March 12, 2026
Why do my watercolors lack emotion?
If your watercolors lack emotion, it's often because you're forgetting a skill you already have: your ability to tell stories. You don't need to paint anything super complicated. All you have to do is play with what you already know how to do, because the simplest things are often the ones that work best.
What skill do we forget when we try to convey emotion?
When people see the large-format watercolors I paint, they tell me they'd love to do the same, and that their own watercolors lack emotion. The truth is, there's a skill they forget, one they already have: telling stories.
That ability is already in you. You just need to reconnect with the child inside you. I had lost it myself, and it was my daughters who reminded me.
What did my daughters' stuffed animals teach me?
It was Chinese New Year. My parents had given my daughters a little money in red envelopes: 10 euros for the youngest and 20 euros for the oldest. Violaine and I offered to take them to the shops so they could pick out a little something if they wanted to. They bought small stuffed animals.
I started rolling my eyes and scolding them: "You already have loads of stuffed animals." They were buying them for the umpteenth time.
A few days later, they asked if they could take photos of their stuffed animals with the tablet. I said yes. And when I looked through the photo library, I was blown away:
- first, a photo of the 2 stuffed animals, the youngest's and the oldest's;
- then another one where they had moved them;
- then one where the angle had changed, with a foreground;
- and finally, a photo of the stuffed animals sitting in my daughters' slippers. Each of them had put her own stuffed animal in her own slippers. It looked like the stuffed animals were setting off on a trip.
I regretted scolding them a little. And I took away 2 lessons:
- They are so right to play with their stuffed animals.
- They are so right to tell stories with their stuffed animals.
Why does keeping it simple work better in watercolor?
Sometimes we think that after doing the same thing 10,000 times, always the same stuffed animals, we'll end up getting bored of it. But with the same things, you can reinvent and tell 10,000 different stories.
What my daughters taught me through those stuffed animals is that you don't need to do anything super complicated. When I'm in live sessions with my students, I tend to say "we could do it like this, we could do it like that." And I tend to keep adding, adding, adding. Yet we don't need all that. We tend to forget, or at least I tend to forget, that the simplest things are sometimes the most effective.
I also find it really interesting to strip things back. You keep only what works. No need to overcomplicate it.
Which simple subjects are enough to convey emotion?
I dug out a few watercolors I've painted that aren't all that complicated, and that tell a story all on their own.
- A subject with nothing around it. No background, none of the water effects I tend to add. Just that, and it tells a story. You can stick to this kind of thing.
- The same subjects, closer together or further apart. Like my daughters with their stuffed animals, I can take a photo and think: "Hey, I could move them a bit further apart. They've had a row, they've been arguing, so I'll move them apart." You're playing with what you already know how to do.
- A person walking down the street in beautiful light. That's enough to convey emotion. No need for large formats with a farmhouse and mist everywhere.
- A city scene in the rain. That's more than enough to convey emotion.
- A sky with just a foreground. For me, this works really well.
Do you still need technique?
Yes, it takes a bit of technique. You need to arrange the elements in relation to each other, and sometimes add a foreground. But that's exactly what my daughters did with their photos: they moved their stuffed animals, changed the angle, added a foreground. They played with what they had, and they told a story.
FAQ
Do you need to paint large formats to convey emotion in watercolor?
No. A simple, stripped-back subject can carry as much emotion as a large composition packed with detail.
Is it a problem to always paint the same subjects?
No. By changing where the elements sit, the angle or the foreground, the same subject can tell a different story every time.
Do you need a background for a watercolor to tell a story?
Not necessarily. I tend to add too much, but a single subject on the paper can be enough to tell a story.
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