The weather is beautiful here. It’s the time of year when a lot of us are feeling that pull to take our paints and sketchbooks outside. It’s also the time of year that a lot of people struggle with GREEN! Do the greens in your landscapes look flat and unnatural? The likely culprit is a…
Line and wash is a combination of line drawing with watercolor washes to suggest a scene. It’s a great way to get started with watercolor, or with travel sketching, even if you “can’t draw” and have never tried watercolor before!
Every time I lead a class or workshop, more than half of the participants mention the goal of “loosening up”. Here’s a skill-building exercise to help you move in that direction.
Want your paintings to look unified? It helps to combine “things” into larger shapes, and then use smaller shapes to (partially) separate them. Here’s an exercise to help you practice. First, set up a still life with a couple of simple objects. Avoid anything that has a lot of pattern, texture, reflections or complicated edges—you…
That pesky inner critic! I don’t know about you, but simply telling her to sit down and shut up doesn’t work for me. Oh, I can get her to leave me alone. It just doesn’t lead to paintings I’m happy with. I need my inner critic. We all need time to explore, experiment and follow…
I’ve been presenting my watercolors without glass for quite some time. I love the clean look! Here’s everything you need to know to present your watercolors using this method. In the video, I demonstrate one way to do this, using the method (and products) I use myself. Below the video is a description of other…
Yesterday, 12 intrepid sketchers from the Watercolor Minimalist class at Wet Paint descended on Como Conservatory determined to learn some tips and tricks for sketching on location in a short amount of time and with minimal stuff. It was a gorgeous day, there were beautiful subjects all around us, restrooms and cafe nearby, and not…
I’m welcoming some new watercolor painters to the medium, so there have been some requests for information about caring for watercolor brushes. (Even if you know all this, you might want to skip down to item 9. In the third paragraph, there are two links to videos about how brushes are made. The first is…
Are you a control freak when you make art? Or does your inner child go wild? Most of us want to make art that combines structure and spontenaity, but that’s not easy! In workshops and classes at all levels, when we go around the room and talk about what we want to get out of…
Do you ever make mistakes when you’re working in your journal? Or doodling? Ever put down a wobbly line? Smear some ink? Drip watercolor where you didn’t mean to? How does it make you feel? Perhaps a bit aggravated or disappointed? Do you ever want to tear a page out of your journal because it…
I know many of you have iPads (or other tablets) or smartphones. Have you ever thought of using them to make art? There are many, many fun apps that allow you to draw, doodle, “paint” and modify your photos—and a lot of them are free, have free versions, or cost only a few dollars. Even…
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