Summertime Art Studio Planning Over the past 67 days (yikes!) of quarantine, the macadamia nut tree outside my studio window has erupted in fronds of shiny, new leaves. I’ll take this as a reminder that there are plenty of good things happening if we simply look for them. A fluffy squirrel (Mrs. Jetson) skitters up …
Watercolors
Exploring Watercolor and Charcoal Together I was sorting scanned image files in my archives, and I forgot about this watercolor and charcoal painting of an imagined scene. Eve is riding with her friend, a juvenile crow, exploring the garden, when a serpent in an apple tree beckons her to come closer. At the time, I …
Still Life Painting Design Ideas Still life painting in watercolor – especially interiors – is loaded with design opportunities to embellish. You can change the color palette of the room completely. Go ahead and edit the scene by removing objects, or adding others that weren’t really there. It’s like magic and you are the wizard! …
Still Life Painting Design Ideas – Adding Interest to your Art (even if it wasn’t there) Read More »
5 Instagram Artists Painting Still Life in Watercolor While we’re hunkering down and staying home, it’s nice to peruse some beautiful still life in watercolor. Seeing the fruits of another artist’s labor adds loft to a flat day, and encourages us to grab art supplies, and practice. (You weren’t thinking about comparing your work to …
Still Life in Watercolor- 5 Painters on Instagram Read More »
Painting Flowers in Watercolor as a Meditation I’m painting flowers in watercolor as a meditation this week. With my cell phone, I snapped a photo of dwarf Daisies in a hammered brass cup outside in the sun. Printing the image on plain printer paper in black and white helped to keep my focus on values. …
Painting Flowers in Watercolor – and a free download Read More »
Using Watercolor in a Sketchbook You can use watercolor with good results when your Moleskine notebook is made with watercolor paper. If your Moleskine notebook is a standard sketchpad, the paper is made for sketching and dry media. If you want to experiment with wet media like watercolor or watercolor pencil – especially as a …
Can You Use Watercolor on Moleskine Notebooks? (And Tips to Help Calm Fretting) Read More »
Colored Pencil Curious Thanks for your emails on the last post (read that post about watercolor and colored pencils here). I’m glad the links to colored pencil reviews was helpful, and I hope you find a set to try them soon. Colored pencils expand options for adjusting color, values and overall finish on both my …
Watercolor and Colored Pencils – Mixing Your Media Read More »
Watercolor and Colored Pencil Illustration Art Supplies The paper used on this art is Borden & Riley #120P Bristol Plate held with Frog masking tape to a masonite board to keep the paper flat. Caveat: this paper is not meant to be used for watercolor. (I’m sorry to be a rebel.) Borden & Riley plate …
Watercolor and Colored Pencil Illustration – Twirling Sangria Read More »
Small Watercolor Portrait Here’s a little watercolor portrait with colored pencil from a photo my cousin was kind enough to let me sketch from (Paeonia 5×5 Watercolor Portrait with Colored Pencil (available here). Getting inspired by people’s faces is so easy with all the beautiful imagery on social media. It’s even better when the inspiration …
Watercolor Portrait with Colored Pencil – Paeonia Read More »
Group Art Activities for Your Next Gathering When you host a gathering of friends and family, group art activities create fine memories and a lot of giggles. You don’t have to corral every attendee into the fun, but being prepared with props and a few inexpensive supplies might help lure the timid to the dinner/art …
3 Group Art Activities for a Gathering of Friends and Family Read More »
What Gifts do Watercolor Artists Wish For? How do you know what to gift to a watercolor artist? Do beginner painters prefer different art supplies and art-themed gifts compared to more seasoned watercolor artists? (I don’t think so.) We artists love a slow inspection of every single aisle in an art supply store. Just the …
First, an Introduction to Jack Before we dive into painting watercolor portraits of pets, let me introduce you to our model, Jack. He chews flowers. Even if you’ve given him little pots of grass, and put your flowers up high, out of reach, he will find a way to get to them. I’ve witnessed Jack …
The Trifecta: Grid Method, Sight Size Drawing and Watercolor Glazing Artists have developed many tips and tricks to improve accuracy and results in art-making. For drawing a light scaffolding of shapes and angles under watercolors, I find the grid method and sight-size drawing both beneficial. In painting – I love the gossamer affect and shape-control …
How to Use Sight Size Drawing for Accuracy – and a Watercolor Portrait Read More »
Pastel Over Watercolor The painting above started as a watercolor. I knew it was overcooked at the three-quarters finished point – so I tossed it in a flat file to dry, with plans to feed it to the shredder. A few weeks later, I spotted the forgotten watercolor, and wondered if it might be a …
How to Save a Failed Watercolor with Pastel – Ferris Wheel Spin Read More »
Summertime Pace of Art-Making I traveled to France to work as crew twice with a wonderful company called WorkshopsinFrance.com. The bank of travel photos and watercolor sketches made on each trip is a dip into time travel, and a mine of inspiration. When I scroll through the photos, or flip through sketches, I want to …
Traveling with Watercolors, and a list of inspiring Art Links for you Read More »
Upcoming Video Courses My studio is a tangle of audio cables, lights, tripods and video equipment. I’m filming new courses for my online school Belinda Tips. If you haven’t registered for your free account over there, go ahead and do that so you’ll get notified when the new courses are live. I’m working on an …
Painting Urban Scenes in Watercolor – Queensboro Read More »
Over the years of posting photos here of work in process at Art Festivals, you’ve asked about the set up I use to paint watercolors away from home. I try to keep my traveling watercolor kit small, and nimble. Here are some of my best lightweight art supplies. At festivals, I usually use an easel …
Traveling with Watercolors – Best Lightweight Art Supplies Read More »
Painting Your Neighborhood There is a chain of small islands off the coast of southern California protected as a National Park. Several of the islands are just off the coast of the town I live in, and two are visible, like curvy women, reclining on the horizon. This watercolor was inspired during an approach to …
Trying in Art I’ve been thinking about the act of trying. The word means simply: to attempt something for the first time, or to put to test or trial. We adults expect our kids and grandkids to try all day long, because they have so much to learn. Adults are supposed to know stuff already, …
Watercolor – Lucy Signals Catwoman, and Trying Harder with your Art Read More »
Art Links for You Here are some art links for you this week, with hopes that you’ll latch onto something that fires your urge to create, and muffles your inner critic. It’s Spring. Lets get some inspiring snapshots from around the yard, and make something soon! Solar Plate Printmaking If you live near Santa Fe, …
Art Links for You, and a Watercolor – Firenze Cucina Read More »
Finding Your Art Style – We Don’t Know What We Don’t Know One of the most conflicted facets of my adventure to become a full time artist was the tug of war between what I am drawn to create, and what the collecting public finds appealing in art. I started the I’m-Going-to-be-an-Artist journey with a …
Prolific Pierre Bonnard In addition to Bonnard’s bathing nude portraits, and window/still life interiors, he painted lovely genre scenes of his people. If you’ve visited this art blog before, you know I’m partial to these subjects in my own work, so it’s no wonder that I appreciate Bonnard’s approach to what might be seen as …
Bonnard Inspired Portraits: Painting the People You Love Read More »
Artists Transform Things Pierre Bonnard painted walls, windows and surfaces that were festive with light and color, but those objects – by themselves – were simple. His decision to use bright yellows with flecks of cerulean blue and viridian green to render a plain white wall in his house has a message of permission bequeathed …
In the Car with Bonnard I’m still thinking about, and staring at Pierre Bonnard. (If you missed the previous posts on my current muse, you can read them here and here.) I’m leaning into painting interior scenes in watercolor after looking at Bonnard’s untroubled vignettes from around the garden, and inside the bathroom and kitchen …
Painting Interior Scenes in Watercolor – Inspiration from Bonnard Read More »
Flipping Feelings of Discouragement I start every piece of art with sparkly goals and bubbly excitement for What-it-Could-Be. My favorite part of every painting is The Beginning. Frequently, the last brush stroke is steeped in a whirlpool of feeling bummed that it didn’t come out the way I envisioned it in my mind, buoyed with …
Watercolor Portrait – and Combating Discouragement After a Failed Painting Read More »
Look Around You Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947) was a french painter inspired by the rooms in his home, his yard and the people in his life. I can relate to this close-proximity of inspiration – the sense that everything worth painting is within arm’s reach around you. I especially love that his homes were very simple …
Using Photos from Friends in Art I’m fortunate to have very generous family and friends when it comes to artists’ visuals. My tribe sends me images to paint all the time. They might be walking along a street in New York, or eating croissants in a cafe in Provence, France, and voila! I get a text with …
Incremental Art-Making Painting in short increments can solve your Not Enough Time to Make Art quandary. I talk about this in my free course Six Tips to Paint More, and I live by, and believe in this approach. When you’re just starting out, knowing how much time you need to make some art can be …
Painting Faces and Portraits in Watercolor Do you enjoy sketching and doodling faces in watercolor? I know some of you do, since I follow your blogs and the work you post on social media. I was talking to another artist friend about the pleasure, and the power of doodling the human form – both faces …
Painting Small Portraits and Figure Studies in Watercolor Read More »
Cleaning Up for Winter Art Projects The obstacle course that is my studio has to be dealt with. I’ve been cleaning in here for a few days, a little at a time. I can see the floor now. Small spaces get cluttered quickly, so I use two baker’s racks to store as much as I …