Posts In Category
Watercolor Lessons
Everything you need to know for watercolor painting
Grab your painting supplies and get ready for these watercolor painting tutorials. Painting in watercolor requires watercolor paints, watercolor paper, watercolor brushes, a glass of water and a palette. If using cake (hard) or pan (moist) paints, moisten all your colors with a few drops of water from the tip of your brush. The more you practice watercolor painting, the more you’ll develop your own unique style and painting technique.
The Golden Spiral
Phi Divine Proportion and the Golden Spiral Pleasing shapes, interesting coincidences, existential ramifications, and some mathematics reality… using this unique set of mathematical concepts can create an innate linear balance when used formally …
Color Theory: Facts and thoughts in color
The Color Wheel The 12-part Color wheel is a representation of the visual spectrum of light that us humans can actually see. It is the rainbow we see through the dispersion of white …
Pigments and Paints: What you make art with
The Stuff of Paint Watercolor: What it is. Traditional transparent watercolor is finely ground pigment in a water-soluble binder such as gum arabic. Gum arabic is water-soluble gum produced by a species of …
Watercolor Paper: Your substrate of choice
Paper: a little history, a little trivia The variety of surfaces used to paint, draw, write and tally on have run the gamut from cave walls, clay tablets (Sumerians 5000-2000 BC), wood planks, …
Watercolor Palettes: Where you find colors
What are you going to use for your palette? If you’re like most artists you’ll end up with several palettes including one special one that is your favorite. I happen to have aquired …
Matting and Framing: Make it nice
Matting and Framing Your Work Matting your watercolors protects and enhances the look of your paintings by cleanly defining the image edges and isolating your image in a uniform neutral or complementary background. …
The Art Journal: by Judi Russell
More than words A step-by-step introduction to artistic journaling I’ve been asked repeatedly to conduct classes on creating journal art. However, the process is so easy that instead of classes I decided to …
Egg Tempera
Andrew Wyeth’s reputation has centered around watercolors and egg tempera paintings such as “Christina’s World”. Painted in 1948 and later purchased by the Museum of Modern Art, this is one of the most …
Drawing Materials: Handy Tools for Sketching
Basics of Drawing: Materials To draw, all you really need is a pencil or pen and a scrap of paper. If you have that, skip this section and start drawing. However, if you …
Lines & Values: Basic Techniques
Drawing Lines and Values Drawing involves the use of lines and clusters of lines called “values”. Lines and values often merge spontaneously as you draw, one springing from another in the same stroke. …
Design: Principles and Elements
Design Principles and Elements: an aesthetic tapestry Look around you. Everything you see that is made by man is made by design. Our buildings, our transportation, our entertainment, the items we consume; everything …
Composition: Six Common Themes
Popular Compositional Themes As a pastime, watercolor legend Edgar Whitney inventoried and cataloged successful painting compositions. He weighed the primary visual masses by size and value as well as arrangement and came up …
6 Crucial Exercises For Mastering Brush Control
Bands of Color This exercise is designed to hone your wash-laying skills in the form of single strokes of color laid down side by side in whatever pattern your first stroke takes. The …
6 Key Ways To Hold A Watercolor Brush
The Classic The Classic grip for holding a watercolor brush is much like the way you hold a pen or pencil for writing. The only difference being that you (for the most part) …
Beginner’s Guide: Watercolor Painting Supplies
1. Brush If you can afford only one brush, buy a #8 round red sable watercolor brush. Otherwise buy the best synthetic or synthetic-blend brush you can find. Adding a round #4 and …
