Technique

Is “split primary” the best starter palette?

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I’ve read a lot of beginner watercolor advice, and I’d estimate that 80% of books/blogs/videos recommend starting with a “split primary” palette. Common starter kits also follow this blueprint, such as Daniel Smith’s Essentials set, which I started with. But is the “split primary” palette really the best set of six colors for a beginner?

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Diluting or mixing with white: why not both?

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Some watercolor purists insist you should never use white in a watercolor painting, but I’ve always felt that white has its place. It’s true that diluting is usually the preferred/most uniquely watercolory way to mixing up pale or pastel colors, but pastels made from white paint have a different look – heavier, chalkier, more solid – that is sometimes just what you want.

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“2 to 1” Value Thumbnails

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A recent library find was Painting Light & Shadow in Watercolor by William “Skip” Lawrence, as recommended by watercolor Youtuber Liron Yanconsky. In the book, I was intrigued by a section on creating what he calls “2 to 1” value thumbnails (pp. 26-28 in my copy). I usually find value thumbnails to be useless busywork that I don’t consult, once made. But when I saw Lawrence’s take on them, I immediately felt inspired to try his new approach. What could he have said to turn a grouchy value-study antagonist into a proponent? Read on!

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Photos lie: sunset edition

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I’ve long felt that my phone camera makes sunlight too orange, especially at sunrise and sunset. Clouds that appear pink to me will show up as bright orange in the phone. Of course, that affects me when I go to paint the sunset, especially if I’ve forgotten what it actually looked like. I tested my … Read more

Give me a lift! (with lifting pigments)

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As much as I obsess about different paint pigments and their properties, I usually don’t pay much attention to lifting vs. staining. Recently, I’ve encountered a few books with interesting lifting techniques, so I thought I would revisit by experimenting with trying the same techniques with lifting and staining pigments.

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Notes from Claire Giordano’s Ink Class Week 1: Mountains

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I’m taking Claire Giordano’s Ink Class, so I’ve been on a bit of a pen and ink kick lately. The tools most commonly used in this class are fine fountain pens (or disposable fineliners) and brush pens (notably reusable brush pens like the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen or Kuretake No. 13).

Because I have a hard time keeping track of paper notes, I thought I would post my class notes here.

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Put On Your Chroma Goggles

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The video This 1 Change Will Make Your Paintings More Interesting by Liron Yanconsky has a clickbaity title, but I think it’s really cool nonetheless. What Liron does is he explains an effect where three-dimensional objects often have vibrant, saturated, high-chroma pops of color at edges and points where shadow gives way to light. Liron … Read more

Find the Big Shape

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Every watercolor instructor seems to have a bug up their butt about something, and for Matthew White it’s the unified shape. The idea here seems to be that your composition will be stronger if there is one large shape, that is, if the midtone passages in the painting are physically connected, leading your eye through … Read more

Alpenglow Class with Claire Giordano

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I’ve rejoined Claire Giordano’s Adventure Art Academy, where each month Claire posts on-location painting tutorials from beautiful places. (Read what I learned the first time I was a member two years ago!) She’s one of my favorite teachers, and what really spurred me to rejoin when I did was learning that she was going to teach a three-class sequence on one of my favorite subjects: alpenglow! Here is my work from that class.

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