One of the biggest challenges I have when teaching watercolor is convincing students to follow the KISS principle: Keep It Simple, Silly. You don’t need 30 colors, expensive brushes, or three days to make a successful watercolor painting. Some of the best exercises use just a couple of colors and a few layers of paint….
Creating believable fog in watercolor is one of the most challenging atmospheric effects artists attempt. In this demonstration, I show how I transformed a photograph of St. Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh into a misty watercolor painting using opaque layers and a watercolor pouring technique. One of the things I love about teaching watercolor classes and…
While checking in for my flight to Colombia, an image on the airline’s website immediately caught my attention. As both a travel photographer and watercolor artist, I’m constantly looking for interesting locations to photograph. The colorful colonial buildings, stone fortress walls, and perfectly centered gateway looked like the kind of scene I would gladly wake…
Why I Love Teaching Watercolor Pouring One of the most popular workshops I teach is my version of watercolor pouring. Every class begins the same way: students stare at their paper with a mixture of excitement and panic. “You’re going to do what?” Instead of carefully painting every brushstroke, we’re going to pour liquid watercolor…
Purchase this paint ONLINE Daniel Smith Perylene Violet is a transparent, single-pigment (PV29) watercolor with excellent glazing ability, smooth washes, medium blossoming, and muted, atmospheric color. It excels in dramatic skies, shadows, and lowering the chroma of brighter colors, although it isn’t intended for vibrant violet mixtures. When I pulled Daniel Smith Perylene Violet out…
Daniel Smith Blue Apatite Genuine is one of the most heavily granulating watercolor paints available. Made from genuine mineral pigment, it excels at creating textured rocks, mountains, skies, and water while producing only modest watercolor blossoms. Purchase this paint ONLINE When I first bought Daniel Smith Blue Apatite Genuine, I had no idea it would…
Purchase this paint ONLINE Daniel Smith Lunar Red Rock is a heavily granulating PR101 watercolor that creates beautiful warm earth tones for rocky landscapes, brick architecture, canyon walls, and weathered stone. It excels in landscape painting and mixes exceptionally well with cool blues for natural neutral grays. When I first squeezed Daniel Smith Lunar Red…
Purchase this paint ONLINE Daniel Smith Mayan Blue Genuine is a transparent, low-staining PrimaTek watercolor that produces exceptional mineral granulation. It excels in skies, water, and atmospheric landscapes but is less suitable for perfectly smooth washes due to its heavy mineral texture. Daniel Smith Mayan Blue Genuine is one of those paints that quietly earns…
Purchase this paint ONLINE Winsor & Newton Hooker’s Green is a vibrant, high-staining watercolor made from PG36 and PY110. While too bright for realistic foliage straight from the tube, it excels at intentional watercolor blossoms and becomes an outstanding landscape green when mixed with Burnt Sienna or other complementary reds. Hooker’s Green was one of…
Purchase this paint ONLINE Holbein Davy’s Grey is a semi-opaque gray-green watercolor made from Raw Sienna, Lamp Black, and Titanium White. It excels at painting fog, mist, weathered stone, and atmospheric landscapes, producing subtle granulation rather than dramatic blossoms. The first time you squeeze Holbein Davy’s Grey onto your palette, one thing immediately stands out….
