Latest Posts
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Monthly Retrospective: February 2026
In January I noted the resolution to paint more everyday moments, but in February I mostly dropped it. It was a long, cold, dark month (doesn’t February always seem long, even if it’s technically the shortest month?) I was finding very little inspiration in the gray outdoors, and anyway it in the polar vortex it
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How can you paint a blue and yellow sky gradient without getting green?
Recently, I painted about the blue and yellow paints you can use to avoid getting green in the sky. But here’s a secret: you can use any paints you want if you use the right techniques. Read on!
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March Madness Pigment Bracket!
Here’s something incredibly silly: on my Discord I’m running a March Madness pigment bracket! Throughout March, I will poll the group 1-2 times a day on their favorite of two pigments, with the winner going on to “fight” other winners. We are starting with incredibly similar pigments, but they will get less and less similar.
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Color Spotlight: Alizarin Crimson (PR83)
Thanks to Lynne, I’m finally trying genuine Alizarin Crimson! It only took 5 years. This pigment is highly spoken of and featured in many books and lessons, especially older ones, or ones by older teachers. I’ve avoided this pigment because of its reputation for poor lightfastness; instead, I’ve tried many Alizarin Crimson replacements, some of
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Which yellow and blue paints avoid a green sky?
I paint a lot of skies, especially sunset skies. A blue-to-yellow gradient in the sky is super common at sunrise, sunset, and golden hour. One of my favorite “colors” in nature is that pale, strange, blue-and-yellow-at-the-same-time kind of color you get in the sky as the blue zenith fades to the golden horizon. Naturally, that’s
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Should beginners get student grade or artist grade paint?
Watercolor paint comes in three general quality categories: I wouldn’t recommend craft paint because it’s so frustrating to use. So, as a beginner, should you start with student grade paint, or jump straight to artist grade? This can be a hot topic, so let’s dig in!
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Atmospheric Glazes: Making Color Sing, Chapter 11
Last time, we learned about glazing with flat washes. In this chapter, Jeanne Dobie continues by showing how you can glaze with gradated washes. Similar to the last chapter, where flat washes and glazing were introduced at the same time, Dobie takes the opportunity to mostly explain how to do a gradient. This has nothing
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Color Spotlight: Anthraquinone Scarlet (PR168)
Anthraquinone Scarlet (PR168) is a transparent orange-red in the highly hue-variable anthraquinone family, which also brings you genuine Alizarin Crimson (PR83), middle-red Anthraquinone Red (PR177), rare Anthraquinone Yellow (PY147), and my fave Indanthrone Blue (PB60). At first paintout I thought this looked like Quin Coral (PR209), but you can see from the swatch below that
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Colors I’ve Tried Recently, Feb 2026
Lynne passed along some paints to me, so I got to do some swatching. Thanks Lynne!
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Should beginners get watercolor pans or tubes?
Traditionally, watercolor paint comes in one of two forms, pans or tubes. An early decision you have to make when getting into the hobby is to decide which format you want. This decision can feel weighty because it feels like it locks you into a specific way of working, but you don’t know the hobby
