Buy Holbein Yellow Grey Watercolor At first glance, Holbein Yellow Grey is a weird color. Actually… it’s kind of ugly. There, I said it. Straight out of the tube it looks like one of those colors you wonder why anyone would buy. It’s a muted, muddy-looking neutral that doesn’t exactly scream, “Paint an award-winning masterpiece…
The Aurora Borealis looks complicated. Fortunately, it isn’t. One of my favorite projects for beginning watercolor students is painting the Northern Lights because it teaches several important watercolor techniques while producing a painting that looks far more difficult than it actually is. Even students with very little experience can walk away with a successful painting….
Five-Minute Watercolor Flowers That Actually Look Good I won’t lie. I hate painting flowers. Every semester, someone requests a floral painting demonstration in one of my classes. And every semester, I hesitate because: Yes, I realize I already mentioned that. It’s worth mentioning twice. The worst—and I mean absolute worst—demonstration I have ever done was…
What You’ll Learn: Adding shadows to create depth and realismTrees can be difficult to paint. How to simplify complex tree shapes Using a squirrel mop brush for loose foliage Why less control often creates better trees Creating texture with watercolor splattering Turning “mistakes” into branches and foliage Until you stop thinking about them. Seriously. One…
One of the greatest challenges in watercolor is creating the illusion of depth. After all, we’re working on a completely flat piece of paper. Somehow we have to convince the viewer that one tree is ten feet away, another is fifty feet away, and sunlight is streaming through an entire forest beyond. That sounds intimidating,…
What You’ll Learn in This Tutorial As a teaching artist, I am constantly looking for ways to make watercolor less intimidating for students. Most people walk into their first watercolor class carrying a lot of misconceptions about the medium. They assume watercolor is difficult, unforgiving, and impossible to control. Sometimes they’re right. But not always….
Avoiding Patterns Trees are organic. They don’t grow like fence posts. Branches twist in every direction. Trunks lean. Some trees crowd together while others stand alone. Nature rarely creates perfectly spaced objects, which is why one of the biggest mistakes watercolor painters make is creating patterns where they shouldn’t exist. When I paint trees, I…
UNC Old Well Watercolor Tutorial: Combining Multiple Watercolor Techniques What Watercolor Techniques Were Used? The University of North Carolina’s Old Well is one of the most recognizable landmarks in North Carolina. If you’ve ever visited Chapel Hill, you’ve probably seen it—or at least fought your way through a crowd of students taking graduation photos around…
The camera records every window, every brick, every branch, and every sign. Your painting doesn’t need all of them. Ask yourself: “What can I remove without hurting the story?” Often the answer is quite a lot. One of the biggest mistakes beginning artists make is trying to copy a photograph exactly. Every branch. Every brick….
How to Paint Atmospheric Fog in Watercolor Best Subjects for This Technique Fog effects work especially well for: Watercolor is traditionally known as a transparent medium. Most instructors teach students to preserve the white of the paper and build color through transparent layers. Even though white watercolor paints exist, the brightest highlights are usually created…
