I was overly excited to finish it quickly. But I’m still pretty happy with how it turned out! It’s a great memory locked into a watercolour painting, and I will cherish it forever. I’m yet to paint more postcards based on my own travels, but I definitely will make some in the future.

Watercolour ice lollies

Now, back to quick, simple, and truly summery designs. Another tiny painting that I created in about 10 minutes late in the evening. You can tell that I got impatient and didn’t wait for the paint to dry properly before adding the background, and the colours bled into each other. Oh well!

I painted some colourful rectangles, using wet-in-wet method again. The yellow and red colour combination turned out really nice! I added light brown sticks, and ice lollies were finished!

I added light blue stripes in the background, which I think worked really well with the red, yellow and brown ice lollies. Once again, for final touches, I used a black liner pen and a white paint pen. It certainly isn’t a professional illustration, but I didn’t intend to make one. I just fancied a quick watercolour doodle, and that’s exactly what this picture is.

Summer fruits cake

I recently shared all of my handmade cards of 2026, and one of them featured a watercolour slice of cake with summer fruits. But because I wanted my card to be perfect, I first tested the design on a spare piece of watercolour paper. It turned out so well, I’m really proud of it!

As you can hopefully tell, I spent quite a lot of time perfecting this picture. I added a lot of details and tried to be precise. Again, I used a black liner pen and a white pen marker for the finishing touches

Watercolour travel stickers bookmark

Bookmarks are some of my favourite DIY items to make. I’ve made them with variety of techniques, including cross stitch, crochet, watercolours, acrylic paints, and scrapbooking. This time, it was time to make some more watercolour bookmarks – in a summer theme!

My inspiration for this simple watercolour bookmark were stickers. Essentially, I painted a bunch of individual tiny items, all related to summer or travel: a plane, a suitcase, summer fruit, flip flops, and more. These were so fun to paint!

I added outlines with a black pen, and a thin frame along the edges. A minimalistic design, but I’m really pleased with it.

Watercolour bookmark – sunflowers

I made a second bookmark too, in a different style: I painted some sunflowers. I used to not like sunflowers, but I’ve warmed up to them over the years. I started by gently drawing some circles with a pencil, to mark the placement of the flowers. For each sunflower, I drew a smaller circle to mark the centre and a larger one around it to mark the length of the petals.

Then, I painted the petals. I started with yellow paint, and let the first petals dry. I then added slightly darker, orange petals, and let them dry too. I added a few more layers, letting the petals dry each time.

Then, I painted the brown centres and added the green stems. Once they were dry, I also added a blue background. Finally, I used my thin liner pen to draw the petals – this step required a bit of patience, but it made a huge difference. I also added an outline to the grass and leaves, and my watercolour sunflower bookmark was finished.

Final thoughts

I’ve really enjoyed playing with watercolours over the last couple of months! I’m not an expert, but art doesn’t need to be perfect. Challenging myself with a theme was also fun, and gave me purpose. I already have a few other themes in mind, and I imagine there will be more of watercolour doodles posts coming soon.

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