art secret 5 - easy pine branches with watercolor

If you layer up three different shade of green starting with the lightest value...

you will end up with a very nice feathery, full pine branch. * Art secret...holding your brush perpendicular to the paper, use your wrist to flick the very tip of your brush to create the pine needles. Try it, it's fun.

Add a pine cone and some berries or...

if you want more atmosphere...

1. Start off with a background of a light blue wash and then add your branches and pine needles and maybe some snow. Personalize it the way that you want to.

art secret 4 - yellow and red don't make orange...

Well okay they do BUT...they also make light orange, yellow-orange, red-orange, violet-orange and you get the idea. Here's a sample.

And, of course, if you add the complementary color of blue to orange, you get a beautiful earthy color perfect for casting shadows. Depending on how much of each you add, you can adjust the  earthiness.

art secret 3 - red and blue don't make purple...

They don't?? Actually sometimes they do, but versions of those red and blue hues often make so much more like: maroon, blue-violet, red-violet, dark violet, light violet, pink, rose and so on. You can control your color and be a better painter if you mix your colors together to create a color instead of using a "tube" color. And if you add the complementary color you will create some beautiful muted, earth tones that a will defy description. Check out some of the color mixing that my students did. We had so much fun doing this.

acrylic

watercolor

acrylic

art secret 2 - new gamboge (yellow)

New gamboge is another Magic Color. Find it at Dick Blick.


New Gamboge is also a color that plays well with others and will add an amazing glow to your watercolor when used as an underpainting. It is a clean, clear yellow that won't muddy and has no green overtones. It's also a great color mixed or used on its own. Try it in a still life or sunset, you'll love it. Look how it gives the orange a delicious glow. Yummm.

Hint: It's an intense yellow-use it sparingly at first.

art secret 1 - rose dore

Did you know that a color called Rose Dore can give your watercolor paintings the life and luminosity that you're looking for? Use it as your underpainting color and watch what happens. It plays well with other colors and never gets muddy. It's a little pricey but well worth it. 





Hint: Rose Dore works best when you use it very lightly. You can find this at Dick Blick.

First I coated the entire paper with a light wash of Rose Dore. After it was dry I washed the sky area and added a rich pigment of Pthalo Blue. Notice how you can't see the Rose Dore but the sky has a lovely luminosity. When the painting was finished I went back in and added a richer Rose Dore to the tree trunks and along the horizon line to give life to the whole painting.