Loosen Up Your Watercolor Painting—Here’s an Exercise to Try
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.
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Geometric “Self-Portraits”
Artists have created self-portraits for ages, probably more for what the artists discover about themselves than as a way to create a likeness to show to the world. As with most things in Creative Energy Journaling, this activity is design to give you some of the benefits of the exercise of creating a self-portrait, without having to know how to draw or paint, and without spending hours and hours staring into a mirror.
Avoiding Pencil Lines in Your Watercolors
Some alternative ways to make planning marks to avoid visible pencil lines in the finished painting.
Digital Doodles
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…
Dealing with “Problem Paintings”—Part 1: Too Boring for Words
If you’ve painted in watercolor for more than a day or so, I know you’ve been here: after hours of hard work, you’re struggling with a blotchy, overworked section that you know isn’t going to be right, no matter how much more effort you put into it. It’s tempting to conclude that you just don’t have what it takes . . . maybe it’s time to take up something easier to master, say, golf.
How do you deal with “problem paintings” like this? (click the picture to read more)
Painless Watercolor Planning, Part 2: Choose & Refine Your Painting Concept
This article is the fifth in a series about creating paintings with more emotion, power and personal meaning. Here are links to the first four: Is My Painting Done? Are You a “Photocopier”? There’s a Better Way The Lazy Way to Build Painting Confidence Painless Watercolor Planning, Part 1: Exploratory Drawing I’ve broken up my…
Sneaking Up on a Painting
Making small adjustments can help you paint more personally meaningful paintings based on photos. (Or, what happened when I tried to execute the plan we created for the boat on the river.)