OK, very important question.. Do you ink before or after you paint? If you ink after you paint, then the pen doesn’t matter as much. You’ll have a lot more options. Of course, you’ll want to try out your pens on either a test painting or your watercolor notebook where Read more…
Are you an artist or a hobbyist? If you’re a hobbyist, quit reading. This article isn’t for you. Now if you’re an artist, keep reading. I’ll tell you how to price your paintings when you’re just starting out. To be clear, there’s nothing at all wrong with being a hobbyist. Read more…
I’ve said awhile back that if you can’t name 10 artists, you’re a hobbyist, not an artist. I don’t mean that as an insult. I’m just very frank about art. An artist needs to know art history and simply by knowing art history, the artist will know artists. And of Read more…
Everyone makes mistakes. So I got good news and bad news. The bad news first. When you make a mistake with watercolors, it’s not like a digital painting where you can just hit undo. Also, watercolors aren’t opaque either so covering it up takes a little bit of creativity. Then Read more…
Earlier, I said that there are four brands that I’ve used and recommended – Daniel Smith, Winsor and Newton, Sennelier, and the Blick generic artist grade paints. All four are good. I’ve used bad paints before but I don’t talk about anything I don’t recommend. I’ll only discuss brands I Read more…
Before I got into watercolors, I did a little bit of research. I didn’t just want to dive in. I wanted to have a good idea of how to get started. Of these 5 things to know before getting started with watercolors, the main one, I got from an old Read more…
A few weeks ago, I wrote about my top 3 favorite artists. Alphonse Mucha was one of them. He’s actually my second favorite artist after Waterhouse. If you’re an artist, you should have your favorites. I emphasize the word “favorites” (plural) because if you only have one favorite artist, you Read more…
I don’t like Post Modernism. I don’t like it in music. At all. We are big time supporters of ballet. I have utmost respect for both the dancers and the musicians. However, every once in awhile, a ballet company will produce something Post Modern and it was usually complete garbage. Read more…
I’m a simple man. I like simple things and I prefer to follow a repeatable process rather than wing things. You’ll see me painting the same painting over and over again, with slight modifications each time. That’s how you get better at things. By repetition. Bruce Lee said something like Read more…
What’s the difference between hot press and cold press watercolor paper? Well, I’m going to answer in two ways. First, I’ll briefly reply the technical terminology so you’ll know why they’re called cold press or hot press. Then, I’ll explain the differences. How cold press and hot press watercolor papers Read more…