New Lesson - Sunlit Coconuts

A new lesson! This is a fun lesson with lots of washes. The end result will have lots of textures and patterns that will tickle the eye. If you would like to get the drawing and photo references for this project, please visit my online etsy shop and click on the Online Class Icon. For $5.00 I will send you a pdf file with all of the references and the drawing so you can follow along. Most people prefer to order the references, and then print the daily lessons until they are complete. Then they use the printouts as a workbook to do the painting.

Today I have just put the drawing on the watercolor paper by scrubbing a soft layer of graphite onto the back of my drawing. Then I tape one small spot on the drawing to the watercolor paper and lightly trace. It's really important to use a very light touch so that you don't deposit too much graphite onto the fragile watercolor paper.
Remove the tracing, and tape your paper onto a foam core or gator board with masking tape. Now you are ready to paint!

Lemons Lesson Number 3

I used clear water to wet the lemons with a nice, juicy puddle. As the water soaks in it will have a sheen, but it won't run over the edges if you tip your paper. This is the stage when you can begin to drop in strong pigments - strong because the water will dilute them. Be sure the pigment is not so thick that it doesn't blend and spread.

With practice you will get a feel for how much pigment and water to use. The pigments should be strong, but wet. I used Aureolin Yellow and Sap Green for the first application here. Let the water do the work for you.

Don't over-brush. Just drip the pigments into the areas where you see those colors and let the edges blend as they will. If you want to move it around at all, tip your paper to direct the flow of the pigment. You can add just a small touch of Burnt Sienna into the darkest shadow areas - just don't over do it. Allow this to dry thoroughly before the next step.

Lemons Lesson Number 2

Today is section two of this lesson. I mixed a puddle of paint in the large mixing area of my palette. Here you want to be sure that the puddle will be large enough to cover the entire area. If you have to stop and mix more paint, your wash will dry and be ruined before it is completed. Always mix more than you think you will need. You will see that many times you can use up the remainder of the puddle later, sometimes in another painting.

For the background I used lots of water, Burnt Sienna, Quin Gold, Permanent Alizarin Crimson, and a touch of VanDyke Brown. I used a one-inch flat to quickly lay in the wash. Don’t stroke more than once in an area as this will stir up the paper and effect how the paint lays. I wanted a nice, smooth wash for the background. Allow this to dry thoroughly before moving on to the next step.

Sunflower Lesson 5

Using New Gamboge and Quinicridone Gold, I am beginning to add some color and texture to the sunflower head and petals. I use my Brush Dance and the Pull-Push Stroke for this technique. These are shown in detail on my DVD (http://watercolorworksart.com/Classes).

For both of these strokes I hold my number 10 round brush nearly straight up and down. The Brush Dance is just a bouncing, scribbling motion made while holding the brush with a very light touch.

The Pull-Push Stroke is executed by holding the brush close to the bristles, nearly straight up and down, and gently (light touch) pulling the brush, and then gently adding pressure while pulling it. These strokes are both fun ways to make beautiful marks on your paper!

Sunflower Lesson 4

Today I am adding some Sap Green to the leaves of the sunflower. Again, I am working very wet, especially on the sunlit leaf on the upper left. I can use a stronger mixture of paint and water to create the rounded shapes on the leaf at the right because I will soften the edges here and there with clear water.

Arches Study Workshop 5

At this stage, I have allowed the painting to dry completely. I am using Aureolin Yellow and New Gamboge, very wet, like weak tea, and scribbling on a light, rough wash over the entire building. The building doesn't have to be covered entirely, this is just an underpainting that will give a foundation to future glazes.

Arches Study Workshop 1

This painting was a demonstration piece for a recent workshop I did for the Brevard Watercolor Society. I called it: Painting The Shadows First.



First I want to talk briefly about layering colors. If I want an area of my painting to be dark brown, and I just paint browns in that area, the pigment will not get darker, it will simply get thick. In order to make a color darker in value, I need to layer that color against it's relative opposite.

This is a sample of my value chart. I used a mixture of Burnt Sienna and French Ultramarine Blue (relative opposites on my color wheel) to create the dark, neutral color. I then painted the darkest mixture I could make, and still keep the color transparent, onto the number six square. I continued to paint the squares, progressively adding more water to the pigment/water mixture. I left the number one square white. This is a tool that I use often to judge values, the darkness or lightness of a color.


This is a sample of a color wheel. You can learn more about the color wheel from lots of books, and I talk briefly about it on my Beginner's Workshop DVD. You can make a simple color wheel, and paint some of the colors from your palette onto the color wheel. Or print a color wheel from many of the online art resources and use a marker to list which colors on your palette correspond to the areas of the color wheel.
From there you can then see how to mix dark, neutral colors from the relative opposites on the color wheel. These mixtures can be physically mixed on your palette or glazed, layered wet onto very dry, to create rich, dark value contrasts in your paintings.

I use this theory to build the dark values in my paintings. For instance, I use a lot of French Ultramarine Blue because it is a relatively pure, true blue in relation to my color wheel. If I look at my color wheel I can see that it is opposite many of my warm orange-brown colors, like Burnt Sienna and VanDyke Brown. I like to paint with glazes, and often I paint with only one color at a time. I allow it to dry, then glaze on another color to create the rich values, while maintaining the transparency of my pigments. Come back tomorrow to see the beginning of how this painting was built.

Flamingos Lesson 9

Using Prussian Blue, I have begun to add some texture to the areas surrounding the palm leaves. I just allowed my round brush to dance over the background. I will glaze later to soften the look of this area.
I am using various reds from my palette to add pink glazes to the flamingos and to their reflections in the water. I also used Prussian Blue, French Ultramarine Blue, and various greens to add some crisp details to the reflection areas in the water. The colors used in your background will determine which colors are reflected into the water.
Sometimes it is helpful to actually draw in the reflection shapes with a pencil and slightly shade the darker values to guide you. These little shapes can become a huge, confusing maze if you don’t study your references carefully.



This is a detail of the reflections in the water at the base of one of the flamingos. Play with the abstract shapes, just remember, they should make some kind of sense based on what they are reflecting!

Flamingos Lesson

Finally, a new lesson! I call this one, Flamingos Napping.
If you would like to follow along with this lesson, go to my online etsy shop, www.watercolorgirl.etsy.com, click the icon for online class and complete the five dollar purchase. You will then receive an email with the drawings and reference photos for this lesson!

Transfer the drawing to your paper.
With this lesson you will receive several sketches of flamingos in different sizes. Do some thumbnail sketches to see how you might like to arrange them. You can enlarge or shrink the drawings provided to fit your composition better. Once you have a nice composition, transfer the drawings to your watercolor paper.
After you transfer your drawings, use masking tape to secure your paper to a foam core board.

Hibiscus Lesson Number 7

Continuing with the Hibiscus lesson. If you would like to see the previous posts, just visit them here on my blog!

The leaves: I used Permanent Sap Green and Hooker's Green to develop some of the initial glazes in the leaves. By using varying strengths of color and different colors I have created a variety of underglazes for building the next layers of color.



The variations help to provide luminosity and keep the piece from becoming stagnant, and boring. The different colors of cool and warm greens also help to pull some leaves visually forward and others draw back.

I added a glaze of Permanent Rose to the flower head, preserving a few white areas here and there. I added some Winsor Red to the pollen on the flower.

Hibiscus Lesson Number 3

Time to mix up a puddle of Aureolin Yellow. Apply this wash to any areas that will catch the light in your piece. I focused on the highlighted areas of the leaves. Vary your edges and values to add interest and depth to this underpainting glaze. The flower should be all warm, red and pink tones, so don't add yellow here. We'll save the flower for pinks. If you add yellow to the flower the next layers will turn orange.

If you would like to see the initial stages of this painting, please visit the previous postings.

Hibiscus Lesson Number 1

Okay, better late than never. I put my back out this past week, so I am slow to getting this lesson posted. I am much better now, but I apologize for the delay.

The first stage of this painting was to create a drawing from a reference photo that I took at a local nursery. I moved some of the leaves around to help draw the eye around the painting and to enhance what I wanted to be the focal point, the hibiscus.

After creating the drawing, I enlarged it on my computer and printed it out on sheets of paper, which I taped together with clear tape. The drawing is now the size of a full sheet of watercolor paper.
Then I scrubbed the back of the enlarged drawing with a Chunky Graphite Stick (can be purchased at CheapJoes.com). It's important to scrub hard and deposit a lot of graphite on the paper, so when the drawing is traced onto the watercolor paper, almost no pressure is required. This will prevent indentations in your paper from pressing too hard. These depressions can collect pigment and create ugly marks and lines in your painting.
I tape the drawing in a few places along one edge to create a sort of hinge. Now I can trace the image onto my watercolor paper, and lift the drawing occasionally to view my progress. Again, when tracing, use a light touch!!!
Remove your drawing and fold it in half. You may want to use it again sometime!
If you would like to join us in painting this piece, for $5.00 you can order the printable reference files from my etsy shop: www.watercolorgirl.etsy.com.

Palm Tree in Watercolor Blog Class

For those of you who may like to paint along with my blog, this piece, Palm Tree On Indian River, will be posted this weekend. For $5 you will receive the photo reference and the drawing via email. You can then follow along as we paint this picture together. The focus is going to be on how to do masking, and a short lesson on clouds.
To order your references, visit my etsy shop and choose the online class icon. Hope you can join us.
My Etsy Shop: http://watercolorgirl.etsy.com

Parrot Study in Watercolor Number 5

Oh what fun! This bird is beginning to take form. Using French Ultramarine Blue, Cerulean Blue and a touch of Sap Green, the same technique is used to paint the green and blue areas of the bird's body. Use a light touch!!! Your colors should always remain transparent. I used a little bit of diluted Indigo to develop some soft shadows here and there to indicate changes in feathers. Reserve most of this for later! A little goes a long way here and it is very easy to over work the painting or add too much pigment at this stage. Let gravity, water and paper tilting do some of the work for you. Never press enough on your brush that your bristles bend. Your brush is used here only to drop paint and push puddles of pigment around. If you over-work with your brush your painting will look dry and fussy, instead of looking fresh and spontaneous.
If you are interested in learning some of these techniques, I have a booklet about painting trees on sale at my etsy shop. I am working on more booklets, so stay tuned to see what I am working on next! To order the Painting Trees Booklet click here. You will be taken to my etsy shop where you will find the booklets for sale. More to come on the bird soon!