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Okay, let us have some fun. These exercises have a number of benefits (I won't call them objectives because it is not a contest or "must-do".

Benefit 1: getting familiar with the tools (brush, water, pigment, palette, paper, etc.); YOU ARE USING YOUR SENSES TO MAKE SOMETHING, not a disconnected keyboard or program

Benefit 2: understanding how much or how little water to mix with the pigments and in what sequence (more later)

Benefit 3: learning about the pigments in each family of colors and how to make lights, medium and dark washes

that is a good starting point, AND:

I will add in two different painting approaches to the exercise.

SAFETY: do not put brushes in your mouth; even though many of the toxins have been removed from the pigments they are still chemical combinations, synthetics, and not good for your organs!

EXERCISE ONE: ARRANGING YOUR PALETTE, BRUSH CARE, PAPER ANGLE. PAPER

on your palette, hopefully with at least 12 pigment wells, arrange your colors from warmest to coolest, from yellow to dark blues (I like to separate my staining colors from the rest of the palette, either on a separate palette or in a different part of the same palette.

DO NOT stand your brushes up on their brush ends as it can bend the brush heads, place them handle down or flat on your work surface, do not leave sitting in your water brush tip down. They are not cheap.

Always paint on a surface (paper) that is elevated at least 30 degrees. WHY? to take advantage of gravity, as the gravity will pull the water in the wash downward through the paper (the steeper the angle the more the wash charge moves down the paper, wet or dry. I often paint on an easel with the paper at a steep angle and surprisingly you still have a lot of control over the wash. I suggest you begin at the 30 degree angle, by placing a large book or something at the top end of your watercolor pad or block.

EXERCISE TWO: EXPLORING YOUR COLOR FAMILIES WITH WET ON WET AND WET ON DRY APPROACHES

For each primary color (ex. aurolean yellow, cobalt blue, red madder), draw three shapes (circle, blob, tree mass, whatever) about two inches in diameter in a horizontal row twice for each color.

In the first row, paint wet on wet in each shape with the first shape a light value (more water than pigment), the second shape a medium value and the third shape a dark value. NOW HEAR ME, it is better to overdue the values then be cautious and be safe. WHY? because you wont learn how to push the pigment/water mixture enough to get real values. For example, when mixing a dark with rose madder, it is better to have almost all pigment and a little water so that you can see what too much is, rather than being save and winding up with in reality is a medium wash that you think is a dark wash.

each color in each family will behave differently, so try to do them all

REPEAT that same exercise with wet on dry, taking a charged brush (water and pigment) to dry paper and bringing your wash down inside the shape.

do this for all three families of colors over time. Be aware of how you are using the tools. some helpful guides close this exercise session out as follows:

BASIC WASH TECHNIQUE: you can smoosh your brush around anyway you want. I suggest that for these exercises you try to have only the tip plus one quarter of the brush part on the paper, dont push down hard as you can get a double wash stroke (tip and mid section touching paper)

start at the top  of shape and work back and forth or slightly at an angle and keep moving the wash down the paper until it almost dries out, then go to palette, recharge your brush and pigment and keep moving down. DO NOT GO BACK INTO A WET WASH! tWHY? the previous wash area is already drier than the new charge you are bringing back to the paper, thus charging quickly is advised, and the drier area will soak up and pull the new charged wash into it and you may get a blemish called a blossom. trust me, you will get some blemishes, ha aha ha aha. try to minimize the time between brush charges so that the previous wash and the new addition are as close as possible in water content. this take practice do dont panic.

the ending of the wash should have a bead, or water/pigment small puddle at the end so that it gives you time to recharge. if you get to the end of the wash shape, and do not absorb the remaining bead (with a drier brush or paper towel), the wash area above it, now drying, will pull the bead back up into the previous wash and you will get a blossom. good to let happen as an example.

PALETTE WORK: the mixing wells in the palette are your bank, $$$$$$$, do not let them get swamped with a lot of water as it will dilute the pigment. with your damp wet brush (experiment with how much wetness), go to the pigment well and pig up gel and take it to the mixing area and add water as needed (lots of practice here as you can have 'swimming pool' of too much water or a dry lake bed with too little, experiment and there is no failure.

i like to tilt my palette with the warmer colors up on top in order to have the mixing areas drain to the lower portion of the mixing area. also, sop up or absorb the excess mixing washes as needed in order to avoid dirty colors.

THAT IS ENOUGH, HAVE FUN. RON

I suggest you begin painting on an inexpensive watercolor pad or block (140lb.); and a block is simply glued on all edges except for one inch inorder to have the paper kept stretched tightly as water is absorved)