Are you ready to learn how to paint with watercolor? Join me, Rusty Nelson, a university Art professor with a passion for watercolor painting. Even as retirement approaches, my journey of creativity and teaching is far from over.
Whether you're nearing retirement, seeking a relaxing hobby, or simply eager to unleash your inner artist, this channel is your gateway to mastering the magic of watercolor. Let's embark on this artistic adventure together!
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As always, I really appreciate what you are doing. To your question, I think 2 hours is too much for one video, but maybe there is a way to break it up into 2 or more components? On portraits, I wonder if you could talk sometime about the challenges of doing live portraits vs. portraits from photographs. I recently tried to draw and friend and realized that this is requires much more skill, especially if the person moves even a little bit . . .
Great, welcome aboard. I'll be doing these figure sessions once a week - heads and portraits, figure and we will do some focus sessions on facial features, and hands and feet. Should be fun. Thanks for watching.
I was just showing some of my students up at the university today some old-school marker comps and copyfitting examples from back in the day. Fun. Thanks for watching.
Thank you for the videos Rusty. I just found your channel by chance, and I'll be following it with interest and hoping to draw along. I'm in England, don't know if you have any more followers here
Hi Tony, I have other followers in England too, so welcome to the channel - about 11% of my subscribers are from England. That is pretty mind-blowing for a content creator sitting in Missouri. Let me know if there is anything specific you want to know and I'll prep a tutorial for it. Thanks for watching and subscribing.
Beautiful. Flat land with tall clouds, and the buzzards are perfectly indicated. Enjoyed! Do you have a favorite brand of watercolor paint? Just curious.
I'm from Kansas and my notion of landscape is a wide open vista. I like Winsor/Newton and M. Graham watercolors. Very good pigments. For getting started with watercolor... a good pan set (amazingly) is Prang. My beginning students at the university use them and they hold up pretty well They aren't as light-fast as the good pigments, but I've done some nice watercolor using them. (amazon affiliate link: amzn.to/4dOXVzX)
I'm watching this video, however, your link to the figure reference seems to be a broken link. I just get a Pinterest error. Perhaps you have that group as a locked or secret set? Great warmup and basic figures.
Wow! What a great painting of a tricky subject. I’m sure you’ll continue to gain viewers because there are very few painters at your high level of mastery on RU-vid. Subscribed and sending appreciation. I’m an intermediate to advanced WC painter who particularly enjoys natural landscapes. I’ll be looking for your videos where you teach about the 3 layers system you referred to in this video.
It was an early one about painting a still life composition. I used to hate landscapes, but watercolor painting has changed my mind about them. Have fun watching.
Just bumped into your channel. What a pleasure it is to watch a master painter at work! I was glued to the screen when you painted the brown earth- it almost looked like Chinese brushwork- and the trees are gorgeous, in a dry, leafless kinda way haha. So creepy and Halloween style. Thanks! Subscribed! Want to see more and learn, as an intermediate WCist.
Wow. This is great. I will admit there were a couple of times when zoomed in when you added something or put in some color and I was thinking... hmm. But when you back up and see the full sheet it made sense and looked right. I think the thing I've learned the most from watching your videos is the picking. The limited amount of watercolor I've done, I didn't know of this technique so I really appreciate your lessons. Thanks for sharing your work.
I like throwing down unexpected colors when doing a demo for my in-person students just to see their reactions. They are very timid about color and are shocked when I throw something down they didn't expect. Thanks for watching.
Love it! It’s wonderful to watch you explain the process. I would love to see more like this. Very helpful to see how you build the layers, also like the way you explain when you let the paper dry. Adding a limb at the direction change Brilliant! Never heard that before. This was worth watching just to see how you did the trees. Really enjoyed this. Thanks.
I think you have provided great inspiration and it is clear to me you have teaching skills, which is an additional talent beyond just being creative. I don't have that talent for sure. I look forward to more videos of both drawing and watercolor painting. Thanks for sharing.
You bet. I've been teaching for 27 years. I hope I have picked up a few skills. I know some that haven't and some who do better. Thanks for those nice words.
This whole thing you seem to have stumbled into -- the drawing of faces is what so many of us have been looking for for years. It's just so rich in information, the way you teach, the methods..... extraordinary. From the bottom of my heart, thank you!
"Stumbled into," only because you began with the landscapes then seemingly threw in a quick Loomis demo.... then saw how hungry people were. Winning all the way around!
@@rickhenry8760 Mum and uncle studied with Rockwell. Wow, I would have robbed a bank to have an opportunity like that. I bet they had some stories. Sketching is a great stress relief. Thanks for watching.
You’re doing GREAT, Rusty. It takes a LOT of time to learn the tech and the audio and the thumbnails and ugh-TITLES😱then you have that whole WHAT TO MAKE and how to FILM IT aspect of this game😩😂-(especially for slightly more MATURE people like me, you, and lots of my other newer-to-you-tube buddies!)… Stay strong -hang in there- and these talkie-style super real videos are GREAT!!! It’s so funny how when you start a channel about your passions-(in my case, Jesus, watercolor and storytelling) and then you’re WAY too busy for focusing as usual on the passion that made you start the channel in the first place, you watch as both your life (in my case!) and the content, suffers as a result-something I’ve been taking a break to work out now in my own life! God Bless!!!
Thanks Temmah, I appreciate your encouragement. I am learning a lot in this RU-vid endeavor. There are so many things that are counter-intuitive, but I'm still in here swinging at the ball - undeterred. :)
Rusty - I really enjoyed this painting. It looks really nice. I think I enjoyed it the most when I could see the artwork and the mixing areas as it helps to see the color your working on before it goes onto the sheet. Also, there are a few times where you skipped ahead and didn't show certain parts of your work and it might be nice if you just showed that, even in fast forward, as it would help see how you got to the next stage. Anyway, those are just some thoughts. I really appreciate your work here and sharing it with us on RU-vid. Take care.
Yeah, I get tired of the frantic fast forward, I think the real-time is too long, and I know the cut fades are removing parts people might like. Damn. Thanks for watching and for the comment. I'll keep it in mind in future tutorials.
You often see advertisements for RU-vid tutorials with catchphrases like, "What you won't learn in art school!" I think the strength of your channel is precisely that you teach "What you DO learn in art school" For those of us who like to deaw/paint but didn't take art classes at the university, this channel has been sooo helpful. Everyone else I see on RU-vid, with few exceptions, makes it seem as though you can just sit down and paint a masterpiece, neglecting all the preparation, exercises etc. I'm no good at catchy phrases, but why not just call the channel "Art class with Prof. Nelson"?
Spinning plates - remember that too (Edinburgh, Scotland) Anyway as you dropped your pen you were about to talk about not using graphite pencils but use charcoal or similar - length of lead? Enjoy your chat but also your teaching style - I am trying to learn to draw/paint in preparation for retirement.
Finishing my thought... using charcoal instead of a pencil will help loosen your marks up and allow more growth with your mark-making. You can also smudge for tone and value easier and spend less time layering up a value-range. Have fun learning and thanks for watching.
This was absolutely wonderful! I saved it straight away, I’ve seen others that explain well but you got straight into it, and had a wonderful positive delivery, but were also spot on re how to make the process actually “work” for faces if, like me, haven’t studied anatomy. Thanks so much. Subscribed straight away… :)
I was feeling a bit down with my Arthritis pain! & when I seen your programme it made me feel a lot better! My Art is the only thing that keeps me going! Keep up the good work!
I got the set but I already learned my own technique for portrait drawing but the combination of the two books is great if you’re learning something from the first time
