Index to the basic technical how-to material on the site. This page is still “under construction” and not all available topics have been added.
If you don’t see the information you are looking for, try using the Search function (click the little “magnifying glass” in the site header or use the Search box on the home page.
Material about “the other how-to” (deciding what to paint, planning paintings, developing your own creative voice) is not included here. Currently, those articles are on the “How-to Articles” page. (Or you can use the Search box to look for them.)
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?
- 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 – Watercolor Jumpstart Project 1
- Rinsing your brushes – 12 Tips for Happy Brushes, Getting Started in Watercolor
- Caring for brushes – 12 Tips for Happy Brushes
- 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 (lesson on stretching paper)
- 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 basic greys – April 2020 Live Demo: 50 Shades of Grey (the G-rated version), Understanding and controlling values, Color Mixing for Skies & Clouds (on the Project 2 page for Watercolor Skies & Clouds)
- Basic lifting – Watercolor Jumpstart Project 2, Three Ways to Create Clouds by Lifting (Youtube video)
- Preserving white and lights – Watercolor Jumpstart Project 5
- 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, Dawn and Dusk at the Lake (Watercolor Jumpstart Project 4)
- Spattering, sponging, stamping (applying paint with things other than brushes) – Full Moon Above the Forest Postcard Paint-along
- Brush drawing, exploring various brushes, and brush handling – Dragonfly Brush Drawing, Hummingbird Brush Drawing
Technical skills
- Negative painting techniques – Crazy Colorful Pears Postcard Paint-Along , Watercolor Skies & Clouds Project 2 lesson on negative painting for clouds (fourth video)
- 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, Lemons and Blue Bowl 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 – Watercolor Jumpstart (Project 4), 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 – 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 (see timestamp 1:28)
- Transferring drawings – Watercolor Jumpstart Project 1
- Getting all the paint out of a tube
- Opening stuck tubes – to be added
- Caring for brushes – 12 Tips for Happy Brushes
- 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