by lbaur | Jan 15, 2021 | How-to, Learn Email
The wealth of self-study materials for watercolor—books, video, online courses—means it’s easy and convenient to get started painting on your own. You can learn just about any watercolor technique imaginable on YouTube, for free. But, it’s difficult to learn how to...
by lbaur | Dec 26, 2020 | How-to, Learn Email
Color-mixing is often discussed as if the only consideration is getting “the right color”, but watercolor pigments each have their own physical and chemical properties. This video presents an activity and some information from my Journey Through the Rainbow course to...
by lbaur | Dec 8, 2020 | How-to
Sketchbook Pro is a great tool for quickly planning changes to a painting in progress, and it’s free. 🙂 The full version (with no ads) is available free for Windows, Mac, iOS and Android (type “Sketchbook Pro” into the search box for your app store)....
by lbaur | Dec 7, 2020 | Behind the Scenes, How-to
We’re only a couple of weeks away from the winter solstice now. It’s dark when I start work in the morning. It’s dark before I end work in the afternoon. On rainy days, I need a light on in my studio just to read a book. It feels like there’s...
by lbaur | Nov 16, 2020 | How-to, Learn Email
I do a lot of experimenting. I work in multiple drafts. As most of you know, the “duds”, demos, and experiments I don’t know what to do with go onto the Big Pile of Nope. Maybe it should be called “the Big Pile of Maybe Later”. I can...
by ren | Oct 14, 2020 | How-to
Getting light color values in watercolor works a little differently than in other mediums, since watercolor is transparent. In oil paints, lighter pigments are generally some of the most opaque, which allows oil painters to begin by blocking in large, mid-value shapes...
by lbaur | Aug 21, 2020 | How-to
I’m working on a new postcard paint-along, using these 4 photos for information and inspiration. But I’m not going to follow any of these photos very closely, so I know I’m going to hear this in the comments: “That painting doesn’t look anything like the...
by lbaur | Apr 24, 2020 | How-to
This article is the fifth in a series about creating paintings with more emotion, power and personal meaning. Here are links to the first four: Is My Painting Done?Are You a “Photocopier”? There’s a Better WayThe Lazy Way to Build Painting ConfidencePainless...
by lbaur | Apr 3, 2020 | How-to
This article is the fourth in a series about creating paintings with more emotion, power and personal meaning. Here are links to the first three: Is My Painting Done?Are You a “Photocopier”? There’s a Better WayThe Lazy Way to Build Painting Confidence I know that...
by lbaur | Feb 16, 2020 | How-to
This article is the third in a series. The preceding articles are: Is My Painting Done? Are You a “Photocopier”? There’s a Better Way In response to the last article, a reader made a couple of excellent points about why it’s sometimes difficult...
by lbaur | Jan 20, 2020 | How-to
This article is the second in a series. To read the first article, “Is My Painting Done?”, click here. In the next few articles in this series, I’ll introduce some ideas you can use to help you plan paintings that are more expressive, powerful and...
by lbaur | Jan 18, 2020 | How-to
This article is the first of a series on creating more powerful, personal and expressive paintings. When I teach watercolor classes or workshops, there is often a moment where a student comes up to me, thrusts a painting into my face and demands: Tell me what’s...
