Latest Posts
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The Science of Color
I am not a scientist, but I have found it useful to learn a little about the way light and human eyes work in order to understand what color even is. It’s a surprisingly slippery concept! What even is color? What does it mean for an object to “be” a color? What are the true…
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The Split Primary Palette Is The Thief of Joy
Today I would like to suggest that the split primary palette–the palette most commonly recommended for beginners–is, actually, far from ideal for people testing out watercolour.
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Arist Palette Profiles: Hazel Harrison
Hazel Harrison is the author of Watercolor School (1993), a watercolor primer recommended by Bruce MacEvoy. This book is set up in an easy-to-peruse format with a two-page spread on various concepts, including techniques (e.g. flat wash, sponge painting) and subjects (e.g. cityscapes, still lifes). I’m not sure if Harrison’s suggested palette for beginners is…
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Review: Federal Tonic Watercolors
Tonic is a small-scale house brand by the independent art supply store St. Louis Art Supply. Unlike most art supply house brands which quietly contract out to larger producers like Da Vinci (e.g. Cheap Joe’s, Opus), STL makes their own product. I’m excited to try them as part of my commitment to frequenting smaller, independent…
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Mouse Power: Revisiting Jeanne Dobie’s Making Color Sing, chapter 2
I was mean about chapter 1 of Making Color Sing, but I love chapter 2. While I still don’t get the concept of doing a chapter about low chroma colors without saying the word “chroma”, I think the euphemism of “mouse colors” is cute, and effectively conveys the idea of varied hues of gray and…
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A Review of My Roman Szmal Collection
I own a lot of paints from a lot of paint brands, but my largest collection comes from Roman Szmal. I really enjoy using these paints, and in the process have managed to empty out several full pans of my favourite pigments. Anyway, I thought that my fellow paint obsessives might enjoy seeing my collection.
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Monthly Retrospective: July 2025
Lessons from Books I did some exercises out of books this month, on a self-study kick. These are from my own references. I will have upcoming posts on this. This is a tutorial from Painting Beautiful Watercolor Landscapes by Joyce Hicks. This is a tutorial from No Fail Watercolor by Mako. Painting my own photos…
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Artist Palette Profiles: David Dewey
David Dewey is the author of a detailed watercolor manual, The Watercolor Book (1995). Dewey’s paintings, many of which are featured in the book, are in a hyper realistic, almost photographic style.
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Camera Roll Highlights 2018
I remember the summer of 2018 being a rather Instagrammy one for me, and the level of floral photography shows it. In fall, I took my first photography class and began shooting with a DSLR at time. TO DO: October, November, December
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Creating a sense of depth
One of the biggest challenges in painting landscapes is creating a sense of depth. Depth is what gives a sense of space and scale to a landscape. It’s easy to inadvertently break the sense of depth, and make the painting feel like a flat, two-dimensional page with paint on it. Which, I mean, it is!…
