Wetting watercolor paper, but only the back will help you paint better watercolor paintings
Today I will be looking at the benefits of wetting the back of your watercolor paper. For most people this tip will make it easier for them to create better paintings.
Leanne Maybury-Smith, is a friend and ex-student of mine who has written and illustrated a very good children’s book. I thought her story and process would be of interest to many others so asked her to write this article for you on how to produce a children’s book.
New artists often have trouble understanding what watercolor mud is when we are talking about watercolor painting.
What it isn’t is the color of what we see in a puddle of wet dirt.
Mud, when talking about watercolor painting refers to a section of the painting which is not smooth and transparent looking. Instead, it looks dull and lifeless. If the paint is not allowed to flow on the paper, you will not see the colors softly merge with one another, which is one of watercolor’s beautiful qualities.
This free watercolor course is based on one I ran online with Zoom. I have decided to post it all on YouTube and will be a prerequisite for any new students who want to join my advanced classes – subject to availability. You can find all my videos, including the ones listed below on my YouTube Channel.
Here is a list of the videos, which you can see on YouTube. I have also provided a brief outline of each one.
Free watercolor course
Watercolor class 1 – Materials
This video covers the watercolor painting materials you will need for this course.
When people first decide to learn to paint with watercolors, they are often put off by the initial set up cost, if they buy the correct materials. These materials include artists quality watercolor paint (not student grade), good quality brushes, and paper. Poor paints, brushes, and paper, are often the first handicap an new student has to overcome. For this reason, the first dozen or so videos only require two brushes and three tubes of paint. Also all the paintings are done on smaller sheets of paper approximately 11″ x 7.5″ – this is what we call an eigth sheet. Later on additional brushes and paints will be required – and the size of the paintings we do will be quarter sheet.