Step by Step Watercolor Painting Tutorial
About Barbara Fox
Barbara has achieved a tremendous following on both the national and international level as a watercolor painter with a vivid and unique style.
Her paintings have been featured in solo and group exhibitions in museums and galleries throughout the United States, including the Phillips Museum of Art in Lancaster, Pennsylvania; the Millicent Rogers Museum in Taos, Mexico; the Salmagundi Club New York City; The Neville Museum in Green Bay Wisconsin; and the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts
Barbara is a signature member of the National Watercolor Society, the International Guild of Realism, the Pennsylvania Watercolor Society, and the Northeast Watercolor Society, among others.
She has been published in the major watercolor publications Splash: the Best of Watercolor Painting, and Secrets of Watercolor Masters. Barbara has been a featured artist in the leading national art magazines American Artist and Watercolor Magic.
Watercolor Painting Tutorial – Tranquility Reflections
About Steve Fleming
Good art is the result of hard work and dedication. It only happens when the artist finds his or her own story to tell and then learns to do so with his or her own unique language.
I am an artist who works in watercolor and acrylic, and I teach both for The Art League in Alexandria, Virginia, as well as workshops across the country and abroad. My goal as an artist is to be creative; my goal as a teacher is to help my students learn to interpret the world around them, not to promote the belief the goal of art is the perfect rendering of a subject. One of my core messages: art is a creative process and is not just the sum total of the work we sell. In this era of digital cameras, I caution artists to look — really look both inside and outside — for the subject matter that lights our artistic fires. Otherwise, our work will be lacking everything but technique.
Wet on Wet Watercolor Painting Techniques
Here is a wonderfully informative video by Artist Paul Taggart that discusses and demonstrates various wet on wet watercolor painting techniques. Wet on wet technique is simply the process of applying wet pigment to wet paper. The wet on wet watercolor painting technique is not an easy technique to master and is one that causes a lot of problems for beginners. In the following video, Paul will provide you with some great tips and solutions to overcoming the various problems folks run into while using this technique. Now you can finally enjoy your watercolor painting sessions instead of becoming frustrated by them.
I wanted to just highlight one problem and solution that Paul talks about in the video as it was one that really stood out for me personally. The problem: When applying watercolor paint to the wet surface, the paint immediately starts to run and bleed every where or perhaps puddle up in spots. This is of course a really big problem that can make painting a very difficult process. The solution? The solution is to remove excess fluid from the brush before you make your next brush stroke. Sounds simple enough, but its the process of removing the excess fluid that can give folks a difficult time. This is demonstrated in the video below. There are a couple of different ways to remove the excess fluid. You could simply move your brush from side to side on your palette in a downward direction, or, you can use the edge of your palette to gently remove the fluid. This is done by pushing down on the edge with the brush while moving either left or right. This not only removes fluid, but it also reshapes your brush into a nice chiseled edge. Learn more by watching the video below!
“Painting Problem Solver” by Paul Taggart — Starting Off in Wet-on-Wet Watercolours
Watercolor Painting Tutorial – Change Colors for a Different Effect
About Steve Fleming
Good art is the result of hard work and dedication. It only happens when the artist finds his or her own story to tell and then learns to do so with his or her own unique language.
I am an artist who works in watercolor and acrylic, and I teach both for The Art League in Alexandria, Virginia, as well as workshops across the country and abroad. My goal as an artist is to be creative; my goal as a teacher is to help my students learn to interpret the world around them, not to promote the belief the goal of art is the perfect rendering of a subject. One of my core messages: art is a creative process and is not just the sum total of the work we sell. In this era of digital cameras, I caution artists to look — really look both inside and outside — for the subject matter that lights our artistic fires. Otherwise, our work will be lacking everything but technique.
Watercolor Painting Tutorial – Abstracting the Shapes, Simplifying the Message
About Steve Fleming
Good art is the result of hard work and dedication. It only happens when the artist finds his or her own story to tell and then learns to do so with his or her own unique language.
I am an artist who works in watercolor and acrylic, and I teach both for The Art League in Alexandria, Virginia, as well as workshops across the country and abroad. My goal as an artist is to be creative; my goal as a teacher is to help my students learn to interpret the world around them, not to promote the belief the goal of art is the perfect rendering of a subject. One of my core messages: art is a creative process and is not just the sum total of the work we sell. In this era of digital cameras, I caution artists to look — really look both inside and outside — for the subject matter that lights our artistic fires. Otherwise, our work will be lacking everything but technique.
Watercolor Painting Tutorial – How to Paint a Rose Step by Step
Here is a beautiful 6 part watercolor painting demonstration video by artist Susan Kennedy. The subject of this painting tutorial is a Yellow Rose. Susan is basing this painting on a number of her own photographs .
Watercolor Tutorial Step 1
Watercolor Painting Lesson – Painting those Light-Filled Days
About Steve Fleming
Good art is the result of hard work and dedication. It only happens when the artist finds his or her own story to tell and then learns to do so with his or her own unique language.
I am an artist who works in watercolor and acrylic, and I teach both for The Art League in Alexandria, Virginia, as well as workshops across the country and abroad. My goal as an artist is to be creative; my goal as a teacher is to help my students learn to interpret the world around them, not to promote the belief the goal of art is the perfect rendering of a subject. One of my core messages: art is a creative process and is not just the sum total of the work we sell. In this era of digital cameras, I caution artists to look — really look both inside and outside — for the subject matter that lights our artistic fires. Otherwise, our work will be lacking everything but technique.
Watercolor Painting Tutorial – How to Paint Birch Trees
About Peter Humeniuk
Born and raised in Thunder Bay, Peter Humeniuk has had a lifelong fascination with art. From the 4 year old who spent all his spare time drawing; through graphics and design at the Ontario College of Art; to the professional watercolourist who owns a gallery featuring his own work, Humeniuk has never given up his passion for art.
As a watercolour instructor, Humeniuk’s popular workshops are conducted in Thunder Bay and throughout Northwestern Ontario and the northern states. His first watercolour instruction video has been well received in the U.S. and is distributed through a national American art supply organization. His presence on the internet has also received good response and more of his works can be viewed at www.tradenet.ca/NorthArt/humeniuk/humeniuk.html.
In addition to his own gallery venue, Peter has exhibited in many group shows over the years, including two exhibitions sponsored by the National Ballet at the O’Keefe Center in Toronto. His commissions have been numerous and include Thunder Bay’s Best Western Nor’Wester Resort Hotel with 2 original watercolours in each of its 90 rooms. His works reside in collections from coast to coast in North America and as far away as Singapore. As feature artist for the year 2000 calendar of Portage Mutual Insurance Co., his work has been appreciated in homes and businesses across Canada.
Watercolor Still Life Painting Step by Step
This lesson is courtesy of Rod Webb. Rod is a veteran Watercolorist from New Zealand. You can learn more about Rod and view more of his work by following this link to reach his Website.
Watercolour Painting My Way :Still Life
| Note from the author: Since authoring “Still Life Painting, My Way!” I have had a lot of emails, from folks all around the world thanking me for the demo. Some have asked for a line drawing. I have created a line drawing for folks who are interested in following along. It is a large image, so a good size printout is possible without becoming too pixelated. To view the actual line drawing, follow this link, or click on the thumbnail to the right. To save it to your hard drive, SHIFT-CLICK on the link, and save it out to your PC. Enjoy! |
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Set up the still life study outside in the sun. Background and base are pieces of masking board. Adjust items for best composition and then photograph using a digital camera.You could use a normal camera and have the photo scanned at your local photo shop. |
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Using your computer image software, first crop the image and then adjust contrast/brightness to give a faded image. When printed in mono this will use far less ink. |
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Set up your printer to the size required for your watercolor paper you normally use. Mine is set to 34cms wide and 31cms high. As this is larger than A4 the poster and smooth resize will need to be ticked. Set to mono , we do not need a color print. |
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This is the output from the printer. Four sheets of paper with image divided between them. |
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We now trim and paste together. |
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Glued and lined up, repeat and trim all four ready for tracing. |
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I use “Graphite Transfer paper” which should be available from your local art shop. If not cover the back of the printed sheet with soft lead pencil or charcoal pencil. Then drawn around outlines you want transferred to your watercolor paper.Don’t press too hard or you will damage the paper! |
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Here is the transferred image on “Saunders 300gm Not” paper stretched and held with gummed paper strip. We are now ready to start painting.We have our sketch and the original image can be displayed on the computer while we are painting. This has the advantage that you can now eat the apples while painting. |
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Masking fluid is applied to the glass, apples and jar to save highlights. The brush shown is an old one. The bristles have been trimmed and washing liquid applied to protect by stopping the masking fluid collecting around the ferrule. With this brush, I can apply fines lines of fluid. |
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Mix up plenty of wash for the background, mixture of ultramarine and touch of light red. With the painting upside down, I applied a flat wash around the objects and to the top of the painting. See the nice bead of paint collecting at the edge? This is typical when applying a fluid wash with the board tilted at 15 degrees. Don’t throw away the remaining background wash, save it you will need it later. Don’t worry if it dries in the palette, water can be added when required. |
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We have applied the wash over the glass, as the background can be seen looking through it. |
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Before the wash is dry. A piece of blotting paper is used to lift some of the paint, giving the reflective look of glass. |
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Using some of the original wash, add Payne’s Grey to darken and paint the shadow between the jar and glass. Shadow of glass was painted using background wash and darkened at the bottom with Payne’s Grey. Shadow inside glass painted with background wash and Payne’s Grey dropped in while wet into the center portion. |
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Using the edge of a piece of blotting paper lift lines of paint on glass shadow on a curve, to represent ripples of light. |
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Dry thoroughly using a hairdryer and remove masking fluid from the glass. |
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The white of the paper now shows through for highlights, and ripples show in the shadow where paint was lifted. |
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Pencil marks erased using a putty rubber. |
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Some edges are softened by brushing on clear water and dabbing with a tissue. |
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Computer aid: if a part of your painting is easier to paint from the side, rotate the image on your computer to match. You can’t do this with a normal still life setup! |
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The fine edge for the top of the glass is added with a sharpened watercolor pencil. The pencil is used dry, but can be softened if you wish by lightly brushing with clear water. Detail is added to the shadow using the original wash. Add the band around the top rim and random curves across from top to bottom. |
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Shadow inside glass darkened slightly at the middle. |
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Progress so far: background, glass, and shadows completed. The jar will be tackled next! |
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First, we have to define the jar and give it some shape. |
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The shading is added using a mixture of burnt umber, Payne’s Grey and a touch of light red. While it was still wet, some extra was added around lid edge to darken. Side handle shown simply by painting in the shadow. |
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A light wash of raw sienna painted over all of the jar to give it an off-white china look.
Masking fluid is visible on lid and front edge. |
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A strong rich blue mix was made from winsor blue and ultramarine. The pattern is painted in and edging darkened before first paint dries. |
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When painting detail, magnify the image on your computer. It helps! |
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After painting the pattern on the side, the left was lightened slightly by lifting some paint with a tissue. |
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Fine detail added after first was dry using a rigger brush. Masking fluid removed from jar, sparkle can be seen on lid and top edge, where the preserved white paper now shows. |
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Progress so far. Next step is to paint the apples. By the way they were delicious. |
View Part 2 of this Watercolor Lesson >>
Watercolor Still Life Painting Step by Step – Part 2
This lesson is courtesy of Rod Webb. Rod is a veteran Watercolorist from New Zealand. You can learn more about Rod and view more of his work by following this link to reach his Website.
This is Part 2
<< Part 1 | >> Part 3
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Masking fluid applied to save highlights. |
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Wash of light yellow and a touch of sap green painted over apple. |
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Before the wash dries, some areas are lifted with tissue, giving a lighter shade. |
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Results after applying wash and lifting with tissue. |
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Wet all of the apple with clear water. Using a mix of Alizarin Crimson and Light Red drop in some color wet into wet. |
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Wash can be controlled, placed and moved around with your brush. If you get paint in the wrong place lift immediately using tissue or blotting paper. |
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Always make sure paper is thoroughly dry before you re-wet the surface. Then it will not disturb the original washes. |
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First glazes have been applied to both apples. |
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The color was too weak, so I added another wash of yellow! |
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Masking fluid painted on stems to preserve lighter shade. Shadows added showing core shape and shadow of stem. |
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I re-wet the apple with clear water. Lower your head and look across the paper, you should see just a shine on the paper. No sign of surface water. |
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While the paper was wet, I added a reddish brown wash to top of apple and around the core to get a bit more shape. If the paper starts to dry, stop! Let it completely dry the re-wet it and start again. If you continue to add wash to drying paper, you will get a cauliflower effect. |
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A watercolor pencil can be used while the paper is wet. Fine red streaks added this way. Or you can use with paper dry and if necessary softened afterwards by lightly brushing with a soft wet brush. |
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Shadow around stem darkened. I first applied pencil with paper wet then added final sharp lines when dry. The apple stem is also defined using pencils. |
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The masking fluid was removed. Larger highlights had edges softened by wetting and dabbing with a tissue. |
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Now I have two apples defying the laws of gravity. Lace cloth will be the next task. That should tie everything down! |
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