Learn how to use and control special effects such as salt, alcohol, wax, frisket, splatter, and more to add texture and pizazz to your paintings. We will explore a variety of fun methods and materials. This is hands-on so get your gear together before the class. Special tools for this workshop: Watercolor kit, brushes, and Read More
Category: Watercolor
Techniques and materials to help you paint with watercolor.
Black is the new Black
Learn how to create dark values and mix black with colored pencil and watercolor. Adding value to your pictures will greatly improve your art and blacks that sparkle with subtle color turns an otherwise dull drawing to a beautiful and dynamic picture. Read More
Out of the Mud- Drawing the Sacred Lotus (video)
The curving petals of a lotus flower present an interesting challenge to the artist. Each petal has a slightly different curve, some smooth, some with a keel or ridge. You see each petal from a different angle, here a view into the interior, there the outside of the petal. The color pattern is a mixture Read More
Drawing and Painting A Crow (video)
Learn how to capture the subtle iridescence of crow feathers with watercolor. In this video, John Muir Laws demonstrates how to draw and paint a crow in profile. Read More
How to Paint Birds with Watercolor–part 2 (video)
Learn How to paint birds with watercolor! This is Part 2 of the bird painting workshop. In this class I demonstrate mixing paint to the right texture and to how to manage the water and pigment levels in the brush, palette, and on the page. Download the bird painting worksheet to follow along with the Read More
Watercolor Backgrounds (video)
Learn how to add simple backgrounds to your nature journal sketches. Turn a noun (bluebird) into a story (Bluebird feeding from branches beneath a White Oak on a hot sunny day.). Filmed live as a part of the Nature Journal Workshop. Read More
How to Draw a Shiny Beetle (video)
Carolyn found a shiny water beetle near our house. When I painted it I got a rather dull looking drawing. In this video, I rework the sketch to make it look glossy. The trick is punching up the contrast. Please excuse problems with the sound sync on this video. I was able to correct most Read More
How to Paint with a Waterbrush (video)
The waterbrush is an amazing little tool that revolutionized the way I paint, sketch, and journal. They make the logistics of watercolor, watercolor pencils, water-soluble pencils, or water-soluble pen washes easier in the field. In this class, you will explore watercolor techniques that will help you quickly add color and value to your sketches. learn Read More
Paint a Blue Jay step-by-step
Paint a scientific illustration of a Blue Jay with watercolor in this step-by-step demonstration. Read More
How to paint a sunrise landscape with a waterbrush.
I love painting with waterbrushes. They are now the only brushes I use, even in the studio. They easily create graded washes (an application of paint that transitions from more intense pigment to a pale tint) which I find everywhere in nature. As you paint, the pigment in the brush gets used up but the Read More