The Best Watercolor Demo I Ever Saw! How this simple demo changed the way I paint in Watercolor! 

OMYGOODNESS...Don Andrews has opened my eyes...AND now I'm going to open my new set of watercolors...Thank YOU Don Andrews!!!!!!

70 now - used to paint watercolour when I was in my early 20’s and had what I would say was moderate success with 3 paintings that friends and family framed and keep to this day. I stopped though because as I grew a bit older I found I was ruining my work with too much detail and did not have a solution. Frustration and vanity stopped me cold. This video has been a real eye opener and I feel I am with you at that demonstration you attended when the doors opened the blinds went up and the light came in. I’m not going to run out and start painting again but I feel you need to know how terrific the experience you have passed on is. If I do try again it will be because I feel this tutorial has been so valuable. Thank you so much.

I love those little aha moments when all of a sudden understanding comes up and hits you in your noggin. It's so rewarding and that's why I love painting in watercolor most of all. Thanks Don for the knowledge.

Great demo. Less is more and let the viewer fill in the details.

Trying watercolors. What a wonderful video. Learned so much in such short time.

I was an illustration major at CSULB in the mid 80s. Being in my mid 30s and having drawn all my life, I had a figure drawing class and my work was better than most. We did a final portfolio of work from outside of class. I did more work than most of the class and was given a C for the project. The following semester I asked him why I only got a C, and he said “Because it was way below your ability”. Definitely something I remember 40 years later.

Wow! This technique appears to be very do-able and might just be the trick I need to improve my painting overall. Thanks!. I really like your personality as an instructor.

Thank you :) I’ve been hesitant to try faces, and now I can. I’m a long time beginner, and I can’t look at a face and paint it, but I can start here. I’m relieved! So you can see, I really mean the thank you!

This lesson lifted me right up !! Beautiful beautiful BEAUTIFUL!! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Oh my God I can't believe you're on video. It's been so so very long. This is Jack Daniel. I'm not painting with watercolors anymore. I'm painting with oils, but I'm about to be a great-grandmother. And I wanted to do a little watercolor for my soon to be little baby granddaughter. It's so good to see you. And it's wonderful to hear you and Martha are doing well. Love love the video.

Don - This is fantastic!! I love this method ! Thank you so much !!! Love your work , such great color and values dead on .

I taught art and am always learning. Thanks for this video. Just a suggestion to help those people who can be negative, I wrote on the whiteboard at the start of a lesson what the topic was. Then participants could see that it was an experiment in for example “Softening edges”. I would suggest that they put their finished work in a prominent spot, perhaps even frame it, to see it differently over a few days to help identify mistakes and also to see if they found the style to their taste aesthetically. They could then see we were experimenting with techniques. Hope this is useful as your video is very informative and helpful.

Hey Don. I’m a former student, former fellow Fairhopian, and forever fan. Your years of experience as a great artist and teacher really shows in this exercise. Glad I found your RU-vid channel.

Hi, Don! I am very fortunate to find your RU-vid channel. Love your unique style of WC painting. Promise you to watch all your demo videos and click 'like' button. Already subscribed. Thank you for sharing your experience and techniques. So helpful. Hope to see you in the offline workshop sometime in the future. Looking forward to seeing more episodes.

So glad to see you back again

🙏great demonstration and exercise of finding and loosing the form …. And Yes indeed I too love that loose style too - and your fine demonstration of the practice to paint on a wet paper and showing in process how to paint the shadows in first and from there feeling the form and like magic continue into a blissfull glittering of the dancing of light and dark 🎶🩶🖤🎵🐦‍⬛

I'm looking forward to giving this a try. Not only with portraits, but also landscapes, florals, etc.

Thanks so much for sharing this technique, can't wait to try it

It’s negative painting that really changes perspective in watercolor painting. Rules of watercolor are very different then other mediums. My sister is a gallery oil paint artist and was dumbfounded by differences in watercolor applications. She couldn’t paint in watercolor which shocked us both. I love absolutely watercolor painting❤

Fascinating! Just when I’m trying to paint more loosely. Perfect. I’m subscribed now. ❤

Never stop painting. You’re so talented and I really enjoy watching your work ❤

What a lovely painting!! 🤎 Love the colors!

Great expression of loose painting thanks

Thank you so much!! I struggle with getting tighter and tighter, and TIGHTER!! This is going to be a new exercise daily for myself!!

Greatest Watercolour demo ever 😮😮😮😮 in total love - my next Watercolour try out

I drew a portrait from a model recently. It was a very moving experience. I began to feel such appreciation for the human form.

Thank you! I’ve been struggling with edges and vagueness - I’m so inspired. It’s 9 at night and I’m gonna give this a try.

Wow!! ❤ loved this!

Fantastic. Thank you so much for sharing this!

I love this so much- thank you for sharing with us! I always try to get so tight throughout the painting as well

I really like this technique. Thank you.😊

This was an excellent demonstration! I found it more helpful than many of the books I own. I must check out the books you mentioned.

Truly super. Thank you.

Thank you for this 🙏🏾🙏🏾🌺

Thank you I really enjoyed this

A good lesson for me. I mostly paint landscapes but I can use this there too. Thank you.

Really great advice. Very insightful, & the approach really makes sense to me. You might find this other very heterodox, but in my view extraordinary watercolor artist, Shahanoor Mamun. When I watched this one video of his (I’ll link below, but if the link doesn’t work, it’s called “Experimental Watercolor Techniques | Abstract Landscape Painting With Watercolour | Shahanoor Mamun” & was posted on his channel a year ago), that was similarly a MIND-BLOWING, eye-opening experience for me, as far as seeing how radically differently one can approach the medium & still end up with AMAZING results like the piece he makes in that video (this huge abstract expressionist piece. Basically, he does almost everything in the opposite way compared to traditional watercolor standards (the way people still often paint tight landscapes or portraits)… They would ordinarily start with very dilute paint; he starts with this powerful, concentrated mix (seeing such saturated color from the very beginning really makes it an engaging session to watch). They would probably start dabbing little bits in wet into wet, or else just wetting one or two shapes at a time to block them in; he is pouring pretty big cups of concentrated paint onto the paper (it’s definitely well-stretched, fairly heavy, 100% cotton paper, or it would be buckled insanely) straight away, from the first. They would start with lights & gradually work their way to darks. He starts with a pitch black (probably Ivory or Mars, I’m not sure which). And then he adds various vibrant colors, & starts blasting them with quite a bit of water to perturb them at the edges in various ways, & let’s them blend a bit… There may be other such stark distinctions that aren’t occurring to me. But he pulls it off! I’ve seen a few experimental watercolor pour pieces, & they can be really cool… But I’ve really never seen anyone else do anything quite like what he does there, & the piece he makes in that video even ends up being one of my favorites in the medium, as novel & experimental as it is! I still haven’t mastered his process to where I can get reliably desirable results (watercolor isn’t my strong suit at this point anyway), but I’m fascinated by it. Doing a lot of abstract expressionist stuff, mostly in acrylics, dabbling in oils. As someone who is clearly observant, at a point where you’re plenty able to learn from watching others without needing constant commentary, & open-minded/curious about alternative approaches rather than being very dogmatic about doing it just so, I think you’d appreciate it as I did (unless you just really aren’t into abstracts, which just falls to personal preference- but I do think maybe even someone interested in more representational art could potentially put some of his idiosyncratic methods to use in a creative way, to get extremely loose & expressionistic/otherwise stylized). It’s a pretty wild ride for a watercolor process! But watching you demonstrate this technique was also really interesting! I’d be surprised if there’s nothing valuable you can take away from that one! Shahanoor is crazy with it. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-CHQyAYhW3Ys.htmlsi=sgO_amTLM_-Jjjj-

Bellissimo! Grazie per la condivisione 😍

Wow, thank you so much!💕🙏

This is amazing❤

This is really helpful, thank you so much for sharing this! :))

This helped me so much. Thank you!

Great tutorial

Awesome!!!!

Very inspiring, very cool and brings back memories of the past, greetings from 🇮🇩🙏🙏🙏🙏

Muchas, muchas gracias, Don !!! Un saludo con cariño para ustedes desde Patzcuaro Jojo Jo !!!

Izvanredno...❤...hvala

Thanks!

This makes sense. I can’t wait to try. I’m not getting anywhere with the watery messes I am making now!!!

Softening edges allows the viewer to "put the edges" where they want them. Loose approach "fixes" things.

Light bulb 🎉

WOW! Beautiful, do you ever use 'watercolor inks' ? Thanx...Lilly

When I started this, I thought that the video would never live up to the title. Turn out that it was true. This is a real eye-opener. I'll be thinking about edges a lot now.

thank you for this Don! I recently bought the figure painting book of yours that you mention and am trying to learn from you as your style speaks to me. One thing is that I struggle with softening edges - I seem to get blooms along the edge when I try. I use 100% cotton paper, good paints and decent brushes as far as I know. Your edges in this demo seem to be staying workable for such a long time! I wonder what I’m missing, any thoughts?

Great technique and result. Are you using full or half pans in your paintbox and has the paint been squeezed into them from tubes as opposed to just buying new pans and replacing the pans when they are used up.

Hey Don, I have a stack of Robert E Wood photographs from back in the day. My father, J.R. Hamil was a well know watercolor artist here in Kansas City and once worked at Hallmark. He passed a couple years ago and I’m scanning all his photos to digital and came across a stack with Robert’s name on the back. They appear to be from the 60’s and wanted to get them to his family. Any help would be appreciated… Andy Hamil

Could be argued that as the lower part of the face isn’t shaded the light source isn’t “implied from above”. While the contrast here is extreme, in any light the lower lip creates a shadow and the upper lip is always shaded. Van Gogh didn’t bother much with tonal variation either. Picasso and Munch not at all, Nor did….. nor did….. nor did…..To say you don’t like it is your right but whether you like it or not matters to no one else in the entire world . To say it isn’t very good is meaningless because there is no obligation to conform to your preferences which you imply are universal values and standards. The aim was to show a way to paint more loosely’ to free us from the ‘need’ to be precise and literal. I think it achieves that very successfully. Am hoping it will help me because I’m unhappy just copying Ron Ranson when the big brush is dominant. This demonstrates a different perspective. (Literally) You don’t have to like that either but no one cares.

You ripped me off on a dvd

I’m a total beginner. And I have OCD- I tend to take things literally. I would have zero ability to represent someone in this manner. This is beyond me. 🤷🏽‍♀️

The other video playing in the lower right corner is distracting.

It's not very good. There is no tonal modelling on the facial features. The hair looks soft and and a bit 3D but the face looks like a bleached out high contrast photo. With the implied overhead light source the lower half of the face would be in shadow. Topographically this face doesn't make sense.

The above was intended to be a reply to Mesolithicman164.

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