Art Tutorials for Watercolor and Printmaking on YouTube

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Watercolor Painting Tutorial Video

I’ve got a new video tutorial up on my youtube channel, with the painting above in process. If you’re new here, there are att tutorials for watercolor and printmaking on my Youtube channel.

I tested a new-to-me watercolor paper in the demo, and altered the colors from the reference photo.

There was also some waxing philosophical about the difference between painting to make a masterpiece, and painting to observe, explore & learn.

Those mindsets are two very different approaches to making art – or anything with our hands, I think. One is all about pressure, expectations and feeding the ego. The other is relaxed, open, curious and hungry. Which of those two atmospheres surround you when you paint or draw?

YouTuber and Blogger Milestones

This week marks my YouTube Anniversary; two years since I posted the first demo, with wobbly knees, white knuckles and barely a whisper into the microphone. (It’s also my 10th Anniversary of writing this blog.)

There are 30 videos on my channel so far, but the first 5 or 6 demos are painful to watch for all of my self-conscious, exposed, unsure-of-how-this-will-come-across apprehension.

Like everything we begin as a novice, time is a salve and a ladder. Sticking to something we don’t know how to do is chock full of rewards.  I get more at-ease and more myself with each new video. I’m excited about the roster of videos I have in the works for the next few months.

Editing Art Tutorial Videos

I get giddy to hear from folks who watched a tutorial, tried the method featured in it, and had loads of fun in the process.

I especially love hearing from teachers using the demos in their classrooms to teach kids printmaking and painting.

What an incredible gift, to work here in my little studio, doing what I love. And then – by filming while I experiment and make stuff – I can somehow encourage and assist a teacher in a classroom of junior high school students in Korea? I’m dumbfounded at my good fortune to live in this time!

Learn by Teaching on Video

Another facet of my motivation to make and share these art tutorial videos is a kind of self-knowledge.

I wish I could think of a more robust way to describe that teaching by=product. It stems from attending art demos – both painting and printmaking – by artists who were or still are teachers.

Every demo I’ve attended where the artist was also a teacher has had long-term, profoundly enduring lessons for me. Teachers have to relay verbal details on process, origin of ideas, best use of supplies, how to wrestle with failures, steadfast approaches towards success, and all the minutia that fills a curriculum. 

Artistic knowledge transferred through verbal delivery is a gift, and not every artist teaching courses out there has skills to articulate how they do what they do in art.

Find a Good Teacher

Have you ever attended a painting demo with Gerald Brommer? How about George James? Or Timothy Clark? Anthony Ryder?

Each of these amazing artists teach, and they all give one heck of a demo. Their ability to articulate everything from process, to their individual philosophy on staying inspired and doing the work will put jet fuel and booster rockets in your creative hearts.

And they each say the same thing about teaching other people to paint; instructing others taught them as much about their own art as any string of years spent in the studio.

I think it’s because in order to teach what you do, you have to break your process down into steps and sequence. You analyze the hows and whys, and learn how to turn the movements and chronology of your hands into understandable, directive words.

My hat is off to artists who teach, and I want to join that club, so I can 1) share and 2) learn.♥

Have you attended memorable demos by artists who were also teachers? Share your story in the comments.

Thanks for stopping by today, and I’ll see you in the next post –

Belinda

Art Quote

Each drawing & painting is an experiment & a mirror reflecting our perceptions of reality. Unfortunately, we rarely paint what we see. We paint an unconscious projection of incorrect ideas – what we think we see. The more we study visual appearances, the more our awareness & understanding of light & form will grow & the better equipped we’ll be to draw & paint the world around us according to its inherent wisdom, nobility & beauty.

~Anthony Ryder

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