Latest Posts
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Color Spotlight: Phthalo Green Blue Shade (PG7)
Phthalo Green (PG7) is a super vivid, deep, cool (blue-toned) green. To me, it feels like a glowing, hidden pond deep in the rainforest. It is incredibly bright; some folks find it “unnatural” so it may be most useful as a mixer than a natural landscape color. (There’s another Phthalo Green Yellow Shade (PG36) which…
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Watercolor Brushes 101
Of the major categories of watercolor supplies (paint, paper, brushes), brushes were the last ones that I got into. Actually, I put it off, improving my paints and papers while continuing to use cheapo brushes from the discount bin (which I chose based on the color of their handle.) It just seemed complicated! There are…
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What’s the best masking tape for watercolor?
Lists of watercolor supplies usually including “masking tape,” but what’s it for? Why do you need it? What do you do with it once you’ve got it? And what’s the best kind to get? When I was first gathering watercolor supplies, I often found myself frustrated with the vagueness on supply lists. I wanted more…
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How to Build a Watercolor Palette from the Ground Up
I spend a lot of time researching paints before I buy one, planning how it will fit into one of my existing palettes: what niche it will fill; how it will play with my other paints; what I’ll be able to paint and mix with it that I can’t do now, or can’t do as…
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Watercolor Paint 101
This post was formerly titled “Supplies Deep Dive: Watercolor Paint, How Does That Work?” I renamed it to be in line with similar posts: Watercolor Paper 101, Watercolor Brushes 101. After painting for awhile, I’ve come to decide that the most crucial make-or-break supply to whether you will have a good time is the paper.…
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Color Spotlight: Quinacridone Gold
Quincridone Gold is a luminous, dispersive gold that lives somewhere between orange-yellow and earth yellow. One thing you’ll always read about Quinacridone Gold is that it used to be a single pigment, PO49, until 2017, when the supply of that pigment ran out altogether. Artists bemoan the loss of this pigment which, in retrospect, they…
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Everything I Loved & Learned From Kolbie Blume’s 10 Day Painting the Wilderness Challenge
From November 20 to 29, 2021, I took on the 10-Day Painting the Wilderness Watercolor Challenge by Kolbie Blume. This turned out be an absolutely fantastic experience for a lot of reasons! Below, the reasons. And then, the paintings!
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Adventures in Daniel Smith Dot Cards II: Earth Tones
Previously: After swatching out all the colors from my 238-color Dot Card, I gave my thoughts on all the exciting color categories: yellow, red, purple, and so on. Now, I give my thoughts on the earth tones and grays. I know these can be important colors, especially in realistic landscape and portrait paintings (neither of…
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Color Spotlight: Quinacridone Rose/Red (PV19)
After exploring lots of colors shallowly through Adventures in Daniel Smith Dot Cards, I thought I’d take some time to do deep-dives on selected colors: whether it’s because they’re my favorite, reliable, palette staples, or because they’re colors I want to investigate further and learn more about. Today, we start with a palette staple and…
