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Here's a sneak peek at a great upcoming watercolor blog by artist and instructor Robert Reynolds on the importance of color and how personal choosing pigments can be. And after you are done, be sure to check out the new book, Watercolor Unleashed (sounds thrilling, no?) for more watercolor painting...
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Nature provides a constant source of creative inspiration to all of us. But to capture its spiritual essence, one must first discover one's own emotional connection to the subject. It's that special "something" that grows out of each artist's personal involvement with his/her subject...
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Recently, we received a good question from a reader about how to paint one of our favorite landscape subjects--fog and mist. To understand how to paint light effects, it can be helpful to have a basic understanding of why things work the way they do. Light starts with the sun. As it penetrates our thin...
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Here are 7 basic considerations to take into account when designing your composition for a drawing or painting, all having to do somewhat with the importance of shapes. 1. Be aware of static shapes; for example, the completely dark, opened doorway or window into a building can create static shapes that...
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When is blue not blue? Ask any Indigo Bunting and they will tell you, "When it is black!" This is because the feathers of the diminutive Indigo Bunting are not actually blue, they are black, and only appear blue to us when they are in direct sunlight. Their feathers are structured of materials...
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In all the painting or drawing dabbling I've done, there is always a definitive moment that divides my experiences into "before" and "after." It's the moment I realize I don't have to worry about going back because every mistake is, in fact, a painting challenge that isn't...
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I had no idea that flipping eggs was such a seriously difficult thing to do. Our third daughter, Tired of Being Youngest, is in culinary school, and this quarter's project involves creating egg dishes of all sorts, with a major emphasis on being able to flip the egg product, spatula free, by synergizing...
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It's not typical that an oil painting can stir up lots of contradictory emotions, but when I look at certain works it seems like the artist is able to capture not just one or two feelings but the whole emotional spectrum. When you see one of these works, you know--it's like an exhilarating wind...
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I may have grabbed your attention at the risk of making you think I'm a big fat fibber, but I do think that when it comes to landscape painting, you sometimes have to lie--or at least exaggerate--to get what you want. This is based on personal experience--maybe I'm unlucky, but I do not step...
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"You know, it's not a sin to make mistakes, fail to succeed on the first (or 45th) try, or generally show that we're imperfect. The unspoken strictures that some businesses, churches, schools, other establishments place upon their members or employees make following the 10 Commandments look...
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When it comes to being able to draw with a paintbrush, no one can touch Rembrandt. He was able to turn abstract brushstrokes into forms with texture, weight, and liveliness. He could turn two swipes of a painting brush loaded with white paint into the coarse cloth of a girl's sleeve. He captured...
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Have you ever noticed when you are plein air painting how the colors of objects look so radically different in the very low light just before dawn or twilight? Take a red rose, for instance. We know that the flower's petals are bright red against the green of the leaves in daylight. But, take a look...
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Going "no holds barred" sounds tough, and slightly scary, but I'm feeling particularly intense about not wasting time learning how to paint like I want to paint. The clock is ticking, but that really doesn't mean much. The clock is going to tick no matter if we spend the time working...
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With so much interest in plein air painting these days, it's easy to overlook how important drawing skills can be to the landscape painting artist. Fundamentally, drawing is both a way of seeing and a way of knowing a subject. If you can draw it, then you own it. It is in your visual library and...
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Why go to the trouble of painting from life when our cameras can take such great pictures? Digital cameras have gotten so good at taking properly exposed, beautiful photos that they can fool us into thinking that they are also accurate. To be sure, the technology packed into even an inexpensive camera...