Cactus Flower Lesson 2

It is time for the first big wash! I used a very wet mixture of Permanent Sap Green and Aureolin Yellow.

You can see how wet the application was by the little puddle of paint at the bottom of the wash area. I used this mixture around the painting to work in the preliminary green washes on the cactus leaves.



You can vary the mixture here and there as the photo reference and your preferences dictate. I used some Hookers Green in some areas where I wanted to indicate shadows.

If you would like to paint along, please visit my etsy online shop and click on the Online Class icon. For $5.00 you will receive the photo reference and drawing for this painting. I will suggest that you print each lesson/post. This makes it easier to paint along!

Candy Dish Lesson 11

It is time to remove the masking that was applied at the beginning of this project. I like to use a rubber cement pickup. You can purchase these at any art supply store and also at Cheapjoes.com. They work great! You can really scrub this tool over your paper to pick up every last bit of masking without worrying about damaging your paper. If the edges of this tool get black and crumbly in appearance, simply use a scissors or razor knife to scrape down to a clean edge.
Now that the masking is off you will see the sparkling white of the paper. I chose to soften some of these areas using a number 4 Fritch Scrubber brush. This is a small, stiff-bristled brush that I dip into clean water and gently brush over the edges of the masked areas. Then I quickly press the area with a paper towel to lift the moisture and scrubbed pigment. Be frugal, don't over-do this technique or you will loose your whites. The direction of the scrubbing motion will determine how the lifting looks, so be conscientious about the direction you push and pull the brush. Use your photo reference as a guide for where to lift and soften. One thing to note, this DOES chop up the paper somewhat, so only do this in areas where you do not plan to add any more color!!!

Boat On River Lesson 8

Now that my foundation is complete, I can begin to work in a little detail, just one step at a time.
I have mixed little puddles of very wet pigments. One puddle is a bit of Permanent Sap Green with a touch of French Ultramarine Blue, another is French Ultramarine Blue on it’s own with some water, another puddle is of Antwerp Blue and another puddle has a combination of the above colors. These puddles are all very, very wet and pale.

Using a number 10 round, or larger, I applied a pull-push stroke to create some shadows and ripples in the water. The ones in the background are very faint/wet, and smaller in width. The strokes in the foreground are wider and more crisp.

I used a clean, damp brush to soften edges here and there to break up the crispness of the lines.
Be sure to look A LOT at your photo reference for clues as to where to add the brushwork, where to soften the lines and what color and direction the brushwork should flow.

If you would like to paint along with this lesson, go to my etsy online shop and click on the Online Class icon. For $5.00 I will send you the reference photos and the prepared drawing in a pdf file format via email. Then, you can paint along each day as I describe with photos and journaling, how to paint this little picture.

New Lesson for This Weekend!

This little boat will be the next blog lesson starting this weekend. My level two class just completed it and I think all of their paintings came out great! The biggest part of this lesson was the study of water.
If you would like to paint along with this lesson, go to my etsy online shop and click on the Online Class icon. For $5.00 I will send you the reference photos and the prepared drawing in a pdf file format via email. Then, you can paint along each day as I describe with photos and journaling, how to paint this little picture.
If you can't visit the blog each day, you can visit occasionally (become a Follower!) and print off the archived lessons. If there are past lessons that you would like to try, just go to the etsy shop, as above, and when ordering let me know which lesson you would like.
Have a great holiday weekend!

Sunlit Coconuts Lesson 14

A quick glaze of French Ultramarine Blue in the sky and - Ta Da!!! After a lot of "tweaking" around this piece, it is finally complete! Hope you enjoyed it. I know I did.

This piece will be for sale soon (we need to mat and frame it!). You can learn more about purchasing my work by visiting my online etsy store.

If you are in the Melbourne, Florida area and would like to learn more about my drawing and watercolor classes, please visit my website.

A new lesson will be posted soon. I am also beginning to plan my upcoming art show season. You can find out more about the shows I'll be in on the Events page of my website. Stay in touch - become a Follower.



You can see my work locally at the Art and Antique Studio Gallery in the Eau Gallie Art District (EGAD!), Melbourne, Florida. Click the studio name above to visit their website.

Sunlit Coconuts Lesson 5

Burnt Sienna is glazed over the darker areas of the tree at this point. The blue under-painting must be totally dry before this application is made. When glazing colors be sure to use a very light touch. If you over-brush, or push too firmly on the brush, you will lift the first glaze, mixing the color applications together and creating mud. Use the Burnt Sienna here and there on a few select vines under the coconuts. Work over a very small area with jabbing-type strokes, then quickly rinse your brush clean, touch it to your paper toweling, and touch some of the edges of the still-wet strokes to soften them. Be sure to keep this non-uniform. It is supposed to look organic, not patterned or polka-dotted.

I used Winsor Red to add a few touches of light, warm tones to the flowers under the coconuts. VanDyke Brown was used in the tree trunk and on some of the viney branches to create shadows.
Take your time, be selective and practice the brushwork. It can make all the difference in the world when working on organic objects. Allow the edges to be "lost and found", but softening some edges with clear water, and other edges to remain crisp.

Scooter and Riley Lesson 21

Scooter and Riley seemed to be floating a bit too much for me so I used the mixture that I just added to the background to create a shadow under the dogs.

I wet the area first, applying water beyond the point that I knew I wanted the shadow to be. Then I used a number 10 round brush and applied a strong pigment into the water, along the very edge of the dog and the brown couch (or whatever it is they are sitting on).

The water softened the edges. I kept the board tipped so that the strongest color stayed at the dark shadowed edges of the dog's bodies, and the water flowed into the pigment, rather that allowing the pigment to flow into the water.

Be sure that when you create the shadow areas under the dogs that the shadow falls on the opposite side of the light source. My light source is on the upper left, so my shadows all had to fall on the lower right.

Scooter and Riley Lesson 19

Now the values in this painting are really beginning to take shape.

I noticed that I had left out the sparkle in some areas of the dog's eyes. To fix this problem, I used a tiny scrubbing brush, a number 2 Fritch Scrubber, to gently lift out a very tiny sparkle in the corner of the eyes. If you find that you need to lift an area in the dog's eye's, use great care to lift only a very tiny spot. I wet the scrubber, tap it once on my paper towel so that it does not drip onto the painting, and work a very tiny, gentle motion where I want to lift. Then, I quickly touch the area with a paper towel to lift off the loosened pigment. It's nearly impossible to lift the pigment back to absolute white, but it isn't necessary. 

This technique creates a little light area in the eye which is reflecting the light source. Be sure to lift in the relative same area of the eye that the light spot is located in the other eye. What I mean is that if the light spot on one eye is on the upper left (reflecting the light source) be sure to lift the other spot from the upper left in the other eye.

This glimmer of light will enhance the wet-look of the eye and will accentuate the fact that the eye is a round, moist object.

Scooter and Riley Lesson 15

This is an on-going lesson in watercolor. See the previous posts for more.

Set the piece against a wall and walk a distance from it. Look at the values. Do you see a wide variety of darks and lights? Are they in the appropriate places? Hold the painting up to a mirror to see it with fresh eyes. What areas do you need to correct at this stage? Have you worked around the entire painting or have you worked only in some areas, leaving others lagging behind?

Note the areas that you need to work in to catch everything up to the same stage and go back to develop those areas. Be careful not to overwork any area of the painting. This will give it a fussy look, instead of a crisp, completed look.

Scooter and Riley Lesson 14

At this stage of my painting I introduced Sepia to the palette of colors to develop the shadow areas. Sepia is a cool, brown, which creates a nice contrast when using delicate strokes around areas that have been primarily painted in warm browns like Burnt Sienna and VanDyke Brown.

I also used a mixture of Sepia and Perylene Maroon, mixed with a little water for a rich application of deep, transparent color to the areas of black around the face.

If you remember that earlier, we painted these areas with an underpainting of Prussian Blue. To make them appear very dark, almost black, I apply a dark, warm mixture of color. The glazes of cool and warm colors create a beautiful black that does not look dull, but alive.

When painting around the eyes, don't completely cover the Prussian Blue area. Only cover the small areas of deep, intense shadow around the outside edges of the eyes, outer area of the nose, the nostrils, and the deepest shadows around the mouth and corners of the eyes. This will add depth and volume. You'll be surprised at how much detail this creates, just by leaving some of the previous glaze showing!

Scooter and Riley Lesson 13

This is the next stage of an on-going watercolor lesson.

At this stage I am going back to check the entire painting for value ranges. I want the strongest values changes, the most color, and the most detail around the dogs faces, which is my focal area.

I used VanDyke Brown to develop the darker shadows around the ears, mouth and eyes. I also used Burnt Sienna to develop the mid range values around the face and in the shadow areas of the legs and tails.

Scooter and Riley Lesson 10

This is the continuation on an on-going blog lesson. You can see the previous lessons by visiting my most recent posts.

Now it is time to work around the dog's bodies and develop the over-all color and values. This is done very wet-in-wet. I applied water, then dripped pigment into the relative areas where the lights and shadows were represented in the reference photos and my drawing. I want these edges to be very soft. I will work in details later, but these foundational glazes are very important to the over-all impression of shapes in the painting.

I applied a very wet mixture of New Gamboge, Quin. Gold and Burnt Sienna to Riley's body, leaving a few areas of white paper where the values were the lightest.

Scooter and Riley Lesson 9

Riley needs a collar.

I used Sap Green and applied a fairly wet wash of strong pigment to the collar. Then, I dripped in some Perylene Green into the shadowed ends of the collar to create the illusion of the collar going around Riley's neck. Again, don't over blend. Just allow the wet colors to soften by themselves.


If you would like to paint along with my blog lessons, you can get the photo references and drawings sent to you by visiting my etsy shop, clicking on the Online Lesson icon, and pay a small fee of $5.00. I will then email all the references to you.

Scooter and Riley Lesson 7

At this stage of the painting, I used a very wet wash of Prussian Blue in the back-middle area.

I applied the blue, and as it was drying I applied wet drops of VanDyke Brown to the wash. This created a really nice, dark value that had some depth to it.

Do not over-blend or over-brush! Allow the pigments to run and blend together as they will, but don't force them to blend completely. Too much blending is what makes watercolor "mud".

Scooter and Riley Lesson 6

This is a continuation of our on-going lesson.

Be sure the previous washes are thoroughly dry before applying this wash. I have physically mixed Burnt Sienna, VanDyke Brown and Permanent Alizarin Crimson in a very wet wash to lay in the brown color of the base. This can be worked in very wet, again using a one-inch flat brush. To get into the nooks, crannies and odd shapes, I hold the brush straight up and down, or tip it to use just the corner of the brush. This makes the application much more efficient than switching to several different brushes during the wash.

Allow to thoroughly dry before moving on to the next stage.

Scooter and Riley Lesson 3

I often like to paint the backgrounds of my paintings first. Backgrounds are often the largest washes, and if I mess it up, I do it right from the start. It also helps me to establish a beginning value range.


Here I have mixed New Gamboge, Burnt Sienna, and Quin. Gold in a very big, wet puddle. I applied this mixture as a very wet, juicy, flat wash. I used a one-inch flat and held the brush straight up and down to paint around to top of Scooter's head.

The more you practice handing your brushes, the more efficiently you will find you can use them. Always use the largest brush you can get away with. Avoid the tiny little brushes until you absolutely must use them for the tiny details at the very end of your piece.

Scooter and Riley Lesson 2

Step Two of the Scooter and Riley lesson.

After enlarging the drawing, I scrub graphite onto the back of the enlarged image. I like to use a Chunky Graphite Stick, found a cheapjoes.com. It is a nice, soft graphite stick, which is very large, easy to hold, and covers lots of paper quickly. I use a lot of pressure to deposit as much graphite as I can. I like it to be thick and dark. Then I use a tissue or paper towel to gently rub over the graphite to remove crumbs and extra residue. If the graphite is nice and thick, I will not have to  use much pressure to trace the image onto my watercolor paper.

To apply the drawing to the watercolor paper, I align the drawing where I want it to be, then I tape one edge with masking tape. This helps to secure the drawing yet allows me to lift the paper to see my progress. I use an ink pen to do the tracing. With an ink pen, I can see which areas I have traced, I don't have to press hard which would create dents in my watercolor paper (bad!!!) and it deposits nice, thin lines to work from.

Trace only the lines you need to navigate through the painting. If you have created your own drawing, or developed some thumbnail sketches of your subject, the information you need to complete the painting with correct values and shapes should be deeply ingrained in your brain!

Scooter and Riley Lesson 1

A new day, a new lesson.

I met Scooter and Riley while visiting a client for a commission painting of a home in Vero Beach, Florida. These characters were too cute not to paint! Here is the drawing I developed from several photos I took of Scooter and Riley. I drew this in my spiral bound sketchbook.

To develop the painting, I scanned the drawing into my computer and printed out tiled pages enlarged to the size I wanted for this piece, which will be a half sheet of watercolor paper, about 14 by 22 inches. As I worked on the drawing I thought about how I might develop the values, shadows and details of the piece in watercolor. The drawing process is so valuable. I hope that all watercolor enthusiasts will take a drawing class to develop their skill. It is important to do the drawing and preliminary work before you paint. Somehow this preliminary work gets information into your brain and helps you to solve problems before you ever touch your watercolors!
If you would like to paint along with my blog lessons, you can get the photo references and drawings sent to you by visiting my etsy shop, clicking on the Online Lesson icon, and pay a small fee of $5.00. I will then email all the references to you.

Lemons Lesson Number 12

I want to heighten the white of the plate, so I added a pale, very wet wash of cool French Ultramarine Blue to the table and the shadow under the plate. This wash will also slightly soften the edges of the plate shadow and bring the focus back up to the fruit, which is the focal point.

Lemons Lesson Number 10

I wanted to warm up the lemons, so I used a wet mixture of Burnt Sienna and a touch of VanDyke Brown to add to the shadow areas.

I continued on with this color to develop more of the darker values in the glass bowl. On the right side of the top part of the bowl I added a pretty strong value of the background mixture because at this part of the bowl the background shows through the glass.

I also glazed some New Gamboge, very wet, on the lighter areas of the lemons.