Please Note: There is a change to this index!
Some of the topics are lessons within the free courses, Watercolor Jumpstart and Watercolor Skies and Clouds 1. These courses were moved to their own website to reduce loads on the main site. If you get a message saying you need to be logged in, you can simply register and enroll in the course on the new site. Watercolor Jumpstart and Watercolor Skies and Clouds 1 are still free and the topics within them are still available, just in a different location.
Getting started
- Getting Started in Watercolor (suggested basic supplies for Watercolor Jumpstart or Postcard Paint-alongs—this is the first section of the Watercolor Jumpstart course)
- Paper – Choosing Watercolor Paper
- Brushes – Choosing Brushes for Watercolor, 12 Tips for Happy Brushes
- Paint – August 2020 Second Sunday Live Demo – What’s on Your Palette? (video temporarily unavailable, but the demo notes contain all the same information in written form with pictures)
- Palette options – August 2020 Second Sunday Live Demo – What’s on Your Palette? (video temporarily unavailable, but the demo notes contain all the same information in written form with pictures)
- Travel/Plein Air – Second Sunday Live Demo (Mar 2019): Get Ready for Spring Painting
- Travel/Plein Air – My Setup for Sketching on Location
Fundamentals
- Mechanics of mixing water-colors to a desired strength or color – Mechanics of Mixing Exercise (part of Project 2 of Watercolor Jumpstart)
- Rinsing your brushes – 12 Tips for Happy Brushes, How to Properly Rinse (and Care for) Your Brush (lesson in Getting Started section of Watercolor Jumpstart)
- Caring for brushes – 12 Tips for Happy Brushes
- Brushmarks and brush drawing- Exploring Brushmarks (lesson in Project 2 of Watercolor Jumpstart), Hummingbird Brush Drawing, Dragonfly Brush Drawing, Bee and Coneflower Brush Drawing, Spring Chickadee (Project 1 of Watercolor Jumpstart)
- Choosing colors, setting up a palette – August 2020 Second Sunday Live Demo – What’s on Your Palette?
- Securing/stretching paper – Getting Started in Watercolor section of Watercolor Jumpstart, How (and Why) to Stretch Your Watercolor Paper (lesson in Project 1 of Watercolor Skies and Clouds 1)
- Laying a flat wash – Laying Flat and Graduated Washes (lesson in Project 4 of Watercolor Jumpstart)
- Laying a graduated wash – Laying Flat and Graduated Washes (lesson in Project 4 of Watercolor Jumpstart), Watercolor Skies and Clouds Project 1
- Graduated wash within a shape – Blending Color Within a Shape (lesson in Project 3 of Watercolor Jumpstart)
- Color wheel (understanding basic color theory) – Watercolor Jumpstart Project 3, August 2020 Second Sunday Live Demo – What’s on Your Palette?, Mixing Better Landscape Greens, How to Deal with Phthalo Green
- Mixing greys – April 2020 Live Demo: 50 Shades of Grey (the G-rated version), Introduction to Shadows & Highlights in Watercolor (lesson in Project 2 of Watercolor Jumpstart), Color Mixing for Skies & Clouds (lesson in Project 2 of Watercolor Skies and Clouds 1)
- Mixing greens – Mixing Better Landscape Greens, How to Deal with Phthalo Green
- Basic lifting – Introduction to Shadows & Highlights (lesson in Project 2 of Watercolor Jumpstart), Lifting Wet & Dry Watercolor (lesson in Project 5 of Watercolor Jumpstart), Three Ways to Create Clouds by Lifting (lesson in Project 2 of Watercolor Skies and Clouds 1)
- Preserving white and lights – Watercolor Jumpstart Project 5 (All 4 lesson videos)
- Creating soft edges – Paint Shapes Not Things, Achieving Soft Edges (lesson in Project 2 of Watercolor Jumpstart), Eggs in a Glass Bowl Postcard Paint-Along
- Basic wet in wet effects -Painting Light Clouds on a Darker Sky Using Negative Painting Wet-into-Wet (lesson in Project 2 of Watercolor Skies and Clouds 1), Sunset Variations Postcard Paint-along, Watercolor Jumpstart Project 2
- Spattering, sponging, stamping (applying paint with things other than brushes) – Full Moon Above the Forest Postcard Paint-along, Hummingbird Brush Drawing, Dragonfly Brush Drawing, Bee and Coneflower Brush Drawing, Watercolor Jumpstart Project 1
- Choosing colors, setting up a palette – August 2020 Second Sunday Live Demo – What’s on Your Palette?
Technical skills
- Negative painting techniques – Crazy Colorful Pears Postcard Paint-Along, Painting Light Clouds on a Darker Sky Using Negative Painting Wet-into-Wet (lesson in Project 2 of Watercolor Skies and Clouds 1), Mastering “Negative Thinking”
- Larger washes – Watercolor Skies and Clouds (entire course has material helpful to this, but especially Project 1)
- Layering/glazing washes – Watercolor Skies and Clouds, Paint Shapes Not Things, Crazy Colorful Pears Postcard Paint-Along, Bowl and Lemons Project
- Spritzing and spraying techniques – Full Moon Above the Forest Postcard Paint-Along, Sunset Variations Postcard Paint-Along
- Line and Wash – Sketching With Water Soluble Line PPA, Watercolor Jumpstart Project 6, Line And Wash (article)
Applications/situations (skills in context)
- Trees – 5 Techniques for Trees in Watercolor, Full Moon Above the Forest Postcard Paint-Along, Kayaker Project
- Water – Crashing Surf PPA, Full Moon Over the Ocean Postcard Paint-Along
- Skies/clouds – Sunset Variations PPA, Backlit Clouds variations Postcard Paint-Along
- Grass/weeds – Sunset Variations Postcard Paint-Along
- Massed foliage – Full Moon Above the Forest Postcard Paint-Along
- Shadows and highlights – Introduction to Shadows & Highlights in Watercolor (lesson in Project 2 of Watercolor Jumpstart)
- Flowers – Iris Postcard Paint-Along, May 2019 Second Sunday Live Demo
- Glass – Eggs in a Glass Bowl Postcard Paint-Along, Watercolor Jumpstart Project 5 (Daisies in a Jar)
Tips and hacks
- Rinsing off contaminated colors on your palette – Mechanics of Mixing (lesson in Project 2 of Watercolor Jumpstart, see timestamp 1:28)
- Transferring drawings – How to Transfer a Drawing to Watercolor Paper (lesson in Project 1 of Watercolor Jumpstart)
- Getting all the paint out of a tube
- Opening stuck tubes – to be added
- Caring for brushes – 12 Tips for Happy Brushes, How to Properly Rinse (and Care for) Your Brush
- Dealing with mold on a watercolor palette
- Reconstituting paint that has dried up in the tube – to be added
Plein air
- Plein Air Painting for Everyone
- 9 tips for better sketching
- Sketching With Water Soluble Line PPA
- Line And Wash, Watercolor Jumpstart Project 6
- All Postcard Paint-Alongs are applicable to plein air skills
- 2nd Sunday Live Demo March 2019