Getting started
Getting Started in Watercolor (suggested basic supplies for Watercolor Jumpstart or Postcard Paint-alongs)
- 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 – Mechanicx of Mixing Exercise
- Rinsing your brushes – 12 Tips for Happy Brushes, How to Properly Rinse (and Care for) Your Brush
- Caring for brushes – 12 Tips for Happy Brushes
- Brushmarks and brush drawing- Exploring Brushmarks, 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?
- Securing/stretching paper – Getting Started in Watercolor, How (and Why) to Stretch Your Watercolor Paper
- Laying a flat wash – Laying Flat and Graduated Washes
- Laying a graduated wash – Laying Flat and Graduated Washes, Watercolor Skies and Clouds Project 1
- Graduated wash within a shape – Blending Color Within a Shape
- 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, Color Mixing for Skies & Clouds
- Mixing greens – Mixing Better Landscape Greens, How to Deal with Phthalo Green
- Basic lifting – Introduction to Shadows & Highlights, Lifting Wet & Dry Watercolor, Three Ways to Create Clouds by Lifting
- Preserving white and lights – Watercolor Jumpstart Project 5 (All 4 lesson videos)
- Creating soft edges – Paint Shapes Not Things, Achieving Soft Edges (Youtube video), 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, 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
Technical skills
- Negative painting techniques – Crazy Colorful Pears Postcard Paint-Along, Painting Light Clouds on a Darker Sky Using Negative Painting Wet-into-Wet, 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
- 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 (see timestamp 1:28)
- Transferring drawings – How to Transfer a Drawing to Watercolor Paper
- 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