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Watercolor Jumpstart

The Mechanics of Mixing Watercolors

Note: Set your printer to “no scaling” or “print actual size” instead of “fill page” to print the templates at the correct size. Course Content Course Home Page Getting Started Project 1 — Spring Chickadee Project 2 — Marbles in the Sun Project 3 — Rainbow Rose Window Project 4 — Dawn and Dusk at…

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Watercolor Jumpstart

Exploring Brushmarks

NOTE: The photos of the completed examples mentioned in this video have been lost, alas. Please pause the video instead if you need to take a longer look at something. Course Content Course Home Page Getting Started Project 1 — Spring Chickadee Project 2 — Marbles in the Sun Project 3 — Rainbow Rose Window…

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Watercolor Jumpstart

How to Make and Apply Vibrant, Juicy Color

Watercolor paint is typically not applied straight out of the tube. It’s meant to be thinned with water. At first, it can be a bit of a challenge to figure out how much water to add. Not enough water leaves the paint too thick and sticky, so you don’t get the lovely blends and color…

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Watercolor Jumpstart

How to Transfer a Drawing to Watercolor Paper

Materials Needed The first method only requires supplies from the Watercolor Jumpstart Suggested Supply list. It’s the method I use most often for small drawings, and the method we use when I teach this class in person. If you wind up doing a lot of transferring, you may want to investigate the other two methods…

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Watercolor Jumpstart

How to Set Up Your Workspace

This is just one way to set up your workspace. It was designed for a class where we each had only a small amount of space, so it might help if you only have a small space in which to set up your watercolors. If you can find a small space where you can leave…

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Watercolor Jumpstart

How to Remove Masking Tape Without Tearing Your Paper

Course Content Course Home Page Getting Started Project 1 — Spring Chickadee Project 2 — Marbles in the Sun Project 3 — Rainbow Rose Window Project 4 — Dawn and Dusk at the Lake Project 5 — Daisies in a Jar Project 6 — Fisherman’s Wharf Sketch

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Watercolor Jumpstart

How to Make a Painting Support Board

Note: This support is a lightweight board only suitable for taping down small sheets of paper, not for stretching paper. If you have already learned how to stretch watercolor paper, feel free to keep using that method and whatever support you normally use. Stretching paper gives a better result, but I’ve designed this course so…

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Watercolor Jumpstart

How to Properly Rinse (and Care for) Your Brush

Course Content Course Home Page Getting Started Project 1 — Spring Chickadee Project 2 — Marbles in the Sun Project 3 — Rainbow Rose Window Project 4 — Dawn and Dusk at the Lake Project 5 — Daisies in a Jar Project 6 — Fisherman’s Wharf Sketch

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Watercolor Jumpstart

How to Tear Large Sheets of Watercolor Paper

In this lesson, you will learn how to quickly and neatly tear a large sheet of watercolor paper into smaller sizes, without needing a ruler, scissors or a knife. Benefits of tearing down a larger sheet: NOTE: Pre-cut sheets, pads or blocks ordered online are sometimes now less expensive than larger sheets ordered online (probably…

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Gathering Your Supplies
Watercolor Jumpstart

Gathering Your Supplies

For information about the supplies used in this class, see the Recommended Supply List. Recommended Supplies for Watercolor Jumpstart This is just a suggested list, for those who don’t have supplies already. If you already have some supplies, start there. No need to buy more stuff unless you run into problems. The most likely difficulties…

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Project 4 — Dawn and Dusk at the Lake
Watercolor Jumpstart

Project 4 — Dawn and Dusk at the Lake

What Will I Learn? I call this sort of simple painting a “silhouette” painting. At sunrise, sunset or in fog, all you can really make out are silhouettes, so this gives you a simple strategy for building paintings of your own. Lay an interesting base wash that suggests sunrise, sunset or fog, and then trace…

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Project 3 — Rainbow Rose Window
Watercolor Jumpstart

Project 3 — Rainbow Rose Window

What Will I Learn? Then you’ll explore the range of colors you can mix with a particular red, yellow and blue watercolor. The exercise example was created with the colors recommended for Watercolor Jumpstart, but it’s a great exercise to try with other pigments, too. Don’t try to match the example exercise. It might not…

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