The Watercolor Classroom provides demos that will teach you basic techniques, composition, colors and values, self critique, and problem solving. There will also be some tricks, tools, magical hacks, and mistakes to avoid.
These watercolor tutorials are for those of you who want to learn to watercolor, and those of you who want to improve your watercolor painting. The goal in The Watercolor Classroom is to bring each of you with little or no experience to create successful paintings, and to help those of you with more experience to hone your skills, techniques, and compositions.
I am so glad I subscribed. Your words hit home with me. I have painted quite a bit since I started about 6 years ago at age 60 after never had any interest in art whatsoever. Now painting is all I want to do but I am embarrassed by my artwork and think few are good enough. I will take your advice. By the way, I know people with art degrees that are not working as artists, and I'm a retired RN and flower gardener aspiring artist. Go figure. I think you are brilliant. It is quite obvious. Best wishes always.
My first watercolor paints as a child were Pelikan, a box with replaceable pans. I'm not sure about the quality of the paint, but the painter was terrible for sure 😅 Then, as an adult, when I went back to watercolor I started with Cotman, but now I use W&N and Sennelier, mainly, with some Schmincke and Daniel Smith colors.
I started my 4 decades long art journey with colored pencils and then went to acrylics. I painted needlepoint canvas (acrylics) as a business for years. When I decided to give watercolor a try, I bought a set of Cotman on Amazon but decided to go with non-granulating Sennelier relatively quickly. I actually asked Google which professional brand has the least amount of granulation. I don't have the full range of colors but try to add one a month, and based on your recommendation, I now have 2 M. Grahams which I also love! Thanks Becky!
@@thewatercolorclassroom-bec7040 Their French Ultramarine is at the top of my current list of must haves as it allegedly granulates less than the regular Ultramarine and Ultramarine has been my favorite blue for the last 40 years. Sennelier is great for layering and spreads like wildfire when painting wet on wet. I'll be interested to hear what you think of it!
The first watercolors I painted with as a child were from Pelikan. We had a box with my siblings' old boxes and the old ones in tin boxes were of better quality than the new ones in plastic boxes, the Colours were more intense. There were also three colours in between that were in square pans and not in these round ones. These were the most intense and beautiful of them and I thought they were something special and very valuable. After a few years I found out that it was traditional watercolor paint from Pelikan.
Lol, still learning! My first set was from Doodle Hog. (Lindsay thinks they are from Superior) 36 colors in a nice tin for $15. I'm actually using them right now. I'm doing a series of landscape studies from photos of the local airport... on printer paper! It's very interesting. What you lay down is what you get. It doesn't move and there is No lifting. It makes you very aware of your brush strokes, the paint/water load in your brush, and how to build color. I upgraded from them to the Meeden watercolor tubes (they have pigment information) and picked up the Mission Gold pure pigment 24 set when it went on sale. I got several different sets from Rosa Gallery as they came up on sale last winter. And finally I just made an 'investment' in DaVinci (summer sale) to get the specialty colors that aren't in the Mission or Rosa sets. ❤
@@windywednesday4166 There are so many choices these days. I don't remember what I used when I was in school, but when I was a young adult I got a set of Cotman tubes. They are pretty vibrant and I was happy with them. I'm even happier with M Graham! Haha!
@thewatercolorclassroom-bec7040 Cottman is a solid brand and great for beginners! I just wanted to see if I was really interested before I invested in anything. I actually have a small 'beginner' set of Cotman wc. They are great when I want to get back to basics and do simple studies. M Graham are a dream, but I can't deal with how sticky they are!
@@windywednesday4166 They don't seem sticky to me once they are wet. I love how quickly they resuscitate. Lots of people love other brands than I do though. Haha!
@@thewatercolorclassroom-bec7040 sorry. I wondered where that comment went! My comment was for a different video. I tried to make a comment and RU-vid switched me right to the next one I had previously selected to watch! I thought my comment disappeared into the internet ether!
Hi Becky! Thanks for the mixing tips! For my yellows: Yellow Sophie/Naples Yellow... for my reds: Cadmium Red Deep/Scarlett Lacquer/Permanent Rose... for my blues: Ultramarine/Royal. I recently learned that the Sennelier French Ultramarine granulates less than the regular Ultramarine so that's now on my list! Really love the Water Lily! Best to you!
You’re welcome! My local store doesn’t sell Sennelier, but this is the second time in heard that about their French Ultra marine. I love ultramarine. I might have to order some!
@@thewatercolorclassroom-bec7040 I haven't looked yet but I'm sure the usual suspects sell it. My local art store only carries Daniel Smith and Winsor and Newton so I have to order take out for all my paints. I love Ultramarine as well. I've used it forever... learned to love it when I was in my colored pencil phase and brought it with me going forward.
@@thewatercolorclassroom-bec7040 Hi Becky! I don't know how to do links on RU-vid, but this video popped up on my RU-vid feed and I thought of you immediately. It's titled "The Story of Ultramarine from the Silk Road to Renoir". The Chemistry of Color (I assume that's the title of a series) and it was made by the National Gallery in London. Very interesting and well worth a watch. Sorry I can't link it for you, but it should be easy to find with a search. Best to you!
Soon taught so much more than this video includes. She is an energetic, hardworking teacher with a new way of explaining things. Check out her RU-vid channel.
I really enjoy how you manage to capture light in several of your flower paintings, the red honey-suckle things (don’t know their name), grapes, Chinese lantern, Lilies… and I love that you also show ‘mistakes’ and encourage to keep going! You are a really kind and wonderful teacher. Thanx
